Have you ever looked at something that you pretty much take for granted and think “wow what a great idea?” Your average everyday pizza cutter is exactly one of those things. It is a completely useful device that is found in many homes and all pizza serving restaurants.

However simplistic and common a pizza cutter may seem it’s history is everything but simplistic as a matter of fact the history of the invention of the pizza cutter spans several centuries and includes a wallpaper specialist from North Carolina and a rather interesting 17th century inventor.

To fully understand the invention of the pizza cutter one must come to terms with the idea that pizza by the slice is an idea that did not really take hold until post WWII before this era pizza was a true pie in its origins.

The MezzaLuna

The first early pizza cutter was not really invented to cut pizza pie into slices but it did evolve into that role. The MezzaLuna or half-moon knife was invented by Silvio Pacitti in 1708 as a means to cut herbs. Today the MezzaLuna is used by many pizza serving restaurants to cut deep dish or very thin crust pizza however it is not what you are used to seeing in kitchens.

The Wallpaper Man NC

What we are used to seeing as a pizza cutter is a wheel that is suspended between a handle that has a blade on the edge that can make quick work of cutting up a pizza into even slices. David S Morgan invented the “roller knife” not to make quick work of slicing up a pizza for dinner but instead to quickly and evenly cut up rolls

Mr. Morgan of Asheville North Carolina submitted and was granted a patent for his “one handed roller blade” in 1892 a long time before slicing up pizza became the way to serve it. His invention did away with the bulky two handed wallpaper cutters of the day AND unbeknownst to him and the rest of the world paved the way to modern pizza cutting.

The “pizza cutter” got a maker over in 1922 when Carl A Frahm of Ohio patented a similar tool as Mr. Morgans but with a smaller serrated blade and called it a dough cutter. It was the first time such a tool showed up in the culinary world however as the pizza became more popular the smaller blade was not very well adapted to cut through the toppings on the pizza so it was back to the original design by Mr. Morgan.

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