Do you love knives, but have difficulty finding uses in your lifestyle?

I find uses for most of my knives, at some point. I've used a SOG S-1 Bowie in the kitchen. It's effective, but not really efficient. The Becker BK-5 is an excellent kitchen knife, as is it's predecessor, the Blackjack Magnum Camp knife. Carved a Thanksgiving turkey one year with an 8" Deleon custom bowie. I open a lot of boxes at work, and enjoy using my own knives, fixed or folder, over the company supplied razor knives. It's just a tool for cutting stuff, but there's no reason it can't be stylish, or even too pretty to use! But I'll use it anyway. I like KNIVES, not paperweights...

 

A 556, that’s the small version of the 551, right?

 

Yeah, and many real Americans are God-fearing honorable people.

What is your point?

 

Did you read what I was responding to? That would have given you a hint about my point.

"so I never got the chance to experience these true American patriotic traditional places and see the real America that respects God,"

Which reads to me like somehow I'm less of an American for not fitting into that picture.

 

I was going to reply after reading this thread, but not much point now. It should be locked out in a few more posts.

Anytime the chest thumping starts from butt hurt people after a thread goes COMPLETELY off topic it usually (and should) get locked.

Oh, well. More and more a BF tradition. I have to say though, the orinal topic was a pretty neat question.

 

I consider myself lucky that with my job, no matter what knife I choose carry I find more than enough opportunities to use them all throughout the day almost every day.

 

"Which reads to me like somehow I'm less of an American for not fitting into that picture" I believe your interpretation is wrong, but that's a different off-topic discussion. And if you are offended well I'm sorry I did not mean any offense or insult.

 

I should have asked for clarification before my post. No worries

 

Yes, absolutely. What I've found is that unless you're job requires a lot of cutting, or you're an avid hunter, fisherman, bushcrafter, you do not encounter enough situations that require you to use your pocket knife.

However, I have noticed when I am being more active in my spare time, doing home repairs, building a table, doing yardwork, even putting on a birthday party for my daughter, my usage increases to a satisfactory amount. So I think it's about choosing to live an active lifestyle. If that's not your lane, than enjoy the collecting aspect, fidget with them, appreciate the various marvels of engineering, and try to be content.

 

Yes, I did read what you were responding to. And, no it did not give me a hint about your point.

One of the greatest freedoms of our country is the privilege for someone to worship who or what they may. And, not one of us has to justify our beliefs to anybody else.

Nor should we feel slighted if our beliefs differ.

Back to knife discussions ...

 

What fun is that?

 

I agree. Living on ramen ain't so bad if you've got a sweet slab of m390 in your pocket.

 

What a great read. And I get to use my knives every day. If it's to cut open a clam package, open a box, cut down cardboard or make a sandwich. Everyday I pull my a knife from my pocket at least 10 times. So much so I carry one in each pocket. The left has a CRK for doing the nicer work and the right for doing the lesser things i wouldn't want to do with nice knife. Like cutting a box that might have a hidden staple in it or cutting around a pipe tight and touching the blade to the pipe. Or prying on something. All things you shouldn't do I do with the lesser important knife. A knife is a tool but some tools are more important to me then others.

 

I think a great deal of it depends on where we are in our life. What stage we are at.

I know that in my 30's, my need of knives and things were way more, and in my 40's it changed a little. In my 50's it changed a little more, and in my 60's it changed more than in my 40's and 50's combined. In the 70's now, is has again changed a great deal, both in what I need, and what I think is important.

I found that as I aged, a new kind of pragmatic attitude came about. The fantasies of youth fade, and a new reality comes in. My mental attitude now is, material things have faded a great deal in importance to me, and all the big bowies and military knives and survival knives are a thing of the past. These days, I still think there should be a knife in every pocket, but I'm happy with whatever small pen knife or SAK happened to be there on that particular day. I now know that any little decent piece of sharp steel will do, and I don't obsess over it anymore. Most of my knife collection is gone, the kids and grandkids got a lot of it, and some was sold off or given away here and on other forums.

