Hyde Blades Takes a Look at the History of Knives

Hyde blades is more than qualified to look at the rich history of knives. After all, Hyde has been around since 1875. That gives them more than 140 years of experiences in the knife business.

At Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions, we think of the knife as a tool, not as a weapon. We make this distinction because the knife, especially the edge, is humanity’s first and oldest tool.

In fact, the edge predates homo sapiens. Historians place the invention of edged tools at 2.6 million years ago. So a little bit before Isaac P. Hyde started making knives for businesses in the New England area.

Early hominids broke rocks and used shards with sharp edges to process food. When modern day humans finally came along, they started to improve the stone knife.

Yet, many of their stone knives were disposable. Early humans would quickly make a sharp edge to prepare food, construct a garment, or dress a kill. Then, when the edge was gone, they would throw it away and move on.

Throughout the Stone Age, humanity refined the knife and the way they were sharpened, but it wasn’t until the Bronze Age when humans started making knives out of materials other than stone.

If you think about, for most of our existence, humanity’s knives have been made out of stone, not the high quality steel Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions currently uses.

Knives made out of cooper and bronze were more durable than their stone counterparts but they didn’t hold their edge as well. Thus, the science of re-sharpening was born.

Then, around 3,500 years ago, iron entered the picture. This allowed humanity to forge knives that are both durable and can hold an edge.

Once carbon was added to iron, humanity was finally able to create steel knives. That only took about two and half million years.

Since the introduction of steel, the knife hasn’t changed much. Yes, steel has gotten better and they come in a lot of exotic shapes, but the process of blacksmithing, cold forging, and tempering is pretty much the same.

The next big advancement in the world knives came in the 1400s when the folding knife was invented. Since then, there’s been advancements in sharpening, handle construction, and edge variations.

Still, the knife remains nothing more than a handle and a sharp edge.

Of course, we like to think that Hyde blades has been a major advancement in the history of the knife. After all, Hyde gives America the edge its needs.