Many thanks, sir! I agree with your peeve, especially when the pictures are in a large series uploaded together. It makes conversation near impossible!
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Hey old timer, how much did that knife cost new?
- Thread starter Bartleby
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2014
- Messages
- 693
I had a ragged copy of the 1992 Boy Scout catalog, which I used to stare at for hours, particularly the page with the knives. I wanted a SAK more than life itself. I remember the biggest, most expensive one in the catalog was the Vic Huntsman, and I'm pretty sure it was about $35. I was mesmerized by all those tools hanging off of it, but I knew that I might as well ask for a personal jet. Mom and Dad had two kids and one income, and I'm pretty sure Dad's plumbing sales job was paying about 19k at that point. We never went hungry or anything, but frugality was essential. I ended up with a Vic Recruit that Christmas, which I'm pretty sure set my folks back about 20 bucks. I still have that knife. It was my very first.
My parents gave me an SAK huntsman in 1976, and in my mind it was about as high tech as a jet. Well almost. One of my 5th classmates at school brought in his Swiss Champ, the first SAK I had ever seen. Now that was some technology! My dad took me to the Hoffritz store at the airport (of course!) often that summer to window shop the giant window display. Not the first knife I bought, since it was a present, but I recall that to my young mind being in Hoffritz was like being in a car dealership!
One of my buddies dropped out of school got married and started working (I don't recall in which order...). He carried a Buck 112 each day at work from about 1976 until 2016. I recall being amazed at the absolutely solid feel of that knife, the first Buck I ever handled.
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2005
- Messages
- 19,385
The Buck 110 seems to have been a popular choice in the 70's and 80's. I carried a Schrade 250T Old Timer (two blade Schrade version of the 110 clones) in the mid-70's until around 1980 or so. I purchased it at a restaurant in Laredo TX from a knife distributor who was eating there after we had struck up a conversation. Cost was about $20 or so (don't really recall and I had no idea of what they cost new then). It became my work knife and used while hunting also.
I bought a replacement a couple of years ago at a knife show (USA of course). The old one has been misplaced in the early 2000's and the blades abused cutting on soil and rocks and things. The abuse happened in the late-80's into the mid-90's. At that point, this particular knife was strictly for field use (work) and I had other knives for regular carry and so forth. It is and was a great knife! I use a Condor Bushlore for this purpose now.
I bought a replacement a couple of years ago at a knife show (USA of course). The old one has been misplaced in the early 2000's and the blades abused cutting on soil and rocks and things. The abuse happened in the late-80's into the mid-90's. At that point, this particular knife was strictly for field use (work) and I had other knives for regular carry and so forth. It is and was a great knife! I use a Condor Bushlore for this purpose now.
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2001
- Messages
- 32,359
Back in the day for me was 1976, I was usin' tin shell Colonials given to me by the ZEP salesman. My first purchased knife in the early 80s was a Schrade Old Timer 51OT, I paid about $30 IIRC. The 80s-90s was the time where I purchased most of my store bought new knives, this was a changing time in the industry. The names to watch were Gerber with talent like Blackie Collins, Al Mar and Pete Kershaw cuttin' their teeth on new super steels, BG42, D2, ATS 34, powdered steel metallurgy was just coming into its own and a major division was bein' drawn between old school "vintage" style traditionals like grandpa carried and modern tactical/utility style knives made from modern materials instead of wood and bone, rostfrei or steel that "patinas".
That division began commanding higher $, you paid a premium for Titanium or "Aircraft Grade Aluminum"seemed that the more buzzwords used in the ad print the more money it commanded. I remember payin' $100+ and not blinkin' an eye for a Benchmade/Chris Caracci AFCK, same for a 730 Ares when they first came out. When I looked for a new knife, I wasn't lookin' for a Queen Barlow, (at least not until they were made in D2 in the new Millennium) other than after the closing of Schrade, most of my traditional knife purchases were yard sales or flea markets all costing well under $10 for brand name US made knives. In fact even today most of my newer traditional patterns were not bought new, with the exception of the forum's knives most were of the secondary market.
So if 10 years ago is back in the day than I was spending less than $10 a piece buyin' stuff like this.
If we're talkin' back in my day then we're late 90s and $100 productions to $400 handmades.
That division began commanding higher $, you paid a premium for Titanium or "Aircraft Grade Aluminum"seemed that the more buzzwords used in the ad print the more money it commanded. I remember payin' $100+ and not blinkin' an eye for a Benchmade/Chris Caracci AFCK, same for a 730 Ares when they first came out. When I looked for a new knife, I wasn't lookin' for a Queen Barlow, (at least not until they were made in D2 in the new Millennium) other than after the closing of Schrade, most of my traditional knife purchases were yard sales or flea markets all costing well under $10 for brand name US made knives. In fact even today most of my newer traditional patterns were not bought new, with the exception of the forum's knives most were of the secondary market.
So if 10 years ago is back in the day than I was spending less than $10 a piece buyin' stuff like this.
If we're talkin' back in my day then we're late 90s and $100 productions to $400 handmades.
arizonaranchman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2012
- Messages
- 4,367
cheesemaster
Basic Member
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2012
- Messages
- 148
Buck 505 Knight. Paid $35 in '85 or so, a lot of money for me at the time. I had coveted and saved for it for weeks. It was the first "real" knife I had from a "real" company. I remember the guy at the shop said, "Buck makes a great blade" when I asked him to pull it from behind the glass. I carried for it 25 years. Retired for sentimental reasons now, but still in great working order.
