The Slip Joint Conundrum...

Put into context, historically, there is a time when slip joints were the only pocket knives available, so people who needed a pocket knife to do work used a slip joint. They're designed to cut very well, and the ones that are made to work have strong enough springs that safety is really only a concern if one is using the knife foolishly and applying forces in directions that could potentially close the blade during cutting.

A lot of modern knives have been designed to continue furthering the performance and comfort cutting, and so people who rely on a knife to work daily might opt for that kind of knife over a slip joint. But they might not.

Cutting a large refrigerator sized cardboard boxes the only thing I've ever done with a slip joint that I thought later might have been better performed by a different tool.
 
Eli Chaps said:
I just mean that I've spent so much time telling myself that slip joints are a no go, that it now seems weird to toss one in my pocket. Going to the mother in law's today and I'll carry the Buck.
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Mmmh. The fact that you post here and 'confess' means you're weakening to the allure of Traditional knives :D

Why not spend a good chunk of time reading through some of the larger threads, study the form and the pictures and I defy you not to be attracted to some of the knives, lose you mind and get drawn in :cool: The conundrum being that Traditionals offer such a massive range of styles, sizes, patterns and materials that it's hard to be content with just one type. ;) They are for the pocket, they are particularly suited for eating fruits, cheese, salami and snacks.Plus, lot of practical tasks indoors & out. An enormous thick Modern knife is not well suited to that. Don't run away with the idea that Traditional slip joints are just carbon rust hulks owned by the near demented either ;);) All ages here, dozens of countries, all walks of life and opinions and there's plenty of good stainless knives appreciated by many of us:D even if a few studied in the school of fogey would like to think rust steel is the only way to go...:D;)

Traditional style lockbacks are also varied and well worth looking into if you prefer a locking knife. I predict you'll soon be carrying a slip joint alongside your usual favoured Modern, actually a vey rewarding combination :thumbsup:

Thanks, Will
 
Will Power said:
Mmmh. The fact that you post here and 'confess' means you're weakening to the allure of Traditional knives :D

Why not spend a good chunk of time reading through some of the larger threads, study the form and the pictures and I defy you not to be attracted to some of the knives, lose you mind and get drawn in :cool: The conundrum being that Traditionals offer such a massive range of styles, sizes, patterns and materials that it's hard to be content with just one type. ;) They are for the pocket, they are particularly suited for eating fruits, cheese, salami and snacks.Plus, lot of practical tasks indoors & out. An enormous thick Modern knife is not well suited to that. Don't run away with the idea that Traditional slip joints are just carbon rust hulks owned by the near demented either ;);) All ages here, dozens of countries, all walks of life and opinions and there's plenty of good stainless knives appreciated by many of us:D even if a few studied in the school of fogey would like to think rust steel is the only way to go...:D;)

Traditional style lockbacks are also varied and well worth looking into if you prefer a locking knife. I predict you'll soon be carrying a slip joint alongside your usual favoured Modern, actually a vey rewarding combination :thumbsup:

Thanks, Will
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Thanks Will. I've been doing a lot of reading and looking. I'm transitioning into "old guy" status so traditionals were everywhere when I was growing up and as a kid I had several.

I know it probably doesn't fit the exact term "traditional" but as I said, I'm currently deeply enamored some old-school French slip joints.

I like others as well but I've never been a huge "bone" fan. Not bad, but it's just never tripped my trigger as much as some of the other material types.
 
Thanks Eli Chaps Eli Chaps

French knives are very often extremely Traditional as France has a long and flourishing cutlery heritage, you can find some threads on French knives in this Forum too. Very cool items there.

Apart from Bone, there's Stag, numerous Woods and Micarta is more and more liked by Traditional fans (me especially) Acrylics and delrins too. 'Old Guy' is a state of mind....;):cool:
 
afishhunter said:
Slipjoints (and friction folders) have been used for hundreds of years.
Most used their knives "harder" than we would even consider doing today, and did not remove their fingers or portions there of, when using the knife.
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That's for sure. Modern "tactical" knives are not nearly as useful for as many different things, they are often overly large with blades that are overly wide.
 
I've been carrying my new Case Trapper in Dark Red Bone for the last couple of weeks plus as my primary work knife and have no qualms or fears using it vigorously. Almost daily I do pearce cuts in rubber coated cloth that is pretty tough and thick and no problems.

As I understand it where one gets in trouble is making deep carving cuts in wood as when making feather sticks and if the blade gets all stuck in the wood it could close on you when you finally yank it out to the stick. I don't know. I never do that. In the same breath I have two Buck 110s that lock at a minimum / for doing that with a traditional as well as all my modern dudes with Triad Locks and every other modern mechanisms (that I quite enjoy by the way).

Nope use the heck out of the Traditionals. No problem. Use some common sense and awareness as when using any tool that has potential to do damage to you or your surroundings.
 
If you like the size of modern tactical folders you can try a folding hunter or large coke bottle. GEC Will have their model 97 coke bottle coming out early next year. 4 3/4" closed. I'm looking forward to trying one. They are a little smaller than my vintage hunters and coke bottles which will make them easier to carry. I really enjoy my vintage hunters, nice sturdy knives that my big hands can get a good grip on. They break down boxes effortlessly and are easy to put a scary sharp edge on.
 
