Its a state of mind...

thejamppa

thejamppa

Joined
Aug 20, 2009
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... being lover of traditional knives. I've come to such conclusion. Ever since I was introduced traditional knives, I have changed bit. I've down sized my locking knives and one hand openers. I carry mostly slipjoint or traditional lockblade.

I've also noticed that I've calmed down bit. With quick knives you took knife, flick it open and did your job and there it was. Now I take my slipjoint and use both hands to open it. It takes alot time but somehow during that time I've learned to apprciate the beautify and functionality of traditional knife. I never learned that one one hand opening fast knives.

Speed is not everything. I enjoy greatly my newly aquired state of mind. I like to stop at touching leaves of trees, smell flower or breath clear air and generally enjoy the little things. Those same apply in traditional knives. The feeling you take your knife the sound it makes when you open and the snap when you open it fully or close. It is all part of aesthetic world so many person these days is completely unaware.

I've learned to love little things and enjoy them. That is also I love traditional knives over modern knives, assisted, flippers and such.

To what end we have to hurry? If we rush thru our lives, we just rush to our deaths. What good does it do, if you never stop while, just to enjoy life and the little things it had for you.

From what I've heard my nearly 70 year old mother, life in her youth was very different. People did not had to rush and pocket knives were used as tool. To me, traditional knives reflect that world, where my mother grew, where everything was carefully planned, carefully made with pride and time where you took your time to do your job because you wanted to make it good.

These days people have too much rush, they hurry and are sloppy in their work. People don't take pride of their work but they have to rush and do more, do more work. What good is it doing job you hate and do work you don't feel proud of?

Perhaps I am romantic or perhaps I'm idealist, but I am not yet 30, though I am closing it. I want to enjoy world and do things I love. I want to take pride of my work. I want to work for living and not live for the working.

Sometimes it feel I was born hundred or so years too late...

Thank you everyone.
 
thejamppa said:
... being lover of traditional knives. I've come to such conclusion. Ever since I was introduced traditional knives, I have changed bit. I've down sized my locking knives and one hand openers. I carry mostly slipjoint or traditional lockblade.

I've also noticed that I've calmed down bit. With quick knives you took knife, flick it open and did your job and there it was. Now I take my slipjoint and use both hands to open it. It takes alot time but somehow during that time I've learned to apprciate the beautify and functionality of traditional knife. I never learned that one one hand opening fast knives.

Speed is not everything. I enjoy greatly my newly aquired state of mind. I like to stop at touching leaves of trees, smell flower or breath clear air and generally enjoy the little things. Those same apply in traditional knives. The feeling you take your knife the sound it makes when you open and the snap when you open it fully or close. It is all part of aesthetic world so many person these days is completely unaware.

I've learned to love little things and enjoy them. That is also I love traditional knives over modern knives, assisted, flippers and such.

To what end we have to hurry? If we rush thru our lives, we just rush to our deaths. What good does it do, if you never stop while, just to enjoy life and the little things it had for you.

From what I've heard my nearly 70 year old mother, life in her youth was very different. People did not had to rush and pocket knives were used as tool. To me, traditional knives reflect that world, where my mother grew, where everything was carefully planned, carefully made with pride and time where you took your time to do your job because you wanted to make it good.

These days people have too much rush, they hurry and are sloppy in their work. People don't take pride of their work but they have to rush and do more, do more work. What good is it doing job you hate and do work you don't feel proud of?

Perhaps I am romantic or perhaps I'm idealist, but I am not yet 30, though I am closing it. I want to enjoy world and do things I love. I want to take pride of my work. I want to work for living and not live for the working.

Sometimes it feel I was born hundred or so years too late...

Thank you everyone.
Click to expand...

You're not alone in that feeling, Jani.

A great deal of attraction of a slip joint for me, is that it IS a link to a slower time, when people took more care because they cared. I grew up in that time, and my childhood mentors like my grandad, Dad, Mr. Van, and even my Uncle Paul, were men who did not rush things, and moved in a very deliberate mannor. If it took an extra seconf to open that knife using two hands, they used that extra second to think about what they were doing, planning what they were going to do.



