Cult of the peanut , members

JohnDF said:
Click to expand...
It's not really a peanut, but the 12OT is a nice little dogleg jack and I love mine.
Personally I think the pattern looks better than the case peanut, but the peanut doesn't look half bad and you can't deny how great of a little knife they are.
I've only got one but I pretty quickly came to appreciate it in the week I've hand it.
 
JohnDF said:
Ya, but there have been so many posted in this thread that I figured I was safe.
Click to expand...

Probably should have followed this thread closer then.

They're certainly peanut like, the curve to the front bolster is really the only thing that makes it different.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Probably should have followed this thread closer then.

They're certainly peanut like, the curve to the front bolster is really the only thing that makes it different.
Click to expand...

I guess thats why I put certain knives in the peanut class of pocket knives. Small, cute, but still capable of real world cutting performance. For me, theres a nostalgia to that class of pocket knife. It was what pos the men I knew while growing carried. Maybe the most ubiquitous pocket knife of the 1950's was the small jack and pen in the 3 inch closed size.
 
jackknife said:
I guess thats why I put certain knives in the peanut class of pocket knives. Small, cute, but still capable of real world cutting performance. For me, theres a nostalgia to that class of pocket knife. It was what pos the men I knew while growing carried. Maybe the most ubiquitous pocket knife of the 1950's was the small jack and pen in the 3 inch closed size.
Click to expand...

There are certainly lots of little dogleg Jack's out there that really only differ from a peanut in the shape of the front bolster.

I love the little knives of this size, my grandfather carried just a Victorinox classic as long as I knew him and peanut types before discovering the classic companion, and my uncle carries peanut class knives exclusively.
My dad has bought him a number of Schrade gift tin / sets over the years and the little peanut types are the only ones to have left the tins.
 
Hickory n steel said:
There are certainly lots of little dogleg Jack's out there that really only differ from a peanut in the shape of the front bolster.

I love the little knives of this size, my grandfather carried just a Victorinox classic as long as I knew him and peanut types before discovering the classic companion, and my uncle carries peanut class knives exclusively.
My dad has bought him a number of Schrade gift tin / sets over the years and the little peanut types are the only ones to have left the tins.
Click to expand...

Thats because your grandfather and uncles were very wise old men. I had to go through about 3/4s of my life before I got wise enough to realize that the smaller knives like that were just as effective in real world use as the larger knives that took up more space in the pocket. Open a box? no problem. Open a plastic blister package that defies tooth and nail? No problem. Slice a bit of cheddar cheese off the block in the fridge? No problem. Cut a perfect hot dog roasting stick for the grandkid? No problem.

Discounting surviving in the Alaskan bush or Amazon jungle, the peanut class of knife will do most of what we need to do in the untamed wilds of suburbia. In my former life and around Washington D.C. and the mass of federal government buildings, I spent whole days with nothing but a SAK classic on my keyring and survived to see another day.

When I was young guy full of vinegar, I always wondered at the old guys with the tiny 'pen knife." Now that I reached old fart status, I don't wonder anymore. Even a thick skull like me will learn if I'm around long enough. I always think about tithes way, the utility knife blade of the Stanley 99 and most it's clones are all of one inch. They cut tar paper with it, sheet rock, strip cable and all kinds of dirty work. I guess this old man can get by with a peanut class of little pocket knife.
 
Last edited:
jackknife said:
Thats because your grandfather and uncles were very wise old men.
Click to expand...
Wise definitely. You learn a few things driving a tank across France , and old well my uncle is just a young middle aged man but he's one of the smartest people in the family for sure.



jackknife said:
when I was young guy full of vinegar, I always wondered at the old guys with the tiny 'pen knife."
Click to expand...
I certainly understand this.
From my teens up until a few years ago I always thought of little two handed knives as something you carry as a " backup " to a larger one handed knife.
Never been one to think of anything as for old guys ( besides prunes ) but I never took the little ones seriously.
I really don't know where the tactical type mindset came from, but I followed it pretty strictly I know that much.

Come to think of it you're actt responsible for correcting that idiotic notion I had, I won a " Jackknife starter kit GAW " and the little peanut class imperial I received really turned me onto the little ones.
You're love of the peanut got me interested in the hype so I entered and did my best to give that knife a fair shake which it passed with flying colors.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Wise definitely. You learn a few things driving a tank across France , and old well my uncle is just a young middle aged man but he's one of the smartest people in the family for sure.




I certainly understand this.
From my teens up until a few years ago I always thought of little two handed knives as something you carry as a " backup " to a larger one handed knife.
Never been one to think of anything as for old guys ( besides prunes ) but I never took the little ones seriously.
I really don't know where the tactical type mindset came from, but I followed it pretty strictly I know that much.

Come to think of it you're actt responsible for correcting that idiotic notion I had, I won a " Jackknife starter kit GAW " and the little peanut class imperial I received really turned me onto the little ones.
You're love of the peanut got me interested in the hype so I entered and did my best to give that knife a fair shake which it passed with flying colors.
Click to expand...

I can tell you exactly where the tactical mindset came from. The great migration from rural to urban lifestyle in the post WW2 era. All those returning GI's had a look at the big world, and many didn't want to go back to the family farm and plow. They went to the cities for better jobs, more money, and a better lifestyle. By the 1960's, their kids were growing up in the new landscape of the day called 'suburbia'. The office cubicle was a new work environment, and there was little need for a knife operating a copy machine or doing the TPS reports for the boss.

By the 1970's the American knife companies were in financial trouble and by the 80's some were going belly-up. They had to dream up some way to stimulate sales. They were going out of business trying to peddle the same pocket knives to a now different culture. A young guy by the name of Lynn Thomson and a company called Cold Steel paved the way. Another young guy named Sal Glesser had a new idea also for selling a knife that was a solution to a problem that hadn't existed before when our grandfathers really needed a pocket knife daily in their rural life. The new guys on the cutlery block created a new market to sell knives that hadn't been sold before, in spite of the designs not being needed by a generation or two before that lived through a Great Depression and a vicious world war. The age of the office cubicle commando had been born.

The knives being marketed today are more about selling a fantasy than about a real world cutting tool for normal day to day life. I had a very interesting talk with my Uncle Charlie once. He was a GI who landed on a beach in Normandy, and walked most the way to Berlin. He carried a Camillus TL-29 jackknife that had about a 2 1/2 inch blade and a screw driver blade. It served his purpose from the landing, the hedge row breakout, the Battle of the Bulge, and fighting their way across the Rhine. Another Uncle, my Uncle Mike, served in PT boats out of Falmouth, England. He carried a Camillus stockman in his pocket and when he got a PT boat blown out from under him in the English Chanel one night, it served him by cutting the canvas straps that held the life raft on the foredeck.

When push comes to shove, all that matters is, that few inches of steel is sharp.
 
Last edited:
jackknife said:
When push comes to shove, all that matters is, that few inches of steel is sharp.
Click to expand...

Everything you said sounds about right.

Somehow I guess the current knife market had naturally worked on me, and dictated the knife carry habits I had.

Now the current market for anything has no effect on what I want other than knowing I'm not interested in the latest thing they're trying to push on me. :D
 
JohnDF said:
Ya, but there have been so many posted in this thread that I figured I was safe.
Click to expand...
I generally put my 12OT in the Peanut category and include it with photos sometimes. I know it isn't exactly a Peanut, per se, but it seems like a very close brother. I have a Camillus that is technically a dogleg jack as well but I still call it a Peanut :thumbsup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top