Country boy or city slicker?

Nice thread Carl. it's a great way to learn a bit about each other, and also helps understanding some of the reasons behind our knives and taste.
I was born and raised, and currently live, in a town of 150'000, so I should consider myself a city slicker, or rather, an urban person. But my roots are in the inner part of my island; my family (on my father's side) comes from a village of (presently) less than 600 souls, and I've seen my share of rural (pastoral) environment, although almost only in my leisure time. That part of my life generated my passion from traditional knives, and growing up with resolzas around was a nice thing :)
Then, as I grew up, the outdoors played a bigger part in my life, both the sea and the inland, both here in Sardinia and abroad, when I was old (and economically able) to travel. Knives always came along with me.
Now, in my urban everyday life, I tend to carry small/medium folders that ride comfortably in my jeans or trousers, and a medium folder when I'm working at the hospital (mainly used for food tasks); my scrubs allow more space than jeans :p
But when I'm in the outdoors, or travelling (depending on the destination), I also bring a small fixed blade, or a bigger folder.
And, in the last year or two, you folks have partly changed my small knife lot from single bladed folders (like Sardinian folders or Opinel's and SAK's) towards multibladed slipjoints. And here I am. :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
I was born in the city but it was near the county line. I live in the suburbs now a half a mile from the Gunpowder river. Still not country but I have the occasional deer in my back yard. I have wanted to move to a more country setting but the land prices and the commute make it prohibitive. Working mechanical construction I used my folding Schrade Uncle Henry on a belt sheath a lot and now working as a mechanic in a power plant I use a knife a lot a lot. That Uncle Henry is retired to the safe now.;) I do get funny looks when I use my knife to open a bag of chips though.:) I carry a Sebenza all the time when not working with a slipjoint for the smaller jobs.
 
My wife and I both make good-natured fun of all the stereotypically surburban things around us, but I have become thoroughly suburban myself now. I grew up in a town of about 800 people and spent most of my summers and a lot weekends during school on my grandparents' farm. The largest city I have actually lived in, as opposed to either just visiting or living in the suburbs of, was Osnabrueck, Germany, when I was an exchange student in 1989-90.
 
Interesting speculation, Carl.

I think I'm in similar shoes to yours; I'm pretty "citified" I guess you could say, since I live and work in an urban environment, and while I've always spent lots of time outdoors in nature, home is in the city.

My pocket knife choices have been dictated by my work, mainly. I like a knife of a decent size in my pocket, since I work on the water with my hands. If my livelihood kept me indoors, I'd probably get by with something small like a peanut to open mail and make lunch. But when I'm hanging off the top mast of a ship and it's 22 degrees outside, I prefer a small sheath knife. When I'm crawling under the pilot-house of a tug to run cables for a new radar processor, I favor a large enough pocket knife that my hand can get a solid grip on the handle.

The tools I use at work would probably not be very "socially acceptable" to carry to the bar at night, but I don't really worry about it so much. If I'm in a situation where I suspect things may get rowdy, I'll pick a small one that wouldn't surprise Johnny Law should he have occasion to ask me what my pockets contain. ;)

So, I guess I'm a city slicker, even though I love hunting & camping, but my tools reflect my working-class lifestyle.
 
I am a city born country boy, or so I call myself. I spent the first 45 years of my life growing up in the city, with lots of time spent in the country hunting, fishing and tearing up the woods. Now I live in the country and would never go back to live in the city. As a kid in the city I usually had a little stockman in my pocket. While in the printing industry my knife of choice was a small single blade lockback which changed to a small assisted opening knife. They were always kept on the small side so people wouldn't freak out when you pulled it out to use.

Nowadays I keep a traditional in my left front pocket. That one changes with my mood or fancy. I keep a larger assisted opening knife clipped in my right front pocket for quick deployment. It is usually my go-to knife since I always seem to have my hands full. For the last year I have had a neck knife with me at all times. It was made by me of 52100 steel with a burlwood handle and kydex sheath. 95% of the time it rides in the pen pocket of my uniform jeans, easy to get to for those times when a full tang knife is necessary. It has dressed quite a few deer, beaver and trout.

