- Joined
- Jan 27, 2007
- Messages
- 6,518
Happy New Year to all of you here on "the porch".
Please forgive the long post. It's my tenth-year anniversary here of bladeforums, and I'm feeling all sentimental. Plus it's late, I had to take my painkillers tonight, and I can't sleep.
It seems there's been a paradigm shift in our household a lot is changing around here: our job situation, my son looking seriously at college in another year or so, changes in our health habits, and so on. One thing that's happened with me and I haven't decided if it's a good thing or not is that I'm becoming a bit more streamlined in what I keep around me. I've purged my library (I still have too many books according to my wife. I tell her to quit spouting off such negativity.) I consolidated my tools, and still have way more than I'll use. (Too many tools? Blasphemy!) I'm cooking a lot more than I used to, so we're eating better, and a lot more of my kitchen knives (at least fifteen at last count) are getting used now. (I cut up a whole fryer a few weeks ago, which I haven't done in years. No chicken deserves what I did to that poor bird.)
One of the biggest changes for me, is that I'm now going almost exclusively back to traditional knives for every day carry. I decided in early December to commit to just having a two-blade or single-blade traditional pattern on me. Over the last year or so, I've started leaving the larger more modern pocket-clipped knives at home. They're handy, but I've started to really understand just how useful a smaller traditional pattern can be.
So tonight, when I sat down to wish everyone a happy New Year, I got to thinking about just how many different patterns I've found a use for over the last year. I'm glad for this change, and there's comfort in coming back to square one.
In our kitchen, we have two Opinel #8 folders, and we use them now more than our regular knives I realized last Christmas (2015) that I was sharpening them more often than all the other kitchen knives. They wont handle the work an 8" Chef's knife will do , but they'll definitely handle almost every other kitchen cutting task that comes up. They're great for peeling apples, and I cut up our dinner ham with one of them tonight.
I also use a Boker-Arbolito Gaucho (Boker's version of a large Sodbuster) in the spring & summer for all the fruit we prep for canning. This one was given to me by Elliott Pitilon (Blues here on bladeforums) years ago, and it'll run neck-&-neck with those Opinels all day long, and actually holds its edge a bit longer.
I bought this Camillus #23 Jumbo Jack years ago here on the exchange, and the previous owner had the scales replaced by another member. I sheath-carried this one for a while, then I started using my larger more modern folders more and it got put away. On top is a Kershaw/ZT #0566 with a custom scale and Ti hardware. I spent almost $275. putting it together - and lately it sits in the drawer while I carry the #23 again.
With the yard work we've got coming up this spring, I've got a lot a pruning to do we have an apricot tree we're trying to save, and we're planting two more fruit trees. My old Loom Fixer works pretty good for pruning, but I bought a dedicated Case Pruner for the job, and the Loom Fixer will take back-up duties. This pic is all of my Case "Stamina-Wood" scaled knives. I'm missing the Elephant Toenail, but I should have it later this year. (Also, the little lockback is the same scale material I knew of the other four patterns in Stamina Wood, but not that one.)
These are the utility patterns I've been using the Great Eastern STR Electrician's Knife goes with me at least once a week; I bought the old Camillus "WHAT-A-KNIFE" so I could have a thin knife in my pocket with a bottle opener on it when needed; the old RIC-NOR electrician's knife sits on my workbench, and gets all the nasty grunt work that I dont want to use nicer blades for. (It takes an amazing edge.)
The other utility types that are finding their way back into the rotation are these: the old TL-29 belonged to my grandfather; my grandmother kept it on her bench in the garage to open bags of fertilizer and sod. The blade is really pitted, but the screwdriver is almost factory new. The top knife is a Victorinox Huntsman that I found on the street in 1992; I re-scaled it in Kingwood around 1993. The little Wenger (Esquire?) was in my pocket when my son was born.
These all have at least one blade that I'll use for carving & whittling, some more comfortable than others. My schedule doesn't allow me much time for it right now, but they're getting more use now.
I'm looking forward to seeing what 2017 brings; I think this will be a creative year for me. I've read on another forum where a member's grandfather used a Case large Trapper for all of his skinning chores, up to deer-sized game. Another member has only used a Case Peanut-sized knife for cleaning fish for years and still another used a Case small Sodbuster for a work knife for decades as an electrician.
I dont think I'll miss those modern types.
