Jackknife Requests "Your" Story...

[jackknife]

This was sheatknife boys and sheatknife times but there in the middle of the night I used my new slipjoint to eat with and the other boys wanted to see it. I know I was known as a little peculiar in the way I carried folding knifes and I had more than my share of silly coments when I brought a Gerber folding sportsman 1 to moosehunt.

Bosse

I find this fascinating. The difference in the kind of knife culture in the world.

Bosse, even today, does Sweden still have such a strong bias toward the sheath knife instead of a folding pocket style knife? I've seen so many nice knives from Eka, I can't imagine a Swedish knife person not having one in his pocket. But for all practicallity, I can see where a folder is not as good as a sheath knife, but a heck of alot more convienent to carry. What about in cities and small towns, do they carry a sheath knife in town?

What I find very interesting is that in Scandinavia, (Sweden, Norway, Finland) the sheath knife is the king of the hill, but in the U.S. which was a Anglo-Saxon colony of Great Briton, the folding knife was the thing. Like England, where the flding knife reached a high level with the Sheffield works. Even in the early 1800's, the pen knife and clasp knife was the knife choices in England.

While down in Argentina, the decendants of the Mediteranean dirk still live on as the knife of the Gaucho's.

Fascinating!

 

[NirreBosse]

I find this fascinating. The difference in the kind of knife culture in the world.

Bosse, even today, does Sweden still have such a strong bias toward the sheath knife instead of a folding pocket style knife? I've seen so many nice knives from Eka, I can't imagine a Swedish knife person not having one in his pocket. But for all practicallity, I can see where a folder is not as good as a sheath knife, but a heck of alot more convienent to carry. What about in cities and small towns, do they carry a sheath knife in town?


Fascinating!

This also fascinates me. The differences mabye also is brought up by economical frames and environment where the knife is used but on the other hand the nature of sweden and the nature of nothern america is more simular then different.

The Ekas is indeed good knifes and Eskilstuna in the past had many manufactors making very high klass knifes.

Im from very remote part of even Sweden and in my areas a sheatknife has always been the way to go. The folder has been seen down at as a toy basically. Men have carried these toys for light use but for hunting, fishing and working they have not been accepted as real knifes. This is the situation even today.

I belive that it has been a little different in southern Sweden and today I hear of many citypeople using lockbacks or linerlocks as hunting and fishingknifes. The linerlock is seen as a hygienical solution for food and game.

Very few people in Sweden nowadays EDC at all. But a SAK nearby is normal.

In Digerberget its still the sheatknife that rules and coming to our moosehunt with only a folder would be getting into trubble, not the actual cutting of course but the coments when the friends see the knife and making komments about womens tools.

Bosse

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Awhile back I had just returned from a 4 week visit with family to Hungary and vacation in some surrounding countries, This was my Grandfathers knife, he used it 30 years ago the last time I saw him(I was 15 then) to cut Kielbasa and smoked/cured meats in the pantry for our afternoon meals along with cutting up bread and onions and peppers to go with the ham.

My cousin found it in the basement and gave it to me as a gift when I went home.

It's gotta be over 60 years old and other than the pitting/character it's as strong as the day he let me use it to cut myself a piece of kielbasa the last day I saw him.

Here's a pick of my Grandfather, Aunts and Uncles back in the day.

I hadn't even thought of that day or the knife in nearly 30 years, her giving me that knife brought a tear to this old Mad Hungarians eye.

It says Gerlach Poland on the tang I'm not even sure what kind of wood it has for handles, anyone ever seen or heard of this brand.

I had posted this story in the Traditional Forum a while back but the story and knife bring back very fond memories of a time that was long ago.

BTW the trip was great, great food, great booze. great family.

 

[dalee100]

Hi,

For me, pocket knives have always been a part of my life. Growing up as a farm kid, my first knife at age 7 or 8, was given to me by my Mother's father. I don't remember exactly, but it was probably a 2 bladed pen knife. I think it it had clear plastic scales, and was an advertising premium for Northrup-King seed corn.

