How does your Folder make you Feel??

[waynorth]

In second grade, I had a crush on a girl who lived right next door to P.S.22, my grammar school, until I switched to Catholic school the next year.
She had dark hair, amazing grey eyes, and rendered me speechless! I wasn't sure what was happening, but I carved her initials in an apple tree, and carved a heart around them.
That hollow-handled knife I used is long gone, but that brief time in my life was enough to attach me to hollow-handled knives.
They are visceral reminders of sweet but unrequited attraction sometimes, when I see or hold one.
Occasionally a knife just clicks with one's psyche, and spurs imagination, whether one admits it or not.
That hollow-handled knife (a scout type is all I remember - about the knife anyway! I remember the girl!), a Wharncliffe Trapper, a Tomato Acrylic Congress, lately a Boiled Barlow, and now a Stag Stockman have all done it to me.
This knife has wonderful Stag, warmly under-toned, and I am sure it will age nicely. It doesn't "fill" right to the bolsters, but it reaches toward them so looks just right. It has the right stuff as to blades also, including a shapely Clip, and a spey, that important ingredient to Stockmanliness!

This knife makes me want to don my Stetson, hop on my old Paint, and go for a ride in the hills.

O.K, I don't have a horse, but I could slap my ball cap on backwards, and jump into my Mustang GT, and terrorize the neighborhood!:thumbup:
Alright, alright, no mustang either!:grumpy:
But in my dreams I carefully adjust my Borsalino, slide into my Maserati Quattroporte, and go roaring off into the mountains!!
But with this knife in my pocket, I would happily hitch a ride on a hay wagon! And that is probably closest to the possible!!
At any rate, the knife makes me feel rugged, and ready for anything!!
Mini test results: perfect pull and snap, sharp out of the tube (nice clean slices of suspended printer paper!!), and feels just right in my L.L.Bean jeans! And "Oh That Stag"!!
So how does your knife make you feel??
What lifts your life up from the ordinary, when you have that knife on you?? And of course, what knife is it??

 

[C Ben Susrool]

^^^
That is a beautiful knife.

Any knife I carry makes me feel confident and complete.
Which is completely different than I feel without a knife in my pocket. So that happens very inoften.

 

[powernoodle]

I think for the vast majority of people who take the time and effort to post on an internet knife forum, the emotion of owning and fondling and using a knife is about 95% of the knife experience. The other 5% is the cutting. Any of them will cut stuff. But feeling good is why we do this knife stuff.


A knife like this makes me feel good.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Charlie, I can see ya, eyes squinting into the sun as your Stetson pulled down low to protect from the harsh setting light and a small smile playing on your lips, yep, I can see it sir !

As for me, one knife gave me that feeling, a really tough one made by JD Smith, belongs to my wife's uncle, one he picked up right from JD at Ashokan one year.

Right now though, my collection is mighty low, hard to really tell how the ones I have make me feel at the moment, guess I've hit a flat level for some reason, need to work on that I think, thanks for rousing my thoughts on the subject
G2

 

[Bigfattyt]

 

[SAK Guy]

My Dad gave me one of his Old Timer 8OT's today and the memories flooded back to when he handed me my first knife back in the 60's....it was a 8OT Stockman just like this one.

Lost mine in the fire and have thought of it often ever since. Hopefully this one will help fill that void.

Here it is pictured with another thing that reminds me of him, an old RIDGID 620 folding rule.

 

[waynorth]

You guys are hitting all the basics.
Just having a knife at all is critical. Big Stag is beautiful. Seeing Cattle evokes knifeyness!
Who it came from is a big factor sometimes!!
All good!!

More please!!

 

[jc57]

Makes me feel like I'm ready to cut something if something needs cutting. I guess I don't have any deep emotional associations or happy childhood memories associated with pocket knives.

I'm honestly about as happy whether it's a Case, Buck, GEC, or Victorinox in my pocket. Each have their own charms and give me a feeling of being properly equipped for the day.

 

[arizonaranchman]

My GEC's are my daily companions. Other knives i have are just tools that i have no real attachment to. I only have 6 traditional folders but each is a special and cherished companion that sees frequent use and carry. A couple of them see the large majority of carry/use in particular. They are familiar old companions that just "complete" me in the routine of my daily life. When my 55, the 92 or the Pemberton is in my pocket then all is well and right. Like my old briar pipes, they spark memories of various events or activities, trips, vacations, etc. They are a part of me basically, they perform superbly when ever needed and are reminiscent of simpler and (I feel) better times.

To me a pocket knife is just as important as my wallet, keys and my old Seiko wristwatch (oh, and my old "lucky" 1880 Morgan silver dollar). No matter where I go or what I'm doing it's an essential part of life's "kit" I always have with me.

 

[Xenocrates]

I always feel a connection to earlier and simpler times when I think of my pocketknives. Knives or a cutting implement of some type are about the oldest tools known to man. I was given my first knife when I was about 8 years old, I was taught it was a tool and not a toy and how to take care of it, and I have always carried one since (52 years old now). I don't feel completely dressed unless I have a knife in my pocket.

 

[davek14]

but that brief time in my life was enough to attach me to hollow-handled knives.
They are visceral reminders of sweet but unrequited attraction sometimes, when I see or hold one.
Occasionally a knife just clicks with one's psyche, and spurs imagination, whether one admits it or not.
That hollow-handled knife a Wharncliffe Trapper, a Tomato Acrylic Congress, lately a Boiled Barlow, and now a Stag Stockman have all done it to me.
This knife has wonderful Stag, warmly under-toned, and I am sure it will age nicely. It doesn't "fill" right to the bolsters, but it reaches toward them so looks just right. It has the right stuff as to blades also
But in my dreams I carefully adjust my Borsalino, slide into my Maserati Quattroporte, and go roaring off into the mountains!

