Oldies, cheapies, goodies.

J

jackknife

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Oct 2, 2004
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When I was growing up, it seemed like every working man had a single barrel shotgun. It was the everything gun, used to put many a duck or venison meal on the table. Most watermen kept a couple of them around. One on the boat, one behind the kitchen door. If there was another gun in the house, it was almost inevitably a bolt action .22 rifle. The men I knew as real poachers used a .22 rifle over anything else. It seemed like the working watermen of the Choptank were not ones to spend heavy money on working tools, but wanted simple reliable items that worked.

Knives were of the same stripe. If I had to pick some pocket knife equivelents of the simple break open shotgun, the sodbuster may well be a nominee for the honor. Or maybe one of the lower cost barlow's from Imperial or Colonial. America seemed pretty traditional in those long gone days.

What do you guys think of when somebody mentions simple working pocket knives?
 
The only thing about the sodbuster is, it is a relatively modern design. The first US company to produce it was Case in 1967. The only other company that has made them in the US is Queen. Of course the Case sodbuster and Sodbuster JR have been real popular in the last 30 years.

If you look at Pre-WWII era pocketknives, the real workhorse was the basic 2 blade regular jack in ebony handles - you will see WAY more of these than you will barlows from the same period. Of course the regular jack pattern in general, about 3-3/8" with either clip and pen or spear and pen, was in general the most widely sold knife of the era...that would include barlows as weall as barehead jacks and capped jacks.

For a larger knife pre-WWII...I think the single blade "coke bottle" or swell center folding hunter was probably the equivalent of the modern day sodbuster. Huge quantities of these "big cokes" were made in ebony handles with somple iron bolsters and liners. Of course many were also made in fancier formats with nickel silver mounts, brass liners, some with bone handles, etc...but still simple workhorses.
 
Barlow comes to my recollection. I remember seeing cards of Imperials in virtually every country grocery store.
 
A stockman or a barlow, that's what I grew up with. But nowadays I carry a scout knife or sak because I find mysel using the screwdrivers or bottle opener more than the main blade :)
 
In NYC, the Electricians knife was the working knife in the trades.
Two blades, carbon spear and a reamer.
(TL-29 as per Stockman)

It is an old design.
 
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JB in SC said:
Barlow comes to my recollection. I remember seeing cards of Imperials in virtually every country grocery store.
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Yeah, I remember those cards. I went with my dad once to a Penn-Jersey auto parts store to get some plugs and points as he was going to tune up the family Pontiac. By the check out counter was a card with one side filled up by Imperial barlows, and down the other side was filled up by Imperial scout knives, your choice for a 1.29.
 
I remember stockman and trapper patterns. Schrade seemed to be the most common brand I noticed - the Oldtimer line with the brown delrin scales.
 
jackknife said:
Yeah, I remember those cards. I went with my dad once to a Penn-Jersey auto parts store to get some plugs and points as he was going to tune up the family Pontiac. By the check out counter was a card with one side filled up by Imperial barlows, and down the other side was filled up by Imperial scout knives, your choice for a 1.29.
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Aaargh, I love those, here's a picture I posted on another thread, note the last one has a glass cutter:



2cf4eps.jpg
 
navihawk said:
We used to get those huge Kabar barlows at the hardware store when we were kids.
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LOL :) When I was a kid, back in the 50's, the local Army-Navy store had unissued Kabar belt knives stamped USN, parkerized, for $5.00. I wanted one soo bad but that was a lot of coin back then.
 
I would say the TL-29 is what I picture when I think working knife. I own several of them, from several different brands and all are very stout, and have strong springs. The screw driver blade is handy for some jobs, and the bail is nice if you are working from a crane, or around water. What more could a blue collar worker need. Joe
 
jackknife said:
If I had to pick some pocket knife equivelents of the simple break open shotgun, the sodbuster may well be a nominee for the honor. Or maybe one of the lower cost barlow's from Imperial or Colonial. America seemed pretty traditional in those long gone days.

What do you guys think of when somebody mentions simple working pocket knives?
Click to expand...

I can't pick a pattern, but I'd say a Schrade Old Timer with carbon steel. Simple, affordable, high quality, works hard.
 
From my recollection, I'd have to go with either a smallish 2 blade pen for the more gentile doctors etc, and a full size stockman for the general folks. My old man carried a stockman, along with most of the guys in my family with some odd barlows or camp/GI style knives thrown in. I think the OT was the stockman of choice, but I do recall some others. Barlows were mostly Imperials. Camp/GI were a wide range, a whole lot of boyscout branded knives from a variety of makers, probably the Imperial Kamp Kings in the majority, or at least thats what I had as a kid.

Syn
 
I imagine I'm from a slightly younger generation..As the majority of slip joints I encountered where vic or wenger saks...My dad usually carried a sheet rock knife or steak knife in his back pocket for doing odd jobs...but in the rural catskills where I grew up the Lock back ala buck 110 was probably the most common knife I encountered.
 
Buck 110 comes to mind. Barlow patterns seem to be popular as a boy's first knife. Also electricians and sailor's knives with bails.
 
Speaking of single shot shotguns, I got my first one when I was abaout 19. My friend and I had been having a lot of fun shooting clays behind his house with his pump gun, and that got me wanting a shotgun too to go along with my .22. We were also having a 'possum problem, so that was all the rationalization I needed to pretend I was being practical. I went downtown to a pawn shop and got an Ithaca Hiawatha 12 guage for about $50 bucks. It was fairly short and light and kicked like a mule, but I liked it's simplicity and I could hit stuff with it. When I moved out for college, I left it at home and one day my father announced that he liked it and was keeping it; I was to consider it his now. He now keeps it in the workshop in his barn. Oh well, I suppose I'll get it back eventually.

Knifewise, I'd seen him with a Boker stockman or Camillus scout, although he never carried one faithfully or had much interest in knives. Now he carries a Case small Texas jack, which was a birthday present from me (in spite of the fact that he pinched my shotgun!).
 
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