How this forum has changed the way I thought about knives. Before and After.

[kidwholaughs]

Hey Guys,

I can't recall the exact time when I started reading this forum, a year, maybe two ago. I think it was around the time when I was edcing my greco falcon. It was a great knife, but wayyy too heavy. I guess when you are 22, weight isn't an issue. I, like most others, was big into the tactical knives thing. Through reading this forum, I realized carrying all that weight was cumbersome and most of all, useless. I have found that almost all I need to get done with a knife can be done with a small knife slip joint. I have found that most tactical knives can't outcut slippies on light cutting tasks.
This has had a profound way in how I use my pocket knives and my buying pattern\s. I have bought nothing but slippies for the past year. These days, I am more focused on my skills in keeping my knives sharp and how to better use them. To tell you the truth, I edc small slippies. and keep a Vic solider around. For bigger tasks, fix blades or hachets. The right tool for the right job with the proper skills and a good attitude can go a lot further. This is how this forum has changed me and how I think about knives. How about you guys? Happy new year.

God Bless

 

[Amos Iron Wolf]

Good for you! I guess hanging around here has helped me realize that slippies were carried for generations before us for the simple reason that they did what needed to be done without a lot of weight. Those same knives were also a pleasure to handle, and look at in many cases.

Being here has also helped me savor old memories, and enjoy partaking of those others have shared. They remind my of where I came from and where I would like to be again someday.

Best to this bunch of "folksy" folk and a fine, slower New Year to all. I do love that term "Folksy!" I think if someone called Mayberry a "folksy" place, Andy Taylor would just smile and say, "Yep, it's a fine and dandy place!"

 

[T.A.DAVISON]

slippies were carried for generations before us for the simple reason that they did what needed to be done without a lot of weight. Those same knives were also a pleasure to handle, and look at in many cases.

They remind my of where I came from and where I would like to be again someday.

The old makers could of made a bigger knife, but why?
Slippies are just a traditional thing.
I love reading the post here, how these guys get by with just a little Ole pocket knife.

All the best.

Todd

 

[jackknife]

Hey Guys,

I can't recall the exact time when I started reading this forum, a year, maybe two ago. I think it was around the time when I was edcing my greco falcon. It was a great knife, but wayyy too heavy. I guess when you are 22, weight isn't an issue. I, like most others, was big into the tactical knives thing. Through reading this forum, I realized carrying all that weight was cumbersome and most of all, useless. I have found that almost all I need to get done with a knife can be done with a small knife slip joint. I have found that most tactical knives can't outcut slippies on light cutting tasks.
This has had a profound way in how I use my pocket knives and my buying pattern\s. I have bought nothing but slippies for the past year. These days, I am more focused on my skills in keeping my knives sharp and how to better use them. To tell you the truth, I edc small slippies. and keep a Vic solider around. For bigger tasks, fix blades or hachets. The right tool for the right job with the proper skills and a good attitude can go a lot further. This is how this forum has changed me and how I think about knives. How about you guys? Happy new year.

God Bless

I think I've preached it many times in the past, but think about how our grandfathers generation got by with what they had, and they lived in a much more rural environment with more manual labor than today. I remember reading someplace about the population figures before and after WW2. It was only the decade after WW2 ended that there was a huge push from rural to urban or the new suburban lifestyle. Things became more mechanized and by the 1970's the vast majority of the nation was living urban lives.

Overlay that info on the type of pocket knives sold in America and you see a definate trend. In a time when more people were really down on the farm and needed a good pocket knife in the course of his day, the regular Joe carried a two blade serpentine jack, or a barlow, or even a stockman. Then fast forward a few decades and with more of us in office cubicles, or pushing buttons on a machine and living in planned suburban communities, a trend starts for large single blade locking folders. Alot of them are marketed with martial connotations, even named with mayhem type names. Maybe I missed something here, but does the term creative marketing come to mind?

Buying habits are greatly influenced by what we read and see in advertising. Media like the knife magazines are not interested in helping you pick out a good pocket knife that will be all you need for the next several years. They are in the sole buisness of making money from the advertising that goes on those glossy pages, and they get them by pushing the knife of the month by the manufatures who want to create a never ending market. The tanto pointed wonder knife that was hot last year is obsolite now with a new dramatic curve to a blade that makes no sense exept that it looks different and will make a young man spend more money to get the "new" knife.

All these knife magazines are a relative recent thing. I recall a time when there were none at all. The only time you saw a knife article was once in a while in Field And Stream, or Sports Afield, when they would have a run down on the different patterns like trappers or stockman. Back then there was no such thing as a tactical knife per se. The big lockblade one could buy was the Buck folding hunter. It was the king of folding knives for a long while.

