Okay, I'm an old fart, I know it. But until relatively recent I never really thought of myself as old. But the increasing list of what is limiting me is growing in a very irritating way. My better half Karen is a great help, periodically reminding me that change is inevitable and even sometimes a good thing. Supposedly, some wisdom comes with age, and even though I fight it, I've learned some things in spite of my stubborn self. Like in knives.
I watched my dad go through the stage where age and arthritis gave him trouble. He had trouble getting the .22 rounds into the magazine of his old Colt Woodsman, he had trouble even opening his little peanut. In the end, he carried a little Christy knife because it was easy for him to deal with, and he liked small watch pocket or keychain size pocket knives. Now it's my turn. First I noticed it with guns, then knives. Karen and I had a Glock for a while, but she has some arthritis issues as well, and the loading of the magazine was a pain. Literally. Down the road it went, and we just fell back to our default place, the Smith and Wesson revolvers. No nimble fingers needed, just open, insert in every round in every hole, close and shoot.
With our knives, it's been the same. Now that I think about it, it's more than a few years since I gave Karen the number 8 Opinel with the hearts all over it. She liked the knife when she got it, but still liked other knives the same. A certain old scout knife, her little Vic classic, a few slip joints. But the last few years that I've been fooling with friction folders, I noticed that my better half of all these years has been paying attention. She's been using her Opinel more and more as her 'main' knife, and most of the time she does not bother to use the lock. I had snugged up the action of her Opinel so as to work more like a dedicated friction folder, and for most of what she uses it for, it works just fine. A cutting tool. Sometimes for food, sometimes opening a box or mail. Karen told me that with her arthritis, the larger round handle was easier to hold while cutting than other smaller handles. The same has been true for me as well. I now find that the smaller knives I love for not taking up a lot of pocket real estate, now are harder of rme to open and use. More and more in the past year, I've been using an Opinel, and the little resolza has become my edc pocket knife. And, it does well at anything I use it for.
So, I got to thinking, always a dangerous thing for me, about all the real working men and women over the centuries who used friction folders to get it done during their workday. For hundreds of years, the friction folder was THE knife for the guy out three woking in the farm fields of France, herding sheep in Northern Spain and Sardina, a woodworker in Germany. Since the 1600's, the old penny folder was the knife of the working classes, and got ti done. While Americans were developing the cattle knife, the premium stockman, the congress, the barlow, the European was using a simple single blade knife that didn't even have a back spring.
Considering all that, can the friction folder be called the ultimate traditional pocket knife?
I watched my dad go through the stage where age and arthritis gave him trouble. He had trouble getting the .22 rounds into the magazine of his old Colt Woodsman, he had trouble even opening his little peanut. In the end, he carried a little Christy knife because it was easy for him to deal with, and he liked small watch pocket or keychain size pocket knives. Now it's my turn. First I noticed it with guns, then knives. Karen and I had a Glock for a while, but she has some arthritis issues as well, and the loading of the magazine was a pain. Literally. Down the road it went, and we just fell back to our default place, the Smith and Wesson revolvers. No nimble fingers needed, just open, insert in every round in every hole, close and shoot.
With our knives, it's been the same. Now that I think about it, it's more than a few years since I gave Karen the number 8 Opinel with the hearts all over it. She liked the knife when she got it, but still liked other knives the same. A certain old scout knife, her little Vic classic, a few slip joints. But the last few years that I've been fooling with friction folders, I noticed that my better half of all these years has been paying attention. She's been using her Opinel more and more as her 'main' knife, and most of the time she does not bother to use the lock. I had snugged up the action of her Opinel so as to work more like a dedicated friction folder, and for most of what she uses it for, it works just fine. A cutting tool. Sometimes for food, sometimes opening a box or mail. Karen told me that with her arthritis, the larger round handle was easier to hold while cutting than other smaller handles. The same has been true for me as well. I now find that the smaller knives I love for not taking up a lot of pocket real estate, now are harder of rme to open and use. More and more in the past year, I've been using an Opinel, and the little resolza has become my edc pocket knife. And, it does well at anything I use it for.
So, I got to thinking, always a dangerous thing for me, about all the real working men and women over the centuries who used friction folders to get it done during their workday. For hundreds of years, the friction folder was THE knife for the guy out three woking in the farm fields of France, herding sheep in Northern Spain and Sardina, a woodworker in Germany. Since the 1600's, the old penny folder was the knife of the working classes, and got ti done. While Americans were developing the cattle knife, the premium stockman, the congress, the barlow, the European was using a simple single blade knife that didn't even have a back spring.
Considering all that, can the friction folder be called the ultimate traditional pocket knife?
), preferably a #72 in stag that looks a lot like the #73 it's meant to replace. Lockbacks are just as easy to open as a a friction folder. 
