My first contest/GAW - A NOS USA Schrade 8OT for your story - WINNER CHOSEN !!!

jacktrades_nbk said:
This i one i would very much like to try, after hearing so many stories about the wonderful 1095 heat treat done by Schrade, so thank you very much for the chance.

I got into traditional knives some years ago, when i prepared for going to the UK for a while, and since i like to carry legal and such, not to go into trouble for nothing, i came in these parts, and after looking around a long while, i bought 3 knives. Two peanuts and a medium stockman, all from Case.
The peanuts were mostly Carl inspired, and the stockman was for the pure utility and usefulness in a compact package. A work knife.
Of course, i bought others afterwards, a canoe, a serpentine jack, some other stockmen..and so on.
But back to my story, when i received the package, i just looked at the peanuts, smiled, and put them back in their boxes. What tiny knives, i said to myself. and took the stockman for regular carry. I would never carry those..
Even that stockman was small compared to what i carried before, but it was more manageable. I liked it a lot. It was and is a good pocket knife.
But as Carl said, wondering if a peanut would win in the long run, i tried to carry one of those too. It wasn't easy, and even months after, i wasn't convinced.
So i played..leaving the peanut home, taking the stockman, or the canoe, or the jack..but it had already gotten under my skin, calling its place in my pocket.
So i carried it again, and again, and after a while, i realized that the peanut was all i needed most of the time, and on top of that it was a slicer like no other.
I got used to the shape, to the way of using it, that the stockman hardly ever saw more pocket duty, except when i had some work to do, in or around the house.
Then i left in the UK where i stayed for about an year, and then came back, but the peanut still remained my top edc knife.
Nothing was able to take it out of my pocket for regular edc carry. And i think nothing will, even if i do like to add a stokman from time to time, when i know i'll have a lot of cutting to do.
It's my perfect edc knife, that little peanut. Takes very little space in my pocket, i hardly know it's there. It can fall horizontal, i don't mind, being short it doesn't really matter. And when i want to cut something, the peanut will deliver, and impress along the way, both with looks, and with capabilities.
Love that nut.
Here it is today, after i cut a small fruit for the giveaway.

Thanks again for the chance, and good luck to everybody else.
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I really like this story and the lovely patina on your EDC. This inspired me to carry a small knife today. I usually go for bigger knives, but maybe I can get by with less.
 
Thank you. If somebody would have told me 10 or 15 years ago that i will carry such a small knife everyday, and depend on it, i would have laughed quite a bit.
 
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The only knife I've carried since Christmas and my new favorite is my GEC 25. The reason its special to me is my wife picked it out all on her own for me with no help. Thanks for this great GAW I've. Really enjoyed reading about everyones special knives.
 
My father's father was an airplane mechanic for Boeing in their heyday. He was the son of a farmer. When his own father became too ill to farm, my grandfather quit his excellent job for Boeing, and moved back to a rural community to take over the family farm. He did this to keep the farm from going under. He farmed for the rest of his life. When times got even harder, he ran an auto repair shop to keep the family farm afloat.

This often meant he had to do the farm work in the early morning, and after the work at the auto shop was done late at night.
He could literally fix anything. Toaster, TV, Tractor, sports car, and airplanes.

He was a tough, strong man. A fighter (boxing) and a scrapper. He had the strongest hands of any man I ever met (and I have worked out with Olympic power lifters, NFL players and trainers). Once, my grandfather was finishing up work on a tractor. He told me to grab a wrench and loosen up a nut on the tractor. I took the large wrench, and could not budge it. I asked him if he had a breaker/cheater bar to slip over the large wrench. He reached over and loosened the nut with his fingers. I was so taken aback, that I thought it was a trick, and asked him how he did it. So he re tightened it with his fingers and told me to try again. I could not budge it again. I made him show me several more times, on different bolts. I was amazed! I even took several bolts and tightened them back down with the wrench and pounded on it. He was able to get them all off with his hands.

Once, while working in the auto shop, a sports car fell on him. He was trapped under the vehicle until the other guys came back from lunch. The pulled it off of him, and he kept working. He did not go to the hospital for three days. He finally went when he turned green, and my grandmother made him go. The car had ruptured his stomach, and intestines. The doctors had to remove most of his intestines. They had gone gangrenous. What they did not catch, was that it destroyed the blood supply to his hips. He ignore the pain from that for a long time, until the bone disintegrated, and they had to do a double hip replacement. Even with that he was still strong, and vital.


