This is how I remember knives

DavidZ

DavidZ

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Just an older guy rambling -
As a youngster in rural Pennsylvania, all of us kids had knives - bought by parents or grand parents, and we prized them for the great tools and show of personal responsibility that they represented, but they were not great knives. Even the ones that the adults had were not great knives.
As I got in my teens, I now had the cash to buy better, but every where I went - hardware stores - department stores - and sporting good stores - the quality was terrible (late 60's early 70's). I remember that my biggest quest was to find just one lockback knife that would lock-up solid! Forget it - would not happen. My quest continued until around the mid 80's when I found a line of Puma 4 stars that were of a quality that amazed me. :eek: Jump to today, when WOW - the designs, fit and finish, steel , materials, are unbelievable! I guess that all I want to say is that the knives today are the best that I have ever experienced, and man do I appreciate what we have available today! :) I for one am thankful to be able to enjoy what we have available today. Just my two cents.
 
It seemed like the best lockback I remember back then was your basic Buck 110. I just wish I could find my old scout knife (pretty sure my little brother borrowed it, and lost it, just like my USMC Ka-Bar). Remember when you were issued a knife in the scouts? Now I would bet they would send a boy for counseling if he showed up to a scout meeting with a knife.
 
Amen - boy did I buy some junk as a kid growing up - of course you could buy knives pretty much anywhere back then. Most of the junk did not survive my childhood.

The stuff today is phenomenal.
 
DavidZ said:
Just an older guy rambling -
As a youngster in rural Pennsylvania, all of us kids had knives - bought by parents or grand parents, and we prized them for the great tools and show of personal responsibility that they represented, but they were not great knives. Even the ones that the adults had were not great knives.
As I got in my teens, I now had the cash to buy better, but every where I went - hardware stores - department stores - and sporting good stores - the quality was terrible (late 60's early 70's). I remember that my biggest quest was to find just one lockback knife that would lock-up solid! Forget it - would not happen. My quest continued until around the mid 80's when I found a line of Puma 4 stars that were of a quality that amazed me. :eek: Jump to today, when WOW - the designs, fit and finish, steel , materials, are unbelievable! I guess that all I want to say is that the knives today are the best that I have ever experienced, and man do I appreciate what we have available today! :) I for one am thankful to be able to enjoy what we have available today. Just my two cents.
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I agree that the designs, fit and finish, steel , materials, are unbelievable today. However I don't believe knives 0f the 60's and 70's were terrible. What about the camilius U.S. knife..not a lock blade but a very nice knife. Old timers, Vic's, there were some good knives out there then. And, at the time, the best around. Also, you can still go to hardware stores today and buy a terrible, china knife.
Flash forward 20 years from now and who knows what they will say about the knives we used back in 2010. My two cents. :)



us.jpg
 
Yeah, I remember those days, although maybe not quite as far back as you. :p Most of the knives I had were crap, but then again, that was also all I could afford at the time. I know you could get good SAKs - I had one of those.

- Mark
 
for sure, when i was young i didnt know anything about this hobby, just that my grandpa carried a pocket knife... fast forward 34 years or so and my dad gives me a box of old knives my grandpas,
amongst the cheaper brands were some real treasures!!!
Brands like Camillus, Schrade, Imperial, Utica and Dunlap...
these knives all still have life and are usable even though 2 of them are pre- WW2, all quality and affordable brands in their day
Sure there was alot of junk but not everything.

Times change, materials come and go, designs too
quality and skill can remain constant...
ivan
 
Most of the knives I carry today were easily accessible when I was a kid in the '70s and '80s: Victorinox, Buck, Schrade Old Timer, Case, Gerber. As a kid I held the belief that those were good knives, and any knife without those names stamped on the tang was garbage.
 
manowar669 said:
Remember when you were issued a knife in the scouts? Now I would bet they would send a boy for counseling if he showed up to a scout meeting with a knife.
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No, it's not that bad at all. I'm a proud Eagle, Tp. 191.They don't issue you a knife, but they are just fine with my BM 710, or my Bark River Bravo 1 on campouts.
 
I made out pretty good as a kid. While walking home on a Saturday morning from paying my paper route bill,just looking at my feet as a walked along, there it was, a beautiful red Vixtornox Swiss army knife, the one with the saw blade,file blade ,silver tweezers and white toothpick.what a cherished knife that was for me.

Several years later ,I again found a Swiss army knife in perfect condition. This one didnt have all the extra blades but it was very nice.What are the odds of finding not one but two swiss army knives in your lifetime?
 