When I was 15 or 16, I had a slip joint fold over on my finger and suffered a nasty cut. I swore them off, only wanted a locking blade after that. Then, as I got older, I realized I've learned how to use a knife and now, having a non locking knife doesn't bother me at all. I enjoy carrying a slip joint and never realized just how many people I associate with like them better than the frame locks I have shown them. Go figure.
 
Eli Chaps said:
Hello Knife Nuts,

See, I've spent oh I don't know, probably the last three decades thoroughly convincing myself that slip joints are at best inferior and even dangerous.
So, am I just being stupid? That's a trait I've refined. :D

My knife tasks are typically pretty light duty and I know stabbing is not a grand idea. Anything else?

Thanks in advance.
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I won't answer the first question.
There are a lot of post in the General forum of guys cutting them selves with a locking knife. Just follow a few rules.

Safety is the first thing to learn, there are no exceptions to that rule.
Don't cut towards yourself or others, Position yourself or what you are cutting so you are always cutting away from yourself and others.

Safety Treat all knives as non locking knives.

Safety Learn to handle a knife so that a lock becomes redundant, (unnecessary, not required) etcetera. Never apply pressure to the spine of a folding knife. EVER. Apply pressure to the edge when making a piercing cut.

NEVER stab with a folding knife. With or without a lock.

Time is a great safety tool it takes a few seconds to think about what you are doing and you'll avoid a lot of mistakes. Every time you have a cutting job to do, take some time to think where that edge is going to go if it slips. Time spent opening a folding knife is the time to think.. If you get in a rush to cut a box that isn't going anywhere that's when you'll make a mistake.

Use Knives cut and slice, that's all. Learn that & you'll never have that Duh moment when you break a blade.
 
rockman0 said:
If you like the size of modern tactical folders you can try a folding hunter or large coke bottle. GEC Will have their model 97 coke bottle coming out early next year. 4 3/4" closed. I'm looking forward to trying one. They are a little smaller than my vintage hunters and coke bottles which will make them easier to carry. I really enjoy my vintage hunters, nice sturdy knives that my big hands can get a good grip on. They break down boxes effortlessly and are easy to put a scary sharp edge on.
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Thank you. I'm not a tactical guy. My military and law enforcement days are well behind me. I don't even do any honest labor on a regular basis. My primary daily knife tasks don't go much beyond insurgent Granny Smiths, raging navel oranges, etc. :)

I said in a thread the other day that I'm pretty flexible on blade size for an EDC these days. I can go from a Dragonfly 2 to a Manix 2 LW and feel completely comfortable with either. Basically, if it can't cut all the way through an apple, then I just need it to cut half way through. It doesn't matter if it stops a quarter inch from going all the way, I still have to make a second cut, so it just needs to get half way. Even that isn't hard and fast.

I do have a strong bias for thin, slicey blades and there are surely an abundance of those in the traditional and slip joint world.
 
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Will Power said:
Thanks Eli Chaps Eli Chaps

French knives are very often extremely Traditional as France has a long and flourishing cutlery heritage, you can find some threads on French knives in this Forum too. Very cool items there.

Apart from Bone, there's Stag, numerous Woods and Micarta is more and more liked by Traditional fans (me especially) Acrylics and delrins too. 'Old Guy' is a state of mind....;):cool:
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Old guy is a state of mind, especially when it finallyy hits you that you just ain't what you used to be!Some days it's readily apparent others not so much
 
cj65 said:
Back when I joined BF, I became such a knife nut, I would have grimaced at the thought of a razor utility knife. I used to work at Home Depot and used them all the time. After using my knives and dulling them slicing up cardboard for recycling, I had a paradigm shift.
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Reality has a habit of doing that. As a knife nut, I love using my knives when ever a cutting job is there, but I'm not going to abuse my knife when theres a tool that will do the job much better and with the factor of having a cheap replaceable blade.
 
jackknife said:
Reality has a habit of doing that. As a knife nut, I love using my knives when ever a cutting job is there, but I'm not going to abuse my knife when theres a tool that will do the job much better and with the factor of having a cheap replaceable blade.
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I've said many times that by and large, we could all do just fine with an 8" chef's knife, a pairing knife (with sheath), and a box cutter/utility knife of whatever flavor. The further we gravitate out form those things is mostly just cuz we wanna. :)
 
Slip joints, a subject dear to my heart.

As a bonified old fart, I use one, just as I've used one the whole of my long life. I still have all my fingers, have just one scar when I made a mistake when I was a kid and paid for it with a little blood. Never made that mistake again.

Most slip joint patterns came about in a time when men didn't as a rule work in office cubicles. The pocket knife they carried often were developed for their trade. Cowboys and ranch workers developed the three bladed stockman for the much varried and different jobs, including the castration of the cattle. A trapper doing a lot of skinning used, of course, the trapper. Sailors had rigging knives with sheep foot blade and marlin spike. The office types had the small two blade pen knives and the landed gentry that had most other people do their work for them, used sometimes very elaborate lobster patterns with pipe reamers, nail files, little scissors, and even a cutting blade or two tossed in there. Kind of like the modern Victorinox executive pattern, but with very nice pearl or abalone scales.