The wife and I are slowly spending the kids inheritance with travel that we couldn't do as young married folks, and even that has changed. The last time we were at Yosemite, we rode the little tourist train around. At Yellowstone, we didn't camp out, but stayed at the Yellowstone Lodge and had cocktails on the veranda as we watched Old Faithful erupt. We took the tour bus around in San Fransisco and dined at Fisherman's Wharf. At Big Bend National park, we stayed in the lodge up in Chisos Basin, and did the horse ride tour and the next day a guided Jeep tour. I know at our age, my wife and I will never see real wilderness again, and we're good with that. 'Been there and done' that as far as the boon docking and back packing. You get old enough, and theres a lot of things that come under the 'been there, done that' category. You actually don't want to do that anymore.

For most my life at this senior citizen stage, my old Buck 303 cadet and Victorinox recruit, seems to be more than enough knife. I don't hunt, but I am an avid fisherman, but how much knife do I need for me and my granddaughter fishing on the San Gabriel river, or surf fishing down at Padre Island? My old Buck 102 woodsman takes care of cutting bait or cleaning fish. That Buck 102 is all the fixed blade I need now.

Settling into my white dwarf stage of existence, any small pocket knife will do. It's been a very long time since I went boon docking with a Randall 14 as my go-to woods knife. Now a Boker 240 pen knife in my watch pocket is good enough to get me through the day. Young man, middle age man, and old man, all have different needs for stuff. You live your life in stages and there comes a point that the toys loose their appeal a great deal. They just don't mean much anymore.

The people in your life and the time you spend with them gets more important. Things are just things.

 

Amen brother. I started collecting at 14. Now entering my 50's. My collection hit over 1000 knives. I have boxes on knives in the garage i haven't seen in decades. 200 or so in the house and my taste has once again changed. I'm recycling my collection now and replacing it with my new flavor instead of just adding to the collection. But i have some that i have grown very fond of and use pretty hard daily. The ones that I have not used but bought because I wanted them and have just sat around I'm letting go. Its someone out there getting a hold of them and puts them to uses. And in return I can buy something I'll put to uses. Thank you for sharing your years of experience.

Cheers

 

I use my knife at work daily, but that's really it. I very rarely need to use my knives on free time.

 

Well said @jackknife You are ahead of me on the diminishing starlight curve but sounds like your light is still warming. I completely get what you are saying. I have wondered which knives I will take with me to the lawn swing at the home (This "at the home" thing is fully on my mind these days as my Mother and her companions, are showing me how it is done. I don't think there is a pen knife among them.)

Oh well. That will be a thread I can start on BF in 24 years or so. Meanwhile - I know exactly which knives I will use today.

Ray

 

I always enjoy your practical posts.

I think we all live our lives in stages and we gradually adjust to changes in our minds and bodies. Some changes are abrupt, but stuff happens. I understand the sentiment that "any small knife will do", but I view it as a broad generalization versus reflecting most of our realities here. It may be close to reality, but not the reality we often seek.

For the record, I carry a Vic Small Tinker daily. So, it's a small knife.

I have no desire to carry a Randall #14 as signature jewelry out in the woods when I know I have absolutely no need for it. Proclaim loudly "I'm a woodsman.... see my Randall #14 knife!!" I often chuckle how much camo clothing I see on photographers .... Yes, Yes!! I need this camo so all the wildlife can't see me. Yes! (The reality is the camo is used so people don't see you.) Everyone wants to pad softly into the woods disturbing nothing. Camo clothing and big knives are mostly woods jewelry. But they can be fun too. People like this stuff. So, go forth and enjoy!

As far as accumulating stuff whether it be knives or anything else we especially like or have used and liked, this changes too. How much you use a knife (frequency) depends on your lifestyle regardless of age. But I think the bigger cutting jobs decrease as we get older and as a result if you are honest with yourself, a small knife works perfectly well. But I still wouldn't go as far as to say "any small knife will do". I think we get smarter and more practical as we get older in terms of navigating our world. Certainly priorities change.

I have no issue with collecting or accumulating knives because we like them regardless of how often we need a knife. If you want to carry a big knife out hiking, do it. It is mostly for fun anyway.

