I’m not sure just when it happened. The transition from middle age to old fart, and then the more dreaded transition form old fart to relic. But it did happen, and as distressing as it is, I have to face it every morning seeing that white bearded old guy in the mirror. There’s been a lot changes over the years, with some things I used to hold dear falling by the wayside, and maybe some things I would have disdained in a younger day now being coveted as the new ‘precious’.
Pocket knives are the top of the list. Being one of the afflicted knife nuts, those obsessed with having something sharp in the pocket, a pocket knife has been a lifelong companion. Sometimes a worry stone, sometimes a comforting talisman of self reliance, it’s always there. But it has taken different forms over the years. Starting life with a slip joint, That was my lodestone. It was what everyone carried back then. Growing up, a boy looks and watches the grown men around him, like the pup watching the older dogs to see how to act. I never had any great love for lock blades, since they were a scarce animal when I was young. Cars had tail fins, James Dean was alive and well rebelling against whatever, and the switch blade was the only locking blade knife that was common back then. Every man had a little two blade jack of penknife in his pocket and they seemed to work well.
Even when Buck came out with the now famous 110, and took the world by storm I couldn’t see the usefulness of it. I was of the old school that thought, if my pocket knife wasn’t up t the job, get the right tool. I didn’t see why I would lug around a knife with one single eighth inch thick blade and weighed about what a small boat anchor was. Each to their own I guess. A sodbuster style German F. Herder was a fraction of the weight and had as much blade. It didn’t lock, but I figured if one were carful it didn’t matter. So I kept on keeping on with what I was familiar with. Slip joints pocket knives like my old scout knife dad gave me and the like. Later I got into SAK’s. I grew to love the constant fit and finish of the Swiss knives as well as the easy smooth pull of the blade.
Then I met an Opinel. Or rather bought one. I was in a backpacking shop and they had them in a jar by the register. Being a self respecting knife nut I was unable to resist a new type of knife I’d never met, and was cheap in price to boot. Thus began a 30 year on again and off again love/hate with that strange knife from France. It was fidelly and needed to be individually tweaked, fussed with, but cut like the dickens. I don’t know how many I got, fixed up, sanded, oiled, modded and gave away. But it started a germ of an idea in my head. Always a dangerous thing.
I found that if I snugged up the pivot by the simple process of hammering the head of the pivot pin, I almost never used the lock. Then while researching the interesting history of the Opinel and finding that the lock was not added until 1955, I actually took the ring off a number 8 and carried it for quite a while. I used it like a normal pocket knife and found the snug friction folder to be quite useful. But I wasn’t there yet.
Time went on and I got old. Didn’t really plan on it, but it happened to me like an unexpected ambush. Sometime along this journey I noticed some things about myself physically. Like my dad, I noticed a new fumbling of fingers. A clumsiness that snuck up on me like a thief in the night. Child proof caps meant senior citizen proof as well. I remember my dad having to forsake his beloved little peanut after dropping it and breaking off a sizable chuck of the old bone scale. He retired it and took to carrying a Christy knife that he like. Now I seem to be flowing in his footsteps. But with a friction folder.
Some years ago, our man in Sardinia, other wise known as Fausto, gifted me a resolza. I carried it a bit but it was my go-to-meeting Sunday knife. Then I carried it some more. Then I was carrying it during the week. Before long I realized that the friction folder action was so well suited to a fumble finger senior citizen that they should be issued with the first social security check. I had a very nice little Case peanut that I was very fond of, but in the last year I was carrying it, I had cut myself good with it twice fumbling it when the half stop kicked a bit. I found that small stiffly sprung slip joints with half stops is not a good knife for an old fart. But the Sardinian friction folder was perfect. I experimented with the Japanese higonokami, and found it too was easy and effective for an old man to slice and dice with.
Now, here I am a few more years down the road, and I find I really don’t want to go back to a slip joint pocket knife. I have really fell in love with friction folders in general. Maybe those Sardinian shepherds and fishermen are some very smart people. Or they have a lot of old Sardinians that are still active and need a good knife to work with that works with older fingers. I’ve used the resolza on fish, meat, cheese, twine, cardboard, tape of different kinds and it’s been great. And if my fingers slip off the blade opening it, nothing happens. The blade just stays where it was when you stopped. If the blade gets pushed partly closed, it stays just where it was pushed to and stops. And it cuts like the dickens. Makes me wonder why they ever stuck back springs on a knife?
I’ve never liked to struggle with a knife to open it. I remember our old scoutmaster Mr. Van telling us never fight with a knife after finding one young scout with a knife he could hardly open. Now as an old man, I find I like an easy to open knife. A very generous forum brother here gifted me a Buck 301 stockman because he didn’t like the weak springs, It’s become one of my favorite knives. I wonder if they can make a friction folder stockman?
Things change a great deal as we age, and we have to be able to change with them. Karen was a competitive shooter with her father’s old High Standard .22 target pistol, and later she won matches with her Smith and Wesson model 41. But it’s been many years since she’s shot anything but her revolver. Like me, age and arthritis has limited her, and I, and the revolver is much easier to just open cylinder, insert a round in each hole, close gun and shoot. No fumbling rounds into a magazine. She sold off the model 41 and her Glock because it was too much trouble to load the magazines. And like me, she carries her number 8 Opinel in her purse and almost never uses the locking ring. I’ve had to keep a very careful watch on my resolza.
