My draw to traditionals

Paradiggum

Paradiggum

Joined
Jul 4, 2001
Messages
1,662
So I'm sitting here looking through all the threads of beautiful knives, used knives, ready to retire knives and it dawned on me what it is that I like so much about traditional folders. Character. I think that's it plain and simple. My Grandfather and my Father both carried an Opinel number 7. I think I like the way that the use and carry of the knives leaves that worn and used look. It kind of tells a story.
I carried a Spyderco Delica 3 for about 12 yrs and honestly, with the exception of the clip losing some of it's black coating it looks pretty much the same as it did the day I took it out of it's package.
The Opinel 7 my Dad gave me years ago however has a nice patina on the blade and the handle looks like it's pocket worn. Like it's been somewhere and done some work. Both knives have. Actually, the Spyderco went everywhere with me for a dozen years where the Opinel didn't. But it has more character than the Delica.
Since today is the last day of my Peanut challenge, a Spyderco or Benchmade etc. will go back into my pocket tomorrow. But...the Peanut that's been my constant companion all month will remain there. I look forward to putting many miles on that nut. I've picked up a few traditional knives over the last few months and also look forward to having them share some pocket time. The yellow pen knife with CV blades should get that nice worn look after a while.
Traditional knives also remind me of a time when things were different. When every adult male carried a knife and didn't have to worry about anyone saying a word about it because they also had some kind of folder in their pocket. Growing up in the country around the men that I did, it wasn't until I was an adult working in a bigger city that I even realized that most people don't carry knives. I've even gotten that, "I don't think you're supposed to have that." look at work when I used the little SAK Classic on my key ring. So while you wouldn't think a Peanut might raise an eyebrow, apparently it might where I work.

Even though I've retired that Delica due to sentimental reasons and newer clip knives have taken it's place, I can see where I may become more sentimental about that little nut after a while.

So what draws you to them?
 
I think much the same, aside from the plain beauty of some of the Traditionals, there is personality in traditional knives. It's funny, and may this makes me crazy, but when talking about one of my knives (modern) I talk about the features such as the blade steel or the Titanium Handle, however when I describe one of my
Traditionals it sounds more like I'm talking about personality quirks (this one bites when you close it too quick, or this one gets stubborn in certain weather, ect.)

Maybe I'm nuts, but my modern folders feel like tools and my traditional folders feel old friends.
 
The Traditionals are time-proven. They worked then and they work now. I like the fact of just dropping my Sodbuster in my pocket and going out the door. Just like I did when I got my first one, 40 years ago.
 
My draw back to slipjoints has been a long time coming. I grew up with Case knives and Boy Scout knives. Then I went to one-handed openers and larger folders. I still like a good large folder (Strider and CRK) but I've sold off all the others in favor of more Cases and GECs.

I started feeling a little silly carrying a huge folding knife when I didn't need all that blade and all that weight. Plus all the styles and designs of slipjoints is much more enjoyable than 15 black G10 folders.
 
Like Blade Crazy said"personality"...with bone and wood, and traditional construction methods, each one seems just a tad different from the others. Oftentimes for me they are more than tools, sort of like a worry stone in my pocket...something to reassuringly touch from time to time...
 
tonystl said:
I started feeling a little silly carrying a huge folding knife when I didn't need all that blade and all that weight...
Click to expand...

This is the main reason I have never strayed from my roots in traditionals. Maybe I'm the exception to the rule but tbh the smaller thinner blades actually are much more useful to me than what is considered normal on a modern folder. I can see where they'd be useful to baton off tree limbs or pry open a car door after a wreck or fight off a bar full of bloodthirsty zombies in an after hours joint... but I've never had to do those things so I carry stuff that is better for what I actually use a knife for. I guess I choose to carry a traditional for the same reason I use 3/8" and 1/4" drive socket sets instead of 1/2" or 1" stuff, they are just more useful for 99% of the things I use them for. The larger stuff has its place and I've had to use them a few times but when they aren't needed they are a hindrance.


