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

mrknife said:
with the weather changing and fall approaching, its harmonica time!

IMG_2506_zpsos7fw4w0.jpg
[/URL]
Click to expand...

Amen, brother. LOVE those Seydel harps!

-- Mark
 
pmew said:
Kids are amazing. Whilst fetching a cuppa and a biscuit for my wife, my wee lad came running in (his X-ray ears detected the noise of the biscuit packet from two rooms, a corridor and a flight of stairs away) so that he could also benefit from the chocolate hobnobs on offer. For whatever reason, Rory decided the best way to persuade me to give him one was to sit on the floor and carefully remove his slippers and his socks. After receiving his snack he happily trotted off to join his mother - presumably so that he could attempt to steal her hobnob when she received it. I was lost for words so I took a picture.
Click to expand...

LOL! :D Chocolate Hobnobs?! :eek: I'm surprised I couldn't hear the rustle of the packet down here in Yorkshire, must be something wrong with my Biscuit ears! :D
 
Jack Black said:
LOL! :D Chocolate Hobnobs?! :eek: I'm surprised I couldn't hear the rustle of the packet down here in Yorkshire, must be something wrong with my Biscuit ears! :D
Click to expand...

Of course mate, the King of biscuits - nothing but the best for my family :D
 
I found this 24 -ounce iron shovel handle for a dollar on Saturday, and I think it will make a nice walking-stick handle. I'll try it backwards on an old shovel haft I got for less than a dollar somewhere, and I think the taper of the haft will make for a not-too-thuggish looking prop to my old age.
9lxa2VL5
 
glory glory to McVities.
The choc Hobnob made a rare appearance down here just last week.
I took a packet over to me mate Dozys house- the ultimate bribery to get him to have a look at my newly acquired giant SAK window display-the ultimate man cave adornment.
The guy has more of a flair for this type of technology- .
Long story short -I paid 30AUD for this thing ,after I got it home and removed 2 good handfulls of dead moths from the innards -I found it to be worn and not working correctly.
Beyond me so I took it to Dozy with CHN biccys.
If anyone can get it going its him-if not it will remain fixed and still be a good buy for the price. At last glance one traded on the bay in 2009 for 250 USD -so a collectible ,sought after item,

GO THE SHARKS
 
scrteened porch said:
I found this 24 -ounce iron shovel handle for a dollar on Saturday, and I think it will make a nice walking-stick handle. I'll try it backwards on an old shovel haft I got for less than a dollar somewhere, and I think the taper of the haft will make for a not-too-thuggish looking prop to my old age.
9lxa2VL5
Click to expand...

Nice find and project, scrteened porch!

Don't know if you've already got a method for refurbishing, but I like soaking old tool heads with orange rust in cheap white vinegar in a plastic bucket for a day or so, then giving them a good wire brushing, before soaking them in bicarb soda and water to neutralise the vinegar. (I'm not talking about heirloom grade stuff or patinated old pocketknives here guys, just to be clear!)

Once you've got your nice new walking stick, you can wow us with your moves as a master of 'The Walking Stick Method of Self Defence' posted in Carl's Indian Stick Fighting thread from a few years back! :D:)

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/417147-Indian-stick-fighting?

http://www.the-exiles.org/manual/lang/lang.htm
 
Thanks, Jack and Cambertree.

I used to do the vinegar ploy with axes, until I realized I was dissolving the nickel plating on those that had it, but I never thought of it for this. I just slathered it with boiled linseed oil. I'll see how it and I feel about more serious cleaning. Otherwise, it should be a pretty simple project, even by my standards.

Thanks for the links, man of peace though I be. I'll have to have a look at that stuff.
I've got a Japanese book on stick-fighting that mostly uses the stick for trapping and locking, and an Indian Police one where they just hold the stick by the light end and whirl it horizontally or vertically, and of course there's the old singlestick stuff, that is basically broadsword fencing in it's simpler form, though it's pretty close to the old German Schlaeger play in one incarnation.

The multiplicity of martial arts often reminds me of that bit from Ecclesiastes: "Of making many books there is no end, and much learning is a weariness to the flesh." Good excuse for goofing off.
 
scrteened porch said:
Thanks, Jack and Cambertree.

I used to do the vinegar ploy with axes, until I realized I was dissolving the nickel plating on those that had it, but I never thought of it for this. I just slathered it with boiled linseed oil. I'll see how it and I feel about more serious cleaning. Otherwise, it should be a pretty simple project, even by my standards.

Thanks for the links, man of peace though I be. I'll have to have a look at that stuff.
I've got a Japanese book on stick-fighting that mostly uses the stick for trapping and locking, and an Indian Police one where they just hold the stick by the light end and whirl it horizontally or vertically, and of course there's the old singlestick stuff, that is basically broadsword fencing in it's simpler form, though it's pretty close to the old German Schlaeger play in one incarnation.

The multiplicity of martial arts often reminds me of that bit from Ecclesiastes: "Of making many books there is no end, and much learning is a weariness to the flesh." Good excuse for goofing off.
Click to expand...

Nice one, SP.

I think the link I posted may be similar to the Indian Police book you mentioned.

