Old man knife?

akadave2

akadave2

Joined
Jun 21, 2008
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Ive collected knives since I was a kid. Nothing serious but I have spent a significant amount on knives I have had and still have. I used to focus mainly on single blade clip on folders, tactical and I have a number of fixed blades. I have always liked having a slipjoint around and I have a couple of customs and a dozen or so production slipjoints.

I had one of my favorite slipjoints on me and and was using it to do something and a friend of mine who is a fellow collector called it an old man knife...I thought that was a bit shortsighted of him and showed him how much sharper my knife was than his high end tactical folder...still didnt change his mind. I dont consider myself old at 48 but are there any younger collector/users of slipjoints out therer?
 
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I prefer to think of them as 'wise man' knives. There's good reason why so many old-timers prefer them, and I'm sure it's no accident that so many people have transitioned away from more 'modern' knives as they've gotten older (and wiser). ;)
 
I am sure there are a lot of younger ones out there. I myself am an old man, but I have had knives for ages, and have gone through the complete array. Just recently stopped with the tactical collecting and have gone back to traditionals.

According to my friend who owns one of the biggest stone and mortar stores, many of his customers have done the same.
 
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Them dang young uns around my place don't really appreciate old knives either. They'll grow up one day!
 
David, I like the term "wise-man knife". You don't usually get to be old by being stupid.

Traditionals just make sense for an everyday pocket knife.
 
Who's he calling old
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All kidding aside, I think it has to do with advertising and marketing, I remember seeing a ad for Benchmade in a backpacking magazine and it said something to the effect - not your grandfather's knife, the ad was right its not like your grandfather's knife, your grandfathers knife can cut more efficiently because of the thin profile. I carried a one hand opening knife for about two years because of a younger friend insisted I give it a try, I always paired it with a traditional and realized I really didn't use the one hand knife very often.
 
black mamba said:
David, I like the term "wise-man knife". You don't usually get to be old by being stupid.

Traditionals just make sense for an everyday pocket knife.
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:thumbup:
I hadn't thought (directly) of it before in this context, but it's kind of funny to me that when I think of a 'wise' or 'seasoned' or 'worldly' old gentleman, the image that literally comes to my mind is of some well-weathered ol' dude sittin' on a porch and whittlin' on a stick (with a traditional knife, of course). :)
 
I am 30 and have been carrying slipjoints for a couple years now and I love them. Every once in a while I pick up a tactical folder but end up selling it within a month or so as I always go back to a traditional folder my all time favorite pattern is the barlow.

Traditional knives just seem to fit the bill for what I need on a daily basis and also others seem to enjoy using them as well. I even got my dad turned onto using them.
 
"Old man knife" is not an insult IMO!
I carry a one hand knife (imagine that!) occasionally, when I am working rough (framing, fencing) because I may only have one free hand, and I don't care if it gets dinged up or even broken (not likely). But otherwise I carry a traditional slipjoint.
I'm not interested in scaring/intimidating people, and can usually talk my way out of a sticky situation. I don't need anything that is bigger than yours, or blacker than yours!!
I'm 67, near 68. I'm getting old, but I'm not old yet!
When I get truly old, I'll give my one hand opener to someone who still feels like framing or fencing!
And I'll be able to ponder and appreciate the true beauty of ancient Schrade jigging while rocking in my handmade rocking chair!
What could be better than an "Old Man Knife" to open my mail, and eat an apple??
 
If you think about it, a good slipjoint is more complicated than the average one hand opening super-tactical pry-bar knife. It takes a higher level of skill to make a slipjoint of quality I think. So from a technological standpoint they are more complicated
 
I only carry slipjoints exclusively. In fact I only own 1 non traditional folder and the only reason for that is because I had to see what S30V was all about. I haven't even reached a quarter century in age yet, not sure if I'm the youngest, but certainly in the younguns camp!
 
I'm 19 and the past 4 out of 5 knives I've bought have been slipjoints. And I plan on buying a few more in the next couple of months.
 
akadave2 said:
If you think about it, a good slipjoint is more complicated than the average one hand opening super-tactical pry-bar knife. It takes a higher level of skill to make a slipjoint of quality I think. So from a technological standpoint they are more complicated
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I wouldn't go that far, it takes a tremendous amount of skill to make a knife well, regardless of design. Here are two of my favorite knives.

edcs.jpg


The Ohta is my finest slipjoint, but the Sebenza is equally well made. Most slipjoints don't measure up to either knife.

