That is the question.
I don't know why, but I find even at this age, I still have the occasional epiphany. The old light bulb still goes off, although bit dimmed by time. This time it was the question of the lanyard.
For most of my life, the two knives that have been my most carried and used, have been the SAK and the stockman. I got into SAK's as an offshoot of my boy scout days and the ubiquitous scout knife. Later in the army and duty with the combat engineers, I carried the issue Camillus 'demo' knife that they handed out like lollypops at the doctors office. It had a real bail like the scout knife, and I kept a dummy cord of O.D. green para cord on it to keep it from being lost in action. But the lanyard often got in the way, and most guys in my unit just made a nifty little belt pouch sheath from the green nylon webbing that was around. No lanyard to get in the way when using the screw driver/bottle opener or awl. They just took a single piece of webbing and stitched up the open top sheath with a belt loop on it. The sheath was deep enough to swallow almost the whole knife and you just squeezed the bottom fit to make the knife push up to expose enough to pull put.
Later I got a Buck 301 stockman. Like most stockmen, there was no lanyard hole and I didn't miss it. I kept the knife in my top right shirt pocket of my fatigues and it stayed there. Later out of the army I just dropped it on my right hand jeans pocket. I ended up using that knife for the next 25 years as my EDC knife for every occasion. Fishing, woods rambling, opening packages, whatever. I used the ever lovin dog poo out of it and it took it all in stride. But what was weird was, I never missed having a lanyard on the stockman, and when I went through the Barlow stage and then the sodbuster stage, I never had one on any of them either. But if I had a SAK on me, it had to have a lanyard on it or I felt something was wrong.
Growing up in age where the traditional knife reigned king of pocket knives, I never saw a lanyard on any pocket knife that was not a military bring back from the service. The small one and two blade jackknives and pen knives with the cracked ice handle scales had no lanyard on them and the men that carried them just dropped them down in the pocket with no thought of it. Later in the army, when every swinging Richard had a Buck 110 in the black belt pouch, no lanyards were in sight. Buck thought it not needed, so it wasn't. It didn't seem to affect the popularity of the big lock blade among service men, construction workers, Outlaw bikers, and hippy cults.
Yesterday I had to replace some master bedroom closet hardware. The plastic mounting cups for wood rods that clothes were hung from were distorting and cracking. They were light duty things with a single wood screw in the center holding them up. I replaced them with all metal ones that had three screws around the outer edge. Making starter holes for the wood screws, I used my old Wenger SI awl to bore a starter hole. Like always I had to remove the lanyard as it kept wrapping around the awl in an annoying way. After I was done, I didn't put the lanyard back on the knife.
I thought about how I never really used the lanyard for anything, and mostly the lanyard got in the way. I thought about how in all the years I used the stockman and Barlow patterns that I never had a lanyard. And didn't miss them. I still am a fan of the Buck 301 and 303, and still carry one often.
A goodly part of my life in years past has been in Maryland and out on small boats in the Chesapