Trench art paper knife : Sapper S K Pearl, 5 Field Company Engineers, AIF

Trench art paper knife. The curved brass blade has decorative edging and is made from an 18 pounder shell case. The handle is made from a brass French small arms cartridge case and a spent German bullet. It is further ornamented with split bullets, a copper disc, and a French soldier's button at the end of the handle.

This paper knife is part of a collection of trench art made by 6756 Sapper Stanley Keith Pearl, a Tasmanian who served with 5 Field Company Engineers, AIF. He enlisted for service on 9 November 1915 and returned to Australia on 21 March 1919. Pearl subsequently moved to Canberra and was employed as a carpenter by the Australian War Memorial. He supplied the following information about the knife,'The blade is from a slice of an 18-pounder shell-case found near the "China Wall" at Ypres in November 1916. The handle is a French cartridge-case and spent German bullet - the latter fired at a party of sappers on the Menin road. The copper disc is another piece of the Gotha's [aircraft] feed-pipe with French and German bullets (split). The French button was souvenired froma poilu in Poperinghe.'