The thing that is different for me is, unlike most of you, the knives that I carried were just simply nondescript tools. My knife had no more importance to me than any other tool I carried or used. I know I bought Schrade stockmen because that's what the hardware store in town sold. But I can't say which pattern number. And I used and abused them and lost them without regard.

For a number of years I even quit carrying a pocket knife all the time. Though my Daughters would sometimes buy me a cheap folder of some kind for Christmas or Fathers Day. And I would use them just because it was the fatherly thing to do. I even still have quite a few of them. And even though none of them are fancy customs or even brand name production knives, I wouldn't have understood the importance of those treasures had I not stumbled into this place.

So I hoist a toast in thanks to all of you here. Thank You all for showing me something about myself.

dalee

 

[jackknife]

For a number of years I even quit carrying a pocket knife all the time. Though my Daughters would sometimes buy me a cheap folder of some kind for Christmas or Fathers Day. And I would use them just because it was the fatherly thing to do. I even still have quite a few of them. And even though none of them are fancy customs or even brand name production knives, I wouldn't have understood the importance of those treasures had I not stumbled into this place.

dalee

And if you sharpen up those non name brand knives and carry them, then some day many many years from now, your grandchild will be sitting someplace with you watching you make a toothpick, and he'll ask "How long have you had that knife grandad?"

And you can tell him that his mother gave it to you when she was a little girl.

History like that is priceless.:thumbup:

 

[kamagong]

Awhile back I had just returned from a 4 week visit with family to Hungary and vacation in some surrounding countries, This was my Grandfathers knife, he used it 30 years ago the last time I saw him(I was 15 then) to cut Kielbasa and smoked/cured meats in the pantry for our afternoon meals along with cutting up bread and onions and peppers to go with the ham.

I've always loved that story.

 

[flashlife]

My family in America dates back to 1630, when some English ancestor landed in Rhode Island.
My ancestors moved west after the Revolution, stopping in Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri,
before settling in Nebraska. However, being a tree-loving people, they left Neb (no trees)
and finally settled (for sure) back in Missouri.

My grandad had a few hundred acres of central MO farmland and reared 8 kids on it. Never having
much money, they were a very frugal and a 'fix it rather than toss it" family. All the family
income was kept in a glass pickle jar on a shelf in the kitchen and every member of the family
knew that if he or she actually needed to buy something, they could take the money for it
from the jar. Usually the person in need would tell the others what the money was for, and it
was a point of honor to not take money for something you simply wanted, it had to be for
something you actually needed.

During the Depression, my grandad actually 'lost the farm'. The bank forclosed and gave them
notice to vacate. One of their neighbors, who had some inheritance money, bought my family's
farm from the bank, and sold it back to the family, interest-free, with low payments they could
handle. This kind of generosity may be rare today...I hope not. But, back to knives...

My dad was the mechanically inclined 'fixer' in the bunch of 6 boys and two girls. All of
the guys always bought the same brand of $1.00 pocket watch and when these broke, they'd
throw them in the cigar box. When the box had a few broken watches in it, my dad would
take them apart and make one working one from the parts of the broken ones. It was the same
with pocketknives. Most of the guys bought Case knives and were pretty rough on them.
They sharpened them on Missouri sandstone, which is pretty agressive, so in time the most-used
blade would resemble, more than anything else, a sharpened ice pick. Sometimes the pivot pin
head would strip off, leaving the blade wobbling like a wagon wheel. It was then time to
give the knife to Jimmy for repair. Dad would forage in the 'broken knife box' for useable
blades, and armed with a few brass nails, a punch or two and a tack hammer, would replace blades
and pivot pins. When the scales would break, Jimmy could replace them with scales of hand
whittled Missouri walnut.

Sometimes, when a hand wanted to dip into the money jar, there would be a quibble about whether
the item to be bought was really needed...or simply wanted. But, when the broken knife box was
empty, so my dad, Jimmy, couldn't replace a broken blade, there was never a quibble that money
should come out of the box for a new Case. A new bonnet or a new pair of socks might not be
'needed', but there was never a question that a man needed a workable knife.

