The Gentrification of Knives

P

PaultheCarpenter

Joined
Jul 12, 2020
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103
Ramble warning!

Over the last 3 or 4 decades, give or take, knives have taken a journey from jackknives and sheath knives (as they were called when I was a kid), and at some point that type of tool for a purpose thinking was set aside in favor of the milled titanium framelock thumbstuded supersteel flippers that we see everywhere now. Relegating the tools we all owned and used into the category of grandad's pocket knife.

Knife manufacturers have been popping up like mushrooms with their own design variations and interesting new mechanisms to replace the venerable lockbacks and slipjoints of old. One handed opening, premium materials, sleek or military-esque design became the Space Race for the industry. Creating marketing hype surrounding blade steel and trademarking features and design aesthetics. Prices skyrocketed while R&D and marketing budgets soared, which created desirability and carved out new, cool niches for themselves; urban survival and EDC. Bushcraft has become a thing people take up in order to do a little feathersticking with that expensive new handmade artisan puuko, to emulate how we used to rely on these tools, snapping shots for instagram on their iPhones all the while.

The unpretentious tools of yesteryear have been eclipsed, the jackknives of your scout days are relics and your great grandpappy's bowie he skinned deers with lays in a drawer, but in a modern world most of us don't really need knives for much, if anything. We have Stanley bladed boxcutters to take care of that Amazon packaging far more efficiently than any Sebenza, but that isn't really the point of them now, I'm not entirely sure what is if I'm being honest. Kitchen knives are really the only blades left in most of our lifestyles. This isn't to say there isn't still that root left for hunters, craftsmen and outdoorsmen, or that it has in any way diminished, just that the knife industry as a whole has expanded and adapted to meet the needs or wants of our modern society.

Overall I think it's a good thing. Nothing has been lost while much has been gained, and a new appreciation for the simple tool that has been with us since Paleolithic times has been fostered for future generations.

I'm not sure if I had any point to this, I might have started with a things were better in the old days stream of consciousness and changed my mind completely as the words appeared and my thoughts crystalized, but I realized that while I dislike much of the direction in which the industry has taken, I can't help but appreciate the things we have gained. And that knives, somehow, are still constantly evolving. Just like us.
 
Paul
That's why I've carried a SAK Tinker for the last 30+ years. Before that a Queen barlow. No need for anything fancy (and expensive). My SAK does everything I need.

I do miss the old days when the boys played mumbly peg at recess and no one ever thought anything about it. Now you get expelled if not arrested.:(
Rich
 
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Here is a picture of every knife you will ever need Buck had it nailed 40 years ago I like the old designs, a Buck 110 is literally the only non kitchen knife I used for 20 years. I never felt deprived in fact it was a nicer knife than what others were carrying (in my circle) if they carried a knife at all.

view


I see the new knives as ugly for the most part, the design innovations are driven by trying to get sales out of a saturated market.

The knives I like now I liked when I was six. My tastes have not changed in 50 years.
 
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still carry my buck 110, still have my slip joints and I hate titanium and dislike flippers. just recently tried to carry an aluminum scaled flipper on ball bearings and that lasted a day then my spyderco went back in the pocket. some of us still use our knives and don't have much interest if any in pocket jewelry or safe queens not that there's anything wrong with that bunch. despite all the fancy shenanigans of new....case, buck, gec and on and on are still around releasing new stuff...I think as people grow in the hobby the auto opener tactical mini sword of death forged out of adamantium on satans anvil doesn't seem cool anymore and the usefulness of a classic and its appeal takes precedence over the latest and greatest. age and wisdom I suppose
 
I like them all, but I am partial to designs that function well as knives rather than the art pieces or nightmare grinds that i can't see what they are useful for. I love my Buck 110s, and I love my Benchmade Crooked Rivers which are the spirtual grandchildren of that good old 110 design. Clip blade, bolsters, large and burly (unless you have the mini...then I guess those are more like the 112s LOL) but now they are lighter, use pocket clips, and can be opened and closed with one hand!

I love my titanium flippers too. ZT makes some great knives, useful and fun designs.

I only have one fixed blade, a becker bk2. Love it! Still want a buck 119, its a classic! same as the 110s. not really a traditional kind of guy, but i have a rough ryder improved muskrat i was given at christmas one year. Ive carried it a few times.

I think theres a place for all the knives. Even if they arent particularly practical (just look at the Arcane Design Necronaut i think its called...just wow...). Theres something for everybody!
 
