Number One Blade Choice Version #2

T

thundermoon

Joined
Nov 5, 2007
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A Week Or Two Ago I Started A Thread Regarding What Would Be Your Number One Blade Choice If You Could Only Take One Into The Woods For And Extended Period Of Time And Got Some Really Great Answers, Thanks To All For Your Help And For The Great Welcome I Got Since I'm New To This Forum.

I Have A Little Different Spin On The Same Question. What Do You Think Our Grandfathers Or Great Grandfathers Number One Blade Choice Would Have Been If They Could Only Take One Into The Woods For An Extended Period. May Not Be So Much A Brand Name As With Us These Days, Or It Could Be, Or It Might Be More Of A Style Of Blade. Very Interested In The Old Ways Of Survival When There Were No Mega Packs And Camel Back Water Containers....not A Slam On Anyone Or Today....just My Personal Interest....use To Be It Really Was Survival.

I Look Forward To Hearing Everyones Thoughts.....i Really Enjoy Learning From Such A Great Group, And A Group That Is Always Willing To Help.

Thundermoon
 
it might depend on geographical location.

some a bowie,some a nessie,some a trapper.

i dont know but i bet whatever they chose it had something to do with whatever their father or grandfather chose.

good question though
 
my grand daddy carried a barlow.. and my dad just uses a steak knife and a sheetrock knife...
 
My grandfather had a Buck 110 in a belt sheath on him all the time. When he "went afield" as he would say, it was a larger Buck fixed blade.
 
Well, it sure would depend on when and where your grandfather (s) lived. Since my grandfather lived in the early and middle part of last century (before many of the larger knife companies were around), his choices would have been fairly simple by todays standards. My grandfather owned a 6000 acre dairy farm in the north...much of it forested. I remember well his Barlow folder and the very occasional 5" thin fixed blade when he was in the woods or around the farm. Keeping in mind; axes, saws, smaller knives were the survival tools of choice of his generation in that part of the country. Obviously, they worked well, too. Now, my great grandfather may have chosen something similar to the knives below since they were still engaging hostiles in those days and trading a few furs. :)
hornknives2io.jpg

colonialjoel15ph.jpg
 
My grand dad used a heavy 8 inch Buther knife and a up sweep skinner plus a double bit ax for all woods work.
 
Probably an Old Hickory or a Sheffield. Those were common inexpensive knives with good steel and they were readily available.
 
My grandfather used a Remington large trapper, and a sheath knife he made from a saw blade with a cast on aluminum handle.

John
 
My grand dad on my mums side carried a little 2 blade folder , and a butcher knife . He was a man of all trades , trapper , logger , farmer railwaorker , anything that meant he was away from town and people was good for him .

My grand dad on my Fathers side carried a fairly standard folder , single blade , german made . He used to carry a fixed blade for a while , but that was for city living , it didnt matter to a lot of folk that he and his were refugees , his name and accent was german , therefore he was enemy , and fair game .
 
Darned good thread idea. One grandfather, my dad's father, I don't have much clue about. He was extremely practicle. I'm guessing he'd have carried a Buck or a Case. My Dad was a Case man. My other Grandfather was more of an outdoorsman and I've got lots more of his stuff. Its funny that none of the knives I have of his is a general field/woods knife. I've got filet knives, oyster knives, boning knives and a neat little Camillus pen knife. Most of his knives had the metal darn near sharpened out of them. He must have sharpened them all the time. I think that was something he brought back from the trench warfare in France. I'm guessing for hunting and campcraft use he'd have had some kind of wood handled knife with a 4 or 5 inch blade and a butcher knife type blade, carbon steel, wicked sharp.
 
My grandfather (lifelong farmer) always carried either a 3 blade stockman or a Barlow. Brand name wasn't important as long as it was a "good knife". He was never without a knife in his pocket. He used them for everything, cleaning squirrels, castrating pigs, making willow whistles, opening envelopes etc. It was all the knife he ever needed for daily tasks. IIRC he was a fan of a 8 inch butcher knife for those "large knife" tasks. -Matt-
 
This is all fun and stuff but I don't think it tells us anything useful. Yes, we can look back at historical records of all sorts of tools that had to work, and in many cases worked well. Here, and off the top of my head, I'm thinking of tools used by thatchers and fence makers drawing from a coppice. We could compare those sharp working tools to those kinda sharp cosmetic clique badges we see know and draw some conclusion about proven effectiveness earning its corn and so on.

But that's only one part of it. We must also take into account the ignorance of the time, and that what they come up with was the best they could come up then. Here I'm thinking about the Romans and their attempts to make folding knives. I wonder how many of them would have peddled a go on the sister for a Spyderco. Would Sears really have gone with the Nessmuk after using a Loveless. How many of our ancestors have rued the day they allowed their knives to get like this and longed for a better steel that didn't turn to junk so easily.

dying-knives_122850103.jpg
 
I don't know dude... sure ancient people would've love to have a modern knife... but they were no hobby survivalists, they were the real deal, I'd trade my vg-10 supersteel convex cutasaurus that slices and dice and make juliane fries to be half the bushcrafter those cats where..jmoymv
 
I think we have advanced and that in alot of cases, the equipment that we use day to day is alot more effective than that of a hundred years ago.

Sorry, but I think that my Spyderco Manix is a drastic step up from the Buck that my grandfather carried. As do I think that the Becker and RAT Cutlery fixed blades are superior to his, even though my ability in using them isn't.

We do make steps backward, but I think that they tend to correct themselves over time. Like stainless steel, I know I'll get flamed for this but were just now as a knife culture beginning to realize the good and bad of stainless steels. It has it's place, but it also has it's limitations and were correcting from thinking that it's the "wave of the future".
 
shotgunner11 said:
I think we have advanced and that in alot of cases, the equipment that we use day to day is alot more effective than that of a hundred years ago.

Sorry, but I think that my Spyderco Manix is a drastic step up from the Buck that my grandfather carried. As do I think that the Becker and RAT Cutlery fixed blades are superior to his, even though my ability in using them isn't.

We do make steps backward, but I think that they tend to correct themselves over time. Like stainless steel, I know I'll get flamed for this but were just now as a knife culture beginning to realize the good and bad of stainless steels. It has it's place, but it also has it's limitations and were correcting from thinking that it's the "wave of the future".
Click to expand...

+1 and then some...put my CRKT in my grandpa's hand...or any other blade, and he will show must of us up in blade handling. The older generations knew how to make what they had work so well that they had no need for the knives we use today. Hell, my grandpa still uses the old push reel mower at his house when he could easily buy a gas-powered model. It's a different breed of man.
 
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