Old style knives, old style....Whatever

J

jackknife

Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
17,517
I think I've had one of those things called a crystalizing moment. Like when the light bulb goes off over the head of the cartoon charater. Or maybe I've just had one toddy too many on top of my arthritus meds.

It seems to me that one of the main reasons that traditional pocket knives have hung in there for so many years, never going out of style, is they always work. Always get the job done.

But I was wondering how many of you have and use old style stuff aside from pocket knives. Okay I'll tell you where this is comming from.

For a while I got on the bag of pens thing. My old Cross went dry and most of the stores around here don't carry refills for Cross. You have to go to a staples or something. Anyway, I bought a bag of the old standby Bic stick pens for what a single refill of my cross was. Now the upshot of that was that almost half of the Bics would'nt write new out of the plastic bag they came in. Junk. I returned them to the "mart, went to Staples and bought a new refill for my old Cross. It always works every time, kind of like my old Zippo. I realized tonight that the Cross pen I was paying some bills with was over 40 years old, as is my Zippo.

How many of you use an old anything in your edc?

It can be a pen, lighter, car, gun...

It seems like some things just don't go out of style for a reason. The old Buck stockman I bought in 1967, is still a good using piece of equiptment. True, it went back to Buck after 25 years to have the main blade replaced, but its still good to go. It seems to me that slip joint pocket knives are like Zippo lighters and Cross pens, they don't go out of style because they work.

It seems like when ever I try to use one of the "new" plastic anything, it just does not work out. I was wondering if any of you guys have ever experianced the same thing?
 
Well, I've been carrying the same Parker Stainless Classic pen every day for the last 21 years (on the sixth refill), I still sometimes carry an Uncle Henry small stockman that I bought about 25 years ago, and I have a 1982 GMC one ton dually parked out front that gets started about every three months (whenever I NEED a truck) without being jumped. The truck gets terrible gas milage, but it doesn't care what it is hooked to, it just goes. The biggest load it ever had to pull was another truck with a 14' x 72' mobile home hooked to it - which it did, no problem. Every time I drive it, I remember why I haven't gotten rid of it :D .

The old Zippo lighters are all retired, since I quit smoking about 30 years back, but they still get inspected, filled and tested every few years.

Not bad, considering my 50th birthday is still a few months off ;)
 
I have a 1947 Zippo lighter. Works like new. Looks old as dirt, but still opens, closes and works. Someone was letting it go for like $5 at a flea market and I just couldn't let anyone else have it.

Zippo's are incredible pieces of workmanship and history, as are pocket knives.
 
I have several computers from the 80s that I turn on occationally - they still do everything they could when they were new.

My truck is a '95.

My camera is still a manual-focus SLR.

Backpack and much of my camping gear is "old school" - full leather boots, frame pack, Eureka Timberline tent, etc.

Oldest thing I use on a daily basis, my home that was built in 1904! Tub is a clawfoot, stove is from the '40s, heaters are cast iron water radiators, and much of the wiring is knob-and-tube.
:)
-Bob
 
I've had the same Fisher Space Pen for a few years. I used to have a disposable mindset regarding pens but have since moved on having a few nice Fishers and Tornados rather than buying dozens of plastic throw aways. My Ford Ranger truck is 11 years old with about 150k miles and I would love to dump it but it's so nice not having a car payment every month. Little things about the truck that don't work properly annoy me but not enough to justify shelling out the cash for a new car. Cheaper to keep 'er.
 
I have a Winchester model 63 .22 that's over 50 years old and on it's third generation that still shoots like a dream, and can drill tacks almost constantly. My deer rifle is a Winchester model 94 30-30 from 1964 that belonged to my dad. I also sometimes use a pocketwatch that belonged to my grandfather. I'm not sure how old it is, but it's at least 20 years.
 
In addition to my stag Eye Brand stockman I also EDC a fountain pen and shave with a straight razor. Is that old style enough for you? :D
 
Well, I drive an 86 Pontiac Bonneville with 115K original miles on it. I've gone backwards in a forwards way on some things. My new favorite shotgun is a lithe little Spanish 20 gauge side by side. It's had the stock fixed and isn't going to make someone give up their Purdy, but I like the way it looks and handles. There's also that Stevens 311H that's got a patina on it in there too. My "bought new" gun is a repro of a Winchester 1892 rifle, octagon, full length barrel and buckhorn sights. It's paired with a single action revolver. Granted it's a New Vaquero in polished stainless, but it is still a basic single action revolver and it looks like a nickled late 1800s, early 1900s Colt with hard rubber grips. Old actions work, have worked, and keep working. Perhaps bacause they were designed when things were meant to work and keep working under a variety of conditions, be fixed when they did break, and work some more.

One odd staple in my house is well, a stapler! It's an old, metal bodied, Swingline, desk stapler. I had it in the Army at a time when the new ones coming out of SSSC were the new plastic bodied ones. The new ones just didn't staple clean and neat. Maybe not a big deal to some, but I was stapling enough stuff at the time that it could become very annoying having to pull out a half-*(sed staple application and bang on that plastic junk again trying to get a good joining. That old metal job made a nice, clean stapling with just a push, every time. A simple tool that did it's job day in and day out like it was designed to. Suffice to say, I kept that one close and would get testy when anyone "borrowed" it and would forget to return it. I carried that thing from post to post and still have it. :D My wife has also learned that if she uses it, PUT IT BACK!

Now if I could just a refill for my mesquite wood pen, and fine the pen again.

One little modern and plastic tool that has really surprised me with it's durability and useability is the Promotheus lighter. An adjustable, angled flame, refillable butane that lasts a long time, and it was $8.95 in a local tobacco shop. Oh, and it's light and easy to carry. Nice to know there are a few values still around today.
 
My car's a '93, so it has some age. Tried and true BMW 1.8L, thing just keeps rolling. Going on a road trip this summer, and it's my wheels. :D
 
Well, we can start with my car, a '78 Nova with a 250.

I use fountain pens, which is pretty rare these days.

My taste in guns is toward old style, too. Most of the plinking I do these days is with WWII surplus rifles, using ammo that is 40-60 years old. And I insist on wood stocks on all my guns, I just can't abide the plastic stocks. Right now the two guns on top of my list are a Sharps 45-70 and a replica 1861 Springfield .58 rifle-musket.
 
Since we are talking about lighters I think credit should be given when it is due.

Bic disposable lighters are bulletproof. I quit smoking 3 years ago (thank God!) and had one Bic lighter that went for over a year and would have went longer but it was lost in the river. I never had a single one break or not work in my 13 years of using them.

I tried a zippo several times and found them useless as a lighter. They had to be refilled often, stunk, anounced to the world you were trying to be cool everytime you lit up with the "clirk clack", and it would sometimes leak after being refilled. All in all a zippo lighter sucks for its intended purpose.
 
The oldest thing that I use is a razor I inherited from my Grandfather. The old style razor that you unscrew and the top pops open. It's at least 40 years old, probably more. I can still pick up a 10 pack of two edged blades for less than two bucks at the mart and get a better shave with one blade than any 2, 3, or 4 blade, battery powered vibrating razor made.
 
My great-grandfather was a joiner by trade and I've inherited a lot of his tools like handsaws, tenon saws and chisels. All his planes were wooden and got woodworm over the years, so I've not got them. My favourite tools are his brace and bits though. I still use most of the tools and find that the steel in the chisels is much easier to sharpen than modern chisels.

I have been helping my children's cub and scout troops make bird nesting boxes recently, for their craftsmans and conservation badge work. We used the brace and a selection of bits to make the holes. Several other dads helped out as well, and they all brought cordless drills. I thought that all the kids would prefer to use the cordless tools but I was wrong, my great-grandfather's brace and bit proved the most popular and they all wanted to have a go ! They had probably never seen one before !
Best wishes,
Doug.
 
hmm...

i like single shot shotguns, revolvers and black powder (flint and perc). do a lot of traditional archery and play with an atlatl.

use a handforged drawknife fairly often.

have a sheepskin 'Marlboro Man' coat, that i can only use below zero.

twice a week i teach people how to wear and fight in medieval armor. :)
 
It's really true some things do out perform the modern equivalent. I bought an ancient, no name .22 take-down bolt action rifle for $30.00 at a garage sale. It was the most accurate .22 rifle I ever owned. You could load any size .22 including short CB caps and it was still accurate. I could make shots that would amaze me. I used it as part of a trade to get a Winchester Wrangler that I always wanted. But I soon found out that I was never going to get a worthy replacement for that .22.

Same with cars, I own an original 1948 Pontiac Coupe and while I'm not naive to say it is better than a modern car, its mechanical design and simplicity is refreshing.

As far as pocket knives, I find it much easier during the work week to carry a small Barlow, stockman or peanut in my dress pants. I usually carry a modern folder on weekends, although I notice that's been changing too.
 
Vehicles: '75 Ford Truck (302 with 308 hp!), '85 HD FXRS-SP, '89 Cherokee, '96 Grand Cherokee. Sold my '69 Mustang convertible. Truck and bike are going this year. I've bought one new car in my life, leased another, then gave up on that rat race right quick. Haven't had a car payment in over 15 years.

20 year old Cross pen. Don't use it much, though. I'm a mechanical pencil guy these days. Yes, I'm an engineer, dammit! :)

Lots of really old tools, given to me by my Dad. Both his and from the antique shop he owned. I don't have very many old knives, though. That's a fairly recent addiction for me.

Firearms: My best are my oldest: P&R'd S&W revos, '70s 1911, Hi-Power (new, but an old design), M1A, Marlin 30-30, bolt guns. I do have a couple of Glocks and a ParaOrdnance (hence my username), but they don't attract me the way they used to. I'm off to a gun show this weekend to look for another 9mm pistol, and it will be made of metal (probably a CZ 75B).

I think those of us with parents who were alive during the Great Depression just simply have a different view of life and the worth of things than later generations. Unfortunately, this, as well as the general state of the country these days, doesn't say many good things about our generation's child rearing skills. At least I can be secure in the knowledge that I haven't contributed to the problem, since I don't have kids. :)

-- Sam
 
Remington-Rand 1911 marked US Government Property made in 1945. I've had it over 35 years, and it's been the most reliable .45 ACP I've ever owned. Bill.
 
1966 Volkswagen Bug. I bought it for $250.00 in High School. My Dad and I fixed it up. We did everything, from the axes up. Still runs like a swiss watch.

I also have my Great Grandad's pipe that came with him from Sweden when he was 13 years old. He have it to my Grandfather, and he gave it to me. I don't smoke a pipe often. When I go fishing, or camping I head to the local smoke shop for a good bag of tobacco.

Good thread:thumbup:
 
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