How big does it have to be.

jacknife, if you really want to embrace old fartdom, ditch that "modern" peanut and get yourself a flint or obsidian knife!:D

I read a book about Otzi the Iceman that I noticed in the library at work once. It was fascinating to read of his gear and of the circumstances of his death.

As for me, I've come to prefer more modest-sized knives as I've gotten older too (not that I'm especially old). My tastes come from growing out of adolescent "Rambo" fantasies and thinking more realistically about what I use knives for and find comfortable to carry. Ironically, as a kid I had a SAK, and was always hankering for one of those giant "survival" knives as a "real" knife. Now I'm back to SAKS, small slippies, and a couple of modest, traditional belt knives. I also do enjoy the utility of a good multitool.

It would be fun to travel in time and show Otzi a Leatherman tool and a Zippo!
 
Blade size is less important to me than carry comfort. Like most I've found that I don't need a large blade and can do most everything with the blade I have with me regaurdless of it's size. My prefered pocket knife size is right around 3 1/4 inch closed.
 
I've definately reached old fartdom ;-) I carry two or three knives when I'm doing leather work, a trapper, a sowbelly stockman and a Barlow but the knife I love to carry is an early Griffin sleeve board pen that is so thin and fine that I can't feel it in my pocket. It's the knife I take out most often to fondle and show others. I was at the Ontario legislature the other day and security actually let me carry it into the House.;-))

Best regards

Robin
 
My medium size knives are my favorite to EDC, and I can get buy with smaller my Victorinox Cadet II being the best example.
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knarfeng said:
I like about 2 1/2 to 3". But I agree with JackNate, 2" will do if the handle is big enough for the hand to hold. That may be why I like the bigger blade, not for the blade length, but to get the amount of handle I want.
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I totally agree!
 
This is where old knives from peoples sheds, garage or junk drawer come in. Nice to hold and often from premium material, but made pocket friendly light-weight from sharpening or abuse.
 
sidecutter said:
nav, i think any old geezer would LUV to wear any of them knives. for that matter , any wannabe geezer too. great POCKET knives!!!! paul ( old geezer )
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Thanks Paul. I just picked up a Scout pattern about the same size. It's a Colonial with solid celluloid like the easy openers, but the quality doesn't compare. I wish I knew who made them. They're tough to reserch.
 
I feel I am preachin' to the choir on how a nice size slipjoint will get you by for most situations, for example....
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Photo of hunting buddy teaching his son and nephew how to gut a cow elk using his prefered "field" knife of a Buck 303. You just have to trust me that it is in his hand. Pointing out how the next step is going up into diaphram. He will reach up inside to loose heart/lungs and the posterior is already free. Will pull all out and either cart whole elk out or pull empty carcass to good spot to skin and bone with longer knives and saws. Have done it this way a number of times, a couple of times with horses, couple of times on our backs (won't shootem in those places now) and if we are blessed, drive up to capability. Hunting around tools for he and I both are small to medium folding slipjoint knife and lightweight folding saw. Usually one fixed skinner and boning blade between us. (Don't spread it around but sometimes I carry a SAK with blade and saw)

Sort of modern iceman tools for older/heavier concete world men. 300
 
Look at all those steaks layin on the ground :thumbup::D

Nothin finer than a nice fat cow Elk.. Ya know its gonna be a good winter when the freezer is full of deer and elk.
 
I could'nt agree more about knives getting smaller as I get older. I used to carry a Case small copperhead in my left front pocket and a Spyderco centofante in my right front pocket. Over the last year or so I have dropped the Spyderco and usually just carry the Case, it is kept razor sharp and will cut just about anything. I tried to talk my youngest son into letting me field dress a deer with it but he was to excited and used a fixed blade.
Both my boys enjoy carrying smaller slippies . The oldest replaced a very exspensive tactical with a small two bladed texas toothpick.
I really like the small copperhead it seems to have more handle to hold onto as compared to a mini trapper and it is very pocket friendly.
God Bless
Tracy
 