My dad continued his knife and watch repair, as a hobby, up until his death in 1997. He was
the youngest in the family, and all of that generation is now gone. I still have a couple of
his re-handled and re-bladed knives, which I cherish. But most of all I remember the stories
he told of those times in Missouri in the 30's. This is one of them.

 

[flyfishrman]

I have to say that this is one of my favorite threads of all time. I'm not the most avid reader, but I am hooked on autobiographies. All of this history is great.

Well, below is a picture of all the knives that belonged to my grandfather, James or PawPaw as I called him. I never thought about it, but I would have to say by the looks of his collection he may have had an impact on the fact that I love traditional knives. My father knew how much I enjoyed collecting knives, so he passed these down to me. I was also fortunate enough to have been given his dog tags which along with the knives complete a priceless collection I plan to pass on to my children. In any event nothing of any real value to anyone other than me, but I wouldn't part with them for anything. Mostly old Imperial knives, a Hammer Brand, MKlein and Son's, a couple of knives from Mexico, the usual from someone of his generation. Most were used very hard and not cared for very well. There is an old Schrade Stockman that I still carry from time to time. I have to say that the crown on that collection has to be the Nehi bottle opener knife. I actually bought that for him when I was about 10 or 12. He absolutely cherished that knife. I still remember the look on his face and hearing him laugh when I gave it to him. As you can tell by the looks of the collection he was awful tough on knives. It makes me feel good to see how pristine that Nehi knife is because I know he took care of it because it was a gift from me. He carried it just like all of his others, but he wasn't prying open cans or scraping anything with that one. No sir, that was his "go to meetin'" knife. In any event I can safely say that he is the person that taught me the value of a good knife. His looked rough, but they were always shaving sharp. He passed away about 6 years ago after a long battle with cancer. He was a Korean and Vietnam war vet and retired Aircraft mechanic with the Air Force. In retirement he worked as a carpenter making hand made lamps that we used to travel around and sell. Great times. He taught me to shoot a gun, how to use powertools and saws and taught me how to drive a car. He was a great friend and grandfather and I'm proud to have grown up with him as my mentor in so many things. Enjoy the pics, the lighter is one he picked up while stationed in Cam Rahn Bay Vietnam.

The whole shooting match. This is all of the knives that my dad could find of my grandfather's collection.

 

[jackknife]

Great collection, flyfisherman!!!

Those serpentine jacks are so typical of my memories of the pocket knife of the 1950's and early 60's. Imperial must have made a zillion of them. Shell handles aside, they actually had pretty good carbon steel blades that would get really sharp with little effort.

They don't make 'em like our grandpa's anymore.

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

In my family one is not given a first knife, we earn it!

I come from a long line of farmers and hunters. As such a knife is a very important piece of equipment, although they were never really high quality, but were used as a knife was intended to.

My first knife was definitely a traditional- a small "fish head" puuko from my dad's uncle that originated in Bodo Norway, my Grandmothers home town (the sheath was the rest of the fish body). I had to fillet a fish to earn that fish knife, as my Dad had to do. Unfortunately one day while gopher hunting I put it into a bucket and walked away. The cattle dumped the bucket and I lost the knife (actually I think that one of the livestock must have liked the saltiness of it a bit too much and Gulp!). To this day I feel horrible about loosing the only family heirloom that I know about, and one day I will make a recreation of it and hopefully it will last generations- but at least I was using it.

I am a knife freak/knut/ lover- take your pick, and my daughter is well aware of it. She knows why not to touch a knife on her own and is sure to ask my permission to touch any knife that might be on me or just seen somewhere. It got to the point that when she would ask to touch butter knives in restaurants. Oh- and then she would try to use them to cut her meal. So we figured that she has shown the maturity and want to learn about safe use of knifes that she earned her own. So on Apr.19 of this year at the ripe old age of 2 years and 11 months she got her first knife, one that VCM3 threw into a trade with me without telling me.

Useless without pics:
Ok this was her first "knife" from last Dec- a trainer I had made for her mom(think she likes it?):

Her first cutting session (not many fish in the city so we had to settle for a pizza pop that I hunted down and killed for her):

One has to start them young, now time to train the little one (unless it is born with a knife in hand)!

