Origin of the toothpick pattern

[ddml]

Bernard Levine has lists some interesting slang terms for the toothpick in his guide.
But not 1950's G-rated TV show friendly.

The lineage from the Spanish navaja to laguiole to toothpick via the bayou makes sense to me.

 

[Jack Black]

Not a pattern I've any personal experience of, but this is a fascinating thread :thumbup:

As an aside...

I grew up in "the back bayous of Louisiana" in the 60s... I'm not sure I knew a boy without a toothpick. It was the preferred knife for playing "splits".

'Splits' was the game boys and girls played when I was growing up in 1960's England, but I thought it was known as 'mumblety-peg' in the US. Are there regional differences, or is perhaps a completely different game?

Jack

 

[GronK]

I've long had an eye for toothpicks. The only problem has been the length which is technically illegal in many places. That's why my favorite GEC pattern is the #12. They have the original eye appeal but, especially in the two blade versions, they are great users!

 

[Modoc ED]

Not a pattern I've any personal experience of, but this is a fascinating thread :thumbup:

As an aside...



'Splits' was the game boys and girls played when I was growing up in 1960's England, but I thought it was known as 'mumblety-peg' in the US. Are there regional differences, or is perhaps a completely different game?

Jack

When I was a kid, Mumblety Peg was played by placing the tip of the blade on your nose, your chin, each elbow, etc. and letting it fall/tumble to the ground with the object being that the knife land blade first and sick in the ground. Splits was where two poeple started with their feet together, flipped a knife out to the side and each person had to move their legs apart to where the knife stuck until one or the other could not stay upright.

I'd bet that the games varied from location to location/country to country.

Toothpicks would have been a good choice for either game.

 

[Jack Black]

When I was a kid, Mumblety Peg was played by placing the tip of the blade on your nose, your chin, each elbow, etc. and letting it fall/tumble to the ground with the object being that the knife land blade first and sick in the ground. Splits was where two poeple started with their feet together, flipped a knife out to the side and each person had to move their legs apart to where the knife stuck until one or the other could not stay upright.

I'd bet that the games varied from location to location/country to country.

Toothpicks would have been a good choice for either game.

Thanks for the info Ed. It seems Splits was the same game on both sides of the pond

Jack

 

[sitflyer]

We played a similar game called chicken. Started with feet spread wide and the knife was tossed to stick into the ground between them, the foot was moved in to where the knife stuck, first one to quit was called a chicken, if the tosser hit the foot he was the looser. We weren't too smart

 

[Aeromat209]

Here is my Laguiole toothpick in Damascus