1,000th post giveaway: black mamba and Bigfattyt are winners

[Doug Add]

I intended to do my first giveaway at my 500th post, but circumstances prevented that, and it turned out to be at my 600th post. So, I'm getting a head start on this one.

Since the Traditional Folders and Fixed Blades sub-forum is where I have found my home here on BF, and I have learned so much from those of you who regularly post here, this giveaway will be open only to members who participate here regularly.

Post as often as you like, we like to read good stories! When I reach 1,000 posts I will use the random number site to select based on post number. Here is what I want this giveaway to accomplish. Help us understand how traditional knives have been used to introduce you or others to what was once a common practice: carrying a pocket knife regularly in order to have a useful cutting tool handy. Tell how you were introduced to this practice, and who was instrumental in that, and/or how you have passed it on to others. So often I hear that traditional knives are the instruments of so much more than just cutting. They often signify important relationships. So, let's all enjoy one another's stories.

To mark my 1,000th post I am giving away two stockman knives. One will be given to each of two winners. As noted elsewhere I tend to prefer smaller knives. Also, my accumulation seems to be increasingly populated with Case knives, so I want these two to find new homes where they will be used more frequently.

The first is a Colonial Ranger three spring stockman with black sawcut delrin scales that I was given just last week by Vanguard41xx (thank you again for your kindness!).





Dimensions:

3.375" closed

5.6875" w/clip blade open (2.1875" blade length)

5” w/sheepsfoot blade open (1.5" blade length)

4.875" w/pen blade open (1.375" blade length)

0.5" wide

--------------------------

The second is a Böker USA Tree Brand 8113 stockman that I have owned since the mid 1980s. It saw some use on various job sites (though I have to confess I used my Victorinox Fieldmaster a lot more). It developed some rust while sitting unused for many years. I have knocked that down, but the blades show some marking (no pitting). Good snap on all three blades. The Böker catalog calls it a medium premium stockman, and identifies the scales as "Improved Stag-type". They are brown jigged composite (delrin?) that look like tree bark. The tree brand emblem in the scale went missing long ago, this one was affixed by Böker USA back in March.





Dimensions:

3.5" closed

6.1875" w/long turkish clip blade open (2.75" blade length)

5.3125” w/spey blade open (1.75" blade length)

5.1875" w/pen blade open (1.75" blade length)

0.5" wide

Let's hear some good stories. And as always, pictures are welcomed and encouraged.

[rockgolfer]

Awsome gesture sir While I am not interested in participating in the giveaway( Ill leave that beautiful bounty for ya'll to fight over) I will work on my story to post here. I look forward to the reading ahead. Great idea Doug, very generous. I love this sub-forum, top notch ladies and gentlemen all around.

[FarmKid]

I think that a boys first knife is a rite of passage to being a man. I was fortunate, I received my first knife when I was six. It was a cheap SAK knock off but I was excited to have it. I was thought how to use it, care for it, and the responsibilities of carrying a knife. It wasn't till a few years later until I got my first case. It was a case soddie jr. He got it for me for Christmas bc I was helping around the farm and I needed a knife. I carried that thing for years. Every since then I've carried a knife everyday. Then I went off to college. The school of minds sum say, I went to Virginia tech to study agriculture and had a case yellow trapper in cv. My friends up there from back home carried case trappers too. I befriended a guy from central va and he carried the hard use knives. The big monstrous things that could take down terrorists cells or helicopters. Anyway he always got the clip caught on sumn or it wouldn't stay sharp. One day we had a class on castrating hogs and all the boys from back home pulled out their knives. The school provided the lil scalpel lookin knives but for those whose ever used them they are dangerous. Well we cut the hogs and the ones with the trappers and stockmans was the only ones without cut fingers. That got my central va friends attention. He started asking bout our knives and such. When I went back home for a weekend I dug out a case large Texas jack in chestnut bone cv and took to him. He loved it. Carrys it everyday and said that he was never going to carry taticals again. Throughout our college years he started obtaining traditional knives. So now I just keep on carrying cases and I always have a few to give non believers so they can realize they need a tool to work with not a pocket sword.