 

[texasflyfisher]

I got my first knives when I was about 11. My dad gave me a buck cadet stockman pattern. Loved that knife. I foolishly broke the main blade digging out dirt clods. He later gave me an Old Timer stockman which I later lost. Years passed and in high school and college I had a SAK Tinker then several years ago my brother-in-law introduced me to the single bladed one handed opening tacticals.

A few years ago, my dad suffered a heart attack which also accelerated his dementia and the family decided to move him into a home where he could get better care and there is where he still is.

Part of emptying out the house, I inherited the last knife he carried, a 1989 Old Timer MM8 (basically a 8OT) that I cleaned up and have carried a few times. Since then the slipjoint bug hit me big time and I sold or gave away all the tacticals. It is strictly traditional slipjoints and SAKs and I am pretty happy with that.

 

[thawk]

I started using Old Timers when I got a job as a Cable TV Technician in Wyoming in the late 70's. It wasn't until about three years ago I started getting more interested in them. My dad is a collector of many things in his life, and I think pocket knives just became my thing to collect and have a passion for. This forum and these kind of threads quickly fueled the fire. If I would have had a Scout Leader like Mr. Van, or been around someone who had a love for slip joints at an earlier age, it would have began decades earlier.

 

[300Bucks]

Very nice stories, and thanks to all for sharing. I could write a pretty long essay on childhood and kniives. But will keep it short........

Remember how we could carry pocket knives in grade school and everyone did. You got a good paddling if you pulled it out in class to use or just show, or used it as a threat outside.
I grew up as the first TV kids. I can remember when we got our first one in the late 50s, after that cowboys (Roy and Dale), Zorro and eventually Daniel Boone ruled the roost along with shows based on military life.
Like many others the men in my life had and used various knives. My father trained as a watch maker before the war put him in the Air Force as a career, eventually as his units top "Chief". I have his watch makers Kennedy box and tools. Needless to say he could sharpen a knife, chisel or engraving tool. I have a few copper plates where he was learning to engrave and my mothers name is graved over and over....
But like many others I learned knife and axe craft in scouts. Scouts continued to be a part of my life till I was a senior in high school. I had one Scoutmaster killed in his Piper Cub and the funeral was a all scout honor...and the other continued to stop by my work to make sure I was being a good scout up into my 30's. I had everykind of knife under the sun, usually inexpensive, my granddad favored Case. But dad and I seemed to always have old timers. I started in the Buck world as an early teen and stayed with it.
I fished from the time I could unzip my own pants to pee. I began to hunt with a BB Gun, poured over Sports Afield and Outdoor life, decided I was going to be a forest ranger.
Danged if it didn't come true. Some of that Scout stuff looked good on job applications.
Still love the old knives and hatchets, use knives for hunting and fishing but lately in my late 50's do less of that and more in the "Knife Hobby" arena. As long as the lord and the world is willing I will be around right here to share my knowledge.....Yours Truly 300Bucks

 

[yellowjacket]

My family in America dates back to 1630, when some English ancestor landed in Rhode Island.
My ancestors moved west after the Revolution, stopping in Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri,
before settling in Nebraska. However, being a tree-loving people, they left Neb (no trees)
and finally settled (for sure) back in Missouri.

My grandad had a few hundred acres of central MO farmland and reared 8 kids on it. Never having
much money, they were a very frugal and a 'fix it rather than toss it" family. All the family
income was kept in a glass pickle jar on a shelf in the kitchen and every member of the family
knew that if he or she actually needed to buy something, they could take the money for it
from the jar. Usually the person in need would tell the others what the money was for, and it
was a point of honor to not take money for something you simply wanted, it had to be for
something you actually needed.

During the Depression, my grandad actually 'lost the farm'. The bank forclosed and gave them
notice to vacate. One of their neighbors, who had some inheritance money, bought my family's
farm from the bank, and sold it back to the family, interest-free, with low payments they could
handle. This kind of generosity may be rare today...I hope not. But, back to knives...

