It's a sickness I tell ya!

kamagong

kamagong

Joined
Jan 13, 2001
Messages
10,970
They say that misery loves company. If that's the case I know I'm not alone. Anyone that's on this site in all likelihood suffers from the same malady as I do, namely a love of knives. But I wonder how many have it as bad. Everyone likes getting a new knife. Most like looking at pictures. But how many enjoy reading about them? That's how bad it's gotten for me, I have such an affinity for knives that a few well-written words can set me daydreaming. Whenever I read a passage about things sharp and shiny I try to picture the knife the author had in mind.

Here are a couple of examples.

Mary gave him a brand-new "Barlow" knife worth twelve and a half cents; and the convulsion of delight that swept his system shook him to his foundations.

- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Click to expand...

tcbarlow.jpg


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
Click to expand...

dsc1788o.jpg


Anyone else have favorite quotes? Style points for accompanying pictures.

- Christian
 
Ive got it so bad that a week without getting a new knife just feels like biding my time! ;)
 
This is likely only interesting to a small number of people here, but William Gibson named the character Case in Neuromancer after the same knife company we know and love.
 
I'm sitting here waiting on UPS to deliver one of the cheapest knives I have ever bought. Yes, I am still giddy like a kid on Christmas morning. Out for delivery, check. Gate open, check. Dog put away, check. Bring my lil Case Yeller handled CV bladed Peanut on to the door.

jwh
 
I was looking for Horace Kephart's quote about the knife that bears his name. What about the man that influenced ol' Kephart to a degree, Nessmuk?

Nope, no luck either. Google fu must be off today. Christian, I have to pull my Sigurd Olson book the Singing Wilderness, off the book pile and give it a whirl.

I've got an unquenchable thirst to learn more about knives, both here and in the book stores out there.

We do not go to the green woods and crystal waters to rough it, we go to smooth it. We get it rough enough at home, in towns and cities. –NESSMUK (G.W. Sears), Woodcraft, 1963
Click to expand...

It is one of the blessings of wilderness life that it shows us how few things we need in order to be perfectly happy. –HORACE KEPHART, Camping and Woodcraft, 1917
Click to expand...

A member here said that he was able to get to all of the beautiful places he shared pics of, by not spending a ton of $ on knives or gear. Take that peanut or SAK or Mora or sodbuster etc out to the woods and enjoy yourself. I don't smoke, but Kephart and Sears had it right when they said sitting in the woods, smoking a pipe, listening to the woods around you, was the best entertainment they could think of.

Ol' Horace and George would've enjoyed themselves here.
 
ddml said:
This is likely only interesting to a small number of people here, but William Gibson named the character Case in Neuromancer after the same knife company we know and love.
Click to expand...

That might be so, but I'm one of them. My favorite author and one of my favorite books -- very cool!
 
No one else? I guess I really do have it bad.

Here's another quote that I've always wondered about. Try as I might nothing specific comes to mind, the description of Holmes' knife is just too broad.

...a man who keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantlepiece...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Musgrave Ritual
Click to expand...
 
Doug,

That knife is a puukko by Finnish master smith Pekka Tuominen. The blade is silver steel, the handle is made from birch bark. Prior to taking that picture I had just oiled the blade and applied some Sno-Seal to the handle and sheath. It's one of my favorite knives and a constant companion on my outdoor adventures.

- Christian
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top