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

My peanut might not have a lot of tension opening it, but make sure all extremities are out of the way when you close them! They have some kick.
 
Flying Guillotine said:
Say fellers, I've been considering giving the Case Peanut another chance. The one that I had was a stainless one with olive green bone and it bit the hell out of my thumb twice, deep enough to consider going for stitches. I wrote it up to being cursed and having way too much snap on the tiny blade, so I gave it away without it having any pocket time at all.

I wish I had used it, or worked out some of the kinks to see what all the fuss is about since the peanut is quite highly regarded among many. Can you offer some advice? Think the cv ones might be a little easier on my digits, or am I better off using some of the more bulky patterns, (or should I stick to spoons)?
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I think you should give the little thing another chance. You have to keep in mind that it IS a very small knife, and the smaller an object is the more careful you have to be with it. A little more deliberateness is needed in day to day use. This is not a bad thing, but I think of it as a mini break for the mind. To stop and pause in your routine to admire and handle a nice object. When you close it, don't just brush it shut or let it snap, but follow the blade down to keep it from snapping. My dad and Uncles did this a lot, follow the blade down. I've had some old timers tell me when I was a kid, that letting the blade snap closed on it's own was bad for the knife. Tea or neigh, I don't know, but I do know that with a peanut, following the blade down will make sure a part of a finger is not in the way of a closing blade.

But as I once said in a tongue in cheek post about the care and feeding of peanuts, they require respect. It's always the little guy who's the problem. A friend of Karen's has a Miniture pincher. Looks just like a tiny doberman, but the mini pin is actually a terrier. A small killer of vermin, popular in the old days for sport in the rat pit. This min pin has an attitude that she thinks she's a pit bull's worst nightmare. We all joked about it, until the day that Roxy took off in chase of a squirrel, and to everyone's surprise caught it, and with a shake or two of her head, killed it stone dead. She proved to be a very effective little killer with an instinct for it. No body ever made fun of Roxy the min pin again. Little as she was with, she had a huge attitude and could really do it. A peanut is sort of like a min pin. So small that people have a hard time taking it seriously. But in a moment of careless behavior, that thin flat ground little blade will slice very fast through whatever's in it's way. Rabbit being field dressed, fish being cleaned, a box being broke down, or part of a finger in the way of the blade.

I've found that once I got used to carrying the peanut, and it became my edc, I didn't have any mishaps with it. I don't know if one can carry a peanut one day, and a stockman the next, and a barlow the day after that. To me, the peanut has become my edc, and I rarely carry anything but it and my keyring classic. Sometimes I carry my next favorite pocket knife, the Victorinox bantam. But mostly my carry is a smaller knife than most of you carry, so I've adapted to the peculiar quirks of small knives like peanuts, mini copperheads, tiny toothpicks and classics. And those little knives do have peculiar handling quirks. It's like going from a BMW boxer twin to a Harley. Yes, they both have two wheels, and an engine in between the wheels, but that's it. They handle vastly different, and if you don't take some time to get used to it before tackling the Blue Ridge Parkway at speed, make sure your life insurance is paid up.

Give the peanut a try, and don't carry anything else for a week or two. You may be surprised.

Now, of course all this is a moot point if you have big hands or sausage fingers. I'm not a very big person, and my hands are more comfortable with a J frame Smith and Wesson than a K frame. And I've NEVER put oversize grips on any revolver, but I do use the Tyler T-Grip on my S&W model 60.

Carl.
 
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Bastid said:
Thank you everyone. All is going great. Now can not wait to get the other eye done. Slinging dogs today without my coke bottled glasses. Amazing organ the eye and how it can heal so quickly.
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Keep an eye on those surgeons ;)
 
Well, it is a lot easier to window shop when you don't have any money in your pocket. At least I have a new chestnut bone coffin jack collaboration to carry in said pocket. I was supposed to pick up a .410 bolt action over the weekend, but that doesn't look like it will happen.

I have been thinking about easily attainable patterns, both of them happen to be Case knives. A Case swayback jack two blade jack, and a two blade doctors knife from Case.

I have seen that lots of members on BF carry the SBJ. What about the doctors knife? Any docs on here that carry one in their scrubs, in their doctors coat? (just a hint, I am only going to be carrying it for the novelty ;))
 
I was just wondering what would you guys do if you find out you would have limited time of good finger control like you would diagnosed Lou Gehric's disease, how would you spend it with slipjoints? My mother has diagnosed recently Lou Gehric's disease a.k.a. ALS. ALS its not family disease but FALS the more rare subvariant is passed down in family. My 17 years older brother, oldest of bunch is also getting similar symptoms that whole thing with my mother began so doctor is hinting possibility of FALS which would give me more than fair changes of having one.

