Let's hear why traditional knives are the best!

B

Balrog99

Joined
Apr 13, 2013
Messages
315
I felt like saying I personally think traditional knives are awesome. It took a little while to find my niche, but once I found out I liked traditionals I havnt really bought anything else. I admit I've got a few modern folders, and I like them but they just don't get as much use as my traditionals. Traditionals give me a sentimental feeling that I get with only one other kind of knives, and those are stilettos, but we aren't going to talk about them :) Let's hear why you love traditionals!
 
Last edited:
A fair dinkum topic. Just make certain the answers are positive about traditional designs and not negative about modern ones.

I like traditional designs because with a traditional I can carry a knife with multiple blade shapes, each different shape optimized for a different type of cutting.
 
I like modern knives just fine. I own several and use them for specific tasks. I even carry one (albeit a very small one) every day.

In general I was attracted to traditional knives because I like the look and feel of the materials they are constructed from. Brass liners, nickel silver bolsters, beautifully dyed and jigged bone, or stag. I've even come to enjoy some of the synthetics. That's what got me started on them - the way they looked. Reminded me of wood paneled rooms and tan leather furniture, brass lamps and incandescent lights. I like old, traditional furniture with carved details rather than sleek, minimalistic modern stuff. Give me Victorian Era over Atomic Age any day. Deep blue steel with gorgeous wooden stocks for firearms, not black matte finish with polycarbonate grips. or So the same taste followed me into knives. There's really nothing more to it that that. Just a preference and personal taste.

Short version: I think they're pretty!
 
Last edited:
When I first started researching high quality knives there were knives that were made by hand in America using natural materials and knives made in a factory overseas out of plastic. That's how I saw it at the time. In my mind it was a no-brainer to pick the ones made by hand with the materials that were more desirable to me. I've come to find out that there's a lot more to it than that, and have come to appreciate knives from all over the world. I haven't made the jump to modern folders yet, but I have become interested in them. It wouldn't surprise me if I ended up owning one some time this year. I don't think they'll ever take the top spot in my heart from traditionals, however. There's still something about a product that is handmade out of bone, wood, horn or antler that appeals to me. Out of all of the products that we buy nowadays, how many are made by hand and how many are decorated with the beautiful materials that you can literally find lying in a field? In a day and age where I need an advanced degree to change the spark plugs on my truck, I appreciate that there's one thing that I can buy that's still made the way it was 100 years ago. These knives remind me of when I was a kid, which was a great time in my life. They bring a smile to my face on a regular basis, and when I look at a dealer's site it has that same magical feeling I used to get flipping through the toy section of the Sears Christmas Catalog. There's more to it than that, and I have written probably 10x what I'm posting here and erased most of it because it was just the ramblings of a mad man. It's hard to peg down. I know that there are new technologies out there and that there have been improvements to the way a pocket knife is made and functions that I'm missing out on with my traditional knives, but there's a magic that the modern knives are missing. I'll take magic over technology any day of the week. It's what that 8 year old with the Sears Catalog would have wanted me to do.
 
Take's me back to a simple time. When I was a kid. All the neighbors would get together and work each other's cattle. These were big events in a kids life. I was one of the kids they put on a 5 gallon bucket with a bucket of kerosene to clean and sharpen. It was wonderful knowing you contributed. As for the Best. Look at a old knife that has hand forged spring and blades. I don't think they're is anything Better.
 
Last edited:
Lots of great answers here with language as elegant and attractive as a traditional knife.

All of the above, and I'll throw in acceptability in most places. We'll say non-threatening if you like.

I work in Kentucky and have never worried about what I carried at work. There has been an occasional modern and a lot of bigger knives like a Svord peasant and such. I have a new supervisor who I like a lot but who seems a bit shocked by knives. Time to figure out a nice traditional to carry and I can get away with a larger and more useful blade while not pressing his buttons.

Hmmm, looks like we'll start full circle back at Barlows. A work knife indeed.
 
Probably nowday getting a traditional is the only way to easily buy a thin carbon steel blade for a pocket knife :)
And i also agree very much on John's (Jc57) considerations
 
For one thing, turning 60 in two weeks, I grew up with them. No such thing as a one hand opener when I was a kid. But for me now, and I do own several moderns for certain tasks, it boils down to three elements:

1) Beautiful and interesting natural materials which are hand crafted.