My earliest memory of a knife was of Grandpa using a barlow knife. My first cut from a knife was from that barlow. I saw him cleaning and trimming his nails with that knife (he would finish up working on a tractor and then wash his hands with gas to get the grease off for dinner. After dinner, I saw that knife sitting in the change dish with is keys and wallet, etc.. I took it and tried to trim my own nails. It was sharp enough that it cut through my nail, and deep into the flesh beneath it, about 1/2 way to the cuticle. It took years for that jail to grow right again!

My grandpa did not yell at me. Just said that I learned what not to do with a knife.




He died, when I was still a teenager. Recently, my father had to move my grandmother into an assisted living apartment (when she turned 97, we are about to celebrate her 100th next weekend).

He found my Grandfather's barlow, and passed it on to me.













 
Bigfattyt said:
My father's father was an airplane mechanic for Boeing in their heyday. He was the son of a farmer. When his own father became too ill to farm, my grandfather quit his excellent job for Boeing, and moved back to a rural community to take over the family farm. He did this to keep the farm from going under. He farmed for the rest of his life. When times got even harder, he ran an auto repair shop to keep the family farm afloat.

This often meant he had to do the farm work in the early morning, and after the work at the auto shop was done late at night.
He could literally fix anything. Toaster, TV, Tractor, sports car, and airplanes.

He was a tough, strong man. A fighter (boxing) and a scrapper. He had the strongest hands of any man I ever met (and I have worked out with Olympic power lifters, NFL players and trainers). Once, my grandfather was finishing up work on a tractor. He told me to grab a wrench and loosen up a nut on the tractor. I took the large wrench, and could not budge it. I asked him if he had a breaker/cheater bar to slip over the large wrench. He reached over and loosened the nut with his fingers. I was so taken aback, that I thought it was a trick, and asked him how he did it. So he re tightened it with his fingers and told me to try again. I could not budge it again. I made him show me several more times, on different bolts. I was amazed! I even took several bolts and tightened them back down with the wrench and pounded on it. He was able to get them all off with his hands.

Once, while working in the auto shop, a sports car fell on him. He was trapped under the vehicle until the other guys came back from lunch. The pulled it off of him, and he kept working. He did not go to the hospital for three days. He finally went when he turned green, and my grandmother made him go. The car had ruptured his stomach, and intestines. The doctors had to remove most of his intestines. They had gone gangrenous. What they did not catch, was that it destroyed the blood supply to his hips. He ignore the pain from that for a long time, until the bone disintegrated, and they had to do a double hip replacement. Even with that he was still strong, and vital.


My earliest memory of a knife was of Grandpa using a barlow knife. My first cut from a knife was from that barlow. I saw him cleaning and trimming his nails with that knife (he would finish up working on a tractor and then wash his hands with gas to get the grease off for dinner. After dinner, I saw that knife sitting in the change dish with is keys and wallet, etc.. I took it and tried to trim my own nails. It was sharp enough that it cut through my nail, and deep into the flesh beneath it, about 1/2 way to the cuticle. It took years for that jail to grow right again!

My grandpa did not yell at me. Just said that I learned what not to do with a knife.




He died, when I was still a teenager. Recently, my father had to move my grandmother into an assisted living apartment (when she turned 97, we are about to celebrate her 100th next weekend).

He found my Grandfather's barlow, and passed it on to me.
Click to expand...

Wow! Your Grandfather sounds like someone who you did not want to be on the wrong side of. What a great story!
 
wow!
not an entry, i got one nearly new recently from Woodrow
just an avid spectator

but i am curious about that barlow. Dimensions? Are the bolters one piece or ..?
sorry but that barlow really caught my eye
 
Bigfattyt said:
My father's father was an airplane mechanic for Boeing in their heyday. He was the son of a farmer. When his own father became too ill to farm, my grandfather quit his excellent job for Boeing, and moved back to a rural community to take over the family farm. He did this to keep the farm from going under. He farmed for the rest of his life. When times got even harder, he ran an auto repair shop to keep the family farm afloat.

This often meant he had to do the farm work in the early morning, and after the work at the auto shop was done late at night.
He could literally fix anything. Toaster, TV, Tractor, sports car, and airplanes.

