• 11 parts
  • Checked September 2026

Pocket Knife Diagram Unlabeled

A two-blade folding knife and its opened handle with no name written on either, to print and label by hand.

Pocket Knife Diagram Unlabeled

Name Date

Blank diagram

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
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Write the name of each numbered part.Answer key

  1. Master blade
  2. Pen blade
  3. Nail nick
  4. Bolsters
  5. Scales
  6. Shield
  7. Tang
  8. Kick
  9. Pivot pin
  10. Backspring
  11. Liners

Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry. Licence: own work.

Each numbered ring is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a part is answered.

Next step Read every name on the labeled pocket knife

All 11 parts on the diagram

Show the list

Whole knife 6

  1. Master blade The main blade, the largest on a knife with two or more.
  2. Pen blade A small blade, first made for trimming quill pens.
  3. Nail nick A fingernail groove used to pull the blade from the handle. It is also called a nail mark.
  4. Bolsters Metal pieces at the ends of the handle. Some knives have one at the blade end only, and some have none.
  5. Scales The handle pieces on the two sides of the knife. Made of wood, bone, stag, plastic or another material.
  6. Shield A small metal inlay in the handle. It can carry the maker's mark or the owner's initials, or be there for decoration. It is also called an escutcheon.

Inside the handle 5

  1. Tang The part of the blade between the two sides of the handle. The pivot pin passes through it.
  2. Kick A projection at the tang's bottom. With the blade closed it rests on the backspring and keeps the edge off it.
  3. Pivot pin The blade swings open and shut around it.
  4. Backspring A strong spring along the back of the handle. It presses on the tang and holds the blade open or closed.
  5. Liners Thin sheets of metal between blade and handle material. The scales and bolsters are fastened to them.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two independent sources use it. (1) Wikipedia, text only, Pocketknife and Slipjoint, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocketknife and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipjoint (master blade, pen blades, nail nicks, tang, backspring, liners, scales, bolsters). (2) A knife retailer's encyclopedia of terms, https://agrussell.com/encyclopedia/k and its other letter pages (main blade, pen blade, nail mark, tang, kick, back spring, liner, scale, bolsters, and the shield under its other name, escutcheon). (3) Levine's Guide to Knives and Their Values, read as passages returned by the Internet Archive's full-text search, https://archive.org/details/levinesguidetokn0000levi (master blade, nail mark, tang, kick, backspring, liners, handle scales, bolsters, shield, pivot pin). (4) Lake, Centofante and Clay, How to Make Folding Knives, read the same way, https://archive.org/details/howtomakefolding0000lake (nail nick, tang, pivot pin, backspring, liners, bolsters, scales). Hints and detail lines are in our own words. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's knife, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A pocket knife diagram, unlabeled, on one sheet: the whole knife from the side, its handle enlarged and opened below. Eleven lines lead from the parts, six from the knife and five inside the handle, each ending in empty space.

Read the full guide

The six names on the whole knife

Master blade, pen blade, nail nick, bolsters, scales and shield. The nail nick line ends on the long blade, and the bolster line on the end of the handle nearest the blades. The short blade has a nick too, and the far end of the handle a second bolster; neither has a line of its own.

The five names inside the handle

Tang, kick, pivot pin, backspring and liners. The lower drawing leaves the pen blade out, so the tang and the kick are those of the master blade. Three of the five lines end close together at the blunt end of that blade: on the end itself, on the round pin through it and on the small step beneath it.

  • Small pin heads show on both drawings. Only one has a line, in the lower drawing: the pivot pin, which the blade turns on.
  • The small notch where the cutting edge stops, just in front of the kick, has no line. Its name is the choil.
  • A class sheet may print main blade for master blade, nail mark for nail nick and escutcheon for shield.

Questions and answers

What is the kick on a pocket knife?

A small projection at the tang's bottom, where the edge ends. When the knife is closed it rests on the backspring and keeps the edge off the spring.

What is the shield on a pocket knife?

A small metal inlay in the side of the handle, also called an escutcheon. It can carry the owner's initials or the maker's mark, or be there only for decoration. Many have the outline of a shield, which gave the part its name.

What is a slipjoint knife?

A folding knife with no lock, like the one on this sheet. The backspring holds the blade open, and the blade folds once enough pressure is put on it. Most pocket knives made for light work are slipjoints.

Does the unlabeled pocket knife diagram come with an answer key?

Yes. The key is the same sheet with a name at the end of each of the eleven lines, from nail nick to liners.

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