As to looks I have to admit that I think the traditional knives are better looking. More sleek and elegant. Just a nice small tool that ages gracefully in my pocket and helps me function better from time to time. Now as to the individual pattern and why we choose one over the other? Now that to me is extremely interesting. Some of the things others consider beautiful and classy are definitely not what I would consider the same. But I love seeing what attracts others to a knife.

Will
 
For myself I'm sure it was seeing an adult my Dad or one of my grandfathers (actually) all of them
carried pocketknives, when I was very small. My first recollection of having my own being about 6 or
7 years old-- and ever since including the years in grade school and high school. So I'm one of the
people that never had to switch to them from some other form of knife. I pick the young people very
carefully that I give the occassional slipjoint to now hopeing they use and respect- and someday have
fond memories.
Ken.
 
I like trucks. Newer ones like Tundras, Silverados.

The older ones are my favorites however. Nothing beats an old Chevy pickup, but I like other brands too. I have a Chevrolet trucks calendar with nothing but old trucks on the wall at work. Those old trucks just look nicer than the new ones, I just like them better.

I carry Spydercos every day. I only rotate through a couple, but I like them. A lot of people in here might turn their noses up in disgust at them. I also carry a peanut and a SAK. Old and new. New stuff might be slicker and quicker, but the old stuff just has character.

A brand new slipjoint just can't match the patina and worn bone scales on an old jack I might find at a junk mall though...
 
Just survived one whole week with only a small Buck 703 somewhere in my pocket after carrying a Spyderco clipped to my right front pocket for years.
I am not really sure what triggered my interest in traditionals as these models are not really a part of the history of my family or my country.
I do however really like the almost unending history of the models and brands as a sort of general reminder of the good old days that were probably actually pretty tough on most people back then. I like the looks of these knives. I am also curious how these models actually carry and perform and like the fact that I can choose different blades for different tasks. So far the performance of the small Buck has surpassed my expectations although I will probably try out a larger stockman and some other models to find out what I really like best. I still have absolutely no clue what I will end up with in the end but I am sure I will learn a lot on the way.
 
My draw to traditional's?

It's what I grew up with, and all I knew before the modern one hand plastic wonders came along. When I was a kid, every man who had a pair of pants on, had a pocket knife in them. Most of the time it was a small serpentine two blader, anywhere between 2 3/4 to 3 1/2 inches. A small jack, pen, barlow, or even an old wartime TL-29 on the larger side of the scale. Once in a while I'd see a trapper or stockman in the hands of a hunter or rancher. The only single blade locking knives around were the eye-talion stiletto style switchblades carried by the guys with the duck tail haircuts, black leather jackets, in hotrodded old Mercs and Chevys. The punks of the day on a James Dean trip.

There was an admirable self confidence in the men I watched use those old two blade jacks. They were hunters, working men, who when they had to cut something, reached in the pocket, took the tool out and got it done, and slipped the tool back in the pocket. There was no brandishing, or BS about them. If they needed a bigger knife, then it must have been hunting season, then they used a Little Finn on the belt. It was all about practicality and versatility of the tool. I'd watch Mr. Wilson, the plumber in the apartments we lived in before dad moved us out the suburbs. Mr. Wilson would use his pocket knife for different jobs, and he'd use the smaller pen blade to reach in and strip out the old crumbling waxed cord gaskets and cut a new length to go into the leaking faucet. Or watching my dad fix stuff. They all seemed to get a lot done with just a small pocket knife and a few hand tools. A pocket knife, some string, and an adjustable wrench seemed to go a long way with these self reliant men.

I remember when the Buck folding hunter came out. I honestly didn't know what all the fuss was over. A heavy brick of a knife for one thin blade. No choice of what blade to use, weighed as much as a small pistol. I remember one old sergeants comment when a young troopy bought one at the PX. "Jeez kid, swing that thing in a sock and you'll kill someone with it."

