A Humble Peanut confession

Thomason and Friends,

Great picture of your Peanuts! Prety cool. Now, a True Peanut story. About 10 days ago, I was working the RNC. (Rep. Nat. Convention). On one of the nights, we were "guarding" the lot where the coach busses dropped off the delegates. Most of these busses were Prevosts.

One the drivers had just pulled in, unloaded his passengers, and then walked to the rear of his bus, looked in the engine compartment and started to dig in his pockets. Pretty soon he turned around and asked if "anyone has a knife I could use"? Most of my guys know that I carry different knives, so they joyfully pushed me to the front. I reached in my pocket, fully expecting to pull out one of my Bose Case Collabs, which I carry everyday, but guess I got dressed in a hurry, and didn't put a Collab in my pocket, but pulled out a Case 6220 Chestnut Bone with blued blades.

The driver looked at that "small" knife and then opened it up and started to cut a serpentine belt. I thought, "Oh no, there goes my Peanut"! A short time later he handed my Peanut back, all in one piece, and then pulled what seemed to me, 6 to 8 feet of belt off of numerous pullies! The CV blade really held its own! :thumbup:

I touched up the blade later on, but my Peanut is now worse for the wear.

Kent
 
Friends,

So much for "proof reading" my last post. :eek:

I meant to say that my Peanut was "No worse for the wear"! :thumbup:

Kent
 
Being highly susceptible to peer pressure (but only as it relates to blades), I must now go retrieve my yellow Case peanut.

:thumbup:
 
Okay, peanut story.

When I was a kid and cars were not so reliable as today, alot of times you had a slight delay when going somewhere. This one time we were off in the the car, and for some reason dad's old Pontiac overheated. Dad checks under the hood, water's okay, no obvious leaks or split hoses.

"Gotta be the thermostat." dad says quietly. "Water's not getting circulated."

He goes to the tool kit in the trunk and takes out an adjustable wrench and takes off the top of the housing holding the culprit. He peers at it with a wisdom I can't began to understand as a teenager, and pronounces it dead.

"What are we gonna do?" I ask him.

"Oh, we can run without it till winter. No problem, but we also need a new gasket. Taking off the housing trashed the old one."

He roots around in the car and comes up with a Kleenex box. I'm watching, aware I'm getting one of those leasons in life that need to be filed away. He takes out the little stub of wood pencil he always carried, and traces the outline of the thermostat housing on it. Then he takes his old brown handle peanut and slowly cuts out the new gasket from the cardboard botton of the Kleenex box. Soon he has a new gasket for the housing, and uses the small pen blade to cut out the bolt holes in the gaskett.

In a very short while we're back on the road, Kleenex box gaskett working fine.

An adjustable wrench, Kleenex box, a pencil stub, and a peanut pocket knife, and we're on our way again.

No wonder those guys won the war.
 
I'm thinkin' your dad was a cut above the average Jackknife. That's a nice memory.
 
jackknife said:
An adjustable wrench, Kleenex box, a pencil stub, and a peanut pocket knife, and we're on our way again.

No wonder those guys won the war.
Click to expand...

I love stories like that - every uncle/aunt/relative/ancestor I had could improvise like that. Our family has a lot of stories like that, I just wish I'd listened when I was younger...

thx - cpr
 
jackknife said:
Okay, peanut story.

When I was a kid and cars were not so reliable as today, alot of times you had a slight delay when going somewhere. This one time we were off in the the car, and for some reason dad's old Pontiac overheated. Dad checks under the hood, water's okay, no obvious leaks or split hoses.

"Gotta be the thermostat." dad says quietly. "Water's not getting circulated."

He goes to the tool kit in the trunk and takes out an adjustable wrench and takes off the top of the housing holding the culprit. He peers at it with a wisdom I can't began to understand as a teenager, and pronounces it dead.

"What are we gonna do?" I ask him.

"Oh, we can run without it till winter. No problem, but we also need a new gasket. Taking off the housing trashed the old one."

He roots around in the car and comes up with a Kleenex box. I'm watching, aware I'm getting one of those leasons in life that need to be filed away. He takes out the little stub of wood pencil he always carried, and traces the outline of the thermostat housing on it. Then he takes his old brown handle peanut and slowly cuts out the new gasket from the cardboard botton of the Kleenex box. Soon he has a new gasket for the housing, and uses the small pen blade to cut out the bolt holes in the gaskett.

In a very short while we're back on the road, Kleenex box gaskett working fine.

An adjustable wrench, Kleenex box, a pencil stub, and a peanut pocket knife, and we're on our way again.

