The folding knife for women: a companion made for freedom

No, owning a knife isn’t just for men. Women have been wielding knives since time immemorial, just as skilled and versatile as their male counterparts. Whether warriors or mothers, they hunt, light fires, cut fruit or slice a sewing thread. Compact and ergonomic, the women’s folding knife adapts to today’s demands. It slips easily into a handbag or sports bag. It’s at the bottom of a jeans or suit pocket. Nowadays, giving a knife to a woman is a sign of confidence in her autonomy and independence. Isn’t that what she wants?

Women’s folding knife: the alliance of gesture and style

Women, like men, face the modern jungle every day. Opening a parcel, cutting a string, picking a flower, removing a protruding thread, removing a label from a new garment, quartering a piece of fruit or any other bushcraft activity. A handy blade makes everyday tasks easier.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the housewife was the main focus of attention. Women’s knives became kitchen knives and table knives. In the 1970s, the emancipation of women revolutionized attitudes and the division of household chores.

Today, chores are less and less gendered. Every couple shares them out as they see fit. In fact, many women take on the repairs and DIY inherent to any home.

It’s worth noting that some women keep a blade with them for reassurance. Carrying a knife serves as a psychological crutch in the face of feelings of vulnerability. Survivalists, in particular, carry a few essential tools with them: flashlight, folding knife and other multi-purpose accessories.

A folding knife designed for women combines elegance and efficiency.

A knife as a gift: what does it mean?

A symbol of emancipation

While knives have always been part of a woman’s daily life, giving her one today is a symbol of emancipation.

The collective consciousness associates women with sensitivity, beauty, art and aestheticism. In cutlery stores, Damascus blades catch their eye, but not only that. They focus just as much on practicality.

Like a keyring or lighter, a folding knife takes on a jewel-like quality when held in a woman’s hand. Femininity is transposed onto the handle, onto the blade. A beautiful knife for women combines finesse and precision of gesture with an almost poetic connotation.

Let’s not forget that many women appreciate fine cutlery and refined tableware. Giving them table knives adds the finishing touch to entertaining their guests.

New: personalize Madame’s knife with handwriting, your own, perhaps?

A gift rich in values

The result of artisanal know-how, the knife as a gift is also an ambassador for French manufacturing, the local economy and the promotion of ancestral trades, such as knifemaking. In fact, at Couteaux Morta, several women knifemakers work for your pleasure in the same way as their male counterparts. They take part in the extraction of Morta.

🎁 To top it all off and sublimate your gift, at Morta Knives, we wrap the knife in a chic, top-of-the-range wax-sealed case. The kind of attention to detail a woman appreciates.

For the superstitious, exchange the knife for a coin to ward off bad luck 😉.

Choosing a women’s pocket knife: criteria

Choosing the right model for the job

As a reflex, when we want to give a knife to a woman, we tend to select small knives. We’re looking for something pretty and cute. However, when women buy their own knives, we realize that they don’t just look at size or shape. Like men, as mentioned above, they think first and foremost about how they’re going to use it.

So no, a woman’s folding knife isn’t thin, small and candy-pink. Goodbye, old-fashioned clichés and stereotypes. The modern woman embraces her practicality, not just her looks. Just like a man, the perfect folding knife for her is the one that meets her needs.

🔪 The cook invests in a chef’s knife (let’s say a chef’s knife 👩 then). This one avoids the folding knife for big cuts.

On the other hand…

🔪 The cook who trims vegetables, seeds fruit and slices fillets can opt for a folding blade.

🔪 The adventurous woman chopping wood in the forest for the campfire plans on a blade proportional to the diameter of the branches (standard size, or even XL).

🔪 The lover engraves her initials on the tree trunk favors the finesse of the point.

🔪 The pro at outdoor picnics and aperitifs focuses on a cutting edge that won’t crash when faced with a sausage or a loaf of bread, just like the walker who slices her apple into quarters during a refreshment break.

🔪 The craftswoman (painter, sculptor) prefers a mini or standard blade for greater precision.

Ergonomics

Of course, the handle must be adapted to the size of a woman’s palm. The weight must remain proportional to the strength of the wrist. Ergonomics are of the utmost importance. Choose a knife with a good balance between blade and handle. A perfect harmony of shapes makes it comfortable to use.

However, a woman who wants a folding knife is planning to carry it. It’s best if it’s lightweight and doesn’t take up too much space, so it can slip into a handbag or jeans pocket. Is she more the type to carry a tote bag, a pouch or a clutch?

Choosing the blade

Tastes and colors, you know the rest. Damascus, rough forged or stainless steel: it’s up to the lady, her affinity with a rustic, authentic look, her love of fantasy or her pragmatism.

Locking systems

Several types of locking systems are available on the market. The back-lock (or lock-back) offers a lock at the back, opposite to the front-lock. The rod is released by pressing on the pump. This is the case with our Couteau Morta rear-pump model.

Others, such as the liner lock, the framelock, the ferrule, the forced notch or the palanquille knife, are also available. It’s up to you, ladies, to find the one that suits you best.

