Things you've warmed up to

Hickory n steel

Hickory n steel

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Any knife features, materials ,or patterns ...ect you've warmed up to ?

For me there's two big ones besides having completely switched to traditional carry.

At one time the only clip blade shape I found good looking on a folder was that of the Buck 110.
Now one my favorite shape of all is the classic traditional dare I say American slipjoint clip blade shape, I particularly love the clip blade on my 33OT and my Case Texas jack as well as both my ranger stockman and my case half whittler.

Second would be spear points, I used to really hate the looks of them but now I quite enjoy them for their function and classic simplicity.
 
I find that I love having scissors on my everyday pocket knife, and now in my old fart 'red giant' stage of life, the lobster pattern has grown on me. I was a die hard stockman and SAK lover in my younger days, but as I got older, the SAK kind of took over and then the lobster pattern SAK's like the little classic, and for the past year and a half, the executive.

On the 18th of July of 2018, I was gifted an executive. I had never paid much if any attention to this particular model knife, although I was aware of it. I had a classic on my keyring and a 'real' knife in my pocket. A Boker 240 pen, a Buck 309 companion, my trusty Sardinian Resolza. In other words, a peanut class of knife that fit in a coin pocket. I had always thought of the Victorinox executive as an over priced bigger version of a classic and not worth the three times classic price tag.

I was wrong.

The classic took over my coin pocket like my old peanut used to. The longer blade handles things like cutting a sandwich in half that can't be done with the 58mm SAK's. It has more tool and cutting capability than the 58mm, but the lobster pattern keeps it flat and easy to carry in Dockers or light weight shorts for the Hot Texas summers. And it has scissors. The scissors saved a life last summer.

Okay, it was a little life, a Texas spiny lizard. A very handsome specimen about 5 to 6 inches long. Our granddaughter had her 5 week old Boston Terrier, Rocko, visiting last summer so to keep Rocko from escaping the yards iron fence that has uprights several inches apart, just right for a puppy to squeeze through, I put up some nylon mesh to keep the little escape artist penned up. After the visit we drove her and Rocko back to California.

After coming back home, I was heading out back of the house to the shop building and saw movement and looked and saw the lizard tangled up in the nylon mess really good. I was planning on taking it down anyways since was just temporary while Bree and Rocko were visiting, so I held the lizard and used the SAK scissors to carefully snip the tangled mesh away from the legs and most of all his neck. He'd thrashed around a good bit, and had several strands of mesh wrapped around his neck. I couldn't get the scissors under the mesh by his throat, so I slid the one blade of the scissors flat against his back and got it under the mesh one strand at a time and snipped. As the last strand got cut, he jumped out of my hand and scurried away in the grass under a bush. He seemed none the worse for his trouble.

So I've become very enamored of the Victorinox classic that I saved a Texas spiny lizard with. Now I even find myself browsing the great bay, sort of playing with the idea of finding one of those old Sheffield gentleman lobster patterns the different blades and tools and maybe some nice pearl scales.
 
I have owned knives with Straight Edged Blades for quite a few years but in 2017 I found an old Taylors Eye Witness with a Sheepfoot and Pen blades .

I started carrying and using that knife almost every day and found that I prefer that type of blade to use for a working blade . I also found that I preferred the Reverse Curved shape of the handle . I had earlier bought a Taylors Eye Witness Lambfoot and liked the looks of it but had not really used it .


Now when I know that I am going to need to use a knife for some work , I will carry a Lambfoot or Sheepfoot bladed knife .


Harry
 
Bigger knives... Not BIG knives.
I used to hate to carry bigger knives, there just wasn't a convenient and comfortable way to carry them in my pocket. I tried a slip, but it seemed inconvenient to use one. So, I was sticking with smaller knives in my watch pocket. But then I tried the safety pin trick, and it was a game-changer for me. Now I can carry larger pocket knives vertically in my front pocket with ease. Suddenly I find knives larger than 3-1/2 inches my preferred carry.

 
Being a Buck fanboy, the 2018 BF Buck 301 peaked my interest in carrying a traditional, again. I had tried before to carry one of Buck's 300 series.
To big, to small, to fat, to long, not long enough...I just couldn't find the right 'one'. The BF 301 wasn't it.:( But, it did bring me to the porch more often.:)

Last January, having read on Jack Black's Guardian thread, and 'cause part of my family came from that area a few generations back, I bought my first lambfoot. As I carried and used it...they multiply, don't ya know...I bought a few more of Jack's SFO. I was getting close.

As I read and viewed more on the porch, I found and bought others to try.

The canoe pattern spoke to me and was easy for me to carry, being shorter and slim.

