Modest times

Excellent topic and discussion!

I too would opt for the Old Timer 8OT stockman, what a knife!

Looking back on my days as a scout...after a parade of lost Imperials, the first knife I paid for, with my paper route money, was a Buck 102 sheath knife. Price was right ($13 if memory serves) and that good old Buck has served me well for three decades.

The next knife I bought was an Old Timer 34OT stockman. Left it for my dad when I went to basic training, and he used it for darn near 25 years.

Lots of nice knives out there. I've got a few myself. They are a joy to behold, carry, and yes, even use. But none of them come close to the satisfaction of carrying that old utilitarian knife, and using it time and again, with confidence.
 
mudguard said:
So if you had only this limited amount of income and needed to pick up what would be your work and life companion knife which one would you pick?

I would think the categories I would look for would be:

- price
- usability and versatility
- durability and quality
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jackknife said:
That was my situation when I left home for the first time. I think I would make the same choice. One knife for multiple uses, tank like durability, and cost? I'd go with a 300 series Buck, like the 301 stockman, with a SAK around maybe later for a versatile back up or assistant. Before I realized I was a knife nut, a Buck 301 served me well. Very well.
I will always have a very large soft spot for the 300 series Bucks. They're sort of like an army deuce and a half; they may not be pretty, but they'll get the load through.

Carl.
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coyote711 said:
About 40 years ago, being pretty much in the same situation you just described, I picked a Buck 301. If put back in the same situation today I'd choose either the 301 or a Vic Farmer.
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About 40 years ago I also was in about that position. I chose a Buck 303. I don't think I'd choose anything different were I in that same position again.
 
The first knife I bought was an Italian Stiletto, six inch blade, black Buffalo horn scales, opened with a flick of the wrist. An impractical choice (since I was working at my Grandfathers lumber yard at the time).....just because it was cool! ( no I wasn't a hood.)
I confess my choices are still dictated very largely by that sentiment.
 
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I will allow myself to quote your grandpa, Mudguard, as it is just spot on my life when I was younger : "it was what I could afford after food, rent and clothing for my family". So I bought me the affordable goodies available here : Douk-Douk, Pradel, some nice and cheap knives produced by local cutlers, an Opinel as an everyday beater and when I had some dough... a Laguiole or a Nontron. Had never more than two or three at a time. There are actually a lot of non expensive and very performing knives out there. Just buy them hands on and you can easily find one that's got the essentials right (more than some way more expensive knives I buy on the internet today..).
 
What would I buy when I was 20, knowing what I now know at 57? That is hard to say for sure. What I actually did was this; in my civilian career as a GE Salesman I carried the Buck 301 my Grandma gave me for my 15th birthday (both on my job and for leisure). For my ARNG career I bought a SAK at the PX and carried it in a cammo Buck nylon sheath on my web belt (first on fatigues, later under my shirt when we changed to BDU's). When I was in my late 20's I went to work for a wallboard manufacturer and bought a Schrade Old Timer 108OT at one of the lumber yards I called on (I didn't want to use my prize Buck for cutting gypsum wallboard); I carried that Old Timer knife for nearly 25 years on the job, cutting many board samples with the small sheepfoot blade and digging into set plaster and ready mix compound with the clip - it served me well until I lost it on a jobsite around 2005. OH
 
This thread really peeked my interest. I chose a Buck 301 on my first purchase. I mowed lawns in the neighborhood to earn money. Carried it for years. I still have it but I don't carry that particular one that often. 1976 vintage. It turns out I have "Expensive taste" and a "Guilty concience". I can afford better(?) knives now but my favorites are still the classic working mans knives. Case, Old Timer and Buck. This morning I've got a peanut in my watch pocket and an Old Timer 80T as well. I'm still looking for "The One".....
 
The first knife I bought for myself was a Leatherman multitool. Still have it and use it.

Edit: I did have other knives that were "found" around the house since I was a teenager but the Leatherman was the first I got for myself.
 
I have been a knife nut since age 10, I spent all my earned money on them or other outdoor gear. My first knives I bought myself were Old Timer, Uncle Henry and Case stockmen. Based on Schrades not being what they were, today it would be a Case, (Solingen) Boker or Buck mid or large stockman. Quality, reputation, pride of ownership were always top of my list, these would be ones that would provide it without straining the bank too much. However, if funds were even tighter and I couldn't put off the purchase? A Rough Rider large stockman or Vic Tinker. Either are less than $20 with tax, are good value with the utility of more than a single blade/tool.
 
Using an old timer 34OT and I could totally see how this knife could take me through 50+ years and still be strong and going.. does anyone have pictures of their old used knives that can go along with this great opinions?
 
Great discussion. Not exactly sure what I would have gone for but likely would have been a small buck of some sort. Buck knives were a bit of a legend around my parts so will always have a special place in my heart.
 
