A childhood trio

D

dalee100

Joined
Mar 15, 2008
Messages
1,539
Hi,

Since I started hanging around here with you guys, I've been just kind of accumulating slippies. No real direction, just what caught my eye. But lately, I've started to focus a bit more. And I just finished collecting these three. A 108OT, 34OT, and the one I just received, an 8OT.

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They aren't rare or fancy. Just three plain old user slippies that take me back to another time and place.

dalee
 
Nice knives, dalee!

They may be a childhood trio, but there's a few armies of working men who made a living using those Old Timers on their jobs. That 1095 Schrade used was very good stuff, and they took the grind down to a nice thin edge.

Great working cutters.:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
Hi,

I've been one of that army myself. What I find interesting, from a garrulous old fart point of view. When I sharpened them they feel a world different against the stones than any other carbon steel blades I have. Even my GEC Barlow in 1095. As one old machinist to another, there is a "sweetness" to the cut. That no other steel I have exhibits.

dalee
 
dalee100 said:
Hi,

I've been one of that army myself. What I find interesting, from a garrulous old fart point of view. When I sharpened them they feel a world different against the stones than any other carbon steel blades I have. Even my GEC Barlow in 1095. As one old machinist to another, there is a "sweetness" to the cut. That no other steel I have exhibits.

dalee
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Yeah, I know what you mean. I always called it 'biting the stone.' Some steels just felt different. I suspect that Schrade has an expertise with the 1095 like Case has with the CV. Long experiance had taught them how to maximize the steel with heat treat and blade profile. Schrade knew about good blade geometry and cutting. I may get tossed in the rubbber room, but I think those Old Timers were on a plain with the Opinels for the scary sharp razor edge. Schrade took that flat grind right down to the wicked edge.

I don't think it was any fluke that a lot of the machinists I worked with were die hard Old Timer guys. :thumbup:
 
Nice, I have just gotten a few of these small Old Timers including a 8OT. I have a Mini-might that is sweet.
I recently found these little beauties. I have been wanting a Sharpfinger since my friend Terry in the Marines had one in his truck. I got one a couple of years ago and lost it this fall. I got all of these in the last 6 months except the yellow/creme one that was my Father-in-Law's that I got last year when he passed.

I have been carrying my son's single blade trapper every so often for a few years and I finally replaced mine along with a few others.
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The 8OT is one of my favorite if not my absolute favorite. You can't go wrong with the old timers. Get as many as you can!
 
dalee - great little collection there. I have a little Old Timer collector tin full of old OT knives, and I'd wager a bet that they take a better edge than any other I have, except maybe my CV Case's. The only knives I have that will take a 'finer' edge is an old depression-era Robeson Stockman, and our kitchen Opinel.

The best thing about the Old Timers, is that they're forgiving. You don't have to be an expert to put a really nice working edge on them; I've let my son try his hand at sharpening with them, and . . . well, let's just say he's got a ways to go in learning technique ;). I can take the OT he's working with, and in less than a minute have the edge back to where we can sit down with our wood chips & be back to work whittling.

Jackknife - the little Opinel we have in the kitchen takes an edge that is truly scary. I have used it for very fine detail work in whittling, and even birch & maple scrap offer almost no resistance to that edge. It's a better splinter picker than tweezers.

thx - cpr
 
Great knives you got there. I still love carrying an Old Timer 33OT on me. They are everything I need and a great price too.
 
Congrats on the Schrades. Those are always a great addition...

Their steel is almost magical :D My grandad was a logger for 40 years. When he passed away 5 years ago, my grandma gave me his knives. There were only 3, but two were old Schrade Waldens, and one N.I.B Old Timer that I had given him for Christmas when I was a kid.
The two knives that he used were still as sharp as a razor...
 
Ah, an unmolested 80T. I have one myself that was my first pocketknife as a kid. The clip blade was broken long before my time and profiled in to a slotted screwdriver...:foot:
 
Hi,

I kind of forgot about this post. Minds been on kitchen remodeling.

I've never actually owned an 8OT before. Just the 34OT. A Cousin of mine carried an 8OT though. Until I opened the package, I had for gotten just how huge the 8OT is. Now I remember why I prefer the 34OT.:)

I remember in that little Hardware store case, there would be one or two 108's, perhaps half a dozen 34's and one maybe two 8's. A LB5 or LB6 for a huntin' knife and every once in a while a Sharp Finger.

The town guys and retired farmers were often seen with a 108. And a few of the other farmers, like my Cousin, carried 8's. But most of us carried the 34's for a working knife.

And then that little glass case started to hold Buck 110's and 119 specials. The Schrade LB's and Sharpfingers went missing. And the 108's and 8's were soon gone. And after a while more, even the 34's were gone.

Today, even the store itself is gone and main street mostly shuttered. But the memories are still in me. I've tried to pass them on to my kids, but it's a bit too foreign for them. More like a vignette from a history book.

dalee
 
Boy, those bring back the memories. I carried on for years and they did everything you needed. Had a few fixed blades back then for hunting and there was always a machete around for wandering around in the woods.

But those knives were the mainstay for many people. That was back when every kid in school had a knife in their pocket. No one ever cut anyone, no one died, no one got arrested. When there was a fight, no one ever thought about pulling out a knife even though almost everyone had one.

Those days are long gone.
 
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