A lot of wisdom in that quote from Ecclesiastes too. :thumbup:
 
WIP- I had this stick of wild cherry (I'm pretty sure) I thought I'd try. This might do, with an extra-lusty ferrule. (The other stick is a "fair seat" from the 1934 NY world's fair. Elsewhere called a shooting stick.)
kmTaRQcp

Dang it, I rotated that.
 
Last edited:
John Ronald Reul Tolkien was a veteran of the Great War, a professor at Oxford, a philologist and lover of languages, and the author of the 2nd best selling book in world history, 2nd only to the Bible. Lord of the Rings really cemented my love of fantasy, Tolkien's style has been very influential in regards to what I enjoy about the genre. In addition, it started my love affair with the weapons described therein (bolstered by movies like Conan the Barbarian). I saw the LOTR trilogy in theaters, I have all of the extended edition DVDs and I'm looking to find the extended editions on BluRay. I was underwhelmed by the Hobbit movies, I took my baby sister who is also my god daughter to the movies for each one. She loves scifi and fantasy like I do.

Researching my favorite author, I found a Catholic, a man of letters in all actuality, a friend of CS Lewis, a lover of a good brew and a fine pipe. The popularity of Lord of the Rings really bothered the man. I have a biography of the man, and he is a very interesting individual.

Something I think of while on break, what knife did John carry? The man's last name evokes story teller, think of James Earl Jones saying his last name through a smoke filled room. His family came to England from Germany many years before, and he might have had a love of a good Solingen blade to go along with the love of his heritage and hobby, the Viking and Germanic sagas.

Of course, he was an Anglicized, is that the right word, Brit, fond of his brew and tea and a good pipe. His main character was the same way. Did he have a good, not too flashy example of Sheffield's cutlers?

I need to dig his biography out, and look for any passages relating to the knife he carried. I'm guessing his son Christopher Tolkien might know, he'll probably have his old pocketknife, his pipe and his pocket watch.

I want to see your examples and ideas of what Professor Tolkien carried, what he might have kept as a worry stone when he gave a lecture at university, or just using in the pub with his friends, literary giants, as they smoked their pipes and drank their beer.

I have no idea, but I will get that book back out and see if it's mentioned. I'm going with something simple and English, something we'd gawk over today, but to John it was just an everyday tool.
 
I loved tolkien as a child. Read the hobbit in 4th grade. Its still my favorite book of all time. His writing actually taught me alot about life.

My guess would be a simpe pen knife. Being a professor, hed likely not need much knife. I figure he wouldve used the pen blade for digging around inside his pipe. Whatever his knife was though, i know the man kept it scary sharp, too many times did he mention sharp blades for it to be any other way.
 
Tolkien was a man of letters, a gentleman of academia. I see so many oo this photos with a pipe in his mouth and a typical English tweed suit of nice cut. I can see hime with one of those great Sheffield lobster's with one or two blades, scissors, a nail file, and maybe even a pipe stem reamer. Yes, certainly a pipe stem reamer! Maybe nice old yellowed ivory scale handles.

Definitely a Sheffield lobster.
 
And for Tolkien: "I put the brown paper in my pocket along with the chalks, and possibly other things. I suppose every one must have reflected how primeval and how poetical are the things that one carries in one's pocket; the pocket-knife, for instance, the type of all human tools, the infant of the sword. Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about things in my pockets. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past." OK, now it's not quite the epiphany it was when I first read it, but still - "What have I got in my pocket?"
Click to expand...

DocT, this is great, thanks for sharing the link!

The infant of the sword, very profound. I wouldn't mind reading Tolkien's tales of the contents of his pockets.
 
DocT said:
I found this, but it does not say what kind of knife, nor where the quote came from. http://newboards.theonering.net/for...st_view_printable;post=256862;guest=128332311
Click to expand...

Interesting, Doc!

I know it's hard to imagine now, but once upon a time, everyman had a knife in his pocket if he had his pants on. I can remember in my own lifetime, that a pocket knife was an item that was just a given, and even women carried one in their purse. In Mr. Tolkien's day, and man would no more go out without a pocket knife than his tie, or his shoes. It was just that much a part of daily life. For the most part, it may have been a small pen knife of some type if the man was a suit type, or a nice sturdy pruner if he was a grounds keeper, or something like a TL-29 if he was an electrician or tradesman.

Even with Mr. Tolkien being a man of letters, he'd have a pocket knife on him, sure as the sun rises in the east. But that kind, we can only guess at, unless someone with great google-foo comes forth.

Hmmmm, would he have carried a peanut?
 
He was a soldier (officer) in WW I and modeled some of his characters on a "typical English soldier." He made many references to pocket knives both in his writings and conversations about characters, so one can assume that he either carried a pocket knife of some kind or was certainly familiar with the idea. During his lifetime, carrying a pocket knife would be no more unusual for an Englishman than carrying a phone is for people today.

It's all speculative unless someone finds an anecdote about him and a specific knife.
 
I sent a letter to the Tolkien estate. If I get a response from Christopher Tolkien, whew, that would be up there with meeting Tony Bose or Martin Scorcese.

Not quite as interesting as meeting Scarlett Johanson, but I digress...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top