"To what end we have to hurry? If we rush thru our lives, we just rush to our deaths. What good does it do, if you never stop while, just to enjoy life and the little things it had for you."

It took me a while to re-remember that fact. Too many people are in a hurry to go nowhere in record time. It's modern life, or a lack of. Now all that matters is the knife opens fast, or the wonder gun of the month holds a few more rounds of ammo, or the lastest motorcycle get to the 200mph mark. If you go too fast and skip over too much living, you won't have the great memories later on.

I think our grandparents lived a much richer life than many today, in spite of less money to spend. Thier richness was in the quality of life, not qantity. When I look at a well used old slip joint, with blades well worn down to maybe 50%, I think of all those old guys I knew growing up, that were from another era. They didn't worry about the things people worry about today, nor did they have the materialistic waste in their lives. They had just what they needed, and they lived life to the fullest.

Thank you Jani, for the wonderful post!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I think the world may be a better place if it was slapped back a hundred years or so.

Carl.
 
I find the same thing when I carry a slipjoint which I have solely for the last few months. Particularly a Victorinox sak, but I guess the same thing applied to a traditional. But one good thing about the tactical one handers is that they got more men to carry knives than they used to. It was getting sad there for a while.
 
Great post Jani!

That is one heck of an eye opening though. That all we are really rushing to is our deaths.

I'm putting my one hander away for awhile thanks to you!
:D
Thank you!
Shane
 
Nicely put my friend. That is my goal...getting to a point in my existence where I can slow down, relax and appreciate things more. My life is so rushed I really needed to hear what you said. Thank you
 
lwt210 said:
You are wise beyond your years.

Great post.
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Thank you for kind words, everyone. I do have my moments when I can shine :D But don't expect that I can produce much like this. Unfortunately I am not jackknife in ways of words and stories. And to actually produce this much, I spent 6 years in realization and doing many very unpleasant things like getting face to face my own evil and darkness. Fortunately when you face the evil and darkness then you can vanquish them.
 
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Great post Jani!

I have been coming to the same conclusions as well lately. It just feels good carrying a traditional knife and I think you nailed the reasons why. :thumbup::cool:

-Max
 
That was such a great post. I'm only 22 but I feel the same as you why rush. I have a many friends and family who tell me I have lived way beyond my years. So I feel so glad to know I have another formite who is also in my shoes. Thank you for the wonderful post. Take Care my friend Ash
 
What changed things for me was working in the LE world.

After you have seen suffering and death close up, you learn to take time to smell the roses.

Life can be snuffed out in the blink of an eye.

So you can find me taking the time to be with family, friends, and old pocket knives. I got a bunch of the whizz bang autos and tacticool folders collecting dust back there somewhere in the safe. My slippies with carbon blades get all the love now.

Got to go strop my Schrade 881 open stock now. Just cut up my dinner (feta topped chicken) with it and am never happy with my edges.
 
Great post Jani!:thumbup:

Lately, I've been trying to spend as much time as possible with my family (when before I was "too busy" and just used to dread being around them for any length of time and resented being dragged away from "more important business":o). I don't know if it's just that I'm getting older but I've come to realize (partially due to the stories and general atmosphere in here) what's really important in life and to take the time and savor it while I can.
 
What a nice thread! Back in the 1940's (for instance) the cameraman shooting a movie scene might run the scene without moving for three or four minutes. Now the crashboomscreech garbage movies change the shot about once every second, and sometimes twice a second. I blame the automobile first, and the boob tube secondly for a good share of the hurry-up mentality. I watch about an hour a month of tv, and I drive my car just as slow as I can without presenting a safety hazard to others. If an enormous modern building can't be built in three weeks they won't build it. In times past it sometimes took 200 years to build one, and it might still be standing today. The modern building will be torn down in 50 years for sure, and possibly in ten. "Where am I going, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" :eek:
 
lwt210 said:
What changed things for me was working in the LE world.

After you have seen suffering and death close up, you learn to take time to smell the roses.
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Isn't that the truth!! Working as a LEO or as a soldier and experiencing what those professions have to face will definitely change your perspective on things.

