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

Modoc ED said:
I think Frank gave a good answer. Even if you hadn't said; key ring in your question, I would recognize it as a key ring - the small open ring with the little ball on the end to screw on or off as you added or subtracted a key from it and the large closed ring to hang it up with and to make it difficult to walk off with. So, to answer your question - what is the thing called - I'd say a keyring.

Now, that long thing with all the numbers on it below the keyring is what my Mother used to use to smack my hands when I wasn't cooperative.
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In Catholic School that skinny thing with the numbers was the Nun’s Weapon of Mass Instruction. :eek:
 
Hey everyone. I just got back from a week in NYC visiting family. It was strange traveling with out a pocketknife. I couldn't take it, and borrowed a little Vic classic from Mom to carry during the week. My brother asked about it and after I showed him all the options available online, he's going to get himself a Rambler (the one with the neat bottle opener/Philips head) when he gets home. He'll never be a knife knut, but he'll have a decent tool in his pocket.

Crazy tired, now. Off to bed!
 
Hope you had a good time. Glad you made it home safe.
 
r8shell said:
Hey everyone. I just got back from a week in NYC visiting family. It was strange traveling with out a pocketknife. I couldn't take it, and borrowed a little Vic classic from Mom to carry during the week. My brother asked about it and after I showed him all the options available online, he's going to get himself a Rambler (the one with the neat bottle opener/Philips head) when he gets home. He'll never be a knife knut, but he'll have a decent tool in his pocket.

Crazy tired, now. Off to bed!
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Glad you had a good trip. The better half and I go up to NYC often just for the museums, art galleries, and of course the restaurants. A 58mm SAK is my regular NYC pocket knife because of the knife laws up there, and a lot of the places we go have security. It does all I need in the big city. Good choice.:thumbup:
 
Howdy traditional people! I thought I might share a little bit of what's been going on with me lately, since it pertains to nostalgia, family memories, and traditional knives.

I've been looking into buying my first running, driving vehicle (my true first car is a '64 VW that I was convinced I could get running, and which now sits in a field awaiting a restoration, having proved me wrong) and my search turned up several possibilities. Last Wednesday, my dad and I drove a few miles out of town to look at my top pick from the Craigslist ads: a fire engine red 1984 Ford Ranger. We got there, and man was she sweet! Short bed with a bed box, red vinyl bench seat, skinny steering wheel, and a 5 speed manual transmission with one of those long, curved sticks that look so much better than the little short throw shifters you see now. It instantly reminded me of my paternal grandfather's Rangers and S10s that he drove for years, and of my maternal great grandfather's red S10. I didn't spend hours in them or anything, but the smell of the interior, the look of the gauges, and the vent windows are a few things that have been burned into my memory. And this truck had all of them! I felt a little bit more a man, and a lot closer to my grandfather and great grandfather as I took it out for a test drive. Soon a deal was struck, and now she sits in my driveway, and I couldn't be happier.

After we got it home (limped it, actually, the carb was badly gunked up and maladjusted, which was starving the engine and making it stall left and right) I got under the hood and was adjusting the carb. While I was doin gthat, my dad came out and started talking about his own, identical Ranger, which I had completely forgotten about (he quit driving it before I was born). This was the truck that took him all around central Kentucky on all the various expeditions he took while he was a newspaper photographer there.

TRADITIONAL KNIFE CONTENT STARTS HERE

While he was working at the paper, another staff photographer who was a friend of his, convinced him to take a trip up to the big, blue-roofed place in Tennessee. He came back with an EZ-LAP sharpening stone and a brand new, yellow handled CASE Trapper. The date on it is 1990, the year he married my mother. This is always the one that was on top of the dresser that I could just barely see. It was always shiny, sometimes carried and never abused, and, when it was pulled down and handled it to me, I held it with a sort of reverence. It's kinda a childhood artifact for me :)

Flash forward to today- it's my parents 24th anniversary. I'm 17 and a knife and car nut, driving a truck identical to the one my dad drove 24 years ago, and his trapper has been passed on to me. I drive and carry them with pride, and my fingers are crossed that 24 years from now I'll be half the husband and father he's been.


Sorry to ramble on so long, I just got to thinking and the words kept coming.

Edan
 
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My first new vehicle was a reddish/orangish '85 Ranger 2WD w/ 4 banger lashed to a 5 speed manual. Piece of crap that thing was. By '88 it was gone. Good luck with yours.
 
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Nice story! Gonna move this to "Carl's Lounge".
 
I tell ya, with those pics of the knife it would have stayed being its own thread j/k
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alright, here's pics. To be fixed that can be seen in the pic: headlight, bent bumper.
DSCN0925_zps917e8d65.jpg

DSCN0927_zps40f5073e.jpg
 
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Good stuff. Good luck with the project.

If the main focus of a thread is something other than knives, it belongs in the lounge.
 
Man, man, man - I ordered two knives in the US about seven weeks ago. They didn´t arrive yet. A Queen and a GEC 440C. Slowly I start to worry a little. I hope the package will arrive at all.

This is, what I don´t like on international shipping - long long delays due to customs :grumpy:
 
Nice post Edan :thumbup:

I feel your pain Andi, hope your order comes soon pal :thumbup:
 
Thanks all. Apologies to Knarfeng, I shoulda just put it here first. Leghog, I hope I don't have the same experience as you! Might I ask what was so bad about it?
 
LeatherMan64 said:
Thanks all. Apologies to Knarfeng, I shoulda just put it here first. Leghog, I hope I don't have the same experience as you! Might I ask what was so bad about it?
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Which engine does yours have? 2.0L or 2.3L four banger or 2.8 L V6? Mine had one of the Ford Pinto engines. 2.3L IIRC. Biggest problem was it slipped the timing belt at 34K requiring a new crank shaft and harmonic balancer. Luckily I didn't have to replace any valves. Took a lot to get Ford to repair it at no cost to me. Traded it shortly after that for a Japanese truck. '84 was still in the bad days in much of U.S. auto manufacturing.
 
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