- Christian
 
Hey guys, I'm becoming 30 this year and here is my history with knives:

I always liked knives, when I was a little kid I felt drawn to these tools a lot and both of my grandparents have always some kind of knife around, one being a pretty good submarine fisherman and the other came to live in a town from the country at about 40years old. My mother instead hate all kind of weapons, and she always saw pocket knives as weapons. so, no wonder why the little knife nut in me liked so much spending time with them.
For this I didn't carry a knife until I made a train trip across europe with some friends at the age of 18 and I bought my first knife a SAK picknicker in Geneve, Switzerland. Since that day I realized how useful is to have a knife avaliable specially when you are not at home.

I began buying some more friction folders and SAK's and searching the forums I saw what at the begining seemed very ugly knives with a horrendus hole on the blade but everybody talked wonderful things about them, so I bought my first Spyderco a Native III. Well this thing is pretty cool and SHARP, I thought, I played with It some weeks scared to use it and damage the more expensive knife I've got at that time, but anyway I got bitten by the spyder and buy four more of them.
Then I thought: Well Mateo It's kind of stupid expending so much money in knives you don't use, isn't it? I took the native out and carried it, When I first tried to slice an apple... oh this thing is so thick It splits the apple in half instead of cutting It, then a steak and I hit the ceramic and the edge got damage, with my sharpening skills at that moment was imposible to match the factory sharpness, maybe cardboard? nop, to thick again, besides my mother almost passed away when she saw the "night killer" knife her son was carrying.
then was the dragonfly----too thick for the short blade endura----gigantic for carrying in a city, etc.
conclusion: zero useful (with one exception, when I go sailing I carry my endura for an emergency line cutting)
I came back to Taramundi's and Sak's until I saw the most beautiful knives I've ever seen, American traditionals (maybe a boker trapper or trapper jack, I don't remember), and the rest is history.
Sorry for the long input, but I started and the whole story came out.
regards,
Mateo
 
kamagong said:
I wouldn't go that far, it takes a tremendous amount of skill to make a knife well, regardless of design. Here are two of my favorite knives.

edcs.jpg


The Ohta is my finest slipjoint, but the Sebenza is equally well made. Most slipjoints don't measure up to either knife.

- Christian
Click to expand...

I have a CR Ti-Lock, its a nice knife with an interesting locking mechanism and its well made. I still think that to make a multi-blade slip joint that "works" with regards to the layout of the blades, access to the nicks, having the mainsprings maintain flush in the open and closed position and having a good "walk and talk" is pretty darn tough
 
If you were walking through the woods and you reached a spot where from a distance you could see a hunched over man's silhouette next a river and the following pictured items sat down beside him, what age would you assume the man is?

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I am 28 years old and I have always enjoyed carrying and using traditional knives.

Im proud of my elders and have always valued every bit of wisdom they chose to pass down to me.
 
I'm 26 and I've carried " old man" knives all my life. Now I've carried sum taticals but the pocket clips always catches on sumn, the pivot screw always comes loose, they are so big u can't use em, everybody knows u have a knife, can't sharpen them, and they have no elegance. I'm not worried bout personal safety bc I'm 6'3" tall and bout 270 soaking wet and I usually have a gun. I go deep in the mountains coon huntin by myself and just carry a pocketknife. The term wiemans knife is bout correct bc u don't see many 85 year old war vets around with Emerson's. My papaw grew up in these hills farming and making moonshine. He mostly lived deep in the mountains eating ground hoggs and squirrels and ain't never carried anything but a case knife. It's all what one likes but traditional knives are the real user knives!
 
akadave2 said:
Ive collected knives since I was a kid. Nothing serious but I have spent a significant amount on knives I have had and still have. I used to focus mainly on single blade clip on folders, tactical and I have a number of fixed blades. I have always liked having a slipjoint around and I have a couple of customs and a dozen or so production slipjoints.

I had one of my favorite slipjoints on me and and was using it to do something and a friend of mine who is a fellow collector called it an old man knife...I thought that was a bit shortsighted of him and showed him how much sharper my knife was than his high end tactical folder...still didnt change his mind. I dont consider myself old at 48 but are there any younger collector/users of slipjoints out therer?
Click to expand...

I´m 29 right now. I have several of traditional knives. Even a lot of... roundabout 60 traditional knives (or even more, I have never counted them) and a couple of modern folders or fixed bladed knives. But I agree with what has already been said. This kind of knives takesn amazing edge, I think. Much better than modern knives. I think it´s because of, modern knives are made for several tasks including cutting. But the traditional ones are just for this task made. No prying or whatever.

Just my two cent.

Kind regards
Andi
 
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