I know there is an old time lore, I think I even read it in some early Knife publication by Jack Lewis and B.R. Hughs, that a pocket knife without bolsters is not as good as a pocket knife with bolsters. I only think of this now because of a post by our very own smiling-knife, poster of photos that we love to drool over.
I know from my earliest memories, my experience growing up on the eastern shore and the woods of central Maryland, I don't really recall seeing one of grandad's old watermen and quail hunting cronies with a pocket knife that did not have bolsters. Indeed, the time proven barlow design was thought to be stronger because of the longer bolsters.
Barlows, stockman, trappers, and most of the old patterns all had bolsters. And many of those knives stood up to some very hard use.
But what of the sodbusters?
I got my first soddie in the mid 80's, as a beater knife. It was an Eye-brand with yellow handles, and it took a heck of a hard knocking and came up no worse for wear. By the mid 1990's I had soddies from eye-brand, Case, Klass, F. Herder from Solingen, and they all were very solid knives. And everyone has a respect for the sak's made by Victorinox and Wenger as good values. No bolsters there either. Dare I say that sak's are most likely the worlds most traveled pocket knife, and choice of experienced adventurers on earth and space. They've been to the top of Mt. Everest to the depths of the sea with the crew of the Calyipso. Peter Hathaway Capstick likes sak's.
Where am I going with this?
We look at alot of those old pocket knives with nice handles of Mother Of Pearl, great English stag, but not a single bolster in sight, and we may make the mistake of thinking they were not used much. Maybe so. Maybe they only saw duty once in a while in some smoky drawing room in the hands of some Victorian gentleman. But maybe they were tougher than we think. Maybe those old cutlers had a handle on the why and how of things more than we know. If you really think of the mechanics of the thing, the forces of just cutting something does not put alot of force on a small pocket knife hinge unless you twist the knife in the cut.
The little Victorinox classic, and the lesson it tought me comes to mind. Before 1990 I would never have considered carrying such a dimutive little knife. I remember looking at them once long ago and kind of having a sneering attitude, like who would bother carrying a toy knife. Then came Village Settlements. This was a realestate settlement company Karen worked for as a reseptionist. They would buy all sorts of trinkets from these advertising companies with thier logo on them and hand them out to clients. Karen would bring home pens, little callculators, tape measures, AA plastic flashlights. Then one day she brought home a fake classic.
It was red, and had a white cross on it, but there the resemblence to a real sak ended. But Karen proudly gave it to me and not wanting to hurt her feelings, I put it on my keyring. The next day I bought a real classic and snuck it on my keyring. What I found out was, in some weird way, women are tuned into tiny, minute differences that we will never comprehend. Karen of course noticed right away. She said the color was different. The sak was a red, but Karen said the red made in China one had a hint of mauve in it. Go figure.
There was but one thing to do; point out the difference between them. Now Karen is not a real knife person. She knows she need a good knife, and she loves her green handle Frosts Mora in her purse. When she does not have her mora, she has her number 8 Opinel. It took very little for her to see the difference in workmenship and cutting. She promptly confiscated the real classic and onto her keyring it went.
Over the next year or so I would see her use that little knife for EVERYTHING! I was sure it would break, and that would be the last I'd see of it. I was wrong. For a year Karen used, abused, neglected, and punished that little knife. Once in a while she'd give it to me so I could sharpen it. Slowly I became converted, and a year and a half later I had new one on my keyring. Then there was the experiment.
No matter what I carried, I would always try to use the classic first if I had a cutting job to do. I was surprsed to the extent I did some rethinking of what was involved in cutting, and just what was needed. I figured my sodbusters took alot of heavy use because they had a more robust build, but the little classic was a puzzle. It held up to an amazing amount of heavy use that I thought would break it. Under those red handles are just a little rivit and brass bushing at either end. Apparently the design is stronger than we think.
Now I look at those old pearl and stag bolsterless pocket knives, and I think that those old Sheffield cutlers knew how to work the materials so as to make an ellegant knife, but not one that gives up alot in practical use. After all, a small knife is going to be used with a slicing or sawing motion, not cutting down saplings or skining an elephant. And I think shadow patter knives had thier day here in this country. Schrade made a nice yellow handle stockman in a bolsterless design.
Somehow I have a mental image of an English getleman walking through a field on a misty day, and flushes a nice phesent. He drops it neatly with his side by side Purdy, and taking a beautifull pearl pocket knife from his waistcoat pocket, opens and cleans the bird to cool properly. Back at the mannor house that same knife may pierce the end of a nice cigar to put a nice end to the day.