My dad was the mechanically inclined 'fixer' in the bunch of 6 boys and two girls. All of
the guys always bought the same brand of $1.00 pocket watch and when these broke, they'd
throw them in the cigar box. When the box had a few broken watches in it, my dad would
take them apart and make one working one from the parts of the broken ones. It was the same
with pocketknives. Most of the guys bought Case knives and were pretty rough on them.
They sharpened them on Missouri sandstone, which is pretty agressive, so in time the most-used
blade would resemble, more than anything else, a sharpened ice pick. Sometimes the pivot pin
head would strip off, leaving the blade wobbling like a wagon wheel. It was then time to
give the knife to Jimmy for repair. Dad would forage in the 'broken knife box' for useable
blades, and armed with a few brass nails, a punch or two and a tack hammer, would replace blades
and pivot pins. When the scales would break, Jimmy could replace them with scales of hand
whittled Missouri walnut.

Sometimes, when a hand wanted to dip into the money jar, there would be a quibble about whether
the item to be bought was really needed...or simply wanted. But, when the broken knife box was
empty, so my dad, Jimmy, couldn't replace a broken blade, there was never a quibble that money
should come out of the box for a new Case. A new bonnet or a new pair of socks might not be
'needed', but there was never a question that a man needed a workable knife.

My dad continued his knife and watch repair, as a hobby, up until his death in 1997. He was
the youngest in the family, and all of that generation is now gone. I still have a couple of
his re-handled and re-bladed knives, which I cherish. But most of all I remember the stories
he told of those times in Missouri in the 30's. This is one of them.

Man I miss you dad... And papa..

 

[Peregrin]

Man I miss you dad... And papa..

Thanks for bringing this thread back. Your dad had a great story.
I bet there's a lot of folks that could add their own stories here. I'll do my best to add mine, when I have the time to do it justice.
I too miss my dad, and my papa.

 

[marantz]

Reading this thread made me want to reread some of the stories in Links to Jackknife's Tales. But when I try, I get a 404 error on any of them. Can one of you mods investigate this, please? I wonder if something happened during the last software "upgrade".

 

[Hyesouljah]

Reading this thread made me want to reread some of the stories in Links to Jackknife's Tales. But when I try, I get a 404 error on any of them. Can one of you mods investigate this, please? I wonder if something happened during the last software "upgrade".

I too have been wondering about this. Lots of great stories are missing. Would love to have a chance to read them

 

[hank_rearden]

It's like this. As kids we were used to a flood of slipjoint knives I can't even remember their brands. Some were obviously nice and expensive with jimped red/brown handle inserts and bolsters that patina'd like silver coins. Others were cheap with black plastic inserts and fake bolsters made of thin stamped metal. I recall the most fascinating feature were the spiral thingies with a sharp point at the end, said to be used for screwing into an enemy's stomach so that he'll die of pain.

But we would discuss which configuration was the best.
"Two blades at opposite ends with just one spring"
"Nah, feels too thin."
"How come this has two blades at one end and just one big blade on the other. And the spring looks funny, like it's thicker on one end."
"What's this brass tongue on top of the blade that says 'Press'?"
"Watch out. It makes the blade fly out and stick to your throat."
"Who'd carry something this big in his pocket? It even has a spoon and fork."

As for me, I decided the most elegant design was that one with two blades, each with its own spring, each with its own channel, and both pivoting on the same end.
"Why don't you want the blades on the opposite ends? You could open both and use them at the same time (as a weapon)."
"I like the look of a blank end. The ends on the opposite blades just look ugly."
"But I think the best design is two blades opposite with just one spring."
"It's too thin and look, the blades are bent just to fit in one channel."

I usually won the argument.

 

[Peregrin]

Reading this thread made me want to reread some of the stories in Links to Jackknife's Tales. But when I try, I get a 404 error on any of them. Can one of you mods investigate this, please? I wonder if something happened during the last software "upgrade".

I too have been wondering about this. Lots of great stories are missing. Would love to have a chance to read them

I've spent some time trying to figure out how to update those links. I'm no internet guru, so it's outside my areas of expertise.
I use google advanced search, with bladeforums.com for the domain name, enter the name of the thread, and always get what I'm looking for.
Maybe posting in Tech Support may get some help from those on high as to how to make those links work again.