In my own mostly blue color life, I've worked construction and in the machine shop arena. A nice sharp pocket knife was needed on sometimes an hourly basis. Cutting filthy steel dust covered tape holding a bundle of round stock for the lathe, Opening taped shut cardboard boxes of parts to be modified on the mill, cutting tar covered marline running a line between survey stakes, working in the garden with my better half cutting twine for the tomato plant stakes, and camping with the family and teaching the kids and much later the grandkids, camp crafts like making a one match fire and a perfect hot dog stick that holds two hot dogs on a fork. They all still have their fingers.

I tried carrying a knife with a single looking blade, once. About 9 times out of ten I found the large single blade and no choice of other blades much too limiting. It was either too long and awkward, or too wide, or it was a job that was going to totally mess up the blade. I grew up liking having multiple blades in one pocket size package. It was all about versatility. Choice of having two or three different blade shapes with different edge profiles was nice and even habit forming. The main clip was kept vey sharp for clean cuts on fish and game, the sheep foot was somewhat sharp for opening boxes and packages, and the spey blade, since I was not doing any castration on creatures, was dull and my scraping, poking, and whatever blade that I didn't worry about messing up the edge.

Contrary to popular opinion, they had locking blade knives in the old days. John Wilkes Booth had a folding dagger with a locking blade in his pocket when he was killed at Garrets Barn in 1865. They just never were popular with the working masses. Cowboys, farmers, sailors, freight wagon drivers, store keeps, livery stable workers, and the rest of the working masses used a simple slip joint. In the mid 1800's the humble Barlow knife pattern was the most popular knife shipped west to trading posts, general stores. The John Russell company made tons to them and with simple saw cut bone scales and two different blades, it was a number one choice of lots of people who worked hard for a living. In truth, the Barlow's clip point and small pointy pen blade gave a lot of versatility in a small package.

Go ahead and drop the Buck in your pocket and use the living hell out of it. You'll come around in the end.
 
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jackknife said:
Slip joints, a subject dear to my heart.

As a bonified old fart, I use one, just as I've used one the whole of my long life. I still have all my fingers, have just one scar when I made a mistake when I was a kid and paid for it with a little blood. Never made that mistake again.

Most slip joint patterns came about in a time when men didn't as a rule work in office cubicles. The pocket knife they carried often were developed for their trade. Cowboys and ranch workers developed the three bladed stockman for the much varried and different jobs, including the castration of the cattle. A trapper doing a lot of skinning used, of course, the trapper. Sailors had rigging knives with sheep foot blade and marlin spike. The office types had the small two blade pen knives and the landed gentry that had most other people do their work for them, used sometimes very elaborate lobster patterns with pipe reamers, nail files, little scissors, and even a cutting blade or two tossed in there. Kind of like the modern Victorinox executive pattern, but with very nice pearl or abalone scales.

In my own mostly blue color life, I've worked construction and in the machine shop arena. A nice sharp pocket knife was needed on sometimes an hourly basis. Cutting filthy steel dust covered tape holding a bundle of round stock for the lathe, Opening taped shut cardboard boxes of parts to be modified on the mill, cutting tar covered marline running a line between survey stakes, working in the garden with my better half cutting twine for the tomato plant stakes, and camping with the family and teaching the kids and much later the grandkids, camp crafts like making a one match fire and a perfect hot dog stick that holds two hot dogs on a fork. They all still have their fingers.

I tried carrying a knife with a single looking blade, once. About 9 times out of ten I found the large single blade and no choice of other blades much too limiting. It was either too long and awkward, or too wide, or it was a job that was going to totally mess up the blade. I grew up liking having multiple blades in one pocket size package. It was all about versatility. Choice of having two or three different blade shapes with different edge profiles was nice and even habit forming. The main clip was kept vey sharp for clean cuts on fish and game, the sheep foot was somewhat sharp for opening boxes and packages, and the spey blade, since I was not doing any castration on creatures, was dull and my scraping, poking, and whatever blade that I didn't worry about messing up the edge.

Contrary to popular opinion, they had locking blade knives in the old days. John Wilkes Booth had a folding dagger with a locking blade in his pocket when he was killed at Garrets Barn in 1865. They just never were popular with the working masses. Cowboys, farmers, sailors, freight wagon drivers, store keeps, livery stable workers, and the rest of the working masses used a simple slip joint. In the mid 1800's the humble Barlow knife pattern was the most popular knife shipped west to trading posts, general stores. The John Russell company made tons to them and with simple saw cut bone scales and two different blades, it was a number one choice of lots of people who worked hard for a living. In truth, the Barlow's clip point and small pointy pen blade gave a lot of versatility in a small package.

Go ahead and drop the Buck in your pocket and use the living hell out of it. You'll come around in the end.
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Quality post, as usual. Thanks.
 
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