Knives of the "real" pro's.

Ike carried and gave away the tiny Case Stockman 6333. Also, George Washingtom carried a very small two blade/pearl handle pen.
 
Bark River claims their "Teddy" is a close copy of the hunting knife Teddy Roosevelt carried. It’s a 6” clip point fixed blade.
 
Abe Lincoln built a log cabin using only a piece of broken glass!


Come on fellers, your tales of historical figures are decidedly "unfolksy.":D
 
For me the most influential "real" outdoors pro is my grandfather. He is now 92 years old and has lived, farmed, hunted and fished in east Texas for the vast majority of his life. He has caught and cleaned more fish and shot and gutted more deer, ducks, and quail than I will ever hope to.

Yea, he has a fillet knife and a skinning knife and poultry shears that he uses when the occasion arises but the knife that he carries with him day in and day out decade after decade has always been a small Case Stockman. When I was younger I carried a Puma lock blade (I believe it was a 5” blade) with custom stag horn handles. It was a beautiful knife and a joy to use.

Now that I am a bit older however I am beginning to see and appreciate the wisdom of this old man.
 
My grandfather also made use of a Case Stockman. I suspect in those years when he was coming up, very few people had any sort of knife collections. Most folk probably had two pocket knives at the most and perhaps a decent axe for the farm.

The great majority of people here on this forum tend to be collectors, the remainder could be deemed 'week-end' warriors and such. Most of us don't have any need for another knife, we just like the hunt for the new blade. My grandfather however, needed his knife in his line of work and used the Case for many years until the blade was ground away. It was a different time then.
 
GEL99 said:
For me the most influential "real" outdoors pro is my grandfather. He is now 92 years old and has lived, farmed, hunted and fished in east Texas for the vast majority of his life. He has caught and cleaned more fish and shot and gutted more deer, ducks, and quail than I will ever hope to.

Yea, he has a fillet knife and a skinning knife and poultry shears that he uses when the occasion arises but the knife that he carries with him day in and day out decade after decade has always been a small Case Stockman. When I was younger I carried a Puma lock blade (I believe it was a 5” blade) with custom stag horn handles. It was a beautiful knife and a joy to use.

Now that I am a bit older however I am beginning to see and appreciate the wisdom of this old man.
Click to expand...

That last line kinda says alot that strikes very close to home for me. I had a grandad and a dad like that, and for a while I strayed a bit from their teachings I grew up with. But as I got older, I finally learned that they were right in spite of me being hard headed. It seems like sometimes we have to travel a long enough road that we have alot to look back on before we fully understand where we have to go.
 
I like the grandfather stories GEL99, Stubai, and jackknife...it is interesting to know what knife, say, Jack London used, but I like the stories of "what Grampa used" more somehow. Seems to be more at the core of what "Traditional" is all about.

By the way, John Wayne killed rattlesnakes on his ranch using only a sharpened popsickle stick!
 
Way I heard it was, one day the Duke was sitting on a log rolling a smoke, his horse grazing by the water hole. A rattle snake slithered out from under the far end of the log and coiled up. The Duke looked at the snake and said "Don't even think about it pilgrim"

The snake made for the next county right away.:D
 
Speaking of rattlesnakes. (About as close as I can get to topic with this.)

A rugged cowboy was riding through the desert when he came on a rattlesnake. As he was whipping out his sixgun to do it in the snake spoke to him. "Don't shoot! I'm a magic rattlesnake and can grant you three wishes."

The cowboy talked a moment with the the snake then figured, what's one more rattlesnake versus the possibility it could grant his three wishes. So he tells the snake, "Okay. First, I want to be a very rich man. Second, I want to look one an Adonis. You know, one of those really handsome Greek god types. And, third. I want the genitalia of my horse!"

The snake said, "Are you really sure about that?"

Cocking the hammer the cowboy said, "YES! Don't try to get out of this deal!"

The snake quickly said, "Fine. You have your three wishes."

The cowboy rode on a little bit and came on a fellow at his end. He gave the old man a drink of water to ease his suffering. The old man handed him the deeds to his large ranch and several successful mines, along with a last will giving all his money to the bearer, telling the cowboy, "I'll be dead soon and for you kindness I leave all I have to you."

The cowboy buried the old fellow and continued on thinking that the snake must have been for real since he was now such a rich man. A bit farther down the way he came to a pool of water. Racing to the pool he looked at his reflection and sure enough, he was THE figure of a man, handsome beyond imagination.

Gazing at himself and thinking, "WOW! This has really been my day!" his face suddenly took on a horrified expression. He jumped up, took a look below and screamed. In his conversation with the snake he forgot that today he was riding his mare!

I understand that to this day there is a rich and extremely handsome cowboy riding the desert who spends all his time shooting every rattlesnake he can find!
 
jackknife and Amos Iron Wolf....you are the best!

I knew somebody would have the have the gumption to carry on in the true spirit of all those old timers on front porches whittlin' and BS-in'.

Knife history is great...but a knife tall tale's better.

Thanks, fellers!...and the way I heard it...the Duke didn't have to say anything to the rattler.
 
Another great thread guys. My Grandad who was one hell of a fisherman carried a Buck 307. He used a fillet knife to clean his fish but used that big old stockman for everything else.
I can see him now, sitting in a lawn chair out buy his old smoker. That Buck in one hand and a piece of hickory in the other. A wad of Redman in his cheek and a smile on his face.
He died when I was thirteen. I'll be thirty-four this month and I still miss him.
Oh and last week my eleven year old daughter killed a badger with her swiss army knife. John wayne could have probley done it with a toe nail clipping.;)
 
Lincoln was carrying a 6-blade ivory William Gilchrist congress when he was assassinated.

My grandfather was a knife collector, and was also a fan of Case pocketknives. His first Case was purchased through the Sears Roebuck catalog in 1919 or 1920. He took it into town (Thatcher, AZ) to show it off, and a kid he had never seen before ran off with it. He never got over it, when I asked him about it about five years ago I could still sense a little anger. When you are growing up poor, such a knife would be hard to come by, and it probably meant a lot to him.

My step-grandmother still has his knives. Among them are two that I wouldn't mind having - a redbone Case stockman, and a winterbottom Case congress.
 
When I was a very young boy about 10 years old my dad worked at what ever he could get. In the 50's he was clearing right-away for utility lines and had his right foot was crushed by a falling tree. They got him patched back somehow but his foot always hurt. Fast forward about 5 or 6 years, we were sitting in the kitchen of our little old house, my dad looking at is foot. He said to me "boy get me my good knife". I did, he then took the knife and sitting right there,cut a pin out that had been placed in his foot in the earlier surgery after that he had no more foot pain. The knife a Belnap Bluegrass two blade barlow, I passed it to my son abouy 1 1/2 years ago. p1123
 
lambertiana said:
Lincoln was carrying a 6-blade ivory William Gilchrist congress when he was assassinated.
Click to expand...

Are you sure of the maker? Where did u uncover this. I've been admiring that knife for years. Even had Reese Bose make a similar one for me.
 
I love that picture....I've said it before, and I'll say it again...Old Honest Abe shoulda read the paper before he went to the theater!

aa_lincoln_pocket_1_e.jpg
 
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