Then the knife explosion came in the early 1980's. I think it was a factor of larger disposable income of a class of young single males that grew up with a father who did not hunt or do other outdoor activities with thier kids. They did not know alot, but they could pick up one of the new knife magazines on the market and find out what was the hot trend in knives. They were the target of a created market. A totally artificial market at that. The people who own and run the modern knife companies and magazines would hate our granddads. Granddad had one pocket knife. If you really get right to the crux of the matter, its all we need. I found when I stopped reading the knife rags many years ago, I stopped buying knives. I came back to sanity. I only thank the Lord above A.G. Russell was there to sell off my knife collection for me. He allowed me to be liberated.

kidwholaughs- I'm glad you are finding a truer path. Our fathers and grandfathers really did know what they were doing. They were called the Greatest Generation, and for a good reason. If we copy them as our role models we could do a great deal worse, but not much better.

God bless and happy new year!

 

[sixgunner455]

I think that this forum has helped me to articulate some things that I had gotten back to without its influence. I stopped carrying black tactical stuff before I even left the military -- the only time I carried one was in uniform, and it was just a habit. Not that there was anything wrong with them, I just got bored. They aren't pretty, and most don't really cut well. But the traditional, thin bladed slippies do, and are pretty doing it.

I always had a number of them, and they were what I really cut with. The first couple of times I cut an apple with a tactical folder, I couldn't understand why it didn't slice as well as my little SAK or Pocket Pal. Looked at the blade geometry, and decided that they suck to actually cut with, so I started carrying one of the little knives along with them.

Nowadays, I just use a medium sized slippy for just about everything, and hardly even pull a knife out of the knife block to cut food in the kitchen with. Last night, we wanted to slice a pound cake. My dad started pulling out a long kitchen knife and a cutting board. I had three slices done -- one each for him, myself, and my wife -- and my pocket knife wiped off before he could get the stuff out. A smallish knife, sharp, and applied with skill and thought, can do just about anything that needs doing. Why carry more weight, then? Why occupy space with more trendy bulk? It isn't needful.

Happy New Year to everybody. Hope we can all enjoy the space here as much in the coming year as I have in the past.

 

[338375]

I have always liked slippies... Each has a character of its own, and even though smaller in size than most of the knives that are so popular today, they are able to do tasks which a lot of people wouldn't think posssible..

I have to admit that up until about 6 weeks or so ago, I have been carrying a folder with a pocket clip.. My reasoning was that the pocket clip made it easier to retrieve and the thumb studs made for easier one handed opening..

I had wanted to edc a slippie for quite some time, but every time I tried it, having the knife loose in pocket felt really akward..
Well, I finally decided to put up the folder I had been carrying and carry nothing but a slippie for a one month period. It only took a few days and it no longer felt awkward having a slippie in pocket. Now I can actually carry and enjoy some of the knives that I have been collecting over the past few years...

 

[flyfishrman]

I love this thread!

I can also say that the time I've spent here has changed the way I buy and use my knives. This place is truly a source that continually educates me and helps me appreciate my traditional slippies and fixed blades. Things that have changed for me this year from spending time here: More of my knives get used and I plan on getting my collection to a point where everything gets used, I've traded or sold many knives that I had no use for, Advice here has pointed me in the direction of new patterns that I had previously never considered buying and I have worked those patterns into my EDC, I have a better understanding of steels, I have a wider knowledge of great knife companies that have come and gone, I've seen pics from around the world of knives that I may not have seen otherwise, This section of the forums has helped keep memories alive of my grandfather who taught me to drive, shoot, work with wood and handle a knife, It's reinforced the fact that less may not be more but it can be all you need, All of this and much more in a laid back and friendly environment that I can relax in after a long day at work. I could go on all day, but I'll give the rest of you a chance to post!

Thanks kidwholaughs for the thread and thanks to all you traditional and fixed blade regulars for making this a great place to spend my time!!

 

[Franciscomv]

I came to this forum because, being from a country where folding knives are anything but traditional I needed a place to get information about patterns, brands, etc.

Argentine knife culture revolves around fixed blades, rural workers and older outdoorsmen usually view folding pocket knives as toys. So slippies where kind of a novelty for me.

About "tactical" folders, not all one hand opening folders are thick bladed, useless, chunks of S30V, there are some very good ones that cut really well.

 

[sunnyd]

This thread is a very good one. Thanx kidwholaughs.. Every post here thus far has been heartfelt and intelligent. I find that Amos & Jackknife have already said it for me here so rather than being redundant. I'll tell you that I was weened on the stockman pattern from the first, 8 or 9 as I recall. From there many pocket knife patterns have graced my pockets. Canoes, Trappers, Mini-Trappers, Barlows, Jacks, ect..

I would also like to comment on Fransicomv's last statement. He speaks the truth here as with all his postings in this forum that I have read. He has alot of insight from his perspective living in Argentina. Their are some one handed opening folders out there made with traditional craftsmanship and are not only functional but are very beautiful as well..

Here is a visual of two that I own that I only posted in here once several years ago. They are made from scratch and hand forged with the South African makers own damascus steel recipe and hold an edge better than any super steels that are out. I know because I have tried many of them.

God speed to you all in '08

 

[cortopar]

Those look very similar to Case's Slim Lock pattern, which I love.