The choice of a traditional knife for me, aside from the strong prejudice to them as its what I grew up with, is the choice of blades.
I tried the one hand knife a few times, and they failed to do the job for me. I carried the same Buck 301 stockman for 25 years, and the choice of three different blades with three different blade shapes and three different kind of edges, gave me a ton of versistlity in one small 3 7/8th inch package in my pocket. Even with a simple two blade pocket knife like a Barlow or trapper, I still have two different blades to use for different jobs.
The aesthetics of the traditional is a draw to me as well. I just can't get into the stark and sometimes weird styles of the so called tactical one handers. The blades seem so blunt and thick compared to what I've been using met whole life, that when I try one it seems overly clumsy. Its rare I need a blade lock, and if I feel I am going to be doing something that may cause a slip joint to close on me,(?what I don't know) then I use the original one hand knife that won't fold; a fixed blade. My usual small slip joint pocket knife that I carry is on occasion augmented by my Buck 102 woodsman or the small Finnish Puuko with a 4 inch blade.
Then theres the small slip joints with some tools on them like SAK's. It gives you a level of utility that its hard to not get used to with screw driver, bottle opening, can opening and awl on a pocket knife. I've long lost track of things I've hd to fix in the middle of nowhere and having a SAK or scout knife made it a lot easier to get back. A conked out motor scooter on a dirt road miles from anywhere, an electric trolling motor with a control handle that fell apart and needed the deep set Phillips crew replaced, a fishing reel that needed some work on a remote lake shore.
I like a small pocket knife that I can just drop in a pocket and forget about it until I need to cut something. Some of my favorite knives over the past 50 years has been a stockman, Buck 303 cadet, Case peanut, Case mini copperhead, Puma Junior, Boker 240 penknife, and an old Christy knife. I've never been under knifed yet. I've nerf needed one hand opening or a lock on the blade yet, in spite of a lot of backpacking, fishing, some hunting, canoe camping, and 50 years of Harry homeowners projects.
In short, the small size that you can forget its there, the choice of different blades, and some nice materials like real stag, jigged bone, good looking wood like rosewood and iron wood, are nice. Aesthetics, conveyance, versatility, practicality.
I tried the one hand knife a few times, and they failed to do the job for me. I carried the same Buck 301 stockman for 25 years, and the choice of three different blades with three different blade shapes and three different kind of edges, gave me a ton of versistlity in one small 3 7/8th inch package in my pocket. Even with a simple two blade pocket knife like a Barlow or trapper, I still have two different blades to use for different jobs.
The aesthetics of the traditional is a draw to me as well. I just can't get into the stark and sometimes weird styles of the so called tactical one handers. The blades seem so blunt and thick compared to what I've been using met whole life, that when I try one it seems overly clumsy. Its rare I need a blade lock, and if I feel I am going to be doing something that may cause a slip joint to close on me,(?what I don't know) then I use the original one hand knife that won't fold; a fixed blade. My usual small slip joint pocket knife that I carry is on occasion augmented by my Buck 102 woodsman or the small Finnish Puuko with a 4 inch blade.
Then theres the small slip joints with some tools on them like SAK's. It gives you a level of utility that its hard to not get used to with screw driver, bottle opening, can opening and awl on a pocket knife. I've long lost track of things I've hd to fix in the middle of nowhere and having a SAK or scout knife made it a lot easier to get back. A conked out motor scooter on a dirt road miles from anywhere, an electric trolling motor with a control handle that fell apart and needed the deep set Phillips crew replaced, a fishing reel that needed some work on a remote lake shore.
I like a small pocket knife that I can just drop in a pocket and forget about it until I need to cut something. Some of my favorite knives over the past 50 years has been a stockman, Buck 303 cadet, Case peanut, Case mini copperhead, Puma Junior, Boker 240 penknife, and an old Christy knife. I've never been under knifed yet. I've nerf needed one hand opening or a lock on the blade yet, in spite of a lot of backpacking, fishing, some hunting, canoe camping, and 50 years of Harry homeowners projects.
In short, the small size that you can forget its there, the choice of different blades, and some nice materials like real stag, jigged bone, good looking wood like rosewood and iron wood, are nice. Aesthetics, conveyance, versatility, practicality.
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