I spent a year in combat in the desert (OIF1) and it no doubt changed me significantly due to my experiences there. I am now more of a "take time to smell the roses" kind of person and much less inclined to waste life away in the materialistic rat-race that so many define their lives by.

Pain, death, and hardship were all parts of life that nearly everyone experienced in past generations. It was just part of the life experience. Modern generations of people are usually far removed from such unpleasantries outside of a few occupations that deal with it regularly. As a result, I think most modern people don't value simple everyday life and everything that goes with it to the extent that past generations have.

I think seeing and experiencing those things as a part of your daily life instills a hightened awareness of your daily life and gives you a perspective in which everything around you is much more valuable and worthy of your attention. What once did not have value or seem worthy is now precious. This was the world our great-grand parents, grand parents, and parents (depending how long-in-the-tooth you might happen to be) lived in and their generation's values reflected it.

Life can get snuffed out a million different ways so better enjoy yours while it still occupies your body.

Time to put a little oil on the joints:D
 
Maybe there's something goin' around. I just replied to a thread called 'nostalgia' in the General Forum, about how I'd lately started to think about the Old Timer knives I used to see in displays at sporting goods stores, back in the '70s when I was a teenager. I hadn't been able to afford even those knives then. It scares me to think about how much money I've spent in the last 20 years or so, on Spydercos, Benchmades, Chris Reeve, and quite a few customs. But, just in the last couple of weeks, I've really begun to yearn for the good ol' days. The thought of those Old Timers really got me wishing I could go back. I was born in the early '60s, and I think I arrived just soon enough to get a sense of the slower and relatively simpler times my parents and grandparents were living in then (although I've no doubt life felt just as complicated for them as we might feel it is today). Black & white TV (no remote control), no computers, no cell phones, no video games. If we were bored, we'd go outside and find something to do under the sunshine. I think that simpler life began to disappear in the '70s, and was pretty much gone by the time the '80s rolled upon us.

Anyway, my longing to 'go back' manifested itself in my latest acquisitions to arrive in the mail (today). Two '70s vintage, USA made, Schrade Old Timers; an 8OT stockman and a 25OT Folding Hunter. Sorta gives me a nice, comfortable warm feeling to hold these in my hand. Feels nice.

Dave
 
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Good for you, Jani. You've acquired much wisdom at an early age that some never acquire regardless of age. Well said. :thumbup:
 
Great post, thejamppa. Just one nit-picky observation. I'm not sure I totally agree with this part ...

thejamppa said:
Now I take my slipjoint and use both hands to open it. It takes alot time ...
Click to expand...

... it really doesn't take all that much time to take a traditional slipjoint out of your pocket, open it, cut something, close it, and put it back in your pocket.

Twice as much time as a one-hand wonder knife? Sure - maybe even three times as much time. But we're talking a few seconds at most! Multiply that by all the times you need to take out knife and cut something, and carrying a one-hand wonder knife might save you 12 minutes over the course of your life. And like you said:

thejamppa said:
To what end we have to hurry? If we rush thru our lives, we just rush to our deaths. What good does it do, if you never stop while, just to enjoy life and the little things it had for you.
Click to expand...

Beyond just the quick deployment thing, a lot of fans of one-hand wonder knives trot out the old "there are times when you're holding something and thus only have one hand available to draw and open the knife" argument. I'm certain that a lot of guys lead more exciting lives than I do :p but I carried a Spyderco Delica or Endura everywhere except the office for nearly eight years. In all that time, this happened to me once. I was stringing up a rain tarp at a campsite in central Florida and was able to hold the cord with one hand and draw my knife with the other. Hardly a life-or-death situation and - truth be told - I probably could have drawn and opened a traditional slipjoint.

Anyway, thanks again for the great thoughts, thejamppa.

-- Mark
 
good advice, i think it would do the world alot of good if every body stopped to enjoy the little things in life
 
Very true observations and something that I think most of us here share.

- Christian
 
Great opening post followed up with great replies. I needed to read all of it. I catch my self sometimes trying to hurry through the day and for no good reason. Might as well take the time to enjoy where I am at and make the most of it.
I also spend more time than I should looking at trappers on line when I've got more than I will ever be able to use up. Silly.
Jim
 
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