Learning to carry slip-joints (again)…

timberweasel

timberweasel

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After about a year or so of carrying modern one-handers, I’ve started to move back to slip-joint folders. They do everything I need them to, draw far less attention when using them in public, are generally better-looking, seem less-threatening somehow, and most won’t have a pocket-clip that will chew up my pants. Why carry a bunch of extra doodads and widgets on my keychain or in my pocket when a SAK will do? But I digress… :rolleyes:

Anyway, I’ve been carrying more traditional style knives for EDC lately, but now I’m very conscious of the empty space left on my right front pocket. A SAK on a lanyard comes pretty close to filling the void, but I will still sometimes clip on an additional folder just because I can. Somethimes I'll carry something like a Spyderco Native 1 or Endura at 4 o’clock IWC along with my slippies. I’m certainly not a ‘tactical’ kind of guy so I’m not thinking about self-defence as much as possibly needing a bigger one-handed locking folder for… something? Is it only the compulsion of habit? I don’t really know… but I don’t need or want to be carrying around a bunch of blades, and it feels a little ridiculous when I catch myself doing so. :o

Seems odd when I think about it now because I remember how strange it felt when I first started carrying my modern one-handers…
 
I know what you mean. Within the last month and a half, I've picked up a couple of Case slippies, the Copperhead and the Mini-trapper. Just last week, I bought two Buck Stockmans. I'm finding I like the look and feel of the traditionals.
 
i carry a bunch of modern folders and still do, though recently bought another sak. sometimes it is nice to carry a slipjoint folder though i dont plan on going back to them totally i do like to carry them from time to time. i have another sak on order. i carried one for many years as a work knife. sadly though i still have the leather pouch i have not seen that folder in years.
 
When I started to get back to carrying traditional knives I noticed the same thing. It's just the habit of having a knife clipped in a certain spot. It feels strange to not have it there at first, but it will go away after a little while.
 
I usually carry a slipjoint, but I hate the feel and inaccessibility of a knife lying horizontally at the bottom of my pocket, so this is best of both worlds for me:

Clipcase01.jpg


Clipcase02.jpg
 
I do like that slip. Mind sharing origins?
 
I drift back and forth between traditional and modern. I gave up trying to decide which style I liked better. Now I just carry whatever my mood dictates when I am picking out a knife.
 
Took me a bit over 2 months to quit being conscious of not having a knife clipped inside my front pocket. Now I'm trying to go back to carrying a large one handed folder everyday. The traditional makes it there everyday the large one handers only about 50% of the time. I've got a raggedy old Boker stockman that I replaced the scales on that has taken up permanent residence in my front pocket.
 
I carry a slippie in my right front pocket, and a Spyderco clipped to my left front pocket. Love them both!
 
I carry a mixed bag usually. Always a 'clipped' folder in my front pocket , always a Leathermen MT and usually something smaller ( either a slipjoint or small gent's style ) in case there's a tender heart nearabouts.

We should Never let the tender hearts dictate what we choose to carry though !

Tostig
 
that's what happened to me lately, and all i see now are slipjoints, all i carry, again, slipjoints, except that fixed blade for the outdoors. A rambler on my keys, a peanut or a stockman in my pocket, and im good to go.
There is one problem though, just one or two is not enough...:D they are calling for more patterns or variations, and i can hear them :eek:
 
timberweasel said:
After about a year or so of carrying modern one-handers, I’ve started to move back to slip-joint folders. They do everything I need them to, draw far less attention when using them in public, are generally better-looking, seem less-threatening somehow, and most won’t have a pocket-clip that will chew up my pants. Why carry a bunch of extra doodads and widgets on my keychain or in my pocket when a SAK will do? But I digress… :rolleyes:

Anyway, I’ve been carrying more traditional style knives for EDC lately, but now I’m very conscious of the empty space left on my right front pocket. A SAK on a lanyard comes pretty close to filling the void, but I will still sometimes clip on an additional folder just because I can. Somethimes I'll carry something like a Spyderco Native 1 or Endura at 4 o’clock IWC along with my slippies. I’m certainly not a ‘tactical’ kind of guy so I’m not thinking about self-defence as much as possibly needing a bigger one-handed locking folder for… something? Is it only the compulsion of habit? I don’t really know… but I don’t need or want to be carrying around a bunch of blades, and it feels a little ridiculous when I catch myself doing so. :o

Seems odd when I think about it now because I remember how strange it felt when I first started carrying my modern one-handers…
Click to expand...

Like you, I
  • grew up carrying slipjoints because that's pretty much what was available at the time.
  • also today carry both a slipjoint and a one-hander. And for the same reasons. The slipjoint has a handier blade size and shape for most cutting chores, and I like having a larger blade for those few occasions when I have a more robust cutting chore, not for self-defense.

Your carry choices seem pretty reasonable to me.
 