He was a tough, strong man. A fighter (boxing) and a scrapper. He had the strongest hands of any man I ever met (and I have worked out with Olympic power lifters, NFL players and trainers). Once, my grandfather was finishing up work on a tractor. He told me to grab a wrench and loosen up a nut on the tractor. I took the large wrench, and could not budge it. I asked him if he had a breaker/cheater bar to slip over the large wrench. He reached over and loosened the nut with his fingers. I was so taken aback, that I thought it was a trick, and asked him how he did it. So he re tightened it with his fingers and told me to try again. I could not budge it again. I made him show me several more times, on different bolts. I was amazed! I even took several bolts and tightened them back down with the wrench and pounded on it. He was able to get them all off with his hands.

Once, while working in the auto shop, a sports car fell on him. He was trapped under the vehicle until the other guys came back from lunch. The pulled it off of him, and he kept working. He did not go to the hospital for three days. He finally went when he turned green, and my grandmother made him go. The car had ruptured his stomach, and intestines. The doctors had to remove most of his intestines. They had gone gangrenous. What they did not catch, was that it destroyed the blood supply to his hips. He ignore the pain from that for a long time, until the bone disintegrated, and they had to do a double hip replacement. Even with that he was still strong, and vital.


My earliest memory of a knife was of Grandpa using a barlow knife. My first cut from a knife was from that barlow. I saw him cleaning and trimming his nails with that knife (he would finish up working on a tractor and then wash his hands with gas to get the grease off for dinner. After dinner, I saw that knife sitting in the change dish with is keys and wallet, etc.. I took it and tried to trim my own nails. It was sharp enough that it cut through my nail, and deep into the flesh beneath it, about 1/2 way to the cuticle. It took years for that jail to grow right again!

My grandpa did not yell at me. Just said that I learned what not to do with a knife.




He died, when I was still a teenager. Recently, my father had to move my grandmother into an assisted living apartment (when she turned 97, we are about to celebrate her 100th next weekend).

He found my Grandfather's barlow, and passed it on to me.













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That story was amazing--it reminded me of my grandfather, a steelworker from Pittsburg. He had hands of stone. He loved baseball, cigars, and he too trimmed his nails with a small pocket knife... but sadly, I do not have it. Thanks for the story and for bringing the memories rushing back. I was given his old pocket watch (with a knife of mine):

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Love the finger wrench story!!

My favourite slipjoint is a greedy story I guess, because I'm it's only owner. It's the most underrated GEC around, the Executive Whittler. It's important to me as it was my present to myself from graduating University in Massage Therapy. I got nothing for graduating university the first time, and only a cheap "gold" bracelet and a Mickey of vodka for graduating High School with honours, so this time around I knew I wanted to get something to commemorate my new career/life after breaking my legs. Sleek, sexy, beautiful character to the scales, a great selection of blades, even if there is a pen blade- but overall it just works! Hides in the pocket, yet is 4" closed. Big enough to cut grapefruit, yet small enough to trim fingernails, it simply disappears into scrubs, although it rides most days in my backpack, as I won't loose my backpack at work! Great in city or camping, I can't understand why this model never got the appreciation I feel it deserves!

Here it is cutting the tree so it can have this beautiful picture taken (does that count? ;)
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Back in 1997, I met a very pretty girl, who carried a pocket knife. It was a small, cheap made in China lockback, but she carried it and used it. At the time, I was mostly carrying a Buck one handed wonder, and an Uncle Henry stockman (885UH). She made it a game to always try and get my knives away from me, and then she would play "keep away" with them. She had some good hiding places. A few months later, she lost the Buck while deer hunting. A month later we got married. I still have the stockman, and it will always be my favorite.

Schrade%20885UH.jpg
 
Not an entry, since I probably wouldn't carry that big old stockman if I were fortunate enough to win it (but if you ever sponsor a GAW involving one of your TL29 mods, I will enter early and often :D).
Thanks for your generosity in running this contest, dma1965! And thanks especially for your "story requirement"; there are some fabulous stories here!

- GT
 
Shaggy said:
....so, what's YOUR story dma? ;)
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I suppose my story is relevant. My favorite EDC is this Queen made Winchester Eureka Whittler, with some of the best stag I have ever seen on a knife ever.

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I renewed my love of pocket knives a few years ago when I decided to start carving some of the olive wood I pruned from my trees. I started with an old 1970's Case Congress knife, and then went looking for some of those old brands I knew as a young lad growing up in the USA, only to discover that almost all of them (Schrade, Camillus, Western, etc.) had closed up shop and moved to Asia. This really saddened me, since I remember having so many nice knives by those makers as a kid, and now I would have to scrounge to find them again.