~Chris
Please forgive the long post. It's my tenth-year anniversary here of bladeforums, and I'm feeling all sentimental. Plus it's late, I had to take my painkillers tonight, and I can't sleep.
It seems there's been a paradigm shift in our household a lot is changing around here: our job situation, my son looking seriously at college in another year or so, changes in our health habits, and so on. One thing that's happened with me and I haven't decided if it's a good thing or not is that I'm becoming a bit more streamlined in what I keep around me. I've purged my library (I still have too many books according to my wife. I tell her to quit spouting off such negativity.) I consolidated my tools, and still have way more than I'll use. (Too many tools? Blasphemy!) I'm cooking a lot more than I used to, so we're eating better, and a lot more of my kitchen knives (at least fifteen at last count) are getting used now. (I cut up a whole fryer a few weeks ago, which I haven't done in years. No chicken deserves what I did to that poor bird.)
One of the biggest changes for me, is that I'm now going almost exclusively back to traditional knives for every day carry. I decided in early December to commit to just having a two-blade or single-blade traditional pattern on me. Over the last year or so, I've started leaving the larger more modern pocket-clipped knives at home. They're handy, but I've started to really understand just how useful a smaller traditional pattern can be.
So tonight, when I sat down to wish everyone a happy New Year, I got to thinking about just how many different patterns I've found a use for over the last year. I'm glad for this change, and there's comfort in coming back to square one.
In our kitchen, we have two Opinel #8 folders, and we use them now more than our regular knives I realized last Christmas (2015) that I was sharpening them more often than all the other kitchen knives. They wont handle the work an 8" Chef's knife will do , but they'll definitely handle almost every other kitchen cutting task that comes up. They're great for peeling apples, and I cut up our dinner ham with one of them tonight.
I also use a Boker-Arbolito Gaucho (Boker's version of a large Sodbuster) in the spring & summer for all the fruit we prep for canning. This one was given to me by Elliott Pitilon (Blues here on bladeforums) years ago, and it'll run neck-&-neck with those Opinels all day long, and actually holds its edge a bit longer.
I bought this Camillus #23 Jumbo Jack years ago here on the exchange, and the previous owner had the scales replaced by another member. I sheath-carried this one for a while, then I started using my larger more modern folders more and it got put away. On top is a Kershaw/ZT #0566 with a custom scale and Ti hardware. I spent almost $275. putting it together - and lately it sits in the drawer while I carry the #23 again.
With the yard work we've got coming up this spring, I've got a lot a pruning to do we have an apricot tree we're trying to save, and we're planting two more fruit trees. My old Loom Fixer works pretty good for pruning, but I bought a dedicated Case Pruner for the job, and the Loom Fixer will take back-up duties. This pic is all of my Case "Stamina-Wood" scaled knives. I'm missing the Elephant Toenail, but I should have it later this year. (Also, the little lockback is the same scale material I knew of the other four patterns in Stamina Wood, but not that one.)
These are the utility patterns I've been using the Great Eastern STR Electrician's Knife goes with me at least once a week; I bought the old Camillus "WHAT-A-KNIFE" so I could have a thin knife in my pocket with a bottle opener on it when needed; the old RIC-NOR electrician's knife sits on my workbench, and gets all the nasty grunt work that I dont want to use nicer blades for. (It takes an amazing edge.)
The other utility types that are finding their way back into the rotation are these: the old TL-29 belonged to my grandfather; my grandmother kept it on her bench in the garage to open bags of fertilizer and sod. The blade is really pitted, but the screwdriver is almost factory new. The top knife is a Victorinox Huntsman that I found on the street in 1992; I re-scaled it in Kingwood around 1993. The little Wenger (Esquire?) was in my pocket when my son was born.
These all have at least one blade that I'll use for carving & whittling, some more comfortable than others. My schedule doesn't allow me much time for it right now, but they're getting more use now.
I'm looking forward to seeing what 2017 brings; I think this will be a creative year for me. I've read on another forum where a member's grandfather used a Case large Trapper for all of his skinning chores, up to deer-sized game. Another member has only used a Case Peanut-sized knife for cleaning fish for years and still another used a Case small Sodbuster for a work knife for decades as an electrician.
I dont think I'll miss those modern types.
~Chris
Last edited:
I am told frequently I need to downsize or not buy another ---- knife, I do what I can but, hey I like collecting stuff. It just takes up room. My wife at least feels she's turned me into a pack mouse, from a pack rat. 
Just doin' the best I can, I'm only a man.