I have settled on this Buck 308 for most of my EDC.
DSC_0476.JPG

Rosie, my first lambfoot goes, but not as often.
IMG_1338.JPG
 
The biggest change for me has been warming up to single blade folders with a straight edge. Being an avowed stockman user, I always thought of a straight edged blade as a secondary blade. And even the few times I carried a single blade folder, it was almost always a drop point or clip. But thanks to Jack Black and his Guardians' thread, I slowly decided to try a lamb foot single blade. The tapered spine along with a pointy, yet strong tip, allows it to work very well as a single blade. I have also tried some Wharncliffe single blades, but am just a little leery of the fragile tip on some models. I still like my sheepfoot blades as secondaries on a stockman, but now acknowledge the usefulness of a good lamb foot single.
 
Not very specific, but I started to like slipjoints and nail nicks after years into knife hobby.
I liked how traditionals look when I watched youtube reviews, but slipjoint and nail nick were deal breakers. I hated them and thought they are boring, outdated, uncomfortable and unsafe things that ruin nice design.
One day I went to a knife store for something else and while waiting in line I tried Benchmade Proper that was on display. I just wanted to try micarta handle and didn't care about the knife, but it turned out good enough that I ended up buying it. A few days of use and I started to think slipjoint is actually quite safe and enjoyable to use. And nail nick isn't that bad also. Looks better than hole and don't stick out like studs. Guess I mainly didn't like it because as a small kid I broke many fingernails trying to open grandad's knives.

Now I switched from not even one to almost only traditionals and moderns became for me too often tacticool or lifestyle jevelry gadgets.
 
Smaller knives is another one, before a small peanut class knife could never be the only one in my pocket.
Now the smaller ones are my favorites and I know that's all I really need regardless of what this hobby and my interest has me carrying.
 
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Peasant knives. Don't get me wrong, I still prefer knives with top notch fit and finish and superior aesthetics, but there is a definite place for budget blades like the Aitor Castor.

Jack Black said:
My grandfather gave me my first Lambsfoot knife when I was 9 or 10. I thought, 'What the heck is this, some kind of trainer knife?!' Thanks Granddad! :D :thumbsup:
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Nice. I forget, who was it that carried a bunny knife? Your granddad? Or was it your father?
 
I would have to with wharnecliffes as well, I liked a sheepfoot pretty well but thought the wharnecliffe looked to delicate. Along those lines I'll throw in the 35 Calfpen, an odd looking knife but as many of you know has become my favorite user. I'm going to have to get a couple of spares lol. In fact I've realized due to my work and cutting things that sometimes dulls the knife quickly ,that I sharpen it often. Often enough I've already dropped the kick a little because the tip became proud.
C2KOjdE.jpg

This is brand new, note how far the bottom most part of the etch is from the edge. Now the edge is only a hairs breadth from it,and I only use an ultrafine diamond sharpener to touch it up. Bought it from the exchange kinda on a whimsy, got a great deal on a oddball GEC that turns out I've warmed up to quite nicely.
P.S. It gets touched up often 'cause I work the snot out of it ;)
eph6HRM.jpg

:thumbsup:
 
Opinels.
I got my first one in 1988 and thought it was the flimsiest piece of junk ever. Nostalgia prompted me to get one again four or five years ago, and while probably still not well-suited to the types of things I needed a knife for back then, I have found it surprisingly robust, and the handle is pretty comfortable for longer periods of use.
 
kamagong said:
Peasant knives. Don't get me wrong, I still prefer knives with top notch fit and finish and superior aesthetics, but there is a definite place for budget blades like the Aitor Castor.



Nice. I forget, who was it that carried a bunny knife? Your granddad? Or was it your father?
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I have an enduring interest in peasant knives too Christian, there's no fat on them, they only stay around because they work :thumbsup:

My granddad had had Lambsfoot knives, and indeed Sheepsfoot knives, but the last knife he carried, and he did have it a few years, was a Joseph Rodgers Bunny Knife. It's a good pattern certainly, but he might have been swayed by the large number of cowboy books he read ;) :D :thumbsup:
 
Jack Black said:
My granddad had had Lambsfoot knives, and indeed Sheepsfoot knives, but the last knife he carried, and he did have it a few years, was a Joseph Rodgers Bunny Knife. It's a good pattern certainly, but he might have been swayed by the large number of cowboy books he read ;) :D :thumbsup:
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Can't go wrong with a lambsfoot or a bunny knife. Perhaps the best thing to do is carry both.

48303303232_d08d62b727_b.jpg


As for the cowboy books, who hasn't been swayed by them?
 
kamagong said:
Can't go wrong with a lambsfoot or a bunny knife. Perhaps the best thing to do is carry both.

48303303232_d08d62b727_b.jpg


As for the cowboy books, who hasn't been swayed by them?
Click to expand...

Great pic Christian :) I'd planned to use both blades on a Barlow pattern, but I couldn't even get a sample made up in Sheffield o_O
 
My favorite pattern has become the graceful 087, especially the 2-blade jacks. My latest purchase is this blue bone Ford knife:

ford1.jpg

I just now realized the source of the strange pattern on the bolster where the blades are. The light source was a window with venetian blinds, which happened to be in focus on the bolster.
 
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