The two things scare me most in life: being burried alive or getting stuck in narrow place underground and ending up drooling person in wheelchair or bed not being able to whipe my own behind or eat myself...
 
thejamppa said:
I was just wondering what would you guys do if you find out you would have limited time of good finger control like you would diagnosed Lou Gehric's disease, how would you spend it with slipjoints? My mother has diagnosed recently Lou Gehric's disease a.k.a. ALS. ALS its not family disease but FALS the more rare subvariant is passed down in family. My 17 years older brother, oldest of bunch is also getting similar symptoms that whole thing with my mother began so doctor is hinting possibility of FALS which would give me more than fair changes of having one.

The two things scare me most in life: being burried alive or getting stuck in narrow place underground and ending up drooling person in wheelchair or bed not being able to whipe my own behind or eat myself...
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First let me say I'm very sorry to hear about your mother. I had a friend who had ALS, and it's nothing to take lightly.

My own family has a few passed down problems, so I too worry about it a bit. As my dad got older, he told me that in the end, all we can do is to keep doing the best we can, with what we have. The last few years of his life, he could not use a slip joint knife because of arthritis problems. So far, I've twice had to abandon my pocket knives when I had to have hand surgery to correct a problem. With arthritis and some tendon problems, there may come a day that I can't carry a regular pocket knife. If so, then I'll just have to do what I can with a small sheath knife and give my slip joints away. Like dad said, do the best you can with what you can.

Life has a curve ball for us all someday as we age. Sooner or later we get bushwacked by time, and we have to deal with it as best we can. We may have to change tools and tactics to get by in our day to day existence. Re-think what we do, and how we do it. Just because we always did it that way, does not mean we have to keep doing it that way. Time is the greatest thief known to man. It will eventualy steal from us, our strength, our youth, our ability to do some things. Both Karen and I have had to make changes in what we do. We've recently sold off our kayaks and 60+ pound Old Town canoe for a 39 pound Wenonah canoe, and added an elelctric trolling motor to it. We used to scoff at that kind of thing, but we were younger then. Now, at our senior citizen age, we have to make changes if we want to keep getting out in nature.

I know all this pales to insignificance next to ALS, but my friend Jeff did just this sort of thing. He never gave up trying to do things by changing and using modern aids to help. He went a very long way with ALS, and the doctors were in awe of how he never gave in.

Just keep doing your best, with what you can use. If you can't use slip joints some day, no matter. They're just things. Give them away to the people you love, because in the end, it's those people who really matter in this world. Material objects can come and go, but your family and close friends are what really matters.

Carl.
 
by the time I lose usage of my slipjoints, I'll be giving one heck of an give aways here... Thank you for your words Carl. It takes bit adjustment this situation. But atleast now I have time to prepeare for the time being and I have plenty great slipjoints I need surely to use them well. Just in Case.
 
thejamppa said:
I was just wondering what would you guys do if you find out you would have limited time of good finger control like you would diagnosed Lou Gehric's disease, how would you spend it with slipjoints? My mother has diagnosed recently Lou Gehric's disease a.k.a. ALS. ALS its not family disease but FALS the more rare subvariant is passed down in family. My 17 years older brother, oldest of bunch is also getting similar symptoms that whole thing with my mother began so doctor is hinting possibility of FALS which would give me more than fair changes of having one.

The two things scare me most in life: being burried alive or getting stuck in narrow place underground and ending up drooling person in wheelchair or bed not being able to whipe my own behind or eat myself...
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Sorry to hear about your mother, can't say what I'd do...my life revolves around having good dexterity so I'd probably end up in a dark place. My only fear is cancer like my mom had, I wont go through what she did, she was an empty vessel at the end and I wouldnt ever wish that on my worst enemy.

PS. on another note my R.Groves lambs foot snapped closed on my finger by accident! first time I ever done that and I feel like a bit of a goon...it snaps like a bear trap, pretty decent considering its probably 2 or 3 times older than i am but it took the tip piece of meat off nearly all the way.
 
Somewhere Jackknife wrote about opening bags of cement with his peanut. That got me to thinking. I used to open bags of cement with my shovel. Getting such abrasive stuff (designed to turn into rock) into the joints of my pocket knife never occurred to me.

My dad was a carpenter. Like many another, he was also a contractor. I worked for him during summers and school holidays. When the schools were closed for snow, I often went to work with him. Those were some cold days. Sometimes the winter gave me a break. If we were scheduled to lay bricks or blocks, or make a sidewalk, a hard freeze would shut the job down. Neither concrete nor cement sets well while freezing.