You should write for Penthouse.

Knife fondling is a huge part of it for us all. Someone had a thread asking what knife you kept next to your easy chair as a worry stone.

 

[Kisatchie]

for me I think I would call it balanced ballast. I would walk off at an angle , if I did not have my wallet in my back left pocket and a pocket knife in the right front. my first love was a redhead with moss green eyes in kindergarden ,,,I was an early starter

 

[cards94]

You should write for Penthouse.

Knife fondling is a huge part of it for us all. Someone had a thread asking what knife you kept next to your easy chair as a worry stone.

there's probably more fondling and flicking than cutting.

 

[kamagong]

Feeling introspective today Charlie? BTW that's a beautiful knife you have there. Proportions are spot on. What pattern number is that?

I need to mull over your question before I can frame a suitable response, but here's a quote I think you'll appreciate. It's about a fixed blade, not a folder, so I beg your forbearance. The knife pictured is mine, the type the author would've carried.

I own an old Finnish knife or puukko, the blade made from an old file, the handle and molded case of birch bark. I have carried it for thousands of miles and it has never failed me. The well-tempered steel is hard enough to open a tin and still sharp enough to fillet a fish without needing retouching. Not long ago I dropped it while at Listening Point, and traced and retraced my steps without avail....Since it was early November, the smell of snow was in the air, and we knew if we did not find it then, it would lie outdoors all winter.

"Let’s go back once more," Al said before dusk settled down. "We might just be lucky." Back we went.....Then, with a shout of triumph, my young friend ran over and placed the knife in my hand. Before he left, he took a picture of me standing by the cabin turning the knife over and over. Far more than a tool, the knife to me a symbol of the spirit that went into the cabin, the canoe, and all things made by men proud of their work and of what they had learned to do.

Sigurd Olson, Reflections from the North Country

- Christian

 

[jakemex]

I'm not prepared for the day without my knife... Since I was a boy of 8 or so... Can't remember exactly when I got my first knife. Playing down by the creek, fishing, as a teen cleaning gasket surfaces cutting heater and radiator hose, stripping wire scraping fouled plugs and battery post and connector corrosion I always needed/used my knife. College days in the mechanical design classes, machine shop, welding shops always needing my knife. Eight years in the USAF in missile maintenance, always using/needing my knife. Project engineer and welding supervisor in a pipe fab shop... Always needing my knife! Today, even though there are fewer needs and uses for a knife, but the habit, the need to be prepared for whatever may come my way, requires the knife's presence in my EDC.

 

[knarfeng]

So how does your knife make you feel??
What lifts your life up from the ordinary, when you have that knife on you?? And of course, what knife is it??

After more than 50 years of carrying a pocket knife every day, putting a knife in my pocket makes me feel "normal". It doesn't have to be a particular knife. About any blade will do.

For about the last 3 months it's been this Queen canoe.

 

[SAK Guy]

Feeling introspective today Charlie? BTW that's a beautiful knife you have there. Proportions are spot on. What pattern number is that?

I need to mull over your question before I can frame a suitable response, but here's a quote I think you'll appreciate. It's about a fixed blade, not a folder, so I beg your forbearance. The knife pictured is mine, the type the author would've carried.


- Christian

:thumbup:

How does the old Nordic saying go...

"A knifeless man is a lifeless man"

 

[Campbellclanman]

I like this Threads question " How does your knife make you feel ?"

I am not too sure what happened to me, as I was just a New Zealand lad - not bought up on a farm, I didn't have ANY connection to anything in the way of knives - as to what the older Generation ( and some of the more lucky modern generation ) of USA or overseas continent population had/has.

But what I can tell you is that I don't feel complete if I step outside and don't have a knife on me, I have my edc,s recently lost a very important one, I like the larger folders as well, so if I am going away, or out for a day, I plan the day before what I will carry - if I am wearing a jacket, I have my large folder there, and my slippie in my r/f jeans pocket.



These two guys travelled with me to the UK, Stan Shaw handled the Red Bone Clip point - and my ebony spear always went everywhere - its gone and I don't think I will ever see it again, if you could only imagine how I feel about that -it wasn't just that it was a PPP beauty - but how I felt when I carried it, two fantastic members here have offered to replace it and one as we speak is making its way towards me - thank you guys.
But I have lots of other knives that deserve to be carried, and going through this makes me realise my mind is slowly accepting my queens will come out and enjoy careful use!
I feel somethings missing when I don't have my Traditionals..

 

[waynorth]

A fine Pukko, and a great story, Christian!
Thanks everyone for your contributions thus far!
Duncan I share your emotion about that lost knife. It is the same pattern, but for my bone handles, that I carry. I'd be broken up about it if it just disappeared!! Yikes!!
Offer still stands!

 

[mike Berkovitch]

I think like most of us, if not all, without a traditional knife in my pocket I feel like a part of me is missing. Sometimes it happens that I leave home in great rush forgetting to drop one in my pocket, and guess what, I always come back to grab a knife. Otherwise I feel disturbed all day.
Duncan I am sorry for your loss you must feel very bad it is a great loss, let's hope that someone worthy will find it

Mike