My traditional collection is very small but I have enjoyed them more from this forum. One of these days I will try to get a few more nice pieces. They'll get used too. I am a knife user, no safe queens for me. That's my story.

Pat
 
Country boy born and raised I coukd never stand the city too man people and too mujch noise, my first knife from my dad was a kamp king folder that he had when he was in scouts and that he gave me when I joined scouts, my first fixed blade was a mora I got from grandpa that he had for many years, these knives and experiences shaped my ideals of knives so much that I carry an old kamp king I restored which included putting a new blade on made of 1075 carbon steel which holds a nice sharp edge
 
Currently live in Liverpool. While it's not a big city it doesn't require any more than urban use from any of my knives. Letter opening and cardboard cutting etc. is the most common tasks. I feel most knives are suitable for that, but recently I've been carrying my little Cognet Squirrel and it has turned out to be a very rewarding experience. With the added assurance that it will be up for anything should I venture outside of the land of concrete.
 
City slicker here. But my dad's father was a farmer and sheep rancher in IL, and my mom grew up on a farm in KS (her brother still farms that land). After my dad's father died a few years ago, I received a few of his old pocket knives, and that sparked my interest in traditional knives. Carrying a humble pocket knife like a stockman is one way I connect to this disappearing generation.
 
I always lived in a neighborhood, but often one that was out in the county and with lakes, hunting, fishing, and woods nearby. It wasn't unusual to hear gunshots at the house during hunting season. I've always had a little of both.
 
I'm currently an engineering manager with a large semiconductor company but I grew up in a small town on 21 acres of walnut orchard. Spent my weekends either plowing with a Ford tractor, moving sprinkler pipes, chopping wood, or riding motorcycles with my friends. My dad always carried either a Case or Western trapper so we grew up with knives as a tool that we always had and used. The first knife that I really remember using quite a bit was a standard issue Cub Scout knife. That thing was so hard to open you would swear it was made by GEC! I was around the age of 8 but that did not stop me from cutting up everything in the woods we could find.

Over the years I went through a rash of high end and custom one-hand openers of which I still have quite a few, mostly made by Chris Reeve. In to office and working around the yard I still go back to traditionals. I turn 50 in a few months and find that I'm going through a minimalist phase of my life so I still drive the same truck I bought in 2006 (my wife gets the new cars) and use simple traditional knives. Takes me back to working in the orchard side-by-side with my dad and his well used Case trapper. Seemed like such an uncomplicated life compared to the high-tech world I've been in for 28 years.
 
I was born and raised in southeast Florida in what I sort of consider a suburb of nowhere. Not exactly city, not exactly small town. Not exactly rural, not exactly urban. Honestly, where I grew up had zero influence on what knives I carried. My parents never cared one way or the other and, at various periods in my childhood, I carried everything from a Victorinox Classic on up to one of those Air Force survival knives. Dad never carried a knife, but he didn't mind my obsession one bit. As a kid, I remember seeing a lot of big folders on older guys' belts. Buck 110, Schrade LB7, Gerbers, Pumas and of course loads of knock-offs. I guess this was back in late 70s/early 80s.

I was quite close to both grandfathers. One was a bit of a knife enthusiast (fixed blades only, as he lost an arm in WWII), and the other wasn't a "knife guy" but he ALWAYS has a good, sharp, two-blade pocketknife on him and knew how to use it. I really took my knife cues from them, more than the environment of where we lived.
 
born in the southeast, lived here most of my life although we moved around a fair bit. mostly lived in small towns.
currently i live in a bedroom community of a regionally large city. if the united states housing market had not collapsed a few years ago i would probably be living in a full-on suburb.
i work in the environmental industry so i spend most of my time outside in wetlands or along streams.

none of this has influenced what sort of knife i carry. currently i like opinels, douk douks and svord peasant knives though i am not french or a new zealander.
 
