Boy scouts are known of their readiness and efficacy to act in a certain place or event. Thus it gives the idea to the inventors of a penknife. They were influenced with the idea of creating a tool which has the skill of different tools in one pocket size tool alone. Also they were concerned greatly of the convenience and safety is brings to their users.

Penknife is a small foldable knife. Before it acquired its multiple blade skills, it was originally a simple small knife. Penknife was designed to be small because it was used to sharpen a piece of wood that used to be their writing instruments, it would be much easier for them to create a thin and pointed quills since they can easily hold the knife with their own hands. Penknife got its name from the process of preparing the quills for writing purposes, since quills are used for writing and they were using this small knife, they then termed it to as Penknife.

The development of penknife passed from one generation to another, and it has experienced a wide degree of innovation. From a small foldable knife alone with a wooden handle it now became as modern and more useful. It started from a small knife and now it has varying blades.

Additional tools were added to enhance the convenience of the penknife. It has with it, scissors, screw drivers both the flat and the star screw, built in flashlights, nail files, corkscrews, tweezers, toothpicks and so on. The simple tool has indeed managed its ways to improve and stay as useful as it could and it never lost its pocket size design that attracts buyers because of its petite design yet has its multiple uses. Another kind of penknife which is larger than a pen knife is called a clasp knife.