teeeheheee! I was naughty!

S

sixgunner455

Joined
Feb 21, 2007
Messages
950
Wednesday, I took the day off to run up to the VA hospital for an appointment. Three or four little shots into my neck and shoulder. I hate needles, so my wife took pity on me and let me buy her a shrimp dinner at Mariscos Chihuaha. They have really good, real lemonade.

But I digress. We got back to town a lot earlier than we expected to, so we couldn't pick up our son for about 45 more minutes. I needed to get a pocket knife for my nephew who just turned 8, so we went to the knife store on main street.

I was thinking of just getting him a Pocket Pal, but when I came home from Ace the other day with a new one (I've had one for fifteen or twenty years, and like it), my wife was disappointed. "He's a Cub Scout now, he needs one he can hang of his belt thing, and it needs to have more tools on it if you're not going to get him a regular pocket knife. You know, some tools, like a Scout knife."

Well, I didn't want to get him a regular sized SAK or Scout knife, because little guys who don't grow up with knives can't always safely handle them, and I want him to be able to learn the thing safely first.

So I went into this store, because they have a selection of SAKs. Hmm. 15 bucks for the a Classic, but that's too little for a general-purpose tool for a Scout. Seems that way to me, anyway, and it's my money I was spending. Hmm. 30 bucks for an Executive? Better, bigger, but too much for what I was thinking. Tinkers-about the same, but too big for what I was looking for. Not the best prices in the world at this shop, but they stock a lot of stuff.

I walked over to the used knife display. The owner goes to flea markets and garage sales, buys old knives, and puts them in this display. I looked at it for a while. There was an old Case whittler (in STAG!), jackknife with bone, couple or four old straight razors (that's what I shave my neck with), lots of interesting things. And an Executive, looked in good shape through the glass. Tag said ten bucks. Hmmm.

So the guy comes over and I start picking out things to check. The Case Whittler had the blades about half sharpened away, but not abused that way. The handles and liners were not in good shape, though, so I passed. The Case Jackknife handles were in good shape, main clip blade in good shape, but the pen blade was broken halfway down the blade. Five bucks. That went in the "take it home" pile.

The Executive looked like it got carried a bit, but never sharpened. "Take it home" pile. Old penknife with bone handles, had been carried a lot but not sharpened much. Pins need tightening, or a bit more work. Five more bucks. Take it home.

So, I spent 23 dollars, and walked out the door with three knives, not one, and two were for me.

I jumped in the car giggling. "I was naughty!" I said to my wife. "What did you do?" "Look in the bag!! I spent 23 dollars" "And got three knives? That's not naughty! And look, that little SAK is much more what I wanted you to get for the nephew, it has tools and he can hang it from his belt."

Well, it is naughty ... if the top shelf of your gun safe is lined with pocket knives already. Kind of crowding space for the pistols. Didn't really need them, but picked them up for projects to work on. I'll either turn that jackknife into a single blade, or get Case to replace the pen blade. Work on the little pen knife, get it tight, and carry it in my Sunday britches instead of the Pocket Pal.

Or not. :D I've had that Pocket Pal for a lot of years now.
 
sixgunner455 said:
Or not. :D I've had that Pocket Pal for a lot of years now.
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The pocket pal is a great little knife! I carried one many years ago for a while off and on as an "extra" and used it for may things. Its sort of a peanut clase of knife. One of those small pocket knives that does not know its a small knife. Just enough more handle that it gives a better grip than a peanut. It was the only one of a very few pocket knives that my dad ever looked at and said that if he was not so attached to his peanut because his mother had given it too him, he'd carry it as his pocket knife.

They'd be great with a bone or stag handle!:D
 
I wish our hardware stores carried used knives.. Sounds like you had a good time
 
I'm confused. Why was this moved to the Community Center? This is the kind of stuff we frequently talk about in the Traditional Forums...
 
Sixgunner455, how do you tighten up the pins?

Oh, and Jackknife, what would your father have thought of the pocket pal's edge retention compared to his case peanut???

Thanks!
 
okbookguy --

There are some ways. The pins on this particular piece, the hinge pins specifically, have lost their peening. In other words, they slide in the pin holes, because the ends of the pins aren't wider than the shaft of the pin anymore, keeping them lined up and stationary. There is uneven wear between the pivot end of the blade and the springs, which causes the blades to slide to one side and force the liners to open up a little bit.

As I said, this is a project that I got for a few dollars to just play with.

Anyway, the simplest thing to do, to keep in in service but not spend a lot of time with it, is to put clamps on the sides of the knife to hold the liners in place, and peen the ends of the pins over -- carefully, so as not to crack the bone as the pins get wider on the ends.

More complicated repairs might be possible. If I decide to replace the spring, then I can eliminate the wear on the ends of it. I'll have to true up the pivot ends of the blades, and then they will be square again, and just reassemble it and peen the three pins that hold it together. If I don't replace the spring, I can't square up the actuating ends of the springs and blades because they have worn against each other so much, but I can clean them up by careful draw filing and stoning so that they won't continue to wear so badly.

As to the edge holding of the SAK Pocket Pal vs. a Case, it doesn't hold the edge quite as well, but it holds it long enough if you take care of it. Not a heavy duty work knife, but it is good for most things that people really do with a daily carry pocket knife. Much like the peanut -- I have one, an Imperial, but I just can't make myself carry it. Too tiny for comfortable use in my hands. I use the pen blade of my jackknives most, because they are all I need for most things. They are about the size of the main blade on a peanut, but I like the more substantial handle to hold onto while I actually use them. So for me, if it was a toss-up between a Case peanut and a Vic Pocket Pal for a daily, slip it next to my wallet little pocket knife, I'd use the Pocket Pal because it has a more usable handle size for me. Edge holding is reasonable with either, though probably better with the Case, so I wouldn't let that worry me at all.
 
Judging by the thread title I thought you were going to tell us how you'd driven to a secluded spot and nailed the wife in the keister, or perhaps scored with a cute counter girl in the stock room while the missus was patiently waiting in the car. Imagine my disappointment.

Buying a couple of old knives.....bah. :grumpy:
 
45. Hello. Thank you for your carefully reasoned, intelligent, articulate response to my post. FYI, I did not post this in this forum. I posted it in the Traditional Knives forum, where it suits the discussions admirably. I do not know why it was moved here, and have sent an email to the moderator of that forum to ask him why it is over here.

Have a nice day.

Sincerely, sixgunner455.
 
okBookGuy said:
Sixgunner455, how do you tighten up the pins?

Oh, and Jackknife, what would your father have thought of the pocket pal's edge retention compared to his case peanut???

Thanks!
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He may have found it good enough. For what we do most of the time the Victorinox is good stuff.
 
Moving this back to the Traditional Forum. :rolleyes:
 
Sixgunner, as we sometimes say down here, "Ya done good, boy!"

And I'm confused, too, but that's not uncommon in my case.
 
Not sure who moved it or why. Glad it is back where it is supposed to be though. :D

Thanks Ken.
 
one45auto said:
You're welcome! You neglected to mention "humorous" in your description, however. :D
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Wasn't through neglect. . .sixgunner455 originally posted to the Traditional forum. I've never seen language like that in the traditional forum before, wasn't funny at all.
 
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