Woodsroamer, your post hits close to home for me on a few points.
Having been stationed for two years on one occasion and a year and a half on another tour, in south Texas, I got to know a lot of the people in that area. I was at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, and there were some ranches in the hill country to the north, up by Canyon Lake, that rented horses, and had horse mounted camping trips in the hill country.
Being a knife knut even at that time, I do recall seeing a lot of the hands, from south of the border, carrying medium to large low cost single blade knives that were in the sodbuster catogory. They mostly seemed to have wood handles and were used in such a way, it was plain that the owner thought of it as a cheap tool to be used for 'everything' that would make a knife knut cringe in horror. We're taking hard use! Cutting, prying, digging, scraping, and such. The stuff of nightmares to a knife lover.
I met a girl down there that was to become my wife of almost 40 years now. Karen was from what they called 'the valley', down by Harlingen, and being part Mexican, some of her family lived down in Matomoros Mexico. Most of her family was involved in the citrus growing in the valley. All her male family carried a low cost, large single blade folder that was sort of like a soddie, with a few hawkbills tossed in. Some were Tiawan made with some sort of wood handles, some the lower cost U.S. made plastic handle Imperial or Camillus. A few large brass framed Pakastan lockblades. I remember seeing some Sabre brand. Again, they were treated roughly, and it was clear they thought of the knife as a cheap tool to be used up and repaced. Even to the point of being stropped on a concrete step. But, it worked for them.
Fast forward a bunch of years, and we now live in my home state of Maryland, and in a nice nieghborhood with a landsscape crew that comes in every week to mow and maintian the development. Common areas get fresh mulch and plants, sidewalks get trimmed and edged. Like South Texas, all the workers are from south of the border, some do not speak English, but Karen is fluent in Spanish and tosses the lingo around with them when she takes a pitcher of ice tea out to them on a really hot day. Being the knife knut, I take note of what they carry, and again, a simple single blade low cost knife, that gets used very hard. Chinese knives, soddie like mostly, with a hawkbill here and there. I've yet to see a knife that cost more than a few beers. I have a feeling that these knives are just replaced as they are used up.
I think sometimes we have to remind ourselves that to those who are not aflicted with our disease, a knife is just like a .99 cent screwdriver; just something to use on a job.
and most likely it would wind up paying for a bottle of Crown and an Old Timer
