The first knives

The ancestor of the knife

Knives were humanity's first tools. Neanderthal's people were the first true human beings to colonize the world.

Raw materials : Neanderthal's people used flint found in the surface of the ground. Flint's physical properties allowed them to cut it without breaking it. The flint is a Very hard siliceous rock, made of Chalcedony, Quartz and Opal, which may vary in colour, chiefly found as nodules. It is a hard stone with very fine grains and with smooth break. Hence the ease with which it can be shaped into sharp tools . But it did not prevent them from using other materials, such as limestone, granite,  quartzite,  obsidian...

Cutting flint required a sort of anticipation,visualization, virtual creation of the tool, before its execution. The point was, in a series of precise knocks, and a decisive shock, of creating points and scrapers, which not everybody could achieve.


It would seem that neanderthalians knives were not fitted with a handle. However it is likely that certain models of knives had it. Indeed, these blades would have been able to be fixed on bones or protected by a strip of leather.

These sharp tools served as hunting or defence weapons. They were also used to cut food.

But the history of the Laguiole knife did not start until much later.