I don't know why, but for some reason of late, no knife brings back memories like a yeller handle knife.
I have many knives in my drawer. Stag handles, red plastic handles with little silver crosses on them, bone handles, alox handles, wood handles, even a black zytel handle. But the yeller handle still is the top pick for going down memory lane. It wasn't the first knife I ever saw. Not by a long shot. My uncles and dad had bone handle pocket knives. I think I saw my first yeller handle when I was still young enough to be a single number age. It was a 'fishin knife'.
I don't know why, but in the 1950's, it seemed like the lions share of 'fishin knives' were of the yeller handle type. Yes, there were the occasional black jigged plastic, but yeller ruled. The 1950's 'fishin knife' was almost always a toothpick pattern yeller plastic handle knife. If you had the one with the scaler blade and hook sharpener set in the handle, you were in the high cotton of 'fishin knife' pecking order. It was like having a Buick while everybody else had a Chevy.
I think everyone who had a knife factory made them. But mostly I remember alot of Camillus, Colonial, and some Schrade-Imperial. Lot's of Colonials. It was the cheapest long bladed pocket knife you could buy.
This of course had a dark side.
I remember there was this one bar in Wheaton Maryland, where I grew up. We'd pass on by in our adventures around the place, and glance in. It was sort of a low down kind of place, and the police cars with the revolving red light on the roofs were there pretty often. Most of the time it was just a fight between a couple of drunks. One time it wasn't. They carried out a guy on a stretcher, and another guy was taken out in cuffs. One big cop had a bloody knife in his hand, and Dave, Bobby, and myself were standing there watching. I'll remeber the yeller handle 'fishin knife' in the cops hand forever. He was carrying it carefully by the very tip of the rear bolsters, and the blade and yeller handle had some red blotchy smears on them. Some people back then would stick a piece of match stick down in the blade slot, so it made the blade ride a bit higher in the handle. This left a bit of a gap in the tip/handle so it could be snagged real fast on a pants pocket seam and opened by holding the blade and snagging the handle on the pants. Some of those good 'ol boys could open a toothpick nigh as fast as a modern spyderco one hander. Just shows, where there's a will, there'll be a way.
But mostly when I see a yeller handle 'fishin knife' I think of summer time, a slow moving creek, the taste of warm water out of the surplus store canteen. The taste of a hot dog roasted over a fire by the creek. I wonder if there has ever been a study why a hot dog roasted by a creek, tastes better than one roasted well away from the water. We all had our scout knives, but if we were going anywhere around water, like down by the 'crik', we took a yeller handle 'fishin knife' along. I think it was some sort of unwritten rule among boys in the 1950's; if you're going near water, thou must have a 'fishin knife' on you.
For sheer nostalgia, for firing up the mental time travel mode, I don't think there is many knives that get it going like a yeller handle toothpick. Makes me think of balloon tire Schwinn bikes, slingshots, dented up aluminum canteens with 1943 stamped on the bottom, and slow moving creeks.
And the best hot dogs in the world.
Thanks Moff!:thumbup:
I have many knives in my drawer. Stag handles, red plastic handles with little silver crosses on them, bone handles, alox handles, wood handles, even a black zytel handle. But the yeller handle still is the top pick for going down memory lane. It wasn't the first knife I ever saw. Not by a long shot. My uncles and dad had bone handle pocket knives. I think I saw my first yeller handle when I was still young enough to be a single number age. It was a 'fishin knife'.
I don't know why, but in the 1950's, it seemed like the lions share of 'fishin knives' were of the yeller handle type. Yes, there were the occasional black jigged plastic, but yeller ruled. The 1950's 'fishin knife' was almost always a toothpick pattern yeller plastic handle knife. If you had the one with the scaler blade and hook sharpener set in the handle, you were in the high cotton of 'fishin knife' pecking order. It was like having a Buick while everybody else had a Chevy.
I think everyone who had a knife factory made them. But mostly I remember alot of Camillus, Colonial, and some Schrade-Imperial. Lot's of Colonials. It was the cheapest long bladed pocket knife you could buy.
This of course had a dark side.
I remember there was this one bar in Wheaton Maryland, where I grew up. We'd pass on by in our adventures around the place, and glance in. It was sort of a low down kind of place, and the police cars with the revolving red light on the roofs were there pretty often. Most of the time it was just a fight between a couple of drunks. One time it wasn't. They carried out a guy on a stretcher, and another guy was taken out in cuffs. One big cop had a bloody knife in his hand, and Dave, Bobby, and myself were standing there watching. I'll remeber the yeller handle 'fishin knife' in the cops hand forever. He was carrying it carefully by the very tip of the rear bolsters, and the blade and yeller handle had some red blotchy smears on them. Some people back then would stick a piece of match stick down in the blade slot, so it made the blade ride a bit higher in the handle. This left a bit of a gap in the tip/handle so it could be snagged real fast on a pants pocket seam and opened by holding the blade and snagging the handle on the pants. Some of those good 'ol boys could open a toothpick nigh as fast as a modern spyderco one hander. Just shows, where there's a will, there'll be a way.
But mostly when I see a yeller handle 'fishin knife' I think of summer time, a slow moving creek, the taste of warm water out of the surplus store canteen. The taste of a hot dog roasted over a fire by the creek. I wonder if there has ever been a study why a hot dog roasted by a creek, tastes better than one roasted well away from the water. We all had our scout knives, but if we were going anywhere around water, like down by the 'crik', we took a yeller handle 'fishin knife' along. I think it was some sort of unwritten rule among boys in the 1950's; if you're going near water, thou must have a 'fishin knife' on you.
For sheer nostalgia, for firing up the mental time travel mode, I don't think there is many knives that get it going like a yeller handle toothpick. Makes me think of balloon tire Schwinn bikes, slingshots, dented up aluminum canteens with 1943 stamped on the bottom, and slow moving creeks.
And the best hot dogs in the world.
Thanks Moff!:thumbup:
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