Maybe there's another side to this "coin". The fact that knives have continued to evolve over the years might indicate that they're still considered an essential... or at least a worthwhile... item to be owned and carried by many people. Whether the knife carrier uses the knife or not, whether it's a fidget toy, a status symbol, or a daily use tool, the knife still has a place in their pocket / purse / backpack / glove box / or wherever else it's carried. And since traditional pocket knives and sheath knives are still made with traditional materials, designs, and techniques, both the traditionalist and the modernist can have what they choose to carry and use.

Personally, I find the vast majority of modern knife designs to be... well, um-m-m-m... head-shaking, to be perfectly honest about it. They just look silly to my old, traditional, "unwilling-to-change-and-see-the-beauty" eyes. BUT... I really do like the advances in steel development that make my modern folding knife more useful for a wider variety of tasks than my old pocket knives of 65 years ago. I also appreciate the innovations in things like handle materials and design, and locking systems.

I'm just really glad that something I've loved and used for 65+ years now has enough fans among the generations that have come after me, so that R&D is continuing and the tool is alive and well for future generation of knife knuts.
 
There are still plenty of those knives you speak of available and being made. And new, fancy ones. And a trickle down effect of technology and modernization creating some very cool traditional style knives in new steels and processes. It’s just like cars. Ferrari’s (for example) may be (one of the) the best performing road car out there. But we all can’t afford it. Or don’t want that style. But the tech trickles down into your basic family sedan making it better and safer. Many who own the Ferrari don’t use it for what it’s designed for. And many pride themselves in doing just as much with a lot less. The beatiful thing is that, while they (cars and knives to continue the parrallel) are tools, they can also be hobbies. It’s not the tool of the old days that’s gone. It’s what it represents to each of us.
 
My Grandfather owned "old-timey" knives.
Did not own a "modern" folder.

However, while he was still alive I showed him one of my one-hand opening knives (think it was the Benchmade Resistor), and he said "That will work."
He saw the tool usage potential; solid grip in the hand, good lock for added safety, able to open and close while holding something in the other hand, steel that held an edge for longer, and convenience of carry.

And, like someone else previously mentioned, the old styles are still produced. :thumbsup:
It is not hard to find old-style pocket-knives and fixed blade knives, production and custom. :)
 
While I appreciate the OPs opinion, I don’t really see that anything has changed all that much. More choices maybe. Knives have been evolving ever since man was using a sharpened piece of flint.

I use knives multiple times a day and a box cutter, which is a part of my cutting tool selection, wouldn’t come close to doing all the things I need to do with a knife.

There has always been people who use knives regularly, and some who have little use for a blade at all other than to eat. There has always been different types of knives for different uses. Fighting, skinning, utility, purpose built etc.

For myself, I have very little desire to own the nostalgic knives of yesteryear. I like the evolution of tools as did my father and his father before him. My grandfather was one of the first men, in his area, to have one of those new-fangled tractors instead of a horse and plow.
 
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I can certainly appreciate new technology in modern folders, however my pocket knife selection never really updated beyond 1975-1985...habit and cost I guess. I worked on a cattle ranch in the 70s and served in the military in the 80/90s. A $25.00 Buck, Imperial, Camillus, Colonial, or Case was all I ever really needed back then and certainly all I need today seeing that I'm on the north side of 55. However, if I were to make that jump forward, some of those LionSteel Knives look pretty damn nice...hoping my son reads this!
 
PaultheCarpenter said:
Ramble warning!

Over the last 3 or 4 decades, give or take, knives have taken a journey from jackknives and sheath knives (as they were called when I was a kid), and at some point that type of tool for a purpose thinking was set aside in favor of the milled titanium framelock thumbstuded supersteel flippers that we see everywhere now. Relegating the tools we all owned and used into the category of grandad's pocket knife.

Knife manufacturers have been popping up like mushrooms with their own design variations and interesting new mechanisms to replace the venerable lockbacks and slipjoints of old. One handed opening, premium materials, sleek or military-esque design became the Space Race for the industry. Creating marketing hype surrounding blade steel and trademarking features and design aesthetics. Prices skyrocketed while R&D and marketing budgets soared, which created desirability and carved out new, cool niches for themselves; urban survival and EDC. Bushcraft has become a thing people take up in order to do a little feathersticking with that expensive new handmade artisan puuko, to emulate how we used to rely on these tools, snapping shots for instagram on their iPhones all the while.

The unpretentious tools of yesteryear have been eclipsed, the jackknives of your scout days are relics and your great grandpappy's bowie he skinned deers with lays in a drawer, but in a modern world most of us don't really need knives for much, if anything. We have Stanley bladed boxcutters to take care of that Amazon packaging far more efficiently than any Sebenza, but that isn't really the point of them now, I'm not entirely sure what is if I'm being honest. Kitchen knives are really the only blades left in most of our lifestyles. This isn't to say there isn't still that root left for hunters, craftsmen and outdoorsmen, or that it has in any way diminished, just that the knife industry as a whole has expanded and adapted to meet the needs or wants of our modern society.