I'm with knarfeng...I started with slipjoints because that is all that was available, and now I usually have at least one slipjoint and one one-hander on me. I use the slipjoint more.
 
Slippies are my first choice. I have a SAK Classic on my key chain for the scissors and toothpick, a '70s Case stockman for most of what I need to cut. I also carry a Kabar Baconmaker lockback in my back pocket just in case I have to...well...make some bacon.
 
I don't have any problems with what you guys are saying, but as far as I'm concerned, it's hard to beat a small Cold Steel Voyager. Small, light, and they lock.

Back when all the decent bikes were 10-speeds, I just didn't ride bikes. But when mountain bikes appeared, I found I could ride in comfort, without my head staring at the road below me and my ass cranked high into the air. Oh, and let's not forget the skinny tires that required asphalt to ride! I could no more go back to slip joints than I could go back to 10-speeds. I'm sure there are guys and gals out there who love 'em, but I'm not one of them.

Same with slip joints. I don't like the way they snap open and snap shut. When I was a Boy Scout, I remember when my blade got embedded in a piece of wood I was whittling. I pulled it out of the wood and it immediately snapped shut on my fingers! I still remember my parents taking me to the doctor to get my hand fixed. The doctor told me it happened quite often and the knife was taken from me and my dad replaced it with some knife called "Case" or something. Pretty little thing. It had a snappy blade too. It's still in my jewelry box with my cuff links if you want to see it. Only when locking knives appeared did I begin to get interested again. My favorite knife is a 5-inch plain edge CS Voyager. Nice polished blade, serious uses, light weight, decent lock and nice springs as well. Nothing like a Buck 110 which can snap back and cut your arm off at the shoulder!
 
I haven't had the misfortune of a slipjoint closing on my fingers like Confederate, but I have had a couple of close calls. Had a SAK snap shut while pulling it out of cardboard I was cutting, but fortunately I was holding it by the sides. Another time was with a Stockman style knife that fortunately closed on my fingernail without too much force.

Nowadays, I prefer locking knives. SOG Flash 1 for a simple, small, light, easy to carry, and easy to operate knife. If I need something bigger, I've got my Ontario Rat 1, although that's really too big for me for EDC regularly.
 
Confederate said:
Nothing like a Buck 110 which can snap back and cut your arm off at the shoulder!
Click to expand...

Funny that the Buck 110 is a locking knife and not a slipjoint :D

When properly and carefully used (as a cutting edge, in the direction of cutting), we should have no problem using slipjoints in hard-use roles. Seems like they were successful cutting tools for centuries before locking mechanisms came along. Maybe we forget that the same spring force which keeps the blade closed also works to keep the knife open--and that force being overcome and causing an accidental closure usually means the knife is being used improperly. We're not dealing with some kind of reverse switchblade here.
 
I carry what I like. I still buy slipjoints and modern designs. I usually only carry One knife at a time, Asside from the SAK on my keychain, I have no regular pattern to what I carry, but I make sure that I like it.
 
Most of what I've carried my whole life has been slip joints. I love the versatility of having two or even three blades, each with a different use. Too many times I've had to cut something that I knew was going to really mess up my blade edge. It was nice to have a 'dirty work' blade on hand. For about 25 years my edc knife was a Buck 301 stockman, and I don't think there's a better knife for edc'ing. Lots of cutting in a small package.

A few years ago, I had to have some surgery on a hand. Operating one handed for a while I had to carry a lockblade that was easy to open with one hand. The damm thing drove me nuts. I hated having just one single blade on hand. Too limiting. Most of the time the blade too big for what I wanted. Loved it when the stitches came out and I could go back to my slip joints. There's something about nice jigged bone or stag and gray patined carbon steel blades that the modern stuff just don't have.

Somehow I've made it through life without cutting myself with a slip joint. I did cut myself once when I was a boy, but that taught me the lesson of how to use a slip joint. I never made the same mistake again. That was when I was 12, I'm 70 now. On the other hand, I've seen two very very bad accidents with the so called lockblades where a young guy had total faith in his wonder knife, and in one case the right index finger got amputated and the middle one about halfway cut through because he had his weight behind it leaning on it to force the blade through the material. The second was a liner lock gave way, and the young man was in the same hand surgery clinic I was in, and they were trying to repair the damage so he could use those fingers again. Nothing got cut off, but damage to nerve and tendon was severe. His right index finger was like a cooked noodle, kind of useless.

If you cut yourself with a slip joint, don't blame the knife, take a hard look at what you were doing. Any knife can fold on you if your careless. The nice thing about slip joints is, I know it's going to bite me if I screw up and do something dumb. But a lock on a blade can fail from wear, dirt or lint in it, or just over powering the spring.

If you don't want the blade to fold on you, don't use a knife that folds.

Carl.
 
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