I guess I'm a product of my dad, Mr. Van, and the rough old cobs that made up the liars circle at the Jenkins store, half of whom were poachers and illegal trappers. These guys were really into gear that got it done, and it was all about effectiveness. Those old slip joints worked for men who lived a far rougher life than the men today who buy up the 'hard use' knives that have one singe blade and an ugly handle to boot. I guess my view of modern knives is very skewed by my life experiences, remembering men who had to get the hide off a muskrat in the rain back in a salt marsh before the game warden came along, or cutting a fouled line leaning over the side of a Chesapeake bay workboat in rough weather. Those men I grew up around couldn't afford gear that didn't work. Just too dangerous. For a hundred years the barlow, the jacks of all sizes, trappers, and stockmen worked, and worked well for some rough ways to make a living. A cowboy on the back of a mustang pushing herd up the trail or a sailor in the rigging during a blow.

I guess when I reach in my pocket and take out a slip joint, even a peanut, there's a connection to the past. It's something that the cowboy or even a clerk who needed to trim a quill to write with, would recognize. A new barlow today would be the same knife as some freight wagon driver may have in his pocket. I guess my leaning to the traditional pocket knife is much the same with my lean toward lever action rifles and bows without pulleys and cables running around and fancy little fiber optic sights hanging off it. Traditional. Using something that worked for our great grandfathers in far rougher times than we experience. Something with a history. Something with a soul.
 
The one hand opening knife, in my mind, is wonderful idea but one I really do not need. This idea has sold millions of knives. I still open my folders with both hands. That's just me.
 
Easy question for me.
I was born and raised in a land with an old and respected (culturally) knifemaking culture. Every man had a knife, and many people still carry one; they're also highly regarded as gifts. And 95% of knives you see around here (from the worthless souvenirs sold in tourist places to the high end customs ordered directly at the knifemaker's table) are traditionals in pattern and materials. I made a move towards modern folders...it didn't last long. I felt like I was walking on a stranger and uncomfortable floor. And I came back to where I came from.

Fausto
:cool:
 
Everything in life has a romance, even those fancy one handed folders, but they don't speak my language. They don't smooth talk my very soul, like a good used traditional folder does. But, I'm still happy to have them around, I'm glad for those guys that get a kick out of their tactical knives, I'm perfectly fine with nodding my head and saying, "different strokes for different folks." They seem to enjoy their knife and I'm just fine with mine.

I think about the dark gray patina I have on my blades and I think back to the chores and memories that helped stain that once shiny, mirror finished knife. I can pick up a knife and go back in time. I can remember how I got that chip in the bone, or how I used that blade so much one year that I was afraid I was gonna run out of steel, but I never did. I love the way stag, or bone holds the warmth of my hand after I've set it on the forrest floor for a break in my chore. I love how stress relieving a simple jack knife can be, it's a worry stone and I worry not, when I have it.

A knife has become apart of my everyday life, it's given soul when it's given work. It bonds itself to myself when we have another job well done. It never complains, it hardly ever backs down and it's ready for a break whenever I'm ready to call it quits. A knife has always been like that, since the beginning of time it's been a tool thats always ready for work. It's as simple as a tool could be and it almost never fails when constructed with care. Sometimes it's under appreciated in a world like today, but if you carry a knife, you'll realize just how important it really is.
 
I never understood the need to choose between traditional and modern designs; it's a knife, not a woman and you can have more than one.

The whole notion of traditional knives is problematic as what is considered traditional is highly dependent on the culture in which a person was raised. Growing up I never saw any of my relatives carry a slipjoint. Not a single one, and I come from a huge family. How can this be possible? Simple really, slipjoints are not traditional to us. The men from my culture used bolos and balisongs, which I still admit to harboring a fondness for. Problem is, both designs would elicit frowns were I to use or even carry them today so I keep mine at home and carry knives of other designs.

I also find it difficult to accept the idea that I should use a knife just because my father, grandfather, or great grandfather used something like it. That's all well and good, but how far do we take it? Should we go back to carrying the scramasax? We can go back even further, and carry a flint knife like Ötzi the Iceman. One problem with sticking to the past is that technology and designs evolve over time. No one can say with 100% certainty that our forebears would refuse a Spyderco Military; they didn't have the option back then did they?

