"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

Fodderwing said:
It was 1970 and I was 13 years old. We lived in eastern Bolivia a stones throw from the Brazilian Mato Grosso. The nearest paved road was 360 kilometers southwest. The nearest public municipal electricity was also 360 kilometers southwest. We had the only motorized vehicle within a radius of 80 kilometers. I suppose there may have been laws on the books concerning driving but there was no-one to enforce them. My chariot was a 1966 Willys Jeep three speed in the floor. For six months out of each of three consecutive years I drove pretty much anywhere locally. The other six months was the rainy season and nobody drove anything except a Unimog or a mule. Fast forward to age 16 - USA - TRAFFIC - INTERSTATES - at least it was Arkansas and not LOS ANGELES. :D 15º27'40.85" S 60º53'51.91" W View attachment 1053137
Click to expand...
Wow, Dwight! That is the middle of nowhere!:eek: What an interesting place to grow up.:thumbsup:
 
knarfeng said:
Most of the people posting in those 2019 forum knife threads have no idea of all the prework that has to happen. I've temporarily closed both threads.
Click to expand...

Is there a thread to read about that prework or is it behind the scenes? I don’t want to step on toes.

Maybe it is better that those in the know be the ones to start discussion of a forum knife. Maybe I missed a sticky thread that says just that. Maybe there needs to be one if there isn’t?

I don’t like making things worse when trying to help.
 
People get enthused about it, but there's a lot of work to make it happen.
Part of the issue is that there is a lot of money involved. If people buy 300 knives at $100 a pop, that's $30,000. Whatever gets set up has to have proper controls over that.

Also, a lot of people have unrealistic expectations as to what can be done as far as knife choices. There's only a few companies that can work with us. We need someone who can make a couple of hundred of the same knife, but only a couple of hundred. There's only a few companies who will work within those limits. The quantities also limit how unique the knife can be.
 
btb01 said:
I brought this quote over from the Guardians thread, because I thought it would make for an interesting off-topic discussion. I know there been some talk of first cars in this thread (I've shared my old Checker here before), but I'd be curious to hear what vehicles y'all learned to drive in?

I guarantee many of them will be more interesting than mine, although it at least has the distinction of being something you don't really see around much anymore. I learned to drive in an late-80's Isuzu Trooper II. Growing up, my dad owned an RV dealership, and he was always taking in used cars as trade-ins. I don't ever remember him having a car that was his own; he was always just driving something he had on the lot at the time. He had the Trooper II when I was around 12 years old, and decided that was a good time to teach me to drive. He let me drive it up and down our street, and on this trail through the woods behind our house. After a little practice, he let me drive it on the state highway (55 mph) that our street turned off of, with my brother and my best friend in the back seat, to take my friend home to his house a mile or two down the road. (I'm fairly certain that neither my mom nor my friend's parents knew about that incident. :D)

I tried to find a picture on Google Image that looks like the one we had, but actually came closest when I found this video on YouTube:


Ours looked just like that one, but it didn't have the automatic transmission. I enjoyed watching that old review, too. Check out that 0 to 60 time! :D

So, what car/truck/vehicle did you learn to drive in?
Click to expand...

The car I first drove was my father's '57 Elysée Simca, I was around 14 and we used to practice on a derelict road near a canal(:eek:!). 1300cc, 4 cylinder, no power steering or braking.
Elysée.jpg

I got my license at 18 and had a friend who had inherited a 4cv Renault, but he could not drive it. So I became the driver and we went on holidays in Ardèche where we made the mistake to let a friend drive it. He went too fast and could not take a right angle bend at a railway crossing and finished upside down. Parts then were still available and I managed to drive it back to Paris (#600km) by night. The southern highway then ended at about 80 km from Paris.
4cv.jpg
The car behind is Dad's 404, which I drove a lot for my work, but that's another story.
 
