The following appeared previously in Woodwork, No.80, August 2005
The Sloyd Knife. by Doug Stowe

A blind man stands at the rear of an elephant and while holding the tail proclaims, “The elephant is a rope!” It is ironic that the simple Sloyd knife, one of “half a hundred tools” used in Sloyd training came to be its strongest symbol; the very slender tail of a complex educational system. In fact the use of the knife was controversial even before the dawn of the 20th century and the knife we associate with Sloyd today is not even the one most recommended by its founder.

S. Barter, in Woodwork, The English Sloyd (MACMILLAN & CO. 1892) disparaged the knife in explaining the differences between the course of study in England and its Swedish origins. “ One of the most important tools used in the Slöjd course, and certainly the most unique is the Slöjd knife. The advantages of this knife are not clearly brought out, though the importance of it is so strongly insisted upon; and moreover, it has been found that in this country that all work done with the knife can be more efficiently performed with a chisel. Under these circumstances, there seems to be no adequate reason for adopting an ‘unfamiliar’ knife in preference to a tool which is in such common use by all classes of workmen.”

In the United States, Gustaf Larsson at the Sloyd Training School in Boston observed: (Elementary Sloyd and Whittling, SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY 1906) “As a general rule, children under twelve years of age have not sufficient strength or control of the hand to use the knife correctly. Whittling is recommended only when it is not possible to have the Elementary Sloyd, which requires a special room fitted up with benches and a variety of tools. Such an outfit is more effective educationally, but economically it is more expensive. Whittling can be done in the regular schoolroom by the regular teacher and with a comparatively inexpensive outfit.”

I had my own experiences with children and knives long before I learned about Sloyd. As a parent at the Clear Spring School, I went several times on the annual school camp-outs. To the surprise of many young parents, children are encouraged to bring pocketknives (with locking blades) and are taught whittling. The teachers keep the knives until there is a safe time for the students to carve with instruction and careful supervision. It is a primal experience to sit at a campfire as boys and girls with freshly sharpened sticks heat-harden their points as our distant ancestors might have hardened their spears.

Despite the reluctance of many practitioners of Sloyd to teach use of the knife, my experience with the young whittlers tells me a great deal about what Otto Salomon had in mind. Educational Sloyd, in its planned progression from the known to the unknown begins with and builds upon the interests and experience of the child. Looking back even farther in my own life I can remember my own first interest in knives. Being allowed to have one and use one was a symbol of parental trust and growing maturity.

According to Otto Salomon in The Theory of Educational Sloyd, “Every boy has many times, in a more or less elegant way, cut a stick with a knife, and is therefore more or less acquainted with the earliest exercises. We begin, then, with the instruments and exercises best known to the child, in order that our method of procedure may be as educational as possible.”

The use of the knife as proposed by Salomon offers insight into Sloyd’s foundation in educational theory. The English word education comes from the Latin root educe, which means to draw forth. While education in today’s world often seems bent on pushing knowledge in, regardless of the interests of the child, Sloyd reminds us that much can be drawn forth from the child by engaging the child’s innate interests and potentials.

I recently found a Sloyd book for sale on the Internet. In the ad were the seller’s words,

“As if we could trust kids with tools, now.”

And the great shame of it is we don’t. We don’t trust them and we don’t teach them the creative and responsible use of tools. We stand at the shoulders of the great beast of American education, blind to our children’s natural inclinations, and too often we fail to engage their interests or unleash their full potential. Fortunately, the problem is one that can be fixed with pocketknives and other sharp tools with guidance by parents, grandparents, and teachers. Just think of it! Children spending time in the woodshop!