2) Multiple blades for maximum utility in a light, pocketable package.

3) Thin blades that really slice.

The vast majority of what I use an EDC knife for is better accomplished with a traditional. Opening letters, packages, boxes, cutting a string or slicing an apple at lunch are done beautifully with a slender bladed traditional, and they look and feel better doing it.
 
I like all sorts of knives. I even have some of the modern flip folders, although I couldn't tell you where they are right now. Maybe in a shoebox in the back of the closet. I prefer the nice thin super sharp carbon steel blades that come with my Case or Schrade knives. Takes me back to my younger days. Dad always had his "Old Timer" on him and I carried on old Case stockman that I wish I still had. I couldn't begin to tell you how many hotdog sticks that knife has made, or squirrels I've skinned with it. Having an old traditional knife forces me to slow down a little bit and think about what I'm doing. I like the variations in materials they use either bone, or antler for covers, even the wood used. I guess as I get older and more mature in years, I just prefer a more traditional way of things.
 
The older I get, I find I am looking to slow down experiences. I have a lot of modern folders, and I enjoy them, but there's something about pulling a traditional out of my pocket and having to take that extra second or two to use both hands to open it. It's an action that feels more deliberate somehow. It's like taking that extra moment to savor using this tool that I carry and maintain. So much these days feels like it's meant to go faster and faster. It's nice to have something that bucks that feeling a little.
 
Wow, great responses. I'm only 15, but o feel the same way with about a lot of what you guys said. I personally don't know if I have any handmade knives, but I hope to get a couple. I've got a schrade 340t old timer that was my great grandpas, that he passed down to my grandpa and he passed it down to me. Even though it's old and has the tip broken off its still a beautiful well made knife. That's my favorite one of them all.
 
I found myself drawn to pocket knives last year sometime. Why, I'm not entirely sure myself, and I wish I knew because my wife keeps asking me that. Even though I grew up a city kid, I always had a couple of knives around, such as a Camillus Cub Scout knife that I wish I still had, and a Colonial Barlow that I do still have.

When my interest was aroused, it was modern folders that I first tried. Flippers and thumb studs, exotic supersteels, you know the drill. All the while, though, I'd occasionally pull out that old Barlow and fondle it.

Then I found *this* place and the thousands of pictures of beautiful traditional pocket knives, and somehow my moderns don't find their way into my pocket lately. At first I found the whole GEC subject bewildering... what are all those "patterns" about, and what the heck are SFOs, and what's a "Charlow?" I read the threads, studied the websites, and soon enough I was weighing the merits of bone, wood, stag, and micarta. Hmm, which would be better, a wharncliff or a drop point? Is a 4" knife too big for EDC? What is it about clip points that turns me off?

There seemed to be an awful lot of love around here for the #15, so I took the plunge and ordered a Huckleberry Boy's Knife with sheepfoot/pen and antique yellow jigged bone. Once I got that thing in my hand, it was all over. "Now this," said I, "is a knife." My #15, and the #38 Farmer's Jack that soon followed, are a near-perfect amalgamation of beauty, utility, and incredible craftsmanship. Both feel so good in the hand with just the right degree of heft. Both are put together so cleanly. It's clear that they were fabricated with a lot of attention to detail by people who really know what they're doing and love doing it. It gives me a lot of pleasure that such objects are still made in the USA the way they were a long time ago.

I don't have much of a knife budget (none, to be honest), so I have to be judicious in my purchases, but I've reserved a #77 NF medium Barlow in the run later this year and I can hardly wait! My Colonial Barlow has plastic "sawcut bone" covers. I've never had real sawcut bone in my hand but when I do, I know it's going to be sweet.

Thanks for letting a newbie wax rhapsodic.
 
jc57 said:
Short version: I think they're pretty!
Click to expand...

I agree with what you said. If I accumulate knives that I don't use, they will be traditionals. I have no particular love of moderns but I do usually carry a modern and a traditional most days. I am not a big fan of the clips and I will say I don't care at all for the little piece of metal on Vic Saks to attach to a key chain or lanyard. They just wear holes in you pocket and there seems to be no practical way to remove them.