 

My lifestyle rarely requires me to use a knife, but I like them, so I keep buying them as my budget allows because I like them. Most days, my knife doesn't come out of my pocket, but I'm cool with that.

 

But if you admit that bigger cutting jobs decrease as we get older, then why won't any small knife do?

Certainly that stage of life where we're retired, taking easy, doing some traveling, we're beyond the Jeremiah Johnson and Rambo fantasies, and certainly well beyond thinking we need to carry something capable of taking out Chinese sentries while whispering "Wolverines".

As we go about our life, fishing, doing some odd small projects out in the workshop, taking walks in the woods with the better half of almost a half century, any small knife will do? Whats the difference of carrying a old well worn Buck 309 companion, or a Spyderco man bug, or a Victorinox classic, or a Boker pen knife? Does that piece of twine on the tomato plants know its been cut with a number 4 Opinel or a Spyderco ladybug? Or even an old Christy knife?

I've found that in my life as a retired old fart, any sharp piece of steel an inch or two in length seems to work. I've opened all kinds of packages with a Victorinox classic and the blade on a Leatherman squirt. Certainly that accursed plastic blister package doesn't seem to care if its been cut open by a particular blade. Heck, look at how much real heavy duty work is done by the blades on a Stanley 99 or a Husky or a Milwaukee utility knife with replaceable blades. The utility knife blade is all of one inch long when fully extended, and razor blade thin. Yet it cuts tar paper, drywall, insulation off cable being spliced, unboxes water heaters and other heavy stuff. When dull, it just gets reversed or replaced.

The ugly truth is, for the average suburbanite, any keychain size knife will do. In our pre-packaged, office cubicle, air conditioned world, theres just no buffalo to skin, hostile Comanche's coming over the hill for our scalps. In fact, the whole knife market as we know it now is an artificially created market to save a dying industry; the pocket knife industry. In the 1980's it was almost dead.

Do you know how many knife companies were in America before WW2? Over a hundred. But after WW2, and the great migration to the cities by all the farm and ranch boys that had seen the world and weren't about to go back to daddy's farm and 'work the land", people started to stop carrying a pocket knife. The all move to he cities for good jobs and more money than daddy would pay them. By the 1960's the knife industry was in trouble. Buck introduced the 110 and it was a craze for while, but it stated to fade. Not much use for a large lock blade in an office cubicle. By late 1970's the industy was stagnant again, and even Buck 110 sales were down. Then a young business man named Lynn Thompson came up with a brilliant thing, The tactical knife that could be opened with one hand. Then a young guy named Sal Glesser came up with a different idea to sell knives, the serrated edge that would go through seat belts with ease. New companies jumped on the bandwagon and the one hand tactical wonder was born. By the late 1990's and early 2000's, it was the new craze in knives. If it couldn't be opened in a blink of an eye and de-animate a sentry it wasn't good for sales. The old traditionals faded away mostly, and companies like Cold Steel, Benchmade, Spyderco, took over the market. It was brilliant marketing and the Walter Mitty in the knife buyers spent a lot of money on over built knives that didn't really have a place in the office cubicle world. The office manager put out a memo that you couldn't shout 'Wolverines" when cutting open a new package of copy paper.

Now its fading a bit as many of the young knife buyers who have invested in the collections and are a bit older now, realize that they don't really need these knives in an urban or suburban life style. Heck, most of society doesn't even bother carrying a knife anymore at all. We're the weird ones, the 1% of society that not only cares about a knife, but is obsessed about them in an O.C.D. way. Heck, I'm still one of the obsessed and cursed. I can't imagine leaving the house without a knife in my pocket. BUT...and theres that three letter word...I've come to realize that it doesn't have to be much of a knife to cut what I need to cut. How much blade do I need to slice open a bag of mulch, or trim some fishing line?

Yes, when you get right down to it, whats left in the bottom the pot when its all boiled down, is that any little knife will do. An inch and half to two inches will get you through the day in modern suburbia. Of course, if some howling Comanche's in war paint comes over the hill, all bets are off.