I have been migrating towards smaller knives too. I used to carry big ones such as 5-1/4'' folding hunters, but they scare people and in trying to do delicate work are just too unwieldy. I haven't gotten down to as far as a peanut yet, I like my folders to be in the range of 3-1/4'' to 3-3/4'' closed. My hands are really big and clumsy. :o Medium stockmans, mini trappers, muskrats, scout knives, copperheads (a personal favorite), etc, are all in that range of length. I hunt small game (rabbits and squirrels), and as of now my favorite knife to use on those is a small custom from Russell Easler, 7-1/8'' overall length, 3'' ATS 34 blade with maroon linen micarta handle. Russell made a lot of really nice smaller sized knives for very reasonable prices. I finally managed to find what I had looked for a long time, a Queen stag series copperhead from 1981. I like Queen, I like two bladed copperheads, I like stag, and the "Queen steel" blades are fine by me. :thumbup:

I have my grandfathers knives. One owned a small Camillus two bladed congress, a Pal scout knife and an Imperial small jackknife, the other one owned a Boker 3-7/8" stockman. My Dad said that his father had once upon a time during the 1950's carried a Case folding hunter that my Dad had given him for Christmas one year. That one is long gone many years ago, I wish that I could have gotten my hands on that one too. Dads Pop died when I was about 13, and Moms Dad died in 1954 when he was only 46 years old from a heart attack (eleven years before I was born), so I never got to meet him. The knives and some old tools and farm implements are connections to people who I never got to know well or at all. :cool:
 
knarfeng said:
I like about 2 1/2 to 3". But I agree with JackNate, 2" will do if the handle is big enough for the hand to hold. That may be why I like the bigger blade, not for the blade length, but to get the amount of handle I want.
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My most used fixed blade is the Bark Mini-Canadian
It has a full 4 finger grip with a relatively small blade.
I find it very useful
 
Yeah, as I said before, the peanut does all I need a knife to do, baring push cuts of tinder for camp fires, and thats easily fixed if i actually carry my hatchet ;) :rolleyes:

I like my moose and trappers for the handle, better grip for more than a few cuts at one time, but honestly I never seem to use more than the first inch next to the bolster, or the last inch at the tip... almost never the whole blade.

I do like bigger knives however for the wider/higher blade(edge to spine) it just feels better in most aplications, and all but the most delicate task, seem easier to control than a narrow blade...


But yeah, smaller knives do work good enough to not 'need' anything bigger. But it won't stop me from carrying a moose or ever my 5.25" folding hunter because I can. :D

G.
 
I have never edc'd a knife over 3 1/8" closed, with a preference more towards 2 3/4" to 3" closed. I only edc customs now, and I prefer a fairly stout for size knife. My Bret Dowell shadow fits the bill very nicely:

2 3/4" closed--stout, but not too thick or bulky.

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Durwood, that's a very nice knife!!!

I've always been a fan of shadow patterns, and maybe thats why I loved the sodbuster so much, as well as the Wenger SI and Victorinox pioneer solo and settler. there's something so clean looking about a bolsterless knife.

That one of yours has a very interesting handle shape. The swell at the end looks like it would make for a secure three finger grip, like a mini palm swell.

How's it feel in hand when working?
 
I agree with roughly 3"-3.5" being sufficient for nearly everything.
Well, laguioles should be a bit bigger, otherwise they feel wrong.

I have a recent disappointment with a big classic knife: a large Case Toothpick. It looked good on the picture but now that I have it I wonder what to do with it. The thin blade is not so useful in my perception and it feels cumbersome (in contrast to a laguiole which seems right at 4 to 5 inches). Any opinions on large toothpicks? What do you use them for?
 
small fixed blades are great... as are small knives in general. I hang out in W&SS most of the time. Where most folks talk about the stuck in the woods with one knife scenario.. There are allot of preferences from different folks ranging from machetes to SAKs, but most people seem to kling to the idea of fixed blade knife with a blade of 4 inches or less...I have a small custom neck knife with a 2&1/2 inch blade which has seen probably more woods time than any other blade...small knives are handy, you don;t often need a blade over 4 inches, and they attract less attention, which is a survival strategy in of itself.
 
In general for a slipjoint the largest I like is closed length of 3 1/8". Medium Stockman size.

For a fixed my largest I really carry and use has a blade length of 3 7/8".

My most often used fixed is a custom necker/pocket with a blade of only 1 1/2".
 
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