I started combing antique stores, flea markets, and the web for what I could find, often paying outrageous sums for the old US made traditional, but finding lots of great stuff. One bargain I found was the Winchester knives made in the 1980's and 1990's for Bluegrass Cutlery. I bought one on a whim from eBay and was super impressed with the fit and finish, and most importantly, the reasonable price I paid. I had purchased some GEC knives earlier, but they cost a lot more, and the fit and finish of the Winchesters was just as good as the GEC knives. There were rumors that they were made by Queen, and under the guidance of Bill Howard of GEC, so that seemed to explain a lot, although Bluegrass Cutlery would not admit to any of that.

Anyway, I started buying them, and turning most into safe queens, and when I found one I liked to carry, I would by two of the same pattern and carry one.

One day I say the stag beauty pictured above, and won it on an auction. When I opened the box I was stunned at how gorgeous it was, and decided it had to be a safe queen. It was just too pretty. Yet, it called to me, and I decided to start carrying it in a leather slip case. I decided I wanted to whittle with it, but dared not sharpening and re-profiling the pen blade for that purpose, but it was useless as a whittler without the sharpening.

One day I decided that keeping it pristine was just causing me anxiety, and I decided it was time to take it out of the pouch, and turn it into the tool that God and Bill Howard intended it to be. I sharpened up the blades, started cutting some fruit with some, whittling with others, and ended up a very happy person. I even decided it was time to use it for whatever I wanted to use it for.

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I began carrying it regularly, and it was not long before my 3 year old (at the time) began calling it "Pappa Knife" when she saw it.

When I visited GEC I asked Bill Howard if the rumors where true, and if he had made the knife, and he said that the knife was indeed made under his supervision, which certainly explains the great quality.

Today it is the knife I always go back to, especially since I like to always carry something to whittle, and it is a perfect whittler.

Here it is today:

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My name is Steve and I'm a knifaholic. I've had knives since I was a kid of 14 or so. My grandfather had some knifes in a bag in the shed. An Imperial(probably) easy open, and a folding knife ax combo. probably a Kabar. I didn't think much of them at the time because he used a wheel to sharpen them. One knife that sticks in my mind was a small Schrade tortoise pen switchblade. It was in the box I use to house my knives today. In the Navy and in my twenties,, late 70's, & eighties, I would buy knives here and there, Rigid, Schrade lockback, Gerber, Edgemark. When I really got the bug I used to go to Stoddards in Boston, where I bought my first Al Mar. A big lock back in ivory micarta with finger grooves. In those days there were knife stores around more often than now.
I also bought a Rolox at Stoddards. Finding the book by Ken Warner, Knives Annual got me into customs for a short while. Bought a few, Khalsa, and Serven to name a few. getting Married put a dampener on customs due to the expense. Somewhere along the line I got interested in antiques. I don't own a lot of knives, 30-40 or so, but over the years I've had some real beauts, from NYK to Samuel Barlow to a knife forged out of a large nail. The hunt I think was a big attraction to antiques, going to flea markets to antique stores and garage sales. I don't buy many knives now. Maybe a few a year to none.
Sometimes I think the obsession is partly my search for the perfect knife. That always seems to change, like when I found a nice Camillus congress for a few bucks. I believe I found my perfect knife when I bought the latest GEC. I felt fortunate that there was an 81 out there, as when I was looking there wasn't one I could find that I liked. When I found it, I was a bit apprehensive buying it thinking a stockman of 4 inches might be too big for my pocket. I was used to Cases medium stockmans. As time goes by, I love this knife more and more. I still love to rescue old knives and will continue to do so, but my new companion will be with me to the grave.

 
dma1965 said:
Wow! Your Grandfather sounds like someone who you did not want to be on the wrong side of. What a great story!
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He was not a big man (we grandkids towered over him), but he would slap a knot on your head faster than your eyes could register!

When we were little, he would snatch us up, hold us by the ankle, and twist our toes. We loved it!

When he got much older, he would give you a good rap to the shins with his hardwood cane. You always had to make sure you judged your distances carefully when you were being impertinent with him.

His idea of fun was dragging us on a big wooden log sled behind his old truck in the snow in his Alf-alpha field.

He would hand you a hatched to go use, like you were a grown up, then give it to you if you showed responsibility. We always had a great time on his farm. BB guns, Bow's and arrows, fishing, sharp tools and the occasional curse and smack on the head were all things we looked forward to visiting his farm. The funny thing was when you really did something wrong, he was more gentile.

Lot of funny stories about him (most would get a man arrested these days). He is still greatly missed.

