Grandpa's knife rediscovered

[Half/Stop]

Thanks for sharing your grandfathers knife with us! I have my grandfathers Old Timer. It’s my most treasured knife!

 

[jackknife]

This was my maternal grandfather. He was born in TX in 1899, and headed west as a young man. He ended up in California (North Hollywood/Carpinteria), but was up and down California in the early days of the Pacific Bell telephone company. He worked as a lineman, and eventually into some type of lower/middle management role. He retired from the phone company having only worked for one employer his whole life. Common in those days, much less so in ours.

He was an amateur carpenter and did a lot of antique furniture repair and restoration. He was also my inspiration for taking up pipe smoking. He smoked cigarettes and pipes until he was about 85 or 90, and then just smoked his pipes until his death in 1994.

I don’t remember any specific knife he carried, but there was always a small slipjoint in his pocket, and one or two on the side table next to his chair where he loaded and cleaned his pipes.

Thanks for the encouragement to write these additional details. It’s been a nice trip down memory lane.

Edited to add...

Two notable things I remember... He always called the restroom “the library.” He would go “to the library” with his pipe and a magazine or newspaper and be gone an ungodly amount of time. Maybe he was always constipated. My dad thinks he did it to get away from my grandmother. ;-)

Second, for every day of his life that I remember (and my mom remembers) he ate exactly the same thing every morning. Two eggs over easy, two slices of bacon, two pieces of toast with orange honey.

Not a very “California” diet nowadays... especially with the Camels and pipes on top!

Sounds a lot like some of the men I grew up around. I learned my pipe smoking from both my dad and granddad, and both had a slip joint always in their pocket. Of course, back then the small slip joints were pretty much all there was in pocket knives in the norm. There were some lockbacks around, and the well known Italian style switchblades, but the men of that generation looked way far down on them as a "punk's weapon." A small one or two blade slip joint was standard of the era.

The breakfast was sooooo typical of the era. My own dad had his eggs sunny side with bacon and toast. I guess they didn't worry about cholesterol in those days!

They were called the 'greatest generation' for a good reason.

 

[cortopar]

Well, the blades were either sharpened (poorly) on croc sticks or one of those carbide edge killers. All three had some significant recurve in the center of the edge.

I didn’t want to take off too much metal, so they’re not perfect, but all three are in much better shape. As they say on the big screen, “it will cut.”

 

[Wardo46]

Well, the blades were either sharpened (poorly) on croc sticks or one of those carbide edge killers. All three had some significant recurve in the center of the edge.

I didn’t want to take off too much metal, so they’re not perfect, but all three are in much better shape. As they say on the big screen, “it will cut.”

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IIRC, the Case 6333 was favored and carried by General/President Eisenhower. There's a thread on it somewhere.

 

[cortopar]

IIRC, the Case 6333 was favored and carried by General/President Eisenhower. There's a thread on it somewhere.

I’ll have to hunt up that thread. Very cool historical tidbit; thanks so much for sharing it!

 

[Wardo46]

I’ll have to hunt up that thread. Very cool historical tidbit; thanks so much for sharing it!

Here's the link. You'll have to read the whole thread to make sense out of it as there is some confusion and misinformation about the pattern numbers. Ike apparently liked to give away the two-bladed pen pattern but he actually carried the 6333 small stockman. There are photos of his actual knife (although he may have carried other patterns at different times in his amazing life.). Your grandpa's knife is in good company.

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/any-interest-in-the-case-63-i-like-ike.1156535/#post-13228878