VictGerbSogCamill said:
I agree that the designs, fit and finish, steel , materials, are unbelievable today. However I don't believe knives 0f the 60's and 70's were terrible. What about the camilius U.S. knife..not a lock blade but a very nice knife. Old timers, Vic's, there were some good knives out there then. And, at the time, the best around. Also, you can still go to hardware stores today and buy a terrible, china knife.
Flash forward 20 years from now and who knows what they will say about the knives we used back in 2010. My two cents. :)



us.jpg
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Ha I have that knife, just the Canadian military issue though. Mine was made in 1983, while it doesn't compare with my BM710 or 556 I still like it and carry it from time to time just because.
 
I go back into the 50s, and the knives available in the country general stores were terrible. Sure, there were good brands available IF you had the money and IF you could get into a town of some size and IF you knew what to look for, but that was not the general rule.
 
DavidZ said:
Just an older guy rambling -
As a youngster in rural Pennsylvania, all of us kids had knives - bought by parents or grand parents, and we prized them for the great tools and show of personal responsibility that they represented, but they were not great knives. Even the ones that the adults had were not great knives.
Click to expand...

But they still got the job done, didn't they.

I grew up on the outskirts of Los Angeles in the 50s and 60s and remember much the same. Most men carried a pocket knife. It wasn't fancy, but it got used all the time.

I am sometimes amused at the current fixation on perfection, as if only a perfect blade will cut.
 
I was happy as hell when Buck brought out the 110. I still have several and they do anything I need done, and do it well, many poor workman blame their tools. ;)
 
I'm a fan of Case knives. In particular, I like the '65 pattern folding hunters and the '38 pattern large sodbusters, as well as the '75 pattern large stockman. I have a 1970 (ten dot) 6265 folding hunter in mint condition, and a 1970 (ten dot) 2138 sodbuster, very nearly mint. The fit and finish on these knives is beautiful in comparison to modern versions of the same knives. I also have these models in post-2000 vintage. I like all of them, but I've noticed that the 1970 versions seem to be more meticulously finished than the current generation knives. The blade on the 1970 sodbuster is actually thicker & beefier than my 2009 model. I really don't believe quality was that bad back then. Materials have improved (steel especially) as well as manufacturing methods, but a lot of knives back then were made by real craftsmen who made the best use of the tools & materials available. There's always been some cheap stuff out there, but overall I don't believe it was any worse then than now.

I do agree that Puma was making great knives then. The very first real 'quality' knife I ever bought was a Puma Original Bowie (late '70s or early '80s vintage, in the yellow plastic box with the green lid). I still have that knife, it's never been used for anything. Once in a while, I open up that box just to look at it. It's beautiful, and to me, a definitive example of everything done right in building a knife. Real character and quality, all in one.
 
Why when i was your age we had to use knapped flint since no one knew what steel was and there were wooly elephants on my street
 
Thanks for sharing guys. Being only 22 myself I'm finding out that I really don't know anything about the history of knives. I guess I really take these ergonomic wonder knives and super steels for granted and never gave much thought to how we got to where we are today. Although I must confess that I definately get caught up in the search for the "perfect" knife, I know what you mean about our fixation on having everything of the highest quality and fit and finish, its pretty crazy really. Sometimes its nice to step back and look at knives for what they really are TOOLS and that they don't have to be perfect.








Now off to go see what the next big supersteel will be...
 
knarfeng said:
I grew up on the outskirts of Los Angeles in the 50s and 60s and remember much the same. Most men carried a pocket knife. It wasn't fancy, but it got used all the time.

I am sometimes amused at the current fixation on perfection, as if only a perfect blade will cut.
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Todays knives are great and getting even better each year. New types of steel, new materials for handles, improved ergonomics, etc. But you are totally right that the old knives did their work too.

My dad grew up in a small village in the northern part of the Netherlands and for decades, the most common pocket knife at the country side was a German made folding knife with a wooden handle and a carbon steel blade. Nothing fancy, just good and strong knives that suited the needs of those who were working in the fields and on the farms. Later when I was older, I got the same knife as my dad, a Friedrich Herder, and already carried a SAK.

Nowadays we have the luxury of excellent steels, handle materials and hundreds of knives to choose from. Modern knives are more durable, stronger and probably sharper than the old knives (however, thinking of Opinels ...), but the old knives weren't bad.
 
I'm mainly interested in Traditional knives, some really old ones are of astonishing quality-and cost accordingly...Nevertheless,there have been a lot of shoddy knives around in former times too. I do feel that lately, the manufacturers of Traditional knives both American and others have upped their quality a good deal. GEC,CASE,Queen and many import knives offer very decent knives indeed and due to the internet they are available on a wider basis.
 
I still use one of those 1980's Puma 4-stars for field dressing deer. Works great.
 
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