I tend to like traditional materials with slip joints. Don't own an acrylic one, nor have any serious desire to pick one up. However I noticed a Rough Rider that had acrylic scales that are similar to something stone works would do and I like the look. But generally I buy very few cheap traditionals any more.
 
For me, they are what I grew up with, and all I knew in pocket knives back then as there was no 'modern' knives. Case, Schrade, Camillus, Imperial, and other were what everyone carried. If a man had pants on, he had a small two bade jack or pen knife in one of those pockets. It was expected. Most of the men I knew and made an effort to hang around and learn from were veterans of WW2, and they all carried the same knives that we kids would save up allowance money for, and buy down at the local Army-Navy store.

Watching these older men who managed to get through a great depression and then fight a horrible war, we learned by example to be self sufficient and deal with life's little problems. Part of that was being prepared with a few basic things on our persons, like a good sharp pocket knife. It was a right of passage for a kid to get that first knife from his dad, as a vote of confidence and confirmation that you were now considered grown enough to join dad and the others in responsible knife carrying.

To me, I look at a stockman or Barlow or any other traditional knife, and it's a solid reminder of a time gone by of values and a code of conduct that a man lived by. We kids learned by watching our elders and betters, and how they handled things. Stuff wan't just tossed away when it broke, but it was repaired. A twist of twine, or some black electrical tape, some ingenuity, and they went on with life. There was no such thing as a disposable society. The pocket knives reflected that as well. Handles of beautiful jigged bone, lovingly pinned by a cutlers skilled hand, a pocketknife was a marvel of a beautifully crafted tool meant to be used. In simpler terms, they had soul. There was a feel to them that was distinct.

Or maybe I'm just a nostalgic old fart that remembers times gone by with rose colored glasses.
 
While I too enjoy many different types of knives in the modern era, the traditionals, and SAKs, always remind me of simpler days and the times my father and I were small game hunting, or what have you. Every kid had a pocket knife and it was always an event when a buddy got a new one for his birthday or something. Good times. And they seem to have more personality to them, and not quite the sterile feel of some newer made modern knives. But all things evolve.

It's good that there are a few companies still carrying on with the old styles, along with many talented custom guys.
 
I think Traditionals have class. They don't appear threatening to the general public (or the LEO on patrol). One reason they may be more acceptable in the eyes of John Q. and Edna May Public is the traditional is what they remember their parents, grand parents, and possibly their great grand parents (of both genders) pulling out of their pocket or purse, not as a weapon, but as a tool, to slice an apple or cut a string, or perhaps to whittle a new toy for them.
 
I have answered this question before in another thread but I'll answer it this way this time.

When I think of bluegrass music, Cades Cove of the Smokies, camp fires, old stories from my dad that I have heard a hundred times, that diamond in the rough you find in an old barn or antique store, a demeanor of humility, generousity, and virtue, of old men praying before a meal, friendships that last a lifetime, a strong work ethic, a firm hand shake with eye contact to seal a deal or even a simple hello, a sense of pride in family, a commitment to the improvement of self and community, and all things that that remind us to slow down and enjoy what we have and be thankful.....I think of a traditional knife being carried, used, and cared for to pass down as a reminder of all those things and more.

That's why.
 
Last edited:
I am fairly new to collecting and carrying traditionals. For me it is just a whole new set of knives to look at. I also like all the variations of a single pattern (gec 15 for example). I still carry a modern knife everyday, but have added a traditional for some variety. I find I spend most of my time on the traditional threads since there are so many more interesting knives to see. I also agree with them being more acceptable to pull out in some situations. Still getting used to the carbon steel, but do have a stainless S&M on its way that I'm hoping is the best of both worlds.
 
Wow, amazing. I love the answers. I always have felt I grew up in the wrong decade. Fifties would be ideal for me, people seemed to be kinder then, everything was simpler, you didn't have all the problems they have today, and above all cars were better :) On a more serious note I really dislike a lot of the modern technology, especially the cell phones. They have created a dependency that I admit I didn't have a year ago before I got my phone. A year ago it wass scout knife or SAK in one pocket, possibly a pocket watch or folding magnifying glass in the other, I admit I felt jealous of my friends and their fancy new phones, but now I'm jealous of myself a year ago when I didn't have it. Havnt carried that mag glass for a while now, but I was holding it today and it sure brought back memories, just like that old colonial scout knife.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top