[rockgolfer]

Lets see, my father has a few but does not carry one regularly or use one as a tool. My grandfather was a butcher, his collection of users are all fixed blade meat cutters that have been around the block for centuries and still going strong. Even still he was not a pocket blade guy. My dad got me a sak for christmas one year when I was in cubscouts and I was hooked. I used that blade all I could, always pulled it out even if it was just to fondle. I quickly learned the tools where dead weight for me. Even camping if a can needed to be open it was just funner and cooler to use the blade not the can opener for the task. It took a few years but eventually I made it into scouts and when July came around it was off to summer camp. I was there not even a day before I made a trip to the tradin' post for some reason, curiousity of what they had I am sure. I found a little display case by the register that held the crown jewels, knives!!! I walked out of that store the proud owner of this:


It did not take me long to fall in love with the blade selection. I remember sharpening it every day with my scoutmasters sharpening stones. I made a few handkerchief slides that I can remember. Came in handy for other tasks with rope and such. When I got home from camp I remember my dad telling me to keep it with my camping stuff so as not to lose it before the next camping trip. Alas it got demoted to camp knife, only seeing the light of day a half dozen or so times a year. I strayed from that and got into the tacticool knives of today. I still have a few now but they are collecting dust. That camillus whittler is what brought me here. I was going through some boxes and bam there it was. Didnt take me long to come over to this sub forum and start reading. I blame uhhhuuumm....I thank all of you for resurecting the tool ideal that was burried in that box to many years ago. I use my new slippies way more then I ever used my non traditional folders. I have never had anyone freak out when pulling a tool out of my pocket to get the job done. Unlike some of my days when carrying a way to big tactical in my pocket. Most of my work jeans are shredded on the pocket from those clips. I have snagged them on my couch, other peoples chairs, rubbed them against stuff. They block your pocket off and I was always checking to make sure it was still their. I do none of those things anymore and I find myself using my knife for more tasks, enjoying its use. I have an attachment to them and thats something a car carver cant evoke in me, personally. I try to share my new found love with anyone that will listen really. I will pass on the tools and their uses to my girls, nephews, best friends kids and cousins( I am not biased or shy).

I find myself stretching the need for a knife. I cut everything open, I never tear or rip into anything. In general no one in my house has any loose threads on their clothes. Cardboard boxes are no match for my thin slicing slippy. I have different uses for each blade on certain knives. I am even attempting to put different edge geometrys to each blade, making them that much more usefull. It truelly is a tool. At first I carried a traditional in my front pocket and clipped a tactical on my back pocket. It only took me two days to leave the tactical at home, I have not looked back. My name is Jeff, I am a slipjoint addict

[ConBon]

Thanks for the chance, i'm in.

I got my first knife when I was in second grade. It was a Victorionox Sentry with the Boy Scouts of America emblem in the handle. I used that knife up until 6-7th grade summer camp, when I traded a Buck 110 knockoff to some kid for an old BSA knife, made by camillius or someone like that. The knife was in rough shape, so I sharpened it and oiled the joints. Sadly, I lost the knife within a week, so I went back to the Sentry. In 8th grade, I got several knives: Spyderco Delica 2, Victorionox Recruit, Diamond Edge slipjoint, Leatherman Fuse, and some other ones. I now use the Delica when working, outdoors, or at home, the Fuse when I am working and fishing, and the Recruit when I am out and about, but always have the Sentry in my front watch pocket.

[black mamba]

My first pocket knife was this old scout which I got back in the early '60s. I still have it and use it almost every week, as it sits on my reloading bench. Also used for removing old golf grips when regripping clubs.



I actually used fixed blades before ever owning a pocket knife, having started hunting rabbits when I was eight years old. My dad's old Imperial Prov was used then, but was actually a little too big for the job. After doing the first couple bunnies with me, Dad said, "If you shoot 'em, you get to clean 'em, you know how." A small USA Schrade sharpfinger I bought in my teens was used for decades after retiring the Imperial.

[Bigfattyt]

Such a great giveaway.

I have not owned a stockman since my oldtimer Scharade stockman was stolen. That was more than 25 years ago.

I grew up in a family where my dad started us out on knives. My first was that Old Timer 3 blade stockman. IThis may sound strange........ But from what I remember, I really started making a concious decision to always carry a knife after seeing a news interview about a man who was out felling trees with his chain saw. He cut down a tree, and was pinned. His leg was pinned under the tree. He could not get the saw started. It was in cold weather, and he made the concious decision to cut his own leg off. He said he sure wished his knife had been sharp. It was about as dull as a plastic knife.

