Parts of a Knife

Sections of a knife

Knives can be viewed as two peices - a handle and a blade. You hold the handle; you cut with the blade.

The Handle

• Handle: The part of the knife that you hold. It is usually composed of a bolster, tang, scales, butt, and rivets, but not all knives have all of these components. For example, nearly no japanese style chef's knives have bolsters.
• Tang: The core of the handle, almost alwways being the same piece of metal that the blade is made up of. Knives can have full tangs, which run the length of the handle, or half/partial tangs, which do not. It is generally considered better to have a full tang, as the handle is less likely to become loose, and the knives are often more balanced with a full tang.
• Scales: The handle's external part that you hold. These are often metal, hard plastic, or wood. The company that makes the knife will often place their logo on this piece.
• Rivet: These hold the handle together, pressing the scales together around the tang.
• Butt: The very back of the handle. The butt can be the same material as the scales, or fully metal, being a termination for the tang.
• Bolster: The part of the knife that connects the handle to the blade. Bolsters are often very thick, usually running flush with the scales. Knives can have a full bolster, which runs the entire height of the back of the blade, half bolster, which starts at the top of the blade but does not reach the bottom, or even no bolster at all. If a bolster is present, there will usually be a smooth transition to the knife's blade from the bolster. You may see some people refer to the bottom part of the bolster as a finger guard.

The Blade

• Edge: The part of the blade that does the cutting. Includes the tip, belly, and heel. Can be completely flat or curved.
• Tip: The front of the edge, which includes the point if the knife has one; all knives have tips, but not tips end in a sharp point.
• Belly: The middle of the edge.
• Heel: The very back of the edge. The heel can have a dull section at the end of the edge, called a choil.
• Spine: The top part of the blade. Blades taper from the spine down to the edge.
• Flat: The middle of the blade, between the spine and edge.