I was in Spain and Germany for a couple of weeks. Concerning knives I had the primary intent of finding some Solingen carbon steel pocket knives but I didn't see one, in fact I saw very few pocket knives. The ones that I did see weren't for sale, which were some Sheffield pocket knives including some Rodgers, in a display case at a cutlery shop in Barcelona. I found a few stainless models in stag and pearl but they were out of my price range since I wasn't interested in stainless. In hardware stores around Barcelona the most common non-kitchen knives were Opinels and Swiss army knives. In Germany the most common models seemed to be fixed and especially lockblades, where one-hand openers weren't as common in most shops that I visited. In one store I was demonstrating what the button on the blade of a one-hand opener was for, I commented that such knives seemed to be the most popular models among knife knuts in the US, and evidently a British women had overhead the conversation as a bit later in the store she said to her husband that most Americans liked switchblades. It's a bit ironic as in the same store I did get to play around with a nice Tree Brand switchblade.
The exchange rate being good I picked a few readily available knives like Opinels, a couple of Swedish/Finnish, SAKs and such. I picked up a Victorinox SAK that I hadn't seen before, which had a large blade, screwdriver-bottle opener which was a bit curved, magnifying glass and Phillips across from it, corkscrew on the bottom with the small screwdriver nested in it, and a ballpoint pen along with the toothpick and tweezers in the end of teh handle. I had been looking for a smaller model with a corkscrew and Phillips so it was a nice find. Another knife that I picked up that I liked a lot was what the store owner called a pathfinder. It's a simple 4in carbon steel fixed blade, with a stacked leather handle and simple leather sheath, by the Solingen firm of Hubectus. It's an unpretentious model that is well made, was one of the few carbon steel knives that one store had, and reminds me of the Boy Scout knife that I use to have. It's one of my current favorites as far as comfort and handling goes, and while I don't yet know how good the steel is it will probably be fine.
I sharpened all of the knives at one house that we stayed at, friends of my wife, and three knives took a very good edge. One was a Herbertz lockblade, and while it was plain stainless it was decently hardened and hollow ground. Another was an old, traditional style of knife, a hard carbon steel, with a shorter blade and a stag handle attached to a small round tang. The one that I liked best was an old 5in butcher style hunting knive, made of hard, thin, flat ground carbon steel, with two piece riveted handles. All three readily developed a shaving edge, the butcher style very quickly.
For travel I picked up an Old Timer medium stockman, and along with the ToolLogic card in my wallet had no problems anywhere. At the Frankfurt airport the checker said no fixed blades, no lockblades, and that any folder the size of a regular Swiss army knife was no problem. The stockman got regular use and while I expected it to cut well, being such a common, affordable knife I was surprised how well it walks and talks, better than many fancier knives that I've handled.
The exchange rate being good I picked a few readily available knives like Opinels, a couple of Swedish/Finnish, SAKs and such. I picked up a Victorinox SAK that I hadn't seen before, which had a large blade, screwdriver-bottle opener which was a bit curved, magnifying glass and Phillips across from it, corkscrew on the bottom with the small screwdriver nested in it, and a ballpoint pen along with the toothpick and tweezers in the end of teh handle. I had been looking for a smaller model with a corkscrew and Phillips so it was a nice find. Another knife that I picked up that I liked a lot was what the store owner called a pathfinder. It's a simple 4in carbon steel fixed blade, with a stacked leather handle and simple leather sheath, by the Solingen firm of Hubectus. It's an unpretentious model that is well made, was one of the few carbon steel knives that one store had, and reminds me of the Boy Scout knife that I use to have. It's one of my current favorites as far as comfort and handling goes, and while I don't yet know how good the steel is it will probably be fine.
I sharpened all of the knives at one house that we stayed at, friends of my wife, and three knives took a very good edge. One was a Herbertz lockblade, and while it was plain stainless it was decently hardened and hollow ground. Another was an old, traditional style of knife, a hard carbon steel, with a shorter blade and a stag handle attached to a small round tang. The one that I liked best was an old 5in butcher style hunting knive, made of hard, thin, flat ground carbon steel, with two piece riveted handles. All three readily developed a shaving edge, the butcher style very quickly.
For travel I picked up an Old Timer medium stockman, and along with the ToolLogic card in my wallet had no problems anywhere. At the Frankfurt airport the checker said no fixed blades, no lockblades, and that any folder the size of a regular Swiss army knife was no problem. The stockman got regular use and while I expected it to cut well, being such a common, affordable knife I was surprised how well it walks and talks, better than many fancier knives that I've handled.