I should have picked up on this information a long time ago when Willy contacted me saying that the penny knife looked just like a Trattenbach
pocket knife. Somehow I missed Willy's post! Then recently I was contacted by Robert asking for more information on the Penny knife, I told Robert that I had no more information to give him. Then I get an email from Robert with this, to me anyway, astounding revelation that these penny knives were being made over 500 years ago in Austria, & they are still being made today! So my apologies to Willy for missing his post, & my thanks to Robert for the information he sent me that started a new line of research.
Here below then is what I have found so far:
Penny Knife Information.
Almost everyone knows the pocket faucet - a folding pocket knife with
a turned wooden handle that fits in any trouser pocket and is used in a variety
of ways, from jausen to mushroom picking. In 1422, the knife production in
Trattenbach was first mentioned in documents, since 1682 it is considered an
independent guild. One of the secrets to success was the hard,
high-quality sharp steel used for the blades. The knives were exported to
large parts of Europe and as far as Africa. Today two more factories
produce the Trattenbacher pocket felts by hand. The knowledge about the
history, production and use of the pocket fagot is still upheld today in
Trattenbach:
The Trattenbach pocket knife, a foldable knife that consists of a
blade and a lathed wooden handle, has been hand-produced in Trattenbach for
nearly 600 years.
Since 1682, Trattenbach’s cutlers have been recognized as an
independent guild.
The first written mention of knife-making there is from
1422.