Overall I think it's a good thing. Nothing has been lost while much has been gained, and a new appreciation for the simple tool that has been with us since Paleolithic times has been fostered for future generations.

I'm not sure if I had any point to this, I might have started with a things were better in the old days stream of consciousness and changed my mind completely as the words appeared and my thoughts crystalized, but I realized that while I dislike much of the direction in which the industry has taken, I can't help but appreciate the things we have gained. And that knives, somehow, are still constantly evolving. Just like us.
Click to expand...
It’s a phenomenon called neomania. As the word suggests, there is this obsession with new things among knife manufacturers and consumers both. You find new ways to advertise and dress up old designs and sell them for a profit. Same tune, slightly different lyrics. There’s a hungry crowd out there eager to gobble up fresh knives, and I’m usually one of them.

While this isn’t always the case, the rule of thumb is that the longer you’ve been around the longer you’re likely to remain. The pyramids have outlasted the Berlin wall, turbo-boosted flight boots haven’t replaced your sneakers, and nutrition pills haven’t replaced food on a plate. In the same way we’re still likely to wear shoes for the next millenia, I’m fairly sure jackknives, traditionals, and bushcraft knives will “outlast” the latest Spyderco sprint run that only your uncle and your ex picked up.
 
stabman said:
My Grandfather owned "old-timey" knives.
Did not own a "modern" folder.

However, while he was still alive I showed him one of my one-hand opening knives (think it was the Benchmade Resistor), and he said "That will work."
He saw the tool usage potential; solid grip in the hand, good lock for added safety, able to open and close while holding something in the other hand, steel that held an edge for longer, and convenience of carry.

And, like someone else previously mentioned, the old styles are still produced. :thumbsup:
It is not hard to find old-style pocket-knives and fixed blade knives, production and custom. :)
Click to expand...

You made me smile with that story. I lost my grandpa almost a year ago this month. Good life, 92 years, went out on his own terms by his own hand even if it made it hard on us to shoulder his choice.

I remember showing him some years ago a Kershaw folder, back when pretty much all Kershaw folders were US made, i think it may have been my Junkyard Dog II I bought at Gander Mountain for $75. He looked at it, and told me that it was a "hellova knife" and he wanted to show me something. He opened the kitchen drawer next to where he kept his whetstone that had kept his traditional trapper minute of finger-splinter sharp my entire life and pulled out...6 piece of crap Chinese made tactical folders.

"I got these on sale! They were $4 each or 6 for $20. You can have one if you want."

Graciously I grabbed the least goofy one of the bunch and slid it into my pocket and pretended to oo and ah over it and congratulate my grandpa on such a good deal he found.

See, I think we put a bit too much stock in "the good ol days" and look at things through the most nostalgic of lenses. My grandfather was a depression era guy, lied about his age and fought in WWII, had times so lean he fed his daughter (my mom) rabbit he shot out back on the property and told her it was chicken so she wouldn't cry and eat it. To him, a tool was a tool. A deal was a deal. An edge was and edge and all the fanfare of passing things down that we all wax poetic about and whatnot wasn't even on his radar. His knives were for cutting.

Funny thing. Not too long ago, after he passed, I broke out that piece of crap gas station knife he gave me just out of remembrance. It was cleaner than when he got it. Not a speck of grease on it. It had been honed by his hand on a 65 year old stone. It would take the hair off the devil's stones without him missing a note on his fiddle;) Mystery steel that was made sharp enough to cut a god. Everything about this knife was cared for. My grandfather full intended for a throw away pocket sticker to last him a generation.

It was then that I really grew to appreciate what he was. He was a survivor. He was given nothing, expected nothing, and used what he had at hand to get ahead. That stupid knife that was a rip off at $6 personified his personal tenacity of making due with what he had.

I know lots of folks that will go on about the good old days and knives their grandpappy carried, and I love hearing those stories. They warm my heart because I know what they mean to folks. I just like to toss in a bit of perspective as to what my grandpa valued. Buying what you can afford, using it to getting the job done, and caring for your tools be they heirlooms or gas stations.
 
I agree. It's a unique thing to collect knives. I buy expensive knives while acknowledging I could cut with a piece of broken glass. I carry a self defense knife while having a razor knife on me. I love super steels and dont have to rely on a knife for any real use outside of hunting season.
 
Probably one of the most enjoyable things about writing a thread like this is that you can precisely pinpoint the moment the respondent poster stopped reading it.
 
I might have started with a things were better in the old days stream of consciousness[/QUOTE]

I concur
 
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