Country boy or city slicker?

J

jackknife

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Oct 2, 2004
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If who we are is defined by our environment, or where we grew up, does that hold for what knife may be in a pocket?

In spite of my love of the outdoors, and being an avid backpacker in my younger day, I have to admit I've always been a city boy who visited the country. I love the woods, and canoeing, and the mountains, but they've always been a place I visited, and then came home to the great suburbia that most of the country lives in now. Growing up in the post WW2 urban migration, I had a foot in both worlds, but looking back on it, I seemed to have my weight more on the foot in suburbia.

If we are influenced by our environment, does that carry over to our knives? I know it's common sense that a 4 1/4 inch large stockman would be out of place in a suit or even business casual, but hen a mini copperhead or peanut would be out of place on a working ranch in Colorado.

So, fellow members of this old folksy forum, where do you live, and does it affect what you carry? Is your choice of edc pocket knife affected by your lifestyle, or is there a would be cowboy living in a city carrying a stockman. Or have you ever seen a country boy with a fine six blade/tool lobster pattern? What drives your pick of traditional pocket knife?

Carl.
 
I was born and raise in the country an I think my knife tradition follows that heritage. I have lived in the city for over half my life now but still carry a little larger trapper day to day. I dress business casual for my career as a physiotherapist.
 
I grew up in a small town of about 3,000 population. Rural setting, small town southern Kansas. It was one block to get across the railroad tracks, and be in wheat fields. Another 1/2 mile was the Arkansas River. I had several friends whose dads farmed, and that was where I wanted to go visit. Of course, my farm buddies wanted to visit in town, so they could go to the stores, chase girls, and go to the swimming pool. The farm boys usually had to work more than us town boys too. It's almost 50 years later, and I live in a small town still, and hear the trains going by all the time. It's still a few minutes to get out where you can hear the birds, the wind blowing through the grass and trees. It's where this old town boy would rather be. I like carrying a medium size jack or cattle knife, and seeing the old wooden pocket knife displays in the hardware store downtown as a boy had a direct effect on what knives I like to carry and use today.
 
I grew up in the swamps of south Mississippi and Louisiana. Now, I still live on 1,000 acre farm, in a very rural area of south Mississippi. No suburbs here. My daddy always carried a Case trapper. I carry either a large MooreMaker Stockman, that I have had since 2001. Or I carry my new Great Eastern 74 saddle trapper that my wide gave me for Christmas. I get a lot of use from an old Tramotina machete around here too!
 
For me, the environment I am in definitely determines my knife choice, down to a daily choice. Started out in the construction trades before I was out of high school and went full time after high school. During my school years I camped, hiked and canoed every chance I got. I always carried a Boker or Case stockman, or my large copperhead.

After 10 - 12 years of construction, I went to work for a bank managing their construction loans. My 4" knives looked like I had a pieced of rebar in my slacks, and I never used them. Started carrying 3" and smaller knives. They were all I needed until the weekend.

Went back into construction full time about 18 years ago and back out came the larger folders. The old style tool bags I liked aren't readily available, so the new ones rubbed a raw spot on my leg under the knife in my pocket. Switched to a clip on style large pocket knife and put the smaller ones back into the mix.

Now if I am "hands on" working I carry my clip on and a small knife with a good point. If I am doing estimates and admin stuff, I carry a stockman, teardrop, medium stockman, etc.

Working at the bank with its change of apparel and every day working needs opened my eyes to not needing to carry more knife than necessary to get the job done. Going back into construction made me realize how much I like my larger folders (to me, 4" is large in the pocket) and their utility value. In banking, my knife came out of my pocket once or twice a day. During my current work, I use different knives enough that they may stay out and open because they are used like a hammer or saw. They are put back in my pocket at lunch time and when I quit for the day.

Robert
 
Born and raised in the Cascade Mountains around timber and farming. I apprenticed and became a journeyman tradesman. As time went on my jobs got bigger and moved closer to the big city. I now drive from the mountains to Seattle each work day about 85 miles each way. Being in the city is not my favorite place and on my days off I can’t wait to get the dogs and get in the woods. My knife of choice is my Buck 301 DW, Uncle Henry large stockman, Buck 110 and thankfully I still work as a tradesman.

The traditional forum and jackknife stories make it easier.
 
I was born and raised in the city where I have been living for 46 years now, so I consider myself a 100% city slicker.


When I grew up people didn't blink an eye if someone used a full blown Herder Sodbuster in public to cut something. Nowadays I think even my Yella Peanut or Tiny Texas Toothpick will raise eye brows over here. Just the fact that you carry a knife in the first place is frowned about :(

With my big hands I would love to carry and use a full size Trapper or Opinel 8, but heaven forbit anyone sees me using it in public.