No wonder those guys won the war.
Click to expand...
Meanwhile, my generation is permanently glued to their cell phone
 
jackknife said:
Dad checks under the hood, water's okay, no obvious leaks or split hoses. ... He roots around in the car and comes up with a Kleenex box. I'm watching, aware I'm getting one of those leasons in life that need to be filed away. He takes out the little stub of wood pencil he always carried, and traces the outline of the thermostat housing on it. Then he takes his old brown handle peanut and slowly cuts out the new gasket from the cardboard botton of the Kleenex box. Soon he has a new gasket for the housing, and uses the small pen blade to cut out the bolt holes in the gaskett.

In a very short while we're back on the road, Kleenex box gaskett working fine.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of a lot of the older Czech guys I met when I first moved to Prague in the early 90s. After four decades of communism, Czechs definitely had learned to make do with whatever they could get their hands on. Talk about some resourceful folks! To this day, I believe there's nothing a Czech guy over the age of 40 can't fix. Sadly, most Czechs under that age, the ones who've come of age since the Velvet Revolution, who have enjoyed all the fruits of the free market (not a bad thing, mind you) are - like GarageBoy said - more inclined to stumble around permanently glued to their cell phones.
 
Sorry ya'll...I tried the small stuff....glad ya'll like them & are satisfied.I still like & carry large Trappers,Stockmen & Barlows.To each his own!:D
Jim
 
Kukri.... I love the big stuff! Trappers, Stockman, English Jack, Mt. man/bullet/ Scout or whatever you call that pattern. I love the big blade that can handle anything, the hand filling size of the knife, .. I like 'em big. Too make the move to accepting small knives, let alone using them was a big step. There are still times I carry something big, depends one the need, occasion, and what I am wearing. So I understand that some guys just aren't comfortable with something that small.... took me a long time too.

b.w. durbin
 
Peanut addiction is also pushing hard this side of the pond, in Spain: although I love traditional Spanish patterns, the folder that goes more often in my pocket is a CV yellow peanut.
Anyway, I have to recognize that when hunting, or working on the forest, I prefer a more substantial knife, in the 8-10 cm range and with a solid lock, and sometimes I really need a fixed blade.
Regards.
 
Using another knife than a peanut is permisable for a peanut addict. Sometimes the situation and location demands it. Then you fall back to the old "right tool for the job" theroy that the old guys went by.

For instance, when out in the woods I have a mora on my belt. Theres no change of whats in my pockets, just the addition of the mora. Or in my pack may be the bushwacker my dad made. Its a cut down English machete that he made sort of a mini golock out of. A 10 inch blade with a sheepsfoot profile, does light chopping work, and splits damp kindling well.

Right tool for the job.
 
I guess I am in the minority here. I do not own a peanut and have no plans to add one to my user box.:o

I do own knives in the peanut size class but like them with single springs.Like my 12OT or my 104OT pen.:thumbup:

The only exception is my 108OT stockman which gives me one more blade than a peanut in the same size.
 
I've been carrying my peanut along with a one handed opener. I use my peanut alot! Those small blades are great for little tasks that a 3" knife just can't do.

I picked up a used yellow cv with half stops. Do all peanuts have that?
 
I am also in the minority here.
I find a 3 1/4 stockman very comfortably small, where the blades like a peanut are very thin.

Don't panic, I will get one; but I am not buying knives right now!
 
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The Peanut is rightly praised by many, it is undeniably a very useful tool especially for fixing things or intricate work (PSK Peanut Survival Knife):D

But when it comes to food prep,getting a pear or apple,any fruits into eating shape I find the small blade a touch too small. Small Texas Jack, Sodbuster,Mini Trapper, or a single blade/lock knife is what I always use.
 
While I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum, preferring bigger and bigger traditional folders, usually single-blades, I do realize that the knife I use most in my day-to-day carry is either the Vic Classic or Wenger Air Traveler (I carry the Classic, which is an Alox, on weekends and the Air Traveler on weekdays) which really isn't big at all. While the Al Marm Eagle Talon or the Opinel No. 9 might fit me better and cut better, they're big and sometimes it's jsut easier to pull out the Classic.
(But, today I'm just carrying the Classic and a Pocket Pal. KISS)
I want to get a Peanut, I really do. I wish someone made a reasonably priced carbon one with a bail or split ring. I might get a Spyderco Ladybug before I get a Peanut (or pen) but I will get one, of these days.
 
I am a borderline minimalist. But my favorite pattens are 4" to 5"...

Sometimes I swear I could get by just fine all the time with a peanut main blade in a 4" frame. But, there are the times when I do need at least a 3" blade.

I find myself between "right tool for the job" and "if what I carry can do it, even if its a little harder to do, I don't have to carry as much"

So I carry both. A 3.5" to 4" knife, and the little 'nut or sometimes a classic. If the 'nut can do it, it does, and sometimes it is amazing what it can do... But when it does rarely come up short, I have a blade that can do it.

G.
 
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