a knife like my grampa's

stockman242

stockman242

Joined
Jan 14, 2008
Messages
1,576
Today I received a very VERY nice gift.
A few days ago Thomason wrote me an email, asking for my address to send me something.
Today I received a package from him, and proceeded to open it curious about the content.
What I saw downright shocked me:

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It is a sleeveboard pen made by J.A.Henckels. At a length of about 3 3/8 inches, this knife is the identical twin to the knife my grandpa edc'ed.

My grandfather, who passed last year at the age of 94, worked as a surveyor for the county for a long time, and was farming a few acres as well, was one of the main influences that thought me the habit of carrying a pocketknife. In his house he had an old shoebox, in which he stored a few tools and a small tin filled with small stuff, as well as hi pocketknife.
I was in Colorado when he died, and arrived a few days later in Germany.

When I came to the house I went searching for this shoe box, because I was afraid that It got lost. I finally found out what happened to it when my aunt told me that she had tossed a box of 'SCRAP METAL' :eek::grumpy:
'scrap metal' how could she even call it that???:confused::barf:

Along with the Henckels he carried the aforementioned tin, actually an old candy tin, filled with a lot of stuff like nails, screws, some tape, and pencil and paper ... and hard candy wrapped in tin foil :D.

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At his funeral I promised to myself AND him, that I was gonna find a knife and a tin just like his. It didnt take me long to find a similar tin, I just did some searching on the bay, but the knife was gonna be harder to find.
Today Rob helped me fulfill my promise, and I wanna thank him for that.

In the next picture the henckels is accompanied by a very different 'knife', this one being the actual one my granddad used to mark tree trunks to length, I still do the same.

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And just for the fun of posting pictures here is a picture of the tractor my grandfather used: A 1957 two cylinder Deutz.

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Peter
'This is a great community' :thumbup:
 
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That's a great story, and a great knife.

And Thomason is one of the people who makes these forums a great place to be.
 
That is a beeeeeuuuuuutiful knife.
My prayers for you, your grandpa, and Thomason, who made this happen for you.
I hope your connection with your grandfather continues to grow.

Keep Care,

Pappy
 
pappy1959 said:
That is a beeeeeuuuuuutiful knife.
My prayers for you, your grandpa, and Thomason, who made this happen for you.
I hope your connection with your grandfather continues to grow.

Keep Care,

Pappy
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comment and the prayers.

Thanks shaldag as well.
 
That's pretty cool how a friend like Rob helped you come full circle on your grandpa's knife.

Great story and pictures. I hope that knife has a long life of being passed down in your family.
 
Mike Robuck said:
That's pretty cool how a friend like Rob helped you come full circle on your grandpa's knife.

Great story and pictures. I hope that knife has a long life of being passed down in your family.
Click to expand...

Thats a definite 10/4, The story is gonna be passed down as well, once I have kids.

Peter

ps: where from Colorado are you?
 
Montrose: "Hub of a Western Wonderland" as the sign outside of town used to say many years ago.

You?

I keep meaning to post scans of my great grandfather's, both grandfather's and my dad's knives but I never seem to get around to it.

I like that ol tractor too even thought it ain't John Deere green. :thumbup:
 
You'd search long and hard before you found a better man than Rob Thomason. (And I know this from personal experience as well.)

Congrats to you both. :thumbup: :cool:
 
Touching story, and an incredible gesture on Thomason's part.

Nicek knife too.
 
What a wonderfull thing to do, both for you and your grandfather, Peter. Your promise is now kept, thanks to Thomason

Thomason, that was sheer class!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
Yup a real class act. We really do have a good set of people in this forum.
 
A great story heartfelt. Rob your heart is as Big as the Great State of Texas. Pleasure to be associated with you thru the Forum.
 
Thanks for your nice comments. :thumbup:

Mike Robuck said:
Montrose: "Hub of a Western Wonderland" as the sign outside of town used to say many years ago.

You?

I keep meaning to post scans of my great grandfather's, both grandfather's and my dad's knives but I never seem to get around to it.

I like that ol tractor too even thought it ain't John Deere green. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Mike: Im actually from germany, but I spend a year in Otis, Colorado as an exchange student in ´06/´07. I hope to come back for good. Though next month I will tour with some friends of mine.

I know what you mean about John Deere :D

@beau5278: that Deutz is actually in family posession, my uncle bought it back last year, so now we use it for logging, just like granddad.

Peter
 
You know what I really love about this thread?

That Peter's grandad was one of those typical hardworking old guys who somehow got through life with his little two blade pocket knife. No clips, no one hand opening, no blade locks, no gadjits, just plain cutting tool. An honest hardworking cutting tool.

And he had that little candy tin of "stuff" to get through the rough spots.

We have fathers day, mothers day, pressidents day, and even a groundhog day. There should be a grandfathers day, as a monument to all those tough old guys who knew how to "get it done" with almost nothing.

They really were the greatest generation!
 
Well said Jackknife.

A long time ago (for me it feels this way) my granddad told me, that 2 inches, well he said 5 centimeters, worth of blade is all a man needs, and that you can tell a man with common sense from a man without by looking at his pocketknife and the way he is using it.

I remembered him saying that when I was reading your recent story about your granddad.

Peter
 
I was looking at the pen blade. That is one of my favorite blade grinds, those old pen swedges.The patina is perfect too.
 
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