This is certainly preaching to the choir here, but I have come full circle back to interest in the traditional patterns. I had been losing some enthusiasm on knife forums in general until I began to pay more attention to this traditional forum.
Why is it that I feel that spark when I pick up an old slipjoint pattern? Is it because it reminds me when I first came into knives over 30 years ago? I can still feel the excitement of buying my first knife at 13 (A large Schrade carbon-steel stockman). And then buying my first Buck knife, a cadet, a year later.
True, I love my Sebbie. I like many modern one-hand designs. What I began to lose interest in was the idea that unless you have the latest-greatest in super-steels, you are carrying substandard POS cutlery. Which would mean that my grandfather, who ran a large farm, and my father and uncles who grew up on that farm working and using their knives hard, got by just fine with "substandard" steel knives. Well, if so, they were able to do some pretty impressive things with lesser blades. They lived and worked that farm until WWII forced them into one of the relocation camps for Japanese-Americans; this one was in Arizona.
Most of the old folders I got from my father were carbon steel Camillus knives. He really did not collect knives other than to use as working tools.
None of his knives were top-notch steel, though they were good for the time. His only "modern" knife was a convex-ground Buck 110.
I got caught up in the latest tactical features craze, but soon found that even among the modern designs, I tend toward the more simple and utilitatian ones. My father never really understood why I liked collecting different knives the way I did; but even in his later days when his thick callused fingers probably could no longer open it, he always had some type of small slipjoint folder in his pocket.
Not an unusual story. I guess this rambling thread is meant to say, is that he and many others worked hard and used his knives, often hard, on a day-to-day basis, throughout his life. He never heard of ZDP189, CPM steels or the like. This in turn rekindled my fascination with the older styles. Now, while I admit to preferring stainless blades for my own use, I am once again in love with the traditionals. How so many things great and small were accomplished with pocketknife styles that still exist more or less unchanged, to this day. I've even found that a lot of the cutting chores I do (probably most) are better handled with my Case stockman, canoe, mini-trapper, or SAK Executive, than by a lot of the tactical folders, and with more ease.
Jim
Why is it that I feel that spark when I pick up an old slipjoint pattern? Is it because it reminds me when I first came into knives over 30 years ago? I can still feel the excitement of buying my first knife at 13 (A large Schrade carbon-steel stockman). And then buying my first Buck knife, a cadet, a year later.
True, I love my Sebbie. I like many modern one-hand designs. What I began to lose interest in was the idea that unless you have the latest-greatest in super-steels, you are carrying substandard POS cutlery. Which would mean that my grandfather, who ran a large farm, and my father and uncles who grew up on that farm working and using their knives hard, got by just fine with "substandard" steel knives. Well, if so, they were able to do some pretty impressive things with lesser blades. They lived and worked that farm until WWII forced them into one of the relocation camps for Japanese-Americans; this one was in Arizona.
Most of the old folders I got from my father were carbon steel Camillus knives. He really did not collect knives other than to use as working tools.
None of his knives were top-notch steel, though they were good for the time. His only "modern" knife was a convex-ground Buck 110.
I got caught up in the latest tactical features craze, but soon found that even among the modern designs, I tend toward the more simple and utilitatian ones. My father never really understood why I liked collecting different knives the way I did; but even in his later days when his thick callused fingers probably could no longer open it, he always had some type of small slipjoint folder in his pocket.
Not an unusual story. I guess this rambling thread is meant to say, is that he and many others worked hard and used his knives, often hard, on a day-to-day basis, throughout his life. He never heard of ZDP189, CPM steels or the like. This in turn rekindled my fascination with the older styles. Now, while I admit to preferring stainless blades for my own use, I am once again in love with the traditionals. How so many things great and small were accomplished with pocketknife styles that still exist more or less unchanged, to this day. I've even found that a lot of the cutting chores I do (probably most) are better handled with my Case stockman, canoe, mini-trapper, or SAK Executive, than by a lot of the tactical folders, and with more ease.
Jim
