silenthunterstudios
Slipjoint Addict
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2005
- Messages
- 20,039
When I grew up, my father always had a Schrade OT peanut or pen knife in his pocket. They seemed to come in an endless supply. If he didn't find a new to semi new one cheap at a gun show, he'd find another one my mother saved from the dryer or washing machine. All of them had a nice patina. I remember every single one being passed to me before church every Sunday to clean my fingernails. Now, my father prefers a pull so light on a knife that it brings out the OCD in me. He is an automotive upholsterer, and used to be able to crush my fingers in between his. He never hurt me, but as a young kid, I thought he could crack walnuts with his fingers. Arthritis and old age have crept up on him. I've gotten him Buck knives, Case knives, new Schrades, but he loses them all. He recently found a Tidioute 72 lockback with bone scales I gave my little brother, and is carrying that. He prefers his small knives though, but he hasn't lost the 72
. I've got a couple knives I need to sharpen and give back to him. He gives me hell if, after rooting through my knives, finds one he likes and goes to use, and it isn't sharp to his liking (he has gone so far as to put a lock on his toolboxes at home because my little brother doesn't return tools, but hey, go through my knife collection). I asked him why he didn't sharpen his own knives, and he told me why should he, he's got me. On the other hand, I saw him picking his teeth with a butcher knife, and said I had sharpened my mother's knives too much. Most of the "giving me hell" is in reference to the high caliber of blades I have, and his estimation that I should know how to sharpen them all. He's right.
My grandfather, my fathers father, held dozens of odd jobs his entire life. Most of that life was spent as a salesman. I remember being a little shaver, as my father and uncles say, riding with my grandfather on his sales route. He sold Twinkies, soda etc, and ate a lot of his supplies
. I remember him having what I surmised were Colonial knives, later I found he got these from Coca Cola, Pepsi etc, they were advertising knives.
Knives were just tools to both men, although my father gave me a Green River skinner blade that he had bought with the intention of making a knife for himself and using it on the trap line (he was a trapper when I was a kid).
After all of that, while I like Schrade knives, I hold no affinity for Old Timer knives. I cleaned out most of the hardware stores on the Eastern Shore/Delmarva and parts of the Jersey shore of their USA made OT knives, but gave most of them to cousins and friends. I like older Schrades/Waldens etc with bone, but the delrin OTs do nothing for me. I am a floozy as my buddy says, for jigged bone, swedges and long pulls. If there is a brand that I "stick to", it would be Remington. I didn't see my first real 1920s-1930s Remington until I was in my 20s.
What brand did your parents/older siblings/friends etc raise you on? Is it still your favorite brand? Are they still in business? Do you carry one every day?
If you have pics of the knife you carry from that favorite brand, traditional of course, or your relatives knife they carried every day, throw them up!

My grandfather, my fathers father, held dozens of odd jobs his entire life. Most of that life was spent as a salesman. I remember being a little shaver, as my father and uncles say, riding with my grandfather on his sales route. He sold Twinkies, soda etc, and ate a lot of his supplies

Knives were just tools to both men, although my father gave me a Green River skinner blade that he had bought with the intention of making a knife for himself and using it on the trap line (he was a trapper when I was a kid).
After all of that, while I like Schrade knives, I hold no affinity for Old Timer knives. I cleaned out most of the hardware stores on the Eastern Shore/Delmarva and parts of the Jersey shore of their USA made OT knives, but gave most of them to cousins and friends. I like older Schrades/Waldens etc with bone, but the delrin OTs do nothing for me. I am a floozy as my buddy says, for jigged bone, swedges and long pulls. If there is a brand that I "stick to", it would be Remington. I didn't see my first real 1920s-1930s Remington until I was in my 20s.
What brand did your parents/older siblings/friends etc raise you on? Is it still your favorite brand? Are they still in business? Do you carry one every day?
If you have pics of the knife you carry from that favorite brand, traditional of course, or your relatives knife they carried every day, throw them up!
Last edited: