Navaja

The navaja is a traditional Spanish folding-blade fighting and utility knife.

The etymology of the word navaja is derived from the Latin novacula, meaning razor, and the Andalusian knife known as the navaja is thought to have derived from the navaja de afeitar, or straight razor used for shaving.

A popular slang term for the navaja in the 19th century was herramienta, which translates as "(iron) tool".

In Spain, the term navaja is often used to generally describe all folding-blade knives and epitomized the concept of a defensive knife to be carried at all times on the person.

Most of the larger navajas of the early 19 centuries were clearly intended as fighting knives, and were popularly referred to as santólios, a contraction of the Spanish term for "holy oil".

The name was a reference to the oils or unguents applied to the dying as part of the Catholic last sacrament, as it was believed that a man encountering such a knife in a violent confrontation would invariably require administration of the last rites.

While folding-blade knives existed in Spain even in pre-Roman times, the earliest Spanish knives recognizable as navajas date from around the late 1600s.

One of the oldest folding knife patterns still in production, the first true navajas originated in the Andalusian region of southern Spain.