I am a country boy. I grew up in the Ozarks in southwest Missouri. We lived on the edge of a small town with a population of less than 250. It was the County seat. Now I live 6 miles from the nearest town and don't much care to be any closer. I like people and enjoy visiting with them. I just like the visits to be spread out a little.
Jim
 
I reckon I'm a country boy from the south..lol. I love my truck, my dog (white lab) and carry my knives about 3-1/2" to 4" those seem
to be the most useful for me...

Jason
 
I'm a country guy from the woods near the edge of Manistee National Forest.
Hard place to be in business but wouldn't want to move to the city.
Love my slipjoints!
 
Grew up in suburbia... matured in the forested areas of Missouri rivers. Whether out in the woods or shopping for toothpaste, a sub-3" blade slippy gets the job done every time. Whether it's gutting a fish, opening a package, carving wood, trimming nails, or tinkering, a small knife has always worked for me. If i need a bigger knife, that constitutes a soddie to be carried. If i need a one-handed knife, that constitutes a sheath knife. However, I have always taken a liking to knives that are attachable, like an sak or scout.
 
Raised in Ohio, lived in downtown Chicago, and now living in a small town in East Texas. I work at a university, and do fairly routinely have to cut paper with my knives- big photo prints, etc... I'm embarrassed to say, but I often wear a small sheath knife, have a regular size SAK on my keychain, and have at least one, if not two GEC's in my front pockets. My car has a large SAK, a stainless GEC, my Estwing axe and Estwing rockhammer, etc. Even more when I'm traveling, including things that go, "bang." Yeah, it's silly, I know. But I also don't care. No one has ever said a word to me about my sheath knife on campus. This is Texas, after all...
 
I came of age in rural Eastern Montana. My family had a ranching and farming operation. I had a knife in my pocket from the age of 6 on. Over the years there were stockman and jack knives by the several, nothing memorable, but I had accumulated quite a few scars on my fingers by the time I was in high school. Then I moved to a larger town and worked in construction and as a warehouseman for some 3 decades, with more daily pocket knives used all the time. The one I remember most clearly was a 4 inch Boker USA congress knife with 4 different blades, a great versatile knife, which finally fell apart after some 20 years. I have always been involved in hunting/fishing/camping, etc., so additional often larger knives went with that. Nowadays I usually have a dogleg jack in my pocket, and as often as not a Ruana on my belt, although it is not necessary. I just love some knives, and nobody says anything out here in God's Country. You might guess my age range if I told you that until I was 30 years old it was common to see pickup trucks on the school grounds with the window down, the key in the ignition, and a rifle in the back window. I guess now most of my knife work is with fixed blades in the kitchen and processing medium game, such as deer and pronghorn. I usually am in on cutting about 20 animals a year. I have to take an airflight tomorrow, with no checked baggage, and when I get there I will be looking to borrow a knife!
 
Grew up in Pittsburgh suburbia and have always loved the old small towns, woods and lakes dotting the Western PA country side. We have a diverse and old history of manufacturing here. I like my pocket clips, and always have one of my Spyderco's on me but I have started to carry a Case or GEC traditional to have a connection to "The old ways" of my Commonwealth.
 
Grew up as a military brat, '60s and '70s...scouting was my continuity in life as we moved base to base.

First knife was a Camillus TL-29...had a few after that, like the famous Kamp King. Received a Buck 112 from my scoutmaster when I made Eagle. Later alternated the 112 with a Buck 102, both knives serving me well under all conditions.

Enlisted, and many years later, now getting ready to retire from active duty. The last few years, my life consists primarily of meetings and office work, with deployments and field exercises mixed in.

If I'm wearing blues or mess dress, I've got a dedicated crew of Case peanuts and small stockmen (Case and Old Timer) to select from, great knives. Added benefit from this lineup: small enough to also serve as a "worry bead" during long spells in the conference room or banquet hall--won't draw attention!

In the field, love the big stockman knives...Old Timer 8OT, Buck 307. Also partial to the
'80s era Bucklite 422s.

For deployments, I always find a place in the duffel bag for my SAK Tinker, and perhaps an Ulster BSA scout knive.

Military aside, we live the suburban life, mixed with ocassional hikes and such. The traditional knives always have a place in life...they exude usefulness and character.

Thanks for this great thread!
 
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