The story really grabbed my imigination, and really made me thing about situations that might come up where having a sharp knife might be life or death.

I try to always have something sharp on my person whenever permitted by law.

I will have to post pics later, when I get home.

[shudaizi]

Like many others, I saw my father carrying a pocketknife most of my childhood. It was an Old Timer, not sure of the specific pattern but I'm pretty sure it was three-bladed.

[abcdef]

I got my first knife in the cubs, one of the blue scout models. When I got interested as an adult was through modern knives such as CRKT and other brands. Then I found spydies and stuck with them for a while. Also went through CRK and Barkie phases. Started reading BF and noticed Todd Davison's slip joints. That's when I got hooked on the trad forum. No looking back.

I still have all the other knives, as well as too many choppers I don't use, but the trads stay in my pocket. My latest edc is an AG Russell premium SCOUT model - sweet.

[Rsmith_77]

lol i remember my first knife. it was a little stockman, I am unsure of the brand. I was in the cub scouts and i was maybe 9 or 10. I kept opening all 3 blades and trying to throw it and stick it into a door...until i threw it and it hit the door just before the scout master opened the door. Yeah he took my knife from me... deservedly. Looking back I was a bit of an idiot although i didnt see it that way at the time.

My father was never a pocket knife guy and until after he retired did he ever carry anything besides his old army p38. Although I suspect both my grandfathers had small pen knives in their pockets, we never really had that kind of relationship with either of them. So traditional pocket knives were never really traditional for me growing up (80s and early 90s). I sorta got in the habit on my own when i went into the military (if only to cut off loose threads on my uniforms) Started with a sak and a gerber gator ...and i kept carrying the sak even after i got out ...then i found this place and now my wife thinks i have waaaay too many pocket knives and thinks i am obsessed :P

[rockgolfer]

...then i found this place and now my wife thinks i have waaaay too many pocket knives and thinks i am obsessed :P

I think all our wives think that but I could say the same thing about some of my wifes hobbies and interests lol

[Liberando]

Thanks Doug Add for the opportunity, and kudos in advance on the 1000th post.

My father, a former farm boy, always carried a pocket knife. Usually an Old Timer stockman, well used and kept sharp and clean. On the rare occasion he wasn't carrying it, I'd pick it up off the dresser and study it. This made quite an impression on me.

Circa early '70s, my first knife was a Camillus TL-29. Used it to fulfill the whittling requirements as a cub scout. That great knife began a long history of scouting and traditional knives that hasn't stopped. BSA Imperial at scout camp...BSA Camillus whittler for a birthday gift...Camp King purchased with lawn mowing money...Imperial stockman for a Philmont 50-miler...Buck 112 Ranger as a gift from my troop when I made Eagle...Buck 102 Woodsman as a summer camp staffer.

Now, having served 25+ years in the AF, I've always carried a traditional knife where ever I might be, in garrison or deployed. A couple standouts come to mind: the camo SAK Tinker, '91, that has accompanied me on every deployment...a little Case stockman that goes in my checked bags...the old Buck 309 two-blader that I've retired to a place of honor.

I've carried a few modern tactical knives in the field, but found I was using them to do the same things I used a traditional for: opening MREs, cutting odds/ends, etc. I always carried a traditional as well. So I thought "why carry two?" As a result, those tacticals are sitting in the garage, and haven't been used in awhile.

To me, the traditional knife is a tool, companion, and at times, yes, a talisman. The traditional knife is that one thing that can accompany you on almost every experience in life, in a positive, unobtrusive manner. Few other items can live up to that.

[Doug Add]

Good stories so far! Keep them coming. I will fill unlucky spot #13 with my own story. I have told this one before, but it fits here.

I was introduced to pocket knives by my dad's dad. My parents were teenagers when I was born, and my My dad's parents lived just four houses down from us, almost exactly half way home from my school. Most days I stopped there and piddled around with my grandma for the half hour or so until my granddad got home from work. She turned 93 last month, and is one of my dearest friends in the whole world. When my grandad got home from work the adventures began! He taught me so much about so many things. It really was like growing up with two loving fathers. Considering how many kids today don't even know who their dad is, I count this a rare privilege.

