I awed a coworker today. He's young, and one of those guys who believes bigger is better. He loves knives..... big Rambo knives. What he calls tha absolute, without a doubt, undisputed perfect knife on the face of the planet. I always tell him that while those knives have their place, they are not the be all and end all of everything with a sharp edge. Well, today he was using his "survival" fixed knife to cut up some carrots to feed our Aldabra Tortises, and had to use a chopping motion to get through them. He was looking at me using the pen blade on my Peanut to cut some string to use as a popper on a whip, and started laughing at my "big, bad hunk of steel". I smiled, went over to his pile of carrots, and used the tiny little pen knife to literally devour five carrots. I sliced and diced them in the time it took him to finish his one carrot. He just kind've looked at me slack-jawed, not really able to register that I had outperformed him. He eventually came up with a reason to justify my knife's dominance over his. "Yeah, well, whatever dude, your blade is sooo small and soooo thin that of COURSE it's gonna cut like crazy!!" I laughed. "Isn't that the point of a knife, to be able to cut?" He said "yeah, but.... aww hell, mine is still tougher then yours!!" I asked him "tougher to do what?" He just grumbled something under his breath about having to go feed the animals, and slinked away. Another impressive showing for a little jack-knife that just won't quit. I also spent about an hour cutting up cardboard boxes, and my Peanut is STILL HAIR-SHAVING SHARP!!! Man of man!! This little "hunk-of-steel" just never ceases to amaze me!!!
Man, be gentle on him, he'll learn in time.
That was me about 36 years ago. I used to be into the macho knives, I even thought it was impossable to go backpacking or hiking without a Randall model 14. For just walking around I had to have at least a Buck 110 on my hip. Then in rapid sucession I got married, tossed out of the army on a medical discharge after an injury, had kids, then grew up alot. Now a regular sodbuster is a large knife to me, and I edc a peanut.
I think in time your freind will learn, and adapt. Life is about stages, and the evalution we go through continueally as we age. Experiances are laid on in layer after layer, and we never becaome the finished product till about 50 years. Even then we continue to learn and refine.
I think knives are a metaphore for the stages of life. Reading the posts on the general dissusion forum you can tell that the bulk of them are 30 years old or younger. I hate to sound stuck up, so don't take it that way, please. But I think it takes an older more mature person to appreatiate well aged whiskey over a keg of beer, a nice blued steel revolver with nicley checkered walnut grips over a black plastic auto, a nicely dressed classy lady at a candle lit table with the promise of things to come over a Britney Spears clone with no class at all, or a nice bone handle traditional pocket knife that cuts like a real knife was ment to cut rather than a thick bladed wedgy tactical fantacy from those worthless knife magazines.
When I grew up we learned about using knives from fathers, uncles, grandfathers, who knew from long experiance how to dress a rabbit or squirel, and how to do a zillion other taskes with a simple stockman, or even a peanut. Now we have a whole generation who has learned about knives from those knife magazines who only want to fuel the craze for stupider designs just to sell something different. Now its all about image. Dos'nt matter if it works or not, just sell it.
You go on using that traditional knife ElCuchillo, and take pleasure in using a tool that was designed in an era where things were made to be used at thier intended tasks, as well as be eye pleasing and have some class as well.
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