nostalgia: a modern convenience

Runs With Scissors

Runs With Scissors

Joined
Dec 3, 2000
Messages
3,002
Just had a strange thought occur to me. Actually, that's nothing new, many strange thoughts occur to me every day, but I'll post this one...

Right now we're livin' in good times as far as knives are concerned. Inspite of the meddling of those in favor of a "nanny state" knives keep on getting better. better steel, more stable handle materials, stronger lock designs, etc. It's truly mind boggling how many great options there are in todays knife market.

Having said that, there are those of us who tend to get a little bit burnt out on all the modern, blacktical tactical, unobtainium strengthened gee whiz kinda blades and wind up running back to more old fashioned knives of yesteryear, and most of our childhoods. carbon steel, wood, bone, slipjoints,leather, traditional Puukko knives, etc. And of course we justify our actions, the slipjoints carry more nicely, it's nice to have more than one blade, they cut better, a real man don't need no more than this anyways, etc. etc. take your pick of comments...

But I was just wondering...way, way, way back when steel first started coming to Egypt...were there people clinging stubbornly to thier bronze swords and knives, and refusing to accept the idea that steel could have any possible real advantages? after all, it would be harder to sharpen, more brittle, ugly colored, and just aint got no SOUL like a blade oughta have. a real warrior should have no problem sharpening his bronze sword three hours a night.... and who needs more than a good ole fashioned bronze dagger anyways?

And way back in the caveman days when they started knapping thier own edged tools and weapons outta flint, were there grumpy old cave codgers who insisted thier favorite seven pound rock, or big stick would beat things apart things every bit as well as those new fangled flint pokey cutty things?

Just a curiousity....thankfully there's a broad range of knives available for technoholics as well as ludites.:D
 
Until steel making technology advanced a bronze sword was better than an iron one. The problem was that bronze cost more. Those damascus swords were a work-around to make the cheap stuff better. I would kind of like to have a phosphor bronze or beryllium copper dagger of classical design. I would also like to have a nice Folsom point. It isn't that I think these things are better, but I like to preserve a connection to those clever ancestors who invented the very idea of a knife or a spear. It is hard to make a metal edge as sharp as flaked obsidium and there is a real art to flaking it.

I don't carry a carbon steel stockman anymore. What I carry is a lockbladed SAK. I do think that 3 blades are better than one, but for me one blade and 9 tools are better yet. I seldom carry my unobtanium unless I expect to have a special need. Likewise I don't carry a piece of sharpened flint unless I expect to perform a lecture demonstration for a bunch of kids. In the end utility wins over ego or nostalgia.
 
When they discovered the mummified remains of "the ice man" in the alps (I think that was where he was discovered) they also found his tools. He was a bronze aged man, and carried a bronze bladed axe. However, they found beside his remains, an obsidian or flint bladed knife. It seems this man preferred a (at the time) "traditional" knife blade material over the "newfangled" bronze "tactical" tools and weapons of the time.

PEte
 
I've carried an SAK adventurer as my "fall back" knife since 1993. The blade is becoming more of a toothpick over time. Infact, the last couple of months I've replaced it with a Tinker. (paired with an unobtainium S30V, wooden handled Lonewolf T-2 most of the time);)

Gotta love them SAKs when it comes down to it.

Some day I'd like to knap my own blade from flint, but that's a ways off in the future. Right now I continue to be stymied by simply re-grinding a file into a Puukko...:grumpy:
 
I have come to appreciate ATS-34 as my favorite steel of all time. A true classic. Love the new stuff and hi-tech steels but when it comes to an edge I can trust - hands down, its ATS-34.
 
your completely right. Nostalgia IS a modern convenience.

NO, bronze age peoples embrased Iron tools as soon as good ones were available, and they could aford them. In actual combat, a quality forged iron sword has a bad habit of BREAKING a cast bronze one. If they come into contact. (you see, bronze is actualy MORE brittle than iron).

NO, cave men / anchient hunter-gatherers embraced the idea of stone tiped knives / spears. Their environment was so incredably harsh that they had the option to jump on any small advantage, or die.

As for the "ice man", Its possible that he had a bronze knife and LOST is in the mountains (happens to even the most experienced hunters) and he knaped a replacement, OR that the village he was from had limited resources, and they simply didnt have access to bronze, or to enough bronze, to make a lot of bronze tools (hey, that kind of thing happens to small comunities of pre-historic hunters). Maybee he traded for the Axe. We dont know. ;)

Nostalgia is the modern invention of old codgers that have lived longer than humans have any right too, and as such have too much time on their hands to do nothing, so they invent fantasised versions of the past to try and console themselvs about how good they "used to be". To fullfill that fantasy, they suround themselvs with the technology of the day, and deride anyone who DARES to use any of that modern crap (remember, it CANT be better than their old reics, becasue that would contradict their view of the superiority of the "good old days".)