I don’t know how many of you know what a mortar box is. Before the cement mixer, the mortar box was how you mixed cement. Take a full sheet of plywood. Nail two by tens to each long side as rails. On the ends nail a two by twelve between the rails, at about a thirty degree angle. You’ve made a box that is parallel on the long sides. On the ends it’s bigger on top than the bottom. Your other tools are a shovel, a garden hose, and a big hoe with two holes through the blade.

I’d drop a bag of cement into the box and open it with the shovel. Pull the paper away. Shovel sand in. Stand at one end of the box. The hoe would pull everything from the middle to my end. Then I’d change ends and repeat the process.

Eventually the cement and sand were sufficiently homogenized. That’s when I added some water. More dragging back and forth moistened the mix. I’d carefully mix and moisten until the mud was the right consistency. As I pulled each bite of mud towards me, little streams of it escaped through the holes in the hoe. That was supposed to help with the mixing. I expect it did. By now the masons were starting to yell, “I need more mud here!”

It was important not to get it too wet. It had to be just right for the bricklayers. Wet enough to mound right on the trowel. Not a bit wetter. The dryer the cement, the stronger the bond. They had to be able to slap mud to the ends of a brick or block. Mud that was too dry would crumble off. Mud that was too wet would slide off. It had to be just right and nothing else. The final step was to shovel the mud into a hod and replenish each bricklayer’s mortar board.

Summers in Ohio produce magnificent thunderstorms. It’s a fun show, if you happen to be inside. One summer Dad had dug a basement and laid footings. Cement blocks walls were going up. Then it rained. It poured for days. By the end, the would-be basement was a lake.

I would have been eight or nine at the time. My brother was four years older. He dragged the mortar box to Lake Basement and launched it. He used a shovel as a paddle. I stood on shore, eager for my turn. The rest of the crew were amused.

I never got to sail the mortar barge. Ken paddled to the middle of the lake and sank his ship.
 
Haha, sounds like a nice memory to have. :)
(I've never used a powered mixer, only ever poured 'crete with hand tools. Mortar box, hoe, hand trowel, floats, water. Messy, but enjoyable work. Still wouldn't necessarily want to do it for a living, though...)
 
puukkoman said:
Haha, sounds like a nice memory to have. :)
(I've never used a powered mixer, only ever poured 'crete with hand tools. Mortar box, hoe, hand trowel, floats, water. Messy, but enjoyable work. Still wouldn't necessarily want to do it for a living, though...)
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I tended Hod in my youth. It was hard work, but I knew I got a break every half hour when my boss asked for more medicine. His medicine of choice was Beer. ;)
-Bruce
 
I'm currently reading JRR Tolkien's biography. It mentions that an associate was a former employee of a Sheffield cutler. Naturally, my knife nut mind went into overload. What kind of knife did Tolkien carry? He was an Oxford professor, who was on a tight budget (raising three sons and one daughter), born in South Africa but raised in England, a philologist and an admirer of the Norse sagas. I would say he used a simple jack knife, Sheffield make of course!

However, the Tolkiens came over on the boat from Germany, and put a foothold in the British society, maybe John Ronald Reul carried a jack from Solingen?
 
Ballenxj said:
I tended Hod in my youth. It was hard work, but I knew I got a break every half hour when my boss asked for more medicine. His medicine of choice was Beer. ;)
-Bruce
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I like the joke in the song Finnegan’s Wake.

Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street,
A gentle Irishman mighty odd
He had a brogue both rich and sweet,
An' to rise in the world he carried a hod.

A virtue of a hod is that you can carry it up and down ladders. That’s the only way a hod carrier gets to rise in the world.

At least without changing careers.
 
Raymond1000 said:
Somewhere Jackknife wrote about opening bags of cement with his peanut. That got me to thinking. I used to open bags of cement with my shovel. Getting such abrasive stuff (designed to turn into rock) into the joints of my pocket knife never occurred to me.

My dad was a carpenter. Like many another, he was also a contractor. I worked for him during summers and school holidays. When the schools were closed for snow, I often went to work with him. Those were some cold days. Sometimes the winter gave me a break. If we were scheduled to lay bricks or blocks, or make a sidewalk, a hard freeze would shut the job down. Neither concrete nor cement sets well while freezing.

I don’t know how many of you know what a mortar box is. Before the cement mixer, the mortar box was how you mixed cement. Take a full sheet of plywood. Nail two by tens to each long side as rails. On the ends nail a two by twelve between the rails, at about a thirty degree angle. You’ve made a box that is parallel on the long sides. On the ends it’s bigger on top than the bottom. Your other tools are a shovel, a garden hose, and a big hoe with two holes through the blade.