Pocket knives are the top of the list. Being one of the afflicted knife nuts, those obsessed with having something sharp in the pocket, a pocket knife has been a lifelong companion. Sometimes a worry stone, sometimes a comforting talisman of self reliance, it’s always there. But it has taken different forms over the years. Starting life with a slip joint, That was my lodestone. It was what everyone carried back then. Growing up, a boy looks and watches the grown men around him, like the pup watching the older dogs to see how to act. I never had any great love for lock blades, since they were a scarce animal when I was young. Cars had tail fins, James Dean was alive and well rebelling against whatever, and the switch blade was the only locking blade knife that was common back then. Every man had a little two blade jack of penknife in his pocket and they seemed to work well.
Even when Buck came out with the now famous 110, and took the world by storm I couldn’t see the usefulness of it. I was of the old school that thought, if my pocket knife wasn’t up t the job, get the right tool. I didn’t see why I would lug around a knife with one single eighth inch thick blade and weighed about what a small boat anchor was. Each to their own I guess. A sodbuster style German F. Herder was a fraction of the weight and had as much blade. It didn’t lock, but I figured if one were carful it didn’t matter. So I kept on keeping on with what I was familiar with. Slip joints pocket knives like my old scout knife dad gave me and the like. Later I got into SAK’s. I grew to love the constant fit and finish of the Swiss knives as well as the easy smooth pull of the blade.
Then I met an Opinel. Or rather bought one. I was in a backpacking shop and they had them in a jar by the register. Being a self respecting knife nut I was unable to resist a new type of knife I’d never met, and was cheap in price to boot. Thus began a 30 year on again and off again love/hate with that strange knife from France. It was fidelly and needed to be individually tweaked, fussed with, but cut like the dickens. I don’t know how many I got, fixed up, sanded, oiled, modded and gave away. But it started a germ of an idea in my head. Always a dangerous thing.
I found that if I snugged up the pivot by the simple process of hammering the head of the pivot pin, I almost never used the lock. Then while researching the interesting history of the Opinel and finding that the lock was not added until 1955, I actually took the ring off a number 8 and carried it for quite a while. I used it like a normal pocket knife and found the snug friction folder to be quite useful. But I wasn’t there yet.
Time went on and I got old. Didn’t really plan on it, but it happened to me like an unexpected ambush. Sometime along this journey I noticed some things about myself physically. Like my dad, I noticed a new fumbling of fingers. A clumsiness that snuck up on me like a thief in the night. Child proof caps meant senior citizen proof as well. I remember my dad having to forsake his beloved little peanut after dropping it and breaking off a sizable chuck of the old bone scale. He retired it and took to carrying a Christy knife that he like. Now I seem to be flowing in his footsteps. But with a friction folder.
Some years ago, our man in Sardinia, other wise known as Fausto, gifted me a resolza. I carried it a bit but it was my go-to-meeting Sunday knife. Then I carried it some more. Then I was carrying it during the week. Before long I realized that the friction folder action was so well suited to a fumble finger senior citizen that they should be issued with the first social security check. I had a very nice little Case peanut that I was very fond of, but in the last year I was carrying it, I had cut myself good with it twice fumbling it when the half stop kicked a bit. I found that small stiffly sprung slip joints with half stops is not a good knife for an old fart. But the Sardinian friction folder was perfect. I experimented with the Japanese higonokami, and found it too was easy and effective for an old man to slice and dice with.
Now, here I am a few more years down the road, and I find I really don’t want to go back to a slip joint pocket knife. I have really fell in love with friction folders in general. Maybe those Sardinian shepherds and fishermen are some very smart people. Or they have a lot of old Sardinians that are still active and need a good knife to work with that works with older fingers. I’ve used the resolza on fish, meat, cheese, twine, cardboard, tape of different kinds and it’s been great. And if my fingers slip off the blade opening it, nothing happens. The blade just stays where it was when you stopped. If the blade gets pushed partly closed, it stays just where it was pushed to and stops. And it cuts like the dickens. Makes me wonder why they ever stuck back springs on a knife?
I’ve never liked to struggle with a knife to open it. I remember our old scoutmaster Mr. Van telling us never fight with a knife after finding one young scout with a knife he could hardly open. Now as an old man, I find I like an easy to open knife. A very generous forum brother here gifted me a Buck 301 stockman because he didn’t like the weak springs, It’s become one of my favorite knives. I wonder if they can make a friction folder stockman?
Things change a great deal as we age, and we have to be able to change with them. Karen was a competitive shooter with her father’s old High Standard .22 target pistol, and later she won matches with her Smith and Wesson model 41. But it’s been many years since she’s shot anything but her revolver. Like me, age and arthritis has limited her, and I, and the revolver is much easier to just open cylinder, insert a round in each hole, close gun and shoot. No fumbling rounds into a magazine. She sold off the model 41 and her Glock because it was too much trouble to load the magazines. And like me, she carries her number 8 Opinel in her purse and almost never uses the locking ring. I’ve had to keep a very careful watch on my resolza.
