All About Pocket Knives

Been wondering about the so-called "match striker" long pulls and even the short, half-moon ones with teeth. I'd like to see some original literature that actually describes that feature as a match striker. To my mind it seems a very awkward thing to open a pocket knife just to strike a match when you could strike it on any of a multitude of surfaces or even with your thumbnail. The larger blades wouldn't need to be opened but the smaller ones like that pictured below would be difficult. I'd like to hear any opinions or information on this. Just a rambling thought. Thanks, J.O.

Sargent and Voyles are silent on nail mark variations, from what I can find. But Levine's 2nd and 4th Editions call a Long pull a "French" nail mark, and Price and Zalesky's 15th Edition does list nail mark variations, including a "Matchstriker" pull.

I hope this helps you sleep at night, J.O'.

….,there’s 5 pages worth here: viewtopic.php?t=48913 from 9 years ago

My opinion is that the term "match striker" for checkered nail pulls is strictly a collector nickname. I have never seen any evidence that knife manufacturers checkered the pulls to enable match striking. I could be wrong.

I believe that the actual purpose of the checkered pull was just to add a little friction to provide more of a solid grip of the thumbnail in the pull when opening the blade.

J O', I think the term came from the same time era and people who called prestolite keys on knives "skate keys". Levine calls them dentate (toothed) pulls which I think is proper. I have taken barely used antique knives and tried to strike "strike anywhere" matches on the dentate pulls and it doesn't really work. Much easier to strike them on your shoe sole or jeans. I don't know about other parts of the country, but one cannot buy strike anywhere matches around here any more, they have been declared "unsafe".

I agree the “match striker” name is a product of collector jargon. I’ve never seen any description or evidence of the term matchstriker in old cutlery-produced literature. Dentate is the correct term, or serrated.

I’m not even sure that you can reliably ignite a match using one.

Ken

Thanks all. I agree it's a collector colloquialism, a little "color" in a description. J.O'.

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Thu May 08, 2025 5:29 pm I agree the “match striker” name is a product of collector jargon. I’ve never seen any description or evidence of the term matchstriker in old cutlery-produced literature. Dentate is the correct term, or serrated.

I’m not even sure that you can reliably ignite a match using one.

Ken

Just out of curiosity, I tried this a few years ago and I actually could strike a match on a pull like this, but not reliably. Many times the whole head of the match would break off.

OC: That's tough, especially if it's your last match! O'.