I’d drop a bag of cement into the box and open it with the shovel. Pull the paper away. Shovel sand in. Stand at one end of the box. The hoe would pull everything from the middle to my end. Then I’d change ends and repeat the process.

Eventually the cement and sand were sufficiently homogenized. That’s when I added some water. More dragging back and forth moistened the mix. I’d carefully mix and moisten until the mud was the right consistency. As I pulled each bite of mud towards me, little streams of it escaped through the holes in the hoe. That was supposed to help with the mixing. I expect it did. By now the masons were starting to yell, “I need more mud here!”

It was important not to get it too wet. It had to be just right for the bricklayers. Wet enough to mound right on the trowel. Not a bit wetter. The dryer the cement, the stronger the bond. They had to be able to slap mud to the ends of a brick or block. Mud that was too dry would crumble off. Mud that was too wet would slide off. It had to be just right and nothing else. The final step was to shovel the mud into a hod and replenish each bricklayer’s mortar board.

Summers in Ohio produce magnificent thunderstorms. It’s a fun show, if you happen to be inside. One summer Dad had dug a basement and laid footings. Cement blocks walls were going up. Then it rained. It poured for days. By the end, the would-be basement was a lake.

I would have been eight or nine at the time. My brother was four years older. He dragged the mortar box to Lake Basement and launched it. He used a shovel as a paddle. I stood on shore, eager for my turn. The rest of the crew were amused.

I never got to sail the mortar barge. Ken paddled to the middle of the lake and sank his ship.
Click to expand...

You bring back alot of memories with your story. My brother and I were conscripted into mortar, and concrete mixers. We also mixed tile mortar, as well as grout. My dad being a civil engineer/ later a structural, would have us working to build our pool every weekend if there was no baseball. We would sometimes spend most of the day in the bed of an old 3/4 ton International Harvester truck. We coined it the grey whale. It had the reflector decal tail gate. It was a city truck at one time. It was granny geared and hauled illegal loads of cement, block, sand and gravel from Bob's Masonry Supply.

Yup, mortar had to stick to the trowel to be right, there was no getting it wrong. Too soupy was a bad load. We got real good at it. I built a wall in my front yard to divide my neighbors house with ours. I used rebar in the foundation laterally as well as upright. It is not a retaining wall, but I built it like one. It would stop a car probably. LOL.

I have fond memories of working my butt off, it seems better now, but it was tough then. I recall being thrown out of the truck by having my shovel get caught in the electric mixer. My dad is waning in health now, and he is not the John Wayne that he used to be. It is tough to watch him go down hill since mom died in June. I am carrying a Queen Slimline trapper chestnut jigged bone that she bought for me two christmases ago. I get really sentimental when I open it. I have it razor sharp right now.
 
Say gents, how long do you think Queen Cutlery factory repairs might take? They've had my defective canoe for over a month. Maybe I ought to give em a call and see if they remember me...
 
Flying Guillotine said:
Say gents, how long do you think Queen Cutlery factory repairs might take? They've had my defective canoe for over a month. Maybe I ought to give em a call and see if they remember me...
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It wouldnt hurt, I've read from a few other people to expect a bit of a wait but frankly you paid for their product so they should fix or replace in a timely manner.
 
Flying Guillotine said:
Say gents, how long do you think Queen Cutlery factory repairs might take? They've had my defective canoe for over a month. Maybe I ought to give em a call and see if they remember me...
Click to expand...

I don't know how long it might take but I would give them a call. It can't hurt to ask and if they did forget, they probably won't remember until you call.

I would be interested in the end results. I have a knife that needs to go back to Queen but I'm hesitant to send it. Maybe I will send you a PM in few weeks to see how things turned out for you.
 
Hi, gentlemen. I just pulled the trigger on a Buck 309. I liked its price, size, weight and reputation for sturdiness. In terms of size and width, it is between my Vic classic and tinker, so hopefully it fills a nice niche. It will be buddied up with my Vic Classic. I definitely wanted to go made in the USA on this purchase; I was tempted by a Victorinox Pocket Pal for its lower price for just a moment. Only thing I wish for is maybe carbon steel. Case's 109 pen knife is bigger, heavier and more expensive, so I passed on it. A peanut is more similar to the 309, but I'm hoping that additional 1/8" length on the 309 makes a difference. Anyhow, my purchase is based on what I've read here, especially Carl's stories and 300Bucks' pictures.
 
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