This is how I remember knives

[DavidZ]

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.

True, you can cut stuff with the lid off of a tuna fish can, but that is not the point. Maybe it is a fixation, or an obsession who knows - but I remember looking for a Case Mako in the '70's, and I went to every store in a 40 mile radius to find one with a decent lock-up. They were all sloppy wigglers. I could feel the blade move when I was cutting with it. I was disappointed, and that started the lifelong "Quest for the best". What we take for granted today, and expect as the norm, was not so 40 years ago. I really welcome and appreciate the technology and production of today.

 

[tom19176]

I am 50, and most of my first knife collecting was the late 1960s to 70s. Japan was the rule for knives for sale in NY, and a few were from Italy or Germany. The Buck 110 was hard to find, but there were some Case knives around. Most of these knives would be considered junk by the standards we view knives by today, but back then they were cheap and they served their purpose. No one spent the type of money on knives like we do today!

 

[catspa]

I think it's ironic that as better knives are available, fewer people carry them. As a kid, I got a lot of whittling done with a cheap shell-bolster Imperial. The liners and frame were nothing special, but the springs and blade were made of pretty good (carbon) steel. I see more of that type rusted from neglect than worn out.

My real treasure was my first fixed blade knife, a Western "buffalo skinner". I crossed the plains a thousand times with that knife, out in the field behind our house. I don't have it anymore, lost it somewhere along the way, but I see them every so often on Peebay. Maybe I'll buy one, just for old times sake.

Parker

 

[Modoc ED]

I'm fortunate in that I can afford to buy pretty much what I want. I'm 66 and when I was a kid in the 1940s, 1950s, and the early 1960s, I found most knives available suited my purpose. As I got older, I spent more and got better quality knives. When they came out in the 1960's the Buck 110 was a solid knife and locked up as solid as a bank vault.

I live in a very rural farming and ranching area and you'd be surprised at how many guys buy knives out of the bargain bin for as little as $3.95 and use them for pretty hard tasks and surprisingly they last and last and the cheap steel blades sharpen right up and hold an edge pretty darn good.

It's all in perception and desire. Some guys want perfection and some guys just want to cut the string on a hay bale to feed the livestock.