Course, grandma is no push over either! Once dad thought he was too big to punish, and too old to go be forced to go to church. Grandma taught him otherwise with a stout cherry wood stick off the wood pile! He went to church and never complained again!




Rsmith_77 said:
wow!
not an entry, i got one nearly new recently from Woodrow
just an avid spectator

but i am curious about that barlow. Dimensions? Are the bolters one piece or ..?
sorry but that barlow really caught my eye
Click to expand...

If you are talking about that old Western Barow, the bolsters are nickle silver I believe. They are solid. I have tightened the pivot up in a vice. The blades still have a decent snap. It has lots of life left in it, and good bite, but only gets carried on special occasions. I'll be carrying it to my Grandma's 100th B-day next weekend!


I have other blades I abuse and can afford to loose................... those are the ones I take out into the dirt and muck!






Cutting cows...





 
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Rough Rider Half Whittler. It's currently my EDC. In one photo it's cutting up my lunch so that I can manage eating a grilled Vietnamese pork chop while sitting in an office.

In the other photo it's sitting next to my Christmas present - a CRK. The half whittler was $12 shipped. The CRK a lot more. But it's use and it's value next to the CRK doesn't tell the whole story about why I love this knife.

First it's my EDC, I carry it everyday no matter what other knife I have on me.

It's very, very hard to achieve something like having an EDC to me. For people like us who are knife nuts, who have a ga-billion choices in knife options to find something that you like so much to carry as an EDC is very rare. I feel that this knife is part of my understanding of the knife hobby and I try to take a very philosophical approach to the hobby as there is so much one can learn from knife ownership.

Part of my fascination with the hobby and having run through XX maybe XXX number of knives in 2 years of being on bladeforum is learning just how much knives are in theory and in practice and use just like martial arts. I learned Wing Chun Kung Fu from my dad and Karate from a white ex cop trying to help inner city kids in Brooklyn NY. Both styles are made for short people. Being 5'9 they were a good system for me.

My search for something that I can EDC has taken me on a really fun journey, through super steels, really cheap crappy knives, not so great edge retaining steels, moderns, traditionals, thick blades, thin slicers, long blades, short blades, micarta, natural, G10, price ranges from $5 to $400 and everything in between. This RR half Whittler just like martial arts has taught me the importance of space and distance. The knife 3.25" closed, provides enough blade to cut a pork chop without getting all neck deep into the pork chop the way a peanut would. Yet is unobtrusive enough to want to carry every single day. It's thin slicing ability comes from it's thin blade, yet it has the typical walk and talk and firm backspring that would be expected from a knife 9 times it's price.

Like Karate which is all about distance and counter striking as a form of offense/defense, the 3.25 inch closed size of this half whittler for me is the perfect compromise to EDC. Maybe I have issues but there was a point in my life when I had a fairly good mastery of martial arts. It was 7 years of schooling, 3 hour classes twice a week for that entire time. After getting picked on for whatever reason and being beat up many times in my youth, I had finally had enough and had to fight back to get the bullying to stop. For someone who was in that situation, there was nothing more curious, exciting, frightening and bizarre all at the same time than to start crap with a bully who was going to beat you down for whatever reason he had at the moment. Then dropping your hands as he approaches, side stepping and sweeping his leg with a hard thigh kick. Not close enough to his knee to permanently mangle the knee but definitely hard enough to shock him and see the whites of their eyes bug out. It is at that moment, and I've had this moment on more than one occasion where the bully exposes the truth of what he is, when he realizes that he started something he probably can't finish and that he had woken up a monster in someone smaller, timid and unassuming as compared to the bully. Proper distance in karate is really vital in the striking, feigning and counter striking process of going to battle, it's one of the most important aspects outside of learning a system and being able to control one's fear while having the determination to plan a course of attach and defense in hand to hand fighting.

Going back to knives. The RR will handle nearly every situation that I might have throughout a normal day in terms of knife needs. Especially now that those dark days are behind me, long gone and just a memory. The RR is a very good quality knife and not because of how perfect it's bolsters are or the lack of gaps in its bone handles or materials. Certainly not where or who, or how it was made. Its perfection comes from the fact that it is on me every day and gets used. It is this way because for me, the 3.25" closed length and tiny unobtrusive OAL, hides the fact that it has a ton of blade relative to its overall size. And that makes all the difference in terms of an EDC.

It's doing what it was meant to do and that's why it's my favorite knife. = )
 
Please keep the content about Traditional Knives.
 
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