The object takes its name from its use in maintaining the writer’s nib, sharpening and splitting the quill so it retained ink. Shakespeare would have had a knife like this on his desk as he drafted his plays, letters and papers. Falstaff remarks on how skinny one of his soldiers appears: the ‘foeman may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife’ (Henry IV Part 2, 3.2.263).

Knives like these were also used to open veins to reduce an excess of blood (known technically as a ‘Plethora’). So a simple writing instrument may have taken on a life-saving role.

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