If only those old knives could tell us the stories.
I know from my earliest memories, my experience growing up on the eastern shore and the woods of central Maryland, I don't really recall seeing one of grandad's old watermen and quail hunting cronies with a pocket knife that did not have bolsters. Indeed, the time proven barlow design was thought to be stronger because of the longer bolsters.
Barlows, stockman, trappers, and most of the old patterns all had bolsters. And many of those knives stood up to some very hard use.
But what of the sodbusters?
I got my first soddie in the mid 80's, as a beater knife. It was an Eye-brand with yellow handles, and it took a heck of a hard knocking and came up no worse for wear. By the mid 1990's I had soddies from eye-brand, Case, Klass, F. Herder from Solingen, and they all were very solid knives. And everyone has a respect for the sak's made by Victorinox and Wenger as good values. No bolsters there either. Dare I say that sak's are most likely the worlds most traveled pocket knife, and choice of experienced adventurers on earth and space. They've been to the top of Mt. Everest to the depths of the sea with the crew of the Calyipso. Peter Hathaway Capstick likes sak's.
Where am I going with this?
We look at alot of those old pocket knives with nice handles of Mother Of Pearl, great English stag, but not a single bolster in sight, and we may make the mistake of thinking they were not used much. Maybe so. Maybe they only saw duty once in a while in some smoky drawing room in the hands of some Victorian gentleman. But maybe they were tougher than we think. Maybe those old cutlers had a handle on the why and how of things more than we know. If you really think of the mechanics of the thing, the forces of just cutting something does not put alot of force on a small pocket knife hinge unless you twist the knife in the cut.
The little Victorinox classic, and the lesson it tought me comes to mind. Before 1990 I would never have considered carrying such a dimutive little knife. I remember looking at them once long ago and kind of having a sneering attitude, like who would bother carrying a toy knife. Then came Village Settlements. This was a realestate settlement company Karen worked for as a reseptionist. They would buy all sorts of trinkets from these advertising companies with thier logo on them and hand them out to clients. Karen would bring home pens, little callculators, tape measures, AA plastic flashlights. Then one day she brought home a fake classic.
It was red, and had a white cross on it, but there the resemblence to a real sak ended. But Karen proudly gave it to me and not wanting to hurt her feelings, I put it on my keyring. The next day I bought a real classic and snuck it on my keyring. What I found out was, in some weird way, women are tuned into tiny, minute differences that we will never comprehend. Karen of course noticed right away. She said the color was different. The sak was a red, but Karen said the red made in China one had a hint of mauve in it. Go figure.
There was but one thing to do; point out the difference between them. Now Karen is not a real knife person. She knows she need a good knife, and she loves her green handle Frosts Mora in her purse. When she does not have her mora, she has her number 8 Opinel. It took very little for her to see the difference in workmenship and cutting. She promptly confiscated the real classic and onto her keyring it went.
Over the next year or so I would see her use that little knife for EVERYTHING! I was sure it would break, and that would be the last I'd see of it. I was wrong. For a year Karen used, abused, neglected, and punished that little knife. Once in a while she'd give it to me so I could sharpen it. Slowly I became converted, and a year and a half later I had new one on my keyring. Then there was the experiment.
No matter what I carried, I would always try to use the classic first if I had a cutting job to do. I was surprsed to the extent I did some rethinking of what was involved in cutting, and just what was needed. I figured my sodbusters took alot of heavy use because they had a more robust build, but the little classic was a puzzle. It held up to an amazing amount of heavy use that I thought would break it. Under those red handles are just a little rivit and brass bushing at either end. Apparently the design is stronger than we think.
Now I look at those old pearl and stag bolsterless pocket knives, and I think that those old Sheffield cutlers knew how to work the materials so as to make an ellegant knife, but not one that gives up alot in practical use. After all, a small knife is going to be used with a slicing or sawing motion, not cutting down saplings or skining an elephant. And I think shadow patter knives had thier day here in this country. Schrade made a nice yellow handle stockman in a bolsterless design.
Somehow I have a mental image of an English getleman walking through a field on a misty day, and flushes a nice phesent. He drops it neatly with his side by side Purdy, and taking a beautifull pearl pocket knife from his waistcoat pocket, opens and cleans the bird to cool properly. Back at the mannor house that same knife may pierce the end of a nice cigar to put a nice end to the day.
If only those old knives could tell us the stories.
the old vintage Stag, Bone, Ivory, Pearl and Wood, ect. pocket knives are ugly??
What??
Reckon we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. I need my bolsters!