He always had a knife in his pocket, and of course that made me want one so badly I did not know what to do. I saved my money from mowing lawns and delivering newspapers, went up to James Hardware and bought my very own pocket knife, a Colonial barlow. It was a cheap knife but he raved about it like it was the finest blade any man had ever made. I still have that Colonial, and due to its history decided recently to have it rescaled as a shadow pattern in smooth marigold bone, and have the pen blade reshaped to a wharncliffe style.

Here it is before I sent it off to be worked on:



It is almost finished, and here is a peek I got at it in an email a few days ago:



Knives were just one of things Grandad and I shared and enjoyed. So, it made perfect sense to give him a knife for Christmas. I had no idea it would he his last Christmas with us.

I gave him a Schrade Walden 708Y, the one that is pictured in my avatar, for Christmas in 1971, when I was 9 and he was 59. The next autumn he died unexpectedly the result of complications following open heart surgery. I couldn't believe it. My best friend gone.

Weeks after his untimely death Christmas came again. It was a subdued celebration, but we kept all the family traditions. Each year on Christmas Eve our whole family would gather at my grandparents' home for dinner. After we ate, and before my sisters and cousins and I opened presents we all sat silently while Grandad read the Christmas story from the second chapter of Luke's Gospel. That Christmas of 1972, our first without him, I was honored to be asked by my grandmother to continue his tradition and read the Christmas story to the family from Grandad's Bible. I now have his Bible. When we opened gifts I received from Grandma the Schrade Walden knife I had given to him the year before.

So, here is the last gift I gave Grandad, pretty insignificant compared to all that he gave me in 10 all-too-short years. It is one of my most treasured possessions. In the picture it is sitting on his Bible open to the Christmas story in the second chapter of Luke.

[rockgolfer]

Thats a touching story Doug. Thank you for sharing.

[Nathan Dewey]

Thanx for the giveaway.
My first knife was a Schrade USA Old Timer Middleman Jack. I don't have THAT knife anymore, but luckily I found a replacement in really good shape.
I recently gave a Great Eastern Easy Open to a buddy in Canada for his return from treeplanting and he was nice enough to do a shoutout.
Courtesy of CalviNNation.
Mind you he's mainly a Spyderco guy, so maybe this'll plant the seed of slippies.

[Humppa]

My very first pocket knife was an SAK I got from my dad when we were visiting my mums cousine in Switzerland. I was roundabout eight years old. He asked me which one I wanted and bought me that knife.
I carried it most of the time at school. And in my freetime. We were kids of nature, the great bavarian woods were our homes. So went their at every time of the year. And the knife always was with me. I used it hard. We made bow & arrow of branchets and all such things. When I was a youngster, the knife followed to my first girlfriend and so on... It was a great fellow. I still have it now. Then I started working in Munich. I got a Vic Spartan and lost it somewhere.
A couple of years ago, I started getting interessted in traditional knives from all over the world. Especially the german knives. Otter, Hartkopf and so on.

My first US-traditional was a Mini Trapper made by Case. Since that, I decided to carry knives of this kind, all the time. I like the feel of natural material in handles. I like patinas on carbon steel blades and the used steel is most easy to resharpen and gets a great edge.

Thank you for the chance. Great GA and a great topic for this

Kind regards
Andi

[Doug Add]

Here is an updated photo of the Colonial barlow mentioned in my post above. First, the original:





I'm closing in on 1,000 posts, so this one will be wrapped up before too long. Still time to get your stories in, folks!

[ndeezl]

Not an entry but congrats on the upcoming 1K Doug

Nathan

[Campbellclanman]

Hi there Doug, great stories here, and a great give-away kind Sir!.....this isnt an entry as I didnt grow up with knives unfortunately, but just wanted to say good on you!

[supratentorial]

Doug, not an entry since I just won a giveaway but thank you for the fun idea and generosity. I was gifted my first traditional knife from my grandfather. He always carried a pocket knife. I haven't really given it much thought but I guess carrying a pocket knife just makes sense to me. I had that first knife and a Schrade stockman throughout childhood. I lost the Swiss army knife some time in college but still have the Schrade packed away with some of my childhood stuff.