Higonokami

The Higonokami (also Higo no kami (Japanese肥 后 守) is a pocket knife from Japan. It is characterized by a very simple design that dispenses with a Klingenarettierung. Blade is a Achsniet in the usually made ​​of folded sheet metal (often brass) machined grip held. opened the knife is by a lever (Japanese Chikiri ) on the back of the blade, like a razor. the blade is held open by friction and pressure on the lever. total length of the knife shown including Chikiri 11 cm.

The blade is in spite of the simple overall structure usually of very good quality. Even with cheap Higonokami is usually a multi-layer steel ( plain carbon steel, not stainless ) whose cutting edge has a high hardness and a fine structure, which allows the grinding of high sharpness.

Use

The knife is for all small cutting tasks in daily life (also for finishing pencils, color pencils and pens use. The Higonokami was until the early 1960s, used by Japanese school children in addition to its function as a pencil sharpener also to various crafts, especially for bamboo carvings.

Conclusion

The Higonokami is a knife that has been developed in his culture (Japan) over a very long period of time and has been optimized for users' needs. It is an archetype as the French Opinel and Laguiole, the diameter of the Sami, etc.

Although the knife can be opened with a bit of skill with one hand, part of the Higonokami not be referred to in German law " handed knives " because it lacks some of the features listed in these laws.