Obsolete Knives

Larcivs Lepidvs said:
they're from different Italian regions. there are the Roman, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Saracca Romagnola, etc. many of them were made oversize for the use in duels and street fights, and all have a locking mechanism (the locking backspring that was eventually used for the Okapi - all European technology). ;)
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Thank you.
 
VanDammet said:
A "few" people....really? Literally everyone I know engages in battle with spears & swords, while listening to ethereal, turntable supplied, music on a daily basis...later keeping a neat accounting of the day's battle with their manual typewriters. What bizarro world are you living in?
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It seems Northern Cali is a lot different than how I've usually seen it depicted!
 
Helleri said:
Outmoded (as to their reason for being) by modern locking mechanisms on good quality folders, and assisted openings as well.
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So by that argument slipjoints are also outmoded?

By the way, a barrel knife is, in essence a friction folder (where ones hand is replaced by the barrel). And those are far from obsolete by any definition.
 
I'm still surprised that no one like Helle or Marttiini has re-released a barrel knife. They're quite highly sought after.
 
I am really enjoying this thread, but I don't understand why people are getting so upset about different knives being called obsolete. Maybe it's a problem with the term "obsolete." I think people are getting too hung up on the word. Obviously some of the knife types that are being brought up as obsolete are just less common than they used to be, but I really like the thread as a showcase for knife types whose original heyday is passed.

Sure, hay knives still get used, but I had never seen one before. Barrel knives still work fine as knives, but they aren't in production and there are easier to use options . Maybe they aren't obsolete in every definition of the word, but I appreciate seeing them here.

One of my favorite threads on this site, Tacticlol Knives, which had been running continuously for five years, and was frequently hilarious, just got shut down a little while back because people kept getting all butthurt over knives they liked being posted. I don't want to see that happen to this thread.
 
Again, I think it's just a matter of defining the context in which the tool is obsolete. There's lots of old technology that's still the best at what it does for certain contexts, but the instances of that context may be significantly reduced from what it was in the past, and therefore the tool has less opportunity to be seen in some regions of the world where it was formerly common. So those that haven't observed or experienced those situations/environments where the the tool still thrives or is considered desirable/ideal are biased towards considering the tool obsolete while those that have experience with those contexts will insist that it isn't.
 
abbydaddy said:
As an archaeologist, I approve this image ;)

Them's some big bifaces
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Hey I'm an archeo too! Just a tech though. I don't consider myself a real archaeologist, though I do a lot of archaeological work. Here is a pretty nice knife I found on the job. I'd say it is obsolete now! (since the blades have rusted away)

img1060wx.jpg
 
Nixelplix said:
Hey I'm an archeo too! Just a tech though. I don't consider myself a real archaeologist, though I do a lot of archaeological work. Here is a pretty nice knife I found on the job. I'd say it is obsolete now! (since the blades have rusted away)

img1060wx.jpg
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I can't see the picture, but I feel like you can call yourself an archaeologist if you are doing the work :)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Hay knives aren't obsolete in the slightest, but are no longer made. I use one every few days for cutting portions from round bales. If you think that a chainsaw works better then you haven't used one in good operating condition. They work fast and with little effort. The "Lightning" or "Weymouth pattern" hey knife was most emphatically not an English invention, but rather an American one--specifically that of a George F. Weymouth March 7, 1871, of Maine. They were first made by the Hiram Holt Mfg. Co. of East Wilton, ME. The English pattern hay knife looks rather different, with a single canted handle and a blade resembling an overgrown chef's knife of sorts.

Here's a scan from an 1893 illustrated David Wadsworth & Son (of Auburn, NY) that shows both a Weymouth pattern hay knife and a few sizes of English pattern hay knives.

1893DavidWadsworthPriceList_5_smallwatermarked.jpg


:)
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Appreciate that info. I would love to find a usable hay knife. We would use it.
 
They're great tools, but most of them you come across need the teeth reground to get them hollow again. Not surprisingly, many have the tips pretty worn down as well. I have a few spares kicking around that I've been meaning to restore but haven't gotten to it yet.
 
Another supposedly "obsolete" knife is the copra knife, used to cut the meat of ripe coconuts out of the coconut shell. Most people have never seen or heard of it, but it is needed wherever mature coconuts are collected and processed. A short, sturdy blade with a round sharpened tip is needed to pry out the coconut meat from the shell. I have made several from old butcher knives; Martindale of Birmingham UK still shows a picture of its 147SE-178-01 Copra Knife on its current website. They also show a rubber tapping knife and other still useful agricultural tools.:cool:
 
I suppose these things are kind of obsolete (the sheath, not the knife). The knife itself is, I guess, slightly obsolete as a tactical folder, even if it was often used as one before the advent of Spyderco style folders. Still an excellent knife though.
Quick_Draw_Knife_Sheath_Buck110_2.jpg
 
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