The municipality lies in the Bledesbach valley, which stretches from Schellweiler to Wahnwegen along the highway between Kusel and Glan-Münchweiler.

The bottom of the valley lies roughly 280 m above sea level, and the land rises upwards on three sides.

The most heavily built-up area is on the eastern slope on the brook's right bank, more than 300 m above sea level, at about the same elevation as the Autobahn A 62 (Kaiserslautern–Trier), which passes by.

All together, 60 new buildings, among them three built as multi-family dwellings, arose after the Second World War to make a total of roughly 160.

It cut through the western half of Schellweiler's municipal area north to south for 1.8 km, thus bringing many villagers, and the dwellers of the Dellwieserhof, too, a great deal of noise pollution.

Some of these refer to former owners (Hinter Peter Braunen Haus, Davidswiesen), to the crops planted there (Bremmenfeld, Bangert – originally Baumgarten, meaning “forest nursery”), the lie of the land (Dellwies, which means “dent meadow”) or the soil's makeup (Steinling, Klopp, both referring to stony ground).

The Flurbereinigung also brought along with it the advantages of a fairground with a football pitch, a grilling pavilion and a landscaped pond in the middle of the village as recreational lands.

Also worthy of mention is that the municipal area in the north and east, along the heights, is crossed by the so-called Roman road leading from Kusel to Herschweiler-Pettersheim.

The strip-field near the grave bears the name Heidenhübel (Heiden shares an etymology and a meaning with “heathen”).

[7] In 1552, the County Palatine acquired the Remigiusland through purchase, and thus Schellweiler remained until 1797 a village in what was now the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, belonging to the Oberamt of Lichtenberg and the Schultheißerei of Pfeffelbach.

In this later period of French rule between 1801 and 1814, Schellweiler belonged to the Canton of Kusel in the Arrondissement of Birkenfeld and the Department of Sarre.

Worthy of note among stories from the Second World War is the migration of four local families to Lorraine as part of a Nazi attempt to Germanize the region conquered by Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

In 1995, Schellweiler placed second at the district level in the contest Unser Dorf soll schöner werden (“Our village should become lovelier”).

Since the 1980s, however, there has been stronger population growth spurred by the village's proximity to the district seat of Kusel.

Other names that Schellweiler has borne over the ages are Sullbure (1289), Scholwijlre (1290), Schilwiler (1446), Scelwillr (1458), Schelwilre (1460), Schelweiler (1587) and Schöllweiler (1677).

From 1635 to 1640, records are missing owing to the devastation that the Thirty Years' War wrought upon Kusel and the surrounding municipalities.

Beginning with the Reformation, the people were exclusively Protestant, and only about the turn of the 18th century were there once again Catholics living in Schellweiler.

By decree from the ecclesiastical polity in Speyer on 1 April 1956, the Evangelical congregation was split away from Kusel and assigned to the parish of Hüffler-Wahnwegen.

Catholics attend church services in Hüffler and along with parishioners there belong to the parish of Kusel.

Alternatively, the word Knopf can read Griff, depending on the source, but both refer to the bell's handle.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Azure a handbell argent, handle and clapper Or.

The arms have been borne since 3 October 1983, when they were approved by the now defunct Rheinhessen-Pfalz Regierungsbezirk administration in Neustadt an der Weinstraße.

[17] Until a few years ago, Schellweiler still had the peculiar Western Palatine custom known as the Pfingstquack, observed at Whitsun (Pfingsten in German; see the Henschtal article under Regular events for more about this).

When a hall was no longer available for it at that time of year, it was moved to the fourth Sunday in July, and has been celebrated since then as a Zeltkerwe (“tent kermis”).

Today, people find employment in service-sector businesses, administration and industry in Kusel, Kaiserslautern and the Saarland.

Schellweiler's lone remaining farm run as a primary income earner grows potatoes, grain and beetroots for sale or livestock fodder.

When this schoolhouse, in which the schoolteacher also had to live, became too small, the Royal Bavarian Government approved the construction of a new one-floor building in 1884.

The permanent solution then came with the formation of the Bledesbachtal primary school in Hüffler, with Wahnwegen's involvement in 1972.

Kusel, Glan-Münchweiler and Homburg can all be easily reached from Schellweiler by bus, with routes running over Kreisstraßen and Landesstraßen.