Mumblety-peg...

kamagong

kamagong

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I dropped my large Eye Brand stockman yesterday, taking about 1 mm off the tip. Granted, the damage isn't that great but it still bothers me when I think about it. Maybe I'm outing myself as a member of the video game generation, but I just can't imagine taking your pocketknife and deliberately throwing it into the dirt to have its edge mangled by rocks and pebbles. Doing so is clearly knife abuse IMO. The weirdest thing is, I have a bunch of knives, probably more than the people who played this game. Playing mumbelty-peg didn't seem to bother them. Am I being too fussy? I don't get it.

:confused:

- Christian
 
Mumblety-peg is a generational thing. I played that game a ton as a kid and probably ruined 3 or more pocket knives with it and got quite a few cuts in the process also.

The top tier used to play it for each others knives. I won quite few that way.

We played a version where the winner got 3 free hits on the peg. The peg ended up underground. It was like watching a hog root and the loser would end up with a mouthful of dirt.

It has died of in the past years with the decline of knives as common schoolboy tools etc.

I think I can still play a mean game now :)
 
I remember playing several different kinds of games with our pocket knives, Mumblety-peg was one of them.
Another one was to let your knife fall off several different parts of your body starting with your hand, then wrist, then elbow , shoulder, chin, nose, etc.. and the knife had to stick in the ground leaving the handle clear of the dirt or grass. Kind of a game of h.o.r.s.e. with your knife if you will. The same honor of retrieving a peg, usually from under the soil, was awarded to the loser.

I liked to use my Scout knife, or this big ugly brown Barlow I had because I thought the weight of the handle would help drive the blade home. Especially in that last game I described where gravity alone would be all that drove your knife in the ground that weight would come in handy. And you could really bury the peg with a scout pattern knife. :p

My dad taught me those games (and more) and we never once thought about the "damage" to our knives that would result from those games.
Granted, today I would not subject most of my knives to that kind of "use". But then again I just spent $250 for a single Case knife a few weeks ago, and I don't think you could have held $250 worth of Imperial Barlows in a 5 gallon bucket in 1976 :rolleyes: (slight exaggeration but you get the point).

So save your nice knives for admiring, but by all means get a few "beaters" and teach a kid how to play. If it's not your own child you might want to modify the game so you don't have him/her throwing a knife at their own feet. That may not go over too well with some parents (can't imagine why;)).
That should be a memory worth at least $20-$30 (about what a movie for 2 with popcorn and drinks would run you) and you can get a nice pair of Rough Riders or the like for that if you shop around.
 
You have to remember this game was played most often by country kids, the knives were mostly from Purina, Grain companies, etc...the freebie knives.
 
I remember it as simply called MUMBLY-PEG. We would do it only on the lawn or a grassy area. I forgot what decides who would get to go first, but the idea was to make one guy eventually do the splits sos he couldn't stand anymore, or lose his balance and fall over. Last man standing wins,
 
In 73, I was a Camp Counciller in a BSA Scout camp Upstate New York.

Any kid caught playing Mumbly-Peg would be sent home!
Apparently too many kids got a knife stuck in their foot!

I had a Western sheath knife that worked very well for Mumbly-Peg
 
When growing up, we played two versions of Mumbley-Peg - progressively difficult tosses and a variation of the "Split." The latter did not involving each participant throwing knives at each other, but required players to move his or her foot to the space where the knife lands.

Whatta blast from the past. :D Thanks for bringing the topic up! :thumbup:
 
i agree with tomcryx, it seems we have moved from chunking knives to battling on the keyboard. whatever- the possibility of getting feet stuck with knives has a much more negative connotation. dennis
 
I wore out many a pocket knife as a kid in the 60s. Whittling, games, throwing, etc.. These were recreational items and used pretty toughly. As I grew older I appreciated fine knives and began to use them as they were meant.
 
Interesting how we grew up throwing knives at the dirt to make our legs split open or the reverse to get closer together until you were afraid to let your buddy have the next throw. And while we see kids today playing video games we sit and use the key board to talk of knife games when we were young. What will the next generation look back at?
Bob
 
stockdog said:
Interesting how we grew up throwing knives at the dirt to make our legs split open or the reverse to get closer together until you were afraid to let your buddy have the next throw. And while we see kids today playing video games we sit and use the key board to talk of knife games when we were young. What will the next generation look back at?
Bob
Click to expand...

Maybe they will go outside and throw knives at their feet wondering why we didn't do that kind of thing when we were grown.
Would that be irony?
 
I grew up in Montreal in the 1950s. We played "Stretch" (called "Split" above). Two players would face each other about 5 or so feet apart. You would throw your knife trying to get it to stick in the ground just a bit to the outside of your opponents foot. If it stuck in, he would have to move his foot to that spot. When it got to the point that one player could no longer stretch far enough to get to the knife, the other guy won. We played in the school yard which was grass back then.
Neat, this is an old memory that i have not recalled for decades.
roland
 
We even played this game on the streets of New York in the late 50's and early 60's with whatever 2nd hand knives we had at the time...(old worn Kamp-King's, broken tipped Mercator's we found or inherited, fake stilettos etc.)

I remember it as mumbly-peg as well. But we're famous for our lack of diction up there... :p
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Well, maybe the early 50's :)
We took our knives to da park on a hundert n sevveny tird street.
Click to expand...

You are older than dirt, aren't you? :eek:;)

I didn't get my first knife until about 1958 or so ... I'm a relative newcomer to all this. :p
 
Thanks for the insight guys. I still don't think it's the game for me, I could never sacrifice my S&M harness jack for a few minutes of fun. Might be just the thing for Rough Rider knives though...

- Christian
 
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