Old news footage about folding hunters

That late-1970s timeframe is about the period in my life when I began to really notice knives like these. The hardware / sporting goods store displays of Buck, Schrade (Old Timer), Gerber and others really caught my eye back then, with each of their respective folding hunter patterns holding most of my attention. I was 16 years old in 1977 - so that meant I could only dream about owning them and couldn't afford to spend the $$ on such things - not to mention, the potential issues of parental permission.

That news clip is quite the flashback for me. Pretty cool. :thumbsup:
 
jbmonkey said:
cool piece of history there. what caught my eye the most besides the 25 buck price..think not long ago we could buy one for 35 bucks....many decades later. that aside...that reporter sure struggled closing the knife every time in the video.
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Hadn't noticed that in my 1st viewing of the video. But it's interesting - looks like he went through the same struggles I likely did early on, in handling my very first lockback knife - with anything I'd previously handled being simple slipjoint knives. I noticed he's usually trying to press the lockbar with his index finger. In my case, I tried that also, and found I can't leverage the lock nearly as easily that way. So I eventually figured out, if I turned the knife around and levered the lock with my thumb, with a couple fingers for bracing on the opposite side, it was much easier. After several decades of handling them that way, the muscle memory becomes automatic with every lockback I handle. I went through a similar 'conditioning' with thumbstud openers as well. The thumb kind of has to be trained for it, for the motion to become fluid and intuitive. And after some time, it's automatic in handling them.

I think that lack of familiarity with lockbacks speaks to the times back then, as well. They're ubiquitous nowadays, but weren't as much, back then. That in itself is pretty interesting, in a historical sense.
 
What's embarrassing is when you've had Bucks for decades, but when you try to close your 110 Auto that you've had a couple of years, you keep forgetting that the lock releases like a standard 110, not with the opening button.
 
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