You got more exercise without power steering.
We still had driver's ed in high school in the '70s, so I learned on whatever they had. THe first car I drove was a 1964 Dodge Dart station wagon with push-button automatic transmission, buttons to the left of the wheel. There was a vertical lever next to the buttons, which I think put it in and out of PARK, but I really don't remember.
My dad could remember how to drive a Model T.
 
Jolipapa Jolipapa Fantastic pix JP! It's very strange but your father (if that is he in the pic?) looks a lot like mine and I look like he did;) That R4 is a wreck:D:cool: but I really liked those ones with the engine in the rear, pretty car and more interesting than the VW Beetle. Also liked the Dauphine, man near me has a Red Gordini version that comes out in summer, god knows how come it didn't rust to death by 1965:D The Peugeot 404 I've driven, leather seats and column change, grand confort:thumbsup: Lot of sturdy pick-ups and estate cars came from that and the 403, real voiture d'afrique too so sturdy. They were popular here due to toughness and reliability, plus comfort, likewise the later 504.

Did you see Jack's video about last tram runs in Sheffield? Whole load of interesting English cars in that including rarities like Cyclop's Rover and Austin Atlantic A90, but also a Dauphine.
 
scrteened porch said:
... THe first car I drove was a 1964 Dodge Dart station wagon with push-button automatic transmission, buttons to the left of the wheel. There was a vertical lever next to the buttons, which I think put it in and out of PARK, but I really don't remember....
Click to expand...
Interesting! :cool::thumbsup: The first car I bought, in August 1969, was a 1964 Plymouth Barracuda, with that push-button automatic, Jer. :) And your memory is correct: the buttons were stacked vertically on the dashboard to the left of the steering wheel (RND21, top to bottom, I think) with a PARK lever to the left of the buttons. According to a piece I read online, Chrysler Corp. discontinued the push-button transmissions on ALL models in 1965.

As far as learning to drive, I'm sure I rode on tractors with my Dad when I was quite young and remember him allowing me to steer before I could even reach the brake and clutch pedals. Quite sure I was driving tractors by myself by age 10. We often rented land from neighbors, and eventually Dad bought a 2nd farm not adjacent to any of our original property, so I drove tractors on public roads a lot before I ever got a driver's license at age 16. But tractors were basically choose a gear for the task at hand and stay in that gear, so my younger brothers and I learned how to shift manual transmissions driving an old beat-up farm truck with "4 on the floor" around the fields. (It was about the size of the truck in Randy Redden's post, but not nearly as good condition.) We also had a Ford 1/2-ton pickup with a 3-speed manual "on the column" that we sometimes got to drive; compared to the big truck, that pickup was a dream machine to drive!

- GT
 
Sorry guys I know we are talking about our first driving experiences and such but I'm going to stick a bit of knife stuff in right fast. :rolleyes::rolleyes:
Anyway I was sneaking around vintage knives on Fleabay and came across grab bags of ten traditional knives and thought maybe fun so on an impulse I sent the guy a low ball offer and he took it. :eek::eek: So now I had pictured 10 rusted knives with broken blades, out gassing celluloid and fully expected that to be what would arrive in the mailbox. So hoping at least one or two would at least make a decent beater knife.
The knives arrived yesterday and not only were they much nicer than expected there were 14 of them and all of them need some attention but all have a lot of life left in them.
Top row left to right tang stamps: Imperial, USA, Hibbard Spencer Bartlett, Schrade USA 8OT, Camillus, Boker USA the shield fell out when I was washing it I need to get some glue. Robeson.
The 2nd thru 4th rows are Made in China the 2nd row left iis branded Winchester 2nd row right branded Colt third row right is branded Colt the rest are just stamped China but all are of equal quality of Rough Rider. Except the large yellow fish knife it is made in Japan and is acctually a good quality knife would be perfect for a tackle box.
I've only worked on one of these knives so far the USA Boker here's the before and after. Took a razor sharp edge.


sAxzJ1a.jpg


BOKER AS RECEIVED
RfVK4sx.jpg


xj9YK8u.jpg


CLEANED OILED AND SHARPENED
ArIlHBN.jpg


cLcsdiQ.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top