A year with a Boker pen knife

SilverFoxKnows

SilverFoxKnows

Joined
Sep 25, 2002
Messages
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It was about a year ago that I started seeing all the peanut threads and how we carry more knife than we really need. A few of the folks were talking about doing a year long experiment by carrying the little guys as their go to knife. It was the peanut threads that inspired me to get a carbon/delrin Boker pen at a local smoke shop. It was more of an impulse buy. I never really believed it would be my primary knife for a month, much less a whole year.

I flirted with other knives at first. But the humble, and slightly homely, pen knife kept finding its way into my left hand pocket. The SAK Camper my wife gave me for my birthday still sits in my right pocket but it’s the pen I reach for first. And honestly, I rarely need to pull out the Camper. It’s a little short for food prep but in a pinch it can cut steak and chicken without getting too much marinade in the joints. And I can use it in a university setting without as much as a raised eyebrow.

If it has a real fault, it’s that she’s not much to look at. Nobody will ever call her a piece of pocket jewelry. I’ve looked at other pens. Red bone, rosewood, stag. Something pretty. But I have yet to buy one. The carbon has a nice patina and I’ve warmed up to the brown pebbled delrin. I’m not sure when I really became attached to it. The halfway point, maybe?

I think the reason I’ve bonded with very few knives is because I wouldn’t carry them long enough. I’d get something new and it would go into rotation, bumping the old one. I think there’s something to be said for having something long enough you get an idea what it’s capable of. No constant edge testing, no more reprofiling. Just the occasional touch up.

Now that it’s been a year with the pen will I try a year with something else? Maybe not. I’ve grown to really like my little pip-squeak workhorse. Anyone else stick it out the whole year with a peanut (or pen, butterbean, tiny trapper, etc.)?

Frank
 
Very interesting. You're a stronger man than I. I'd like to try that experiment, but I have too many nice knives in the drawer calling out to me! If I could stop buying new knives, that would be a good first step.

Do you have any pictures of the trusty little knife in question?
 
GREAT! I love pen knives.

My father-in-law and his father carried Case pen knives for their entire lives. I've had a Buck 309 pen knife since the summer of '07. There is not much it won't do. I've found that I keep the main clip blade sharp for cutting and the small one dull for picking, poking and scraping. I've wanted to get the Boker but just haven't gotten around to it yet.
 
You, sir, are an Iron Man and have my respect! While I often carry a Peanut and love its precision-cutting ability, I don't think I have the willpower to limit myself to just one knife for an entire year.
 
"You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din."

I tried but failed, to carry a single knife for a year. I just like too many, even though I only have about a half dozen left. I seem to have a hard corps of three knives I carry everyday.

I'm filled with admiration that you did it!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
RobbW said:
Let me guess: SAK Classic, Buck Hartsook, and...Wenger SI?
Click to expand...

Close.

Sak classic every day. Then either the Hartsook or the Mike Miller pocket fixed blade. If there's a third knife that gets pocket time it alternates between a number 7 Opinel, or a Case peanut in the watch pocket, or a Victorinox alox bantam in the watcch pocket.

I see A.G. Russell has brought back a version of the hunters scalple. The unfolding pocket knife has become a steady carry for me over the past few months. Most times these days I'm only carrying the classic and the Mike Miller knife. Soooo much easier on ostio arthritis finger joints. With my Sears 4-way keychain screwdriver and a P-38 on my keyring, I don't need a full size sak anymore.
 
WOW! I could not do it. Maybe I could carry one, but mix in others on a rotation. But not just one, and only one.

Bill
 
The answer for me is to carry two (or more!) knives! 90% of the time it's the Sebenza that goes into my right front pocket. That leaves the rest of the collection fighting over my back pocket :)
 
SilverFoxKnows said:
It was about a year ago that ... A few of the folks were talking about doing a year long experiment by carrying the little guys as their go to knife.
Click to expand...

I have no idea about the personalities or forum politics involved, but reminiscing about The Experiment reminds me that I miss El Cuchillo's posts.
 
Great job, I know there is no way I could have accomplished carrying just one knife anymore.
 
The Peanut thread had a similar effect on me. I dug out my Peanuts and have added a Yellow Jigged Bone Case 2 blade Peanut to my rotation and have not found it lacking in any task I have thrown it. No question that it's non-tactical appearance keeps the sheeple from being alarmed but I don't give a flying puck about them when I chose a knife to carry anyway. Every knife has a place.
 
Good to hear Frank.:thumbup:

I'm kinda right there with ya. Back in December I received a Peanut. Case CV/yellow from a member here.

I paired up the Peanut with a matching Medium Stockman but quickly switched to a Wenger SI. Since putting this combo together, the peanut rides on the drivers side and the SI is in the right pocket (just a passenger most days). The peanut is the go-to knife most of the time.

My grandfather caried a small two blade pen/half whittler and i never understood, as a kid, why he carried such a tiny knife. I suppose, in my case anyway, its a matter of Experientia magistra stultorum (Experience is the teacher of fools) :eek:.

Chris
 
I have a case scout Jr since september 07, It started with I thought it was to small 3 3/8. But I started to carry it direktly as it bugged me to have payed so much for a knife smaller than I belived an wanted it to be. Now 16 mounths later it s still every day in my pocket and I have begun to think of my before perfekt sized slippjoints as unnessisary big.

Bosse
 
I like this thread, the Pen is a very worthwhile pattern and 100% Traditional!By an odd co-incidence I've got a Böker pen-knife in Honeycomb Bone en route and I'm eagerly looking forward to it.Stainless though, but I've nothing against this metal....The CASE Yellow Handle cv Pen I own is a trusty companion.
 
For several years I have carried my Case yellerhandle CV Sodbuster Jr everyday. I have over the years carried other knives with it also. With 3-400 knives its hard to decide what you need. Anyway, about a year ago I got tired of 2-4 knives with me always. The sodbuster was the knife I always grabbed regardless. So last year I quit carrying all the other knives. I could count on 1 hand the days I carried a second knife and it was due to work. With all the equipment I own, some days you need something extra.

The sodbuster jr is a workhorse outside and even inside at the kitchen counter. I prefer it at food prep time than any other knife.

That knife has done everything for the last year. Slice fruit, pick my garden, cut rope/fishing line/etc off mower and bushhog spindles, cut belts from around pulleys, scrap gaskets, goes fishing and hunting, stabs my vienna sausages from the can, carves chicken/turkey/ham, cuts my steaks and anything else I can find for it.

The hardest thing for me is to see all those other knives sitting there. Guess they should have been yeller soddies. haha.
 
I enjoyed "The Experiment" thread as well and at that time was doing well carrying a small SAK Tinker model (84 mm) most every day. I was also really interested in all the talk about the Peanut pattern. I went to a local hardware store and got the humble brown derlin jigged Peanut. It was best 'nut in stock that day and I didn't want to wait. Just carrying one knife and seeing how far a smaller traditional pattern will take me was a real learning experience. Many thanks to all who who shared their thoughts. I also have a Case yellow CV Pen and am looking forward to seeing how it does as an only knife as well. I have been saving it so far. It was a Pen or Teardrop Jack (English Jack) that my Dad used most all his life.
 
I'll have to dig out the wife's DC and hope for a good pic. I'm still not good with the new fangled camera. I prefer my old Minolta. Good pics soon, hopefully.

Frank
 
I've been looking atthe Boker pens and the seem to come in two sizes...the 2 7/8 and 3 1/4 inch. Which did you carry?
 
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