The best French pocket knife

Opening systems

Among folding knives, you’ll find automatic opening (out of front), assisted opening, thumb stud, flipper and nail nick. Our best advice is to come and try out the knives in-store, so you can decide which model is most comfortable for you.

Personalized folding knives for women

Personalization makes a neutral knife feminine. Add a heart-shaped cryptogram or a rose, or write her first name. Immediately, the pocket knife gains in charm and softness. Add miniature mammoth ivory inlays and you’ve got a decorative touch that many women appreciate. Timeless personal touches that fashion has no influence on.

Of course, this rule is not universal. Some women choose their knives for their strength and virility.

Idea for a feminist message to engrave on the blade of your knife.

👩 One is not born a woman one becomes one, Simone de Beauvoir.

👩 Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights, Olympe de Gouges.

OK, that’s a bit long, we’ll leave you to imagine your own 😉.

A few sure values to boost your creativity, it’s a gift!

👩 Happy birthday, birthday mom => A mother always cracks up in front of her children.

👩 To my darling wife => Yes, yes, this works very well.

👩 To the best woman in the world => What do you mean it doesn’t 😅?

Morta handle: the elegance of precious wood

A Morta lady knife brings the elegance and nobility of a unique material. This regional knife often features a specific wood (rosewood, deer antler or juniper). This marsh oak, in the process of fossilization, carries the soul of the Brière region. Its name comes from the local dialect. From Saint-Joachim to Mayun, the Morta is the local celebrity. Heritage conservation associations (words of yesteryear) are working to protect it. This Morta, already the hero of Alphonse de Châteaubriant’s novels and legends (Le corseau, la pipe en Morta and many others), continues to make a name for itself through handcrafted objects.

Buried for 5,000 years in black and brown peat, Morta has slowly become mineralized, loaded with silica. The result is an almost ebony-black color and caramel highlights for an even more chic look. Above all, it is a wood of great nobility, giving the knife a cultural and heritage dimension.

A Morta knife, whatever its design or blade steel, illustrates the beauty and value of rarity.

How do you sharpen your knife when you’re a woman? Well, the same way as when you’re a man… Watch the Couteaux Morta video and follow the knifemaker’s invaluable sharpening tips.

Women and knives around the world: a little-known tradition

Angélina Jolie, the cultuphilist

The actress who plays Lara Croft has been collecting knives in her private life since the age of twelve. As a teenager, she honed her dagger skills. “Every country has different weapons and knives, and that’s why I started collecting them. I’ve been collecting them since I was a little girl”. In particular, she owns folding knives from leading brands.

Morta knives? The newspapers don’t say… She even caused a stir by giving a knife to her young son. She responds by assuring them that the blade is blunt and harmless.

Toubou women in Niger

The women of the Toubou people in the Diffa region of Niger traditionally carry knives. Originally, it was used as a deterrent to keep rivals away from their husbands. Even today, modern women keep a “moutafoudé” (small feminine knife) in their handbag, explains Guide Abdouramane.

Louise Félicité de Keralio and Charlotte Corday: two revolutionaries

Louis Félicité de Keralio was a woman of letters, historian, bookseller and writer. On August 13, 1789, she founded the Journal d’État du Citoyen, whose motto was Vivre libre ou mourir. Her “little knife” is famous, as she uses it to defend her tricolor cockade against three royalists. This gesture is highly symbolic, as at the time, only men were required to wear the cockade. Her account of the attack on the Jacobin tribune provoked a desire to impose the same thing on women. Here again, she insisted that only wives, the “true citizens”, should be concerned.

Charlotte Corday, for her part, is famous for having murdered Marat, with her fixed knife, in her bathtub.

Louise Bourgeois la femme-couteau

In her biography of the artist, Marie-Laure Barnadac calls Louise Bourgeois “the knife-woman, because the woman sculptor slices, cuts, shears and embodies the feminine-masculine ambivalence: protection and threat, fragility and strength, tenderness and violence.

The Middle Ages

In medieval times, women wore a blade under their skirt or hanging from their belt. The more modest tied their knives with a string, while the wealthier kept them in a leather sheath. Of course, the knife is used as a defensive weapon. But it’s also common to take your own knife to a meal.

Onna-bugeishas

In medieval Japan, an onna-bugeisha was a high-society fighter. Wives or widows, all of them rebels, these women frequently enlisted alongside the samurai. They wielded the naginata (spear), the kaiken (dagger) and the tanto (curved-blade knife).

Blenda, the legend

Blenda is the heroine of a popular Danish legend. The women are left alone when the men go off to fight alongside King Alla. This resilient woman and her warriors annihilate the invaders with their knives and other blades.

The women’s folding knife has always been with the ladies, but today it symbolizes independence and self-confidence. It’s as useful at home as it is for outdoor activities. Whether in your pocket or at the bottom of your bag, it’s always at hand, making everyday life easier for every woman.

Article written by Christelle Lorant 🪶

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