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2005
- Messages
- 19,385
One needs to keep in mind that this is the Traditional Forum.
The three most used knives I have owned are the Case Barlow mentioned above, the Schrade 250T which I used for years initially as an all around knife and later for work use only, and my ever present SAK which started with the Tinker in around 1983 or so. Before that, I thought they were "kid's knives". Now I have so many knives that other than my SAK, nothing gets used a lot. The SAK gets the nod for everyday carry (1st choice) and often a second knife changing from a traditional or modern depending on what I grab.
The three most used knives I have owned are the Case Barlow mentioned above, the Schrade 250T which I used for years initially as an all around knife and later for work use only, and my ever present SAK which started with the Tinker in around 1983 or so. Before that, I thought they were "kid's knives". Now I have so many knives that other than my SAK, nothing gets used a lot. The SAK gets the nod for everyday carry (1st choice) and often a second knife changing from a traditional or modern depending on what I grab.
black mamba
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2009
- Messages
- 23,118
My other early knife, besides the Silver Knight I mentioned earlier, is a BuckLite #424 that I bought in 1988. This was the first synthetic handled knife I ever had, and couldn't believe how light it was in the pocket! It was a little scary at times, because I was always thinking I lost it. It was the only knife I had, and the $14 it cost was a fair piece of change to me back then, as I made about $250 a week, before taxes. I foolishly broke the tip off prying with it, but reground it into a decent (if shorter) drop point, and I still have it.
Nicely done re-grind on that one!
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2007
- Messages
- 2,412
When I was 14 yrs old in 1974 my dad let me buy my 1st knife at a old timey out in the country hardware store.
It was a buck stockman 3 and half to 4 inches long ( a 301? I believe ) that knife cut a lotta hay bale twine, skinned evry kinda animal, whittled many a stick and was shown off in school. Remember those days? The teachers didn't call the law they said nice knife here check out mine. I wanna say I paid around $10.00 but I ain't sure. I remember looking at it in the case and loving the hammer driving the blade thru a nail? That is a bad azz knife I remember thinking.
I have no idea when or where that knife got lost, might have been around the campfire listening to the coon hounds baying or at the river bank while fishing.
2 years later I bought my 1st rifle a remington 700 in .308 at that same store. I would love to see a replica store just like it. Barbed wire coils and evry farming tool one could imagine, the smell of the hay bales. Whoa I think I wenr back in time fee a minute there.
Thanks for making this thread it has brought back some good memories.
It was a buck stockman 3 and half to 4 inches long ( a 301? I believe ) that knife cut a lotta hay bale twine, skinned evry kinda animal, whittled many a stick and was shown off in school. Remember those days? The teachers didn't call the law they said nice knife here check out mine. I wanna say I paid around $10.00 but I ain't sure. I remember looking at it in the case and loving the hammer driving the blade thru a nail? That is a bad azz knife I remember thinking.
I have no idea when or where that knife got lost, might have been around the campfire listening to the coon hounds baying or at the river bank while fishing.
2 years later I bought my 1st rifle a remington 700 in .308 at that same store. I would love to see a replica store just like it. Barbed wire coils and evry farming tool one could imagine, the smell of the hay bales. Whoa I think I wenr back in time fee a minute there.
Thanks for making this thread it has brought back some good memories.
Glad it brought back some fond memories! Often it is good to pause and look back at an object that has a definite connection to particular point in one's life. While we have all moved on with our collecting interests, often changing out what we carry and collect for various reasons, there is something a bit special about getting that first knife that was really "yours."
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2014
- Messages
- 11,240
This Case 6347 SH SSP is an 8 dot (1972) knife. I bought it and its twin brother brand spanking new out of an orange pumpkin box in September of 1973. I bought them from the Charleston Hardware Store in Charleston Tennessee. I paid right at $12 each the best I can remember! When I was a kid growing up I had a paper route and I had a very good relationship with the people that worked in the store and my Dad was a regular customer also. So I actually had a store account that I could pay monthly payments on. The guys in the store would call me when they would get in new stock and I would get 1st pick. This was grand for a 18 year old that was making around $2.50 an hour. I would go in every month and make a payment. A lot of times my balance would somehow be lower than it was supposed to be. I was blessed with a wonderful Dad and I sure do miss him! Here is the knife. This knife has been carried more that any that I have owned. I would say that a safe estimate would be at least 25 years of continuous daily carry!
Railsplitter
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2010
- Messages
- 7,968
That's awesome Ron! Thank you for sharing that. The knife is gorgeous.
My first knife was an black Victorinox Classic. I was about seven years old in the mid nineties. Selling popcorn to fundraise for the boy scouts I saved my dividend and my allowance so I could buy the knife for $21.00 at the scout store. It whittled many a stick, gave me my first good gash on my hand and now lives in my box o' knives 20 years later.
A few years later I bought a Buck Minibuck 425. Again around 20 dollars. I carried that one everywhere. Even in my pack to school but I would make sure nobody knew it was there. You wouldn't want your knife taken away.
A few years later I bought a Buck Minibuck 425. Again around 20 dollars. I carried that one everywhere. Even in my pack to school but I would make sure nobody knew it was there. You wouldn't want your knife taken away.