I was carrying a knife on the farm and to school ever since the first grade, but when I turned about 12, I finally talked my dad into buying a Ka-Bar folding hunter for me, and I think at the time I already owned a Old Timer Stockman. The big Ka-Bar was a lot bigger knife then most people carried back then, but frankly I loved it, and used it for everything from butchering rabbits and squirrels to all sorts of farm chores. But the Old Timer filled in when I needed a smaller blade, or didn't want to mess up the edge on the Ka-Bar.

Later I bought a Puma Game Warden which was a slightly smaller and lighter knife then the Buck 110 and I remember I gave $37 for it in about 1976 or so. At the time that was a lot of money for me, over two days work. But I carried it for the next 6 or 8 years, at which time it was wore out, but it served me well, as I did my heaviest farming during those years, and looking back, I can't think of a better knife I could have had, even now, really.
 
This is a great thread. If things were really tight, I suppose I might be inclined to see what I could get for cheap or free. I have a handful of knives from my wife's late grandfather; nothing special, an Old Timer, a few Imperials, and a Cattaraugus fixed blade. The Imperials were giveaways from the local feed mill, the Cattaraugus was probably a mail-in offer on coffee lids or somesuch. He might have actually bought the Old Timer. For a frugal farm boy, cheap and free seemed to work out pretty well for him.

But on to the point of your query. If I were young and in need of a knife (as I once was), the odds are very good that I'd buy a Vic Climber, because it has scissors and because of the reasons Pinnah mentioned about being invested in the mindset of the object. In fact, I carried a Climber pretty regularly for more than a decade (it was a gift, but it ticked all the boxes on my EDC wishlist). If I knew then what I know now, the odds are very good that I'd get a Buck 303 only because I have not followed Pinnah's advice to get an Opinel. Were I to do that, I think my math would get all messed up.
 
I would buy a Barlow, sodbuster, or a cubscout knife and remove the bail to make it more pocket friendly. If I were to be really practical, it would have to be a Leatherman multitool although I don't know how traditional that is.
 
Lastmohecken said:
I was carrying a knife on the farm and to school ever since the first grade, but when I turned about 12, I finally talked my dad into buying a Ka-Bar folding hunter for me, and I think at the time I already owned a Old Timer Stockman. The big Ka-Bar was a lot bigger knife then most people carried back then, but frankly I loved it, and used it for everything from butchering rabbits and squirrels to all sorts of farm chores. But the Old Timer filled in when I needed a smaller blade, or didn't want to mess up the edge on the Ka-Bar.

Later I bought a Puma Game Warden which was a slightly smaller and lighter knife then the Buck 110 and I remember I gave $37 for it in about 1976 or so. At the time that was a lot of money for me, over two days work. But I carried it for the next 6 or 8 years, at which time it was wore out, but it served me well, as I did my heaviest farming during those years, and looking back, I can't think of a better knife I could have had, even now, really.
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I just Googled for a puma game warden, they are selling for more now than what you got them for back in the day!
 
I think this thread might be part of the reason why young men tend to respond so well to the gift of a decent knife. (I tend to do that w. employees/other young men I've mentored some, when it seems like a good idea.)

I didn't think about it, but it might be the first quality tool they've owned.
 
I'd choose for durability/longevity and bear in mind this knife is a treat or prize to yourself.

All the choices put forward have been worthy, Buck, Opinel, CASE and others. So too the pattern suggestions, Stockman giving you many blades.

But, if GEC had been around when I was young then I would've opted for them. Moreover, I'd choose a knife with Ebony handles. beautiful, very strong, tougher than bone, good in wet use and above all improves with age! So any Ebony knife would be fine, my personal favourite would be the 68 White Owl . Big enough to be meaningful, compact enough not to weigh down your pocket like a slab. Got a strong suspicion it'll be here in 50 years when most of us have long since vanished. Heirlooms, past meets future.
 
Iv had knives on me since I was ten. cheap ones that id find on the web or at a store. the first time I looked for a quality knife was around freshman year or high school. I worked the same jobs iv always worked, landscaping (big boy term for yardwork) but I was still being bit frugal, so when I found my case peanut, something clicked in my head and I got it. much smaller than I imagined but after a while it finally dawned in my head that it still did the jobs I asked of it. It is still one of the most frequently carried knives I own when I want the job done. even if one is frugal, a quality knife is better in the long run to get instead of busting a few cheap ones more often.
 
Fifty or so years ago, the knife I bought was an Imperial. Cheap and cut stuff just fine. Case knives were too expensive for a ten year old kid to lose or break a tip off prying something.
 
Victorinox Compact, or Victorinox Pioneer/Cadet/Farmer. The first one be the Compact due to having just about every useful tool for urban everyday life, the latter 3 if you want something with more durable scales to use for life.
 
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