Welcome to traditional pocket knives, john.
You've picked a field that has almost unlimited possabilities for a great edc. The nice thing about a traditional, is that you may not have a locking blade, but you can pick a knife with two blades like a simple barlow, a three blade stockman, or even a four blade congress. A traditional pocket knife packs alot of versitility into a small pocket size package. Most have a history going back to days when a knife really was used more on a day to day basis than now, so they had to be totally functionable. Form following function. A lot of traditional pocket knives were designed for a particular trade. A frieght wagon driver or horse drawn cab driver may carry a harness jack, while a cowboy would of course be drawn to the cattle knife, then later the stockman. Then there's the sodbusters and single blade barlows of the farmer and laborer, the sunfish of the construction worker of old, and the electrictions knife and sailors knife for those occupations as well.
And then there's the peanut. But that's another story.
There's so many patterns that if you become bored with one, there's 20 others to choose from.
Before you make a purchase, find out if there are any knife collector clubs in your area. If you can lay your hands on a copy of Knife World, theres a club listing by state in the back. Collectors are wonderfull people willing to show you the different patterns, and at a knife show you can handle, feel, and look at your hearts content at them. This will give you some experiance in picking what knife you may find fits you best. Sometimes it's not the one you think. Sometimes you don't know till your hand wraps around it.
It may also depend on you usual mode of dress, (what kind of pants worn) and occupation or trade. White collar/blue collar. City dweller or rural farm.
Anyways, welcome to traditionals.