That said, I do admit to favoring traditional designs. Slipjoints, puukkos, khukuris -- I like knives with carbon steel blades and natural handle materials. I prefer their aesthetics and like their warm feeling when in hand. But I also have a few knives of the modern one-hand opening variety. They have their uses and moreover they work. I use and carry all types and don't fret about it one bit. The way I see it the only thing that is universally traditional about knives is that at one time or other, people everywhere used to carry them. So when I see another person carry a knife I get a little excited. The type of knife is a small matter. The important thing is that I have encountered a kindred soul that recognizes the utility and age old wisdom of keeping a sharp, cutting tool close at hand.

- Christian
 
I'm closing in on eighty years of age. I purchased my first "modern" folder in the fall of last year. I had injured my left hand and needed a knife I could open with one hand. Since then, I have added several more modern folders to the collection. My hand healed in due course, but I have continued carrying the modern folders. I like the pocket clip. I like having a handle I can get my hand around. And I like the locking feature. In all my years I have sustained only one cut because a blade closed on me and that one did not amount to much. So I readily admit that I don't really need the lock, nor the clip, nor the one hand opening, nor the larger blade. But I still appreciate those features. And for use in the garden and on my woods walks, the larger blade and handle do come in handy often.

I also admit that there is no romance for me in the newer designs. There is no history. And the only beauty is that which comes from function. But I'm not likely to retire mine anytime soon. On the other hand I'm not giving up the old slip joints either.

I haven't made the transition to the new breed of fixed blades. I've maybe 25 nice old fixed blades, the newest of which is perhaps thirty five years old. And the oldest, I carried during my turn behind the gun in Korea. I can't see that the new breed offers anything that I can't get from my older knives. I don't do any batoning. And the newer knives may be better for that, but I have axes, hatchets, saws, chainsaws, wedges, and sledges in the tool shed. Besides, roughing it in the wilderness has lost much of its appeal as I grow older. I've been there and done that for months at a time, and I got along just fine with my old fashioned fixed blades. So it is unlikely that I will ever own one of the newer models.
 
I like the look and feel of traditional pocket knives . I really like how well they slice . They work well and I really appreciate that . For the last week or so I have been carrying a 4 1/4" stockman . My Grandad carried a 4 1/4" stockman . I can't look at , feel , or use a 4 1/4" stockman and not think of him .
In the last year I have also become a fan of Spyderco . They are well designed folders that have there place in real world situations . I can get along with out them but sometimes they are handy to have .
Jim
 
I love (like you said) the whole "simple times" feel of them. The snap-open, tested design, reliability. And mine says Case. :D:D
I love all knives and all brands. In fact, I want more Spydercos. I even like SOME Cold Steel stuff.But a worn out slip joint looks waaaaaay better than beat up mall-ninja crap :)
 
kamagong said:
I never understood the need to choose between traditional and modern designs; it's a knife, not a woman and you can have more than one.
- Christian
Click to expand...

Quoted for truth and awesomeness. Might make a good signature line.

I carry both types because, while I usually find the shape of a traditional more useful, there are times when a one-hander is darn handy to have.

I grew up with traditionals, having started carrying knives before the advent of the Buck 110; but I carry a traditional today because it is a useful everyday tool.
 
As I said in my original post and to echo some of the sentiment from others, I like and carry both. Today my Spyderco was back in my pocket along with a peanut and a Wenger pen knife.
I don't think it's a one camp or the other. I like both but for different reasons. I started carrying a one hand opening knife because of where I worked at the time. It was convenient if not necessary to be able to get your knife open with one hand because generally you were holding up a bale of fiberglass with the other hand so it didn't fall on your head. When you needed to get the tape cut to get the machine rollers clear of jammed tape it was nice not to have that bale fall on your head.

It took until this year for me to really get into traditional folders. Outside of the Opinel pretty much every slipjoint I'd come into contact with was junk. Even that first knife I had as a kid was really a cheap knife. Lots of slip joints in my collection had been given to me by family when they'd find them at flea markets and so on. So I kind of had a skewed perception of slipjoints. I'm not sure what made me order that first Case Peanut. I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that what had been given to me over the years was the bottom of the barrel so to say. I'm glad I ordered that first peanut. It reminded me of that very first knife that my Dad gave me when I was a kid. I knew before I even ordered it that the Case had to be nicer. It certainly was and it led to the appreciation of a whole new world of knives.
 
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