O.K, rant off. :)
 
The King​

"Farewell, Romance!" the Cave-men said;
"With bone well carved He went away,
Flint arms the ignoble arrowhead,
And jasper tips the spear to-day.
Changed are the Gods of Hunt and Dance,
And He with these. Farewell, Romance!"

"Farewell, Romance!" the Lake-folk sighed;
"We lift the weight of flatling years;
The caverns of the mountain-side
Hold him who scorns our hutted piers.
Lost hills whereby we dare not dwell,
Guard ye his rest. Romance, farewell!"

"Farewell, Romance!" the Soldier spoke;
"By sleight of sword we may not win,
But scuffle 'mid uncleanly smoke
Of arquebus and culverin.
Honour is lost, and none may tell
Who paid good blows. Romance, farewell!"

"Farewell, Romance!" the Traders cried;
"Our keels have lain with every sea;
The dull-returning wind and tide
Heave up the wharf where we would be;
The known and noted breezes swell
Our trudging sails. Romance, farewell!"

"Good-bye, Romance!" the Skipper said;
"He vanished with the coal we burn.
Our dial marks full-steam ahead,
Our speed is timed to half a turn.
Sure as the ferried barge we ply
'Twixt port and port. Romance, good-bye!"

"Romance!" the season-tickets mourn,
"He never ran to catch His train,
But passed with coach and guard and horn --
And left the local -- late again!"
Confound Romance!... And all unseen
Romance brought up the nine-fifteen.

His hand was on the lever laid,
His oil-can soothed the worrying cranks,
His whistle waked the snowbound grade,
His fog-horn cut the reeking Banks;
By dock and deep and mine and mill
The Boy-god reckless laboured still!

Robed, crowned and throned, He wove His spell,
Where heart-blood beat or hearth-smoke curled,
With unconsidered miracle,
Hedged in a backward-gazing world;
Then taught His chosen bard to say:
"Our King was with us -- yesterday!"

-- Rudyard Kipling
 
No matter what I do I just cannot bring myself to use an old style knife like a slipjoint. The only thing that I use that ever comes close is a SAK.

I hate to sound lazy but they just seem like too much work. I don't have to do anything except sharpen my Benchmades.
 
mr. trooper. If you are lucky, one day, you too will be an "Old Codger". You might sing a different tune then.
 
mr.trooper said:
your completely right. Nostalgia IS a modern convenience.

NO, bronze age peoples embrased Iron tools as soon as good ones were available, and they could aford them. In actual combat, a quality forged iron sword has a bad habit of BREAKING a cast bronze one. If they come into contact. (you see, bronze is actualy MORE brittle than iron).

NO, cave men / anchient hunter-gatherers embraced the idea of stone tiped knives / spears. Their environment was so incredably harsh that they had the option to jump on any small advantage, or die.

As for the "ice man", Its possible that he had a bronze knife and LOST is in the mountains (happens to even the most experienced hunters) and he knaped a replacement, OR that the village he was from had limited resources, and they simply didnt have access to bronze, or to enough bronze, to make a lot of bronze tools (hey, that kind of thing happens to small comunities of pre-historic hunters). Maybee he traded for the Axe. We dont know. ;)

Nostalgia is the modern invention of old codgers that have lived longer than humans have any right too, and as such have too much time on their hands to do nothing, so they invent fantasised versions of the past to try and console themselvs about how good they "used to be". To fullfill that fantasy, they suround themselvs with the technology of the day, and deride anyone who DARES to use any of that modern crap (remember, it CANT be better than their old reics, becasue that would contradict their view of the superiority of the "good old days".)

O.K, rant off. :)
Click to expand...

EXCELLENT point! adaptability, modern man's GREATEST tool.

Pete
 
One time my one of my uncles forgot his knife on a solo deer hunt. He had to dress out a deer with a sharpened pull tab off of a beer can! I bet he wished he had a sharp piece of obsidian then!
 
Peregrin said:
mr. trooper. If you are lucky, one day, you too will be an "Old Codger". You might sing a different tune then.
Click to expand...

O' dont get me wrong; Ill still have my Ka-Bar. That fact, however, wont stop me from lusting after the latest Unobtanium Tacti-cool Black wonder knife! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top