So I try to be as low profile with my pocket knife as I can, so Tiny Toothpick or Peanut it is. Or my Opi 6 or small Douk Douk as the biggest knives I dare to use in public.

But like I said I grew up with full sized Herder Solingen Sodbusters.;)
 
well unfortunately i currently live in a suburban environment, dont think it really effects my knife decisions though, as if it did i wouldnt be a knife person :P. it does play a role in what i carry, but not what i buy, and what i like.
luckily i have a friend not to far away that lives on a chunk of land with nothing but woods most of the way through :)
 
Good thread idea Carl, and I'll be interested to read the replies. I love to read some of the posts on here by fellow knife lovers across the world. Just reading the replies so far, they are so rich with experience. As for myself, I've spent much of my life in the woods and hills, fishing and rabbiting as a boy, walking, rock-climbing, and backpacking. I was lucky enough to even make my living from the outdoors in the past and to be able to spend most of my days in the wilds. I grew up on the west side of Sheffield, England, only minutes away from some beautiful country, and as a youngster, with a head full of Bernard S Mason, I even fancied myself a bit of a country boy. However, except when I've been travelling, which I've also done a fair bit of, I've almost always lived in big cities, and when I've lived in small places for a while, I've missed the city. I don't know if I would miss it today, but the truth is that I probably would. Anyhow, the city is where I live, and it influences the knives I carry, in terms of what I realistically need in a knife these days, but also inevitably because of the crazy UK knife laws and not wishing to frighten simple-minded folk by using a Bowie knife to peel an apple or open my mail.
 
I grew up in the city and spend a lot of time in the country. Guess thats why I carry a one hand opener and a traditional. Usually a Bob Lum(all-rounder or forester) design and a saddle horn(Chamblin) or barlow(J Oeser). I've never thought of things this way but it makes sense.

I've really fallen for traditionals and it constitutes most of my collection now, when I travel I pack a sodbuster or a SAK. I feel confident with these traditional patterns, and I've learned from reading around here that that can do almost anything you need a knife to do, that has been the greatest insight for me.

I also have a thing for a big kukri or bowie, maybe i am a true mix of that urban wannabe commando kid and traditional-lovin man.:p
 
I'm a country boy through and through! Raised in a small New Hampshire town spent most of my free time fishing the river that ran by my parents house and the local ponds. Ice fishing in the winter. Now I live in NC at the edge of an association, deer run through my yard every night. I tend to favor larger folders...
 
I live in the weeds of NEPA , North East Pennsylvania it is not uncommon for me to be carryin' a large folder 4" or better and I frequently carry a fixed blade of 6" or more.

I am a street smart country boy, spent my first 20 years livin' within twenty minutes of Manhattan, once I was able to I moved to PA to a nice 8 acre piece of property surrounded by woods with a stream runnin' through the middle of my yard and the Delaware River, a mile from my front door. Been here since '86, I'll miss it when I hafta move to Colorado to take care of my mom.
 
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Country boy here! Been all case stockman since i got it but i have alotta love for ny large trapper and when something a bit tougher is needed a buck 119 handles it all.
 
I grew up in a small town of about 700 people in NW Minnesota about an hour from Fargo. I worked on chicken, hog and dairy farms in the summer as well as picked rocks and baled hay. My family moved to Minneapolis when I was 17 and I lived there for about 12 years and now I live in a small town (~12,000 people) about an hour west of Minneapolis.

All in all I've lived in a rural area for about 23 years, in the city for about 12 years. I think I do tend to be much more the country boy than a city slicker but I'm sort of a hybrid. I no longer work on farms and I wear slacks and a tie more than cowboy boots these days but I still hunt, fish, and am outdoors quite a bit.

I like the trapper pattern simply because the clip blade is a good length and the spey is good for food prep when I go camping or when I'm at work. I probably use my knifes more to open boxes and as household utility than anything but the clip blade on the trapper could certainly be used to field dress animals. I may try to gut a deer with it this year and I think it will work great for that.

I don't know that the pattern of the knife is affected as much by environment as application. The trapper is just a good all around utility knife that is great for any environment. There may be some patterns better suited to other occupations or applications patterns like the Stockman and Trapper are just useful for anyone.
 
City since birth. Live in a city, work in the city.

In my daily life I have almost no real need for a knife beyond kitchen and utility knives at home, and the small blade on a multitool when not at home, and i could probably do without that. In my younger days I was more into hiking and camping but oddly wasn't much into knives then. I owned a couple but they didnt get much use. A rarely used Buck 110 in a belt sheath was my outdoors knife. Still have it, and haven't used it in 20 years or longer.

I can't even carry a small knife to work. Big corporation that considers anything with a blade as a weapon. So for me having knives at all are a hobby with about as much genuine need as model railroads.

However, I do like to carry a knife or two whenever I can, and one of those is normally a traditional. Currently my Case Small Texas Jack. I do actually get a lot of utility out of having a good sharp blade or two on me. I could do just fine with a modern knife of some kind, but I just find I prefer the aesthetics of traditionals.

And I think some of it is a nostalgia for a passing or already past era, when we weren't such a terrified and controlled world, and things like a boy (or girl) having a pocket knife and playing outside all day on a long summer day and coming home to dinner through an unlocked door were not considered horrifying or reckless.

I'm in my 50s and remember those days. I didn't nesessarily carry a pocketknife with me all the time, but I did have one of the old Boy Scout knives and a Swiss Army Knife back then, and I'm sure I whittled, cut, or carved with them. I know for a fact I used that Swiss Army Knife because I still have a scar on my left hand to prove it. :) Amazingly enough I survived, and learned a very good lesson about knife safety that day.
 
I grew up in the inland valleys around Los Angeles, though at that time, they were closer to country living than city. I have been an urban home owner for the last 25 years. "urban", not "city". I don't care for actual "city life".

Over the years I have worked at everything from cleaning out hen-houses after the chickens went to slaughter (It was a real chicken "stuff" job), truck driver, electrical work in construction, rough construction, finish construction, several factory jobs (both on the production line and as an engineer), aerospace development engineer, formulation chemist for several paint companies (I have formulated everything from barn paint to paint for exotic aircraft), and materials and process engineer. I hold a patent for some work I did as a paint chemist.
Jack of all trades, master of several.

Knives have always been tools for me. But for over a decade I was a one-trick pony. Whatever I was working at, my Buck 303 was all the knife I carried. When I did electrical work, I carried my electrician's knife open, stuck into a corner of my tool pouch and seldom used the Buck. When I was a truck driver, I carried the Buck in a pouch on my belt where I could get at it easily. As a chemist and engineer the 303 was in my pocket, and I sometimes used it in the lab (One of those "stainless" blades has stains to prove it). At my current job, I am only allowed to carry a tiny knife, so that's what I carry.

On the home front, I've always used a knife as part of my repair kit. Trim plastic. Trim wood. Trim plants. Cut garden hose. I seldom use a pocket knife to cut food. I know what else I've cut with it. (icky) I tend to favor a 4" stockman on the weekends for the range of blades and the comfort in my hand.
 
Most of my life I've been a suburbanite, though I was born in a city and spent some time there when I went off to school. I guess I have the background that is most prevalent these days -- work in the big city and go home to the suburbs.

My most carried knives are in the ~ 3.5" range. Next to my wallet I can hardly tell it's there. Can I get by with a smaller knife? Sure, but why should I? I like what I like and my preferred size is well within legal limits. I'm not going to let others dictate to me.

Then again my opinion may be colored by my background. I found slip joints after modern one handers. Compared to a Spyderco Military or even a CRK Sebenza a GEC Scout is downright petite.

- Christian
 
Really or most of my life I'v lived in places (Oregon Colorado Georgia) that are a mix of bolth rural and Suburb.
So I'd say I feel just as comfortable out in nature as I do on my porch.......

The thing that helps me choose what knife I'm gonna carry is mainly what kind of people I think I'm gonna be in contact with...it all depends.

Any way this is a Educational thread Carl!
 
Nothing at all wrong with being from the city or country, I try and not judge people based on this and have lived in Coal County Ok, my whole young life, which is pretty Rural with the county seat having a Population of 2,000 or so. I hunted from an early age, but feel that I'm not nearly as adept in living off the land as my ancestors or even my Grandpa and Great Uncles, and believe I'm just a "Sport Hunter" when it comes down to it. Always loved having knives, as they seem to make life easier, and the people I was/am around and my environment certainly have influenced my taste to a certain degree. I liked large Trappers and Stockmans when I was younger,but have gravitated towards the smaller Jack knives, like the GEC #56 Dogleg, as well as some certain "Ethnic knives" like the Opinels, that are grand, for lighter tasks. I guess you could say I'm becoming a minimalist, mostly after watching older gentlemen on this sight as well as at home replacing size, with skill and a nice sharp blade.
 
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