We’re cutting it fine on Day 22 of our Archaeology Advent Calendar!
This surprisingly well-preserved penknife was found during our 2017 test pit excavations at Furnace Farm in Shelsley Walsh. It’s a composite object, with a now-broken iron blade enclosed within a bone case sealed with copper-alloy pins: no small feat of engineering! Dating to the early 20th century, it would have been an important everyday tool for the labourers that lived in the cottages on the site, useful for anything from slicing fruit to whittling wood. We can only imagine the irritation when it got lost!
We published a report of our excavations at Furnace Farm in the Autumn 2022 edition of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society’s biannual publication, the Worcestershire Recorder. It’s available in libraries across the county, so why not check it out?