Ok, why yellow?

My dad has told me multiple times that when he was a kid, a yellow handled Case was the knife to have.
 
One thing I've noticed, non-knife people seem to be less put off by yellow. I have no idea why unless it makes it appear more of a tool (e.g. DeWalt) than a weapon. Yellow is a great color for work bench and woods knives. They really are much easier to spot.
 
Yellow is bit like orange, taking the weapon-likeness away and toning down the appeal of knife for no-knife-people. Yellow suits me, I like yellow... Yet I don't have any yeller knives yet... I need to get some nice case with yellow handles. Perhaps another medium stockman, medium trapper, slim line trapper etc. I am not sure if Barlow is ever made in yellow handles but I surely would like to have one.
 
I like the colour and it screams work-knife to me. CASE and others have a nice custard yellow hue, Queen go for the egg yolk look which I don't like. It is visible of course and it could have had connexions to aged yellowing bone or ivory.Yellow is a much better colour than say that Hare Krishna style G-10 orange.......
 
I never take my yellow knives out camping with me, or anywhere that I might be outdoors. The yellow handles are hard to see if dropped. Drying leaves, dead grass, etc, all make it blend in. I much prefer red handled blades. These can be seen anywhere. Sure, if you are walking around in the fall and drop a red handled knife into some foliage, it might blend in there too, but it is a lot easier to see it when dropped then a yellow knife.
 
Yellow handle knives, Moon pies & RC cola and Beechnut chewing tobacco. It's a Southern thang.
 
Whitedog said:
Yellow handle knives, Moon pies & RC cola and Beechnut chewing tobacco. It's a Southern thang.
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When I was a kid, the yella handles went along with those little 6 once bottles of Coke from a machine with the lever you had to push down on, and Red Man chewing tobacco. Hmmm, it must have been an Eastern shore thing.:D
 
They just look good.
gec5.jpg
 
They certainly do! GEC introduced the Yellow Rose of Texas shield/handle last year.
 
jackknife said:
When I was a kid, the yella handles went along with those little 6 once bottles of Coke from a machine with the lever you had to push down on, and Red Man chewing tobacco. Hmmm, it must have been an Eastern shore thing.:D
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ahhh... the "little Coke" vs. "big Coke" debate. Might have known it would rear it's head in the folksy forum!

Little Cokes tasted better, and big Cokes were bigger. Always a tough choice.

I never owned a yellow handled knife until a couple of years ago, and don't recall seeing one emerge from the pockets of anyone I knew. My dad's knives were Colonial and Camillus stockmen with faux stag and IMOP handles. I think the steel was all that mattered to him. Was yellow originally a Case thing which has grown to other brands?
 
I just like the feel of the yellow handles and I never really like the look of most of the bone etc on a small knife and being in the UK all I carry is a small knife.
 
It very well may have started as a way of not loosing your knife. I know when I was a kid, all 'fishin' knives had yella handles. It was a very long time untill I saw cracked ice or fake pearl on fishing knives. Maybe a knife dropped in a stream would show up better than any other color. Bone or wood may blend in too well on the muddy or gravely bottom of shallow lake or creek. After a while, it just started to become a tradition, and slowly bled over into other patterns of pocket knives like sodbusters and peanuts, and even trappers.

Visability may be issue, like the Swiss making thier knives red to show up if dropped in the snow.
 
While maybe not manly, I always thought hot pink was highly visible (along with neon chartreuse) but someone mentioned to me that pink is sometimes hard to see on sand. Don't know if that is true or not. Maybe someone who would admit to a pink handled knife can try that?
 
nuthin wrong with liking yeller:D
here's mine with some earned patina (apple a day and i use them for all kinds of food) yeller stockman has been my primary edc since i got it a couple years ago, the trapper gets used very little as its my least favorite pattern
ivan
patina.jpg
 
jackknife said:
When I was a kid, the yella handles went along with those little 6 once bottles of Coke from a machine with the lever you had to push down on, and Red Man chewing tobacco. Hmmm, it must have been an Eastern shore thing.:D
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We were inclined to pour a bag of salted Planters peanuts into our little 5 cent bottle of Coca Cola. Then we would go to a vacant lot and see if we could hit a grasshopper with our Cub Scout blue Camillus knives. When we were ten years old, of course, we graduated to carrying .22 rifles around, in town or otherwise...
 
IVANKERLEY said:
nuthin wrong with liking yeller:D
here's mine with some earned patina (apple a day and i use them for all kinds of food) yeller stockman has been my primary edc since i got it a couple years ago, the trapper gets used very little as its my least favorite pattern
ivan
patina.jpg
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Good lookin knives Ivan. :thumbup:

Theres something about a grayblue patina and light yellow that goes together like musard on a hot dog.
 
When I was growing up in the 50's, Dad had a yellow handled stockman made by Keen Kutter. When I was allowed to purchase my own I of course went for the yellow handled stockman- only it was by Queen .Couldn't find a Keen Kutter anymore.
 
I've got a few here, hope they are visible.
Hopalong Cassidy Schrade- yellowish ivory but I slipped it in.
Case 3254 Trapper circa 1980,
Case 32095 Fish circa 1969,
Case 3347 stockman 1977 with nickel silver liners(for flesh only spey)
Case 3347 stockman 1980 brass liners(for flesh only type worn),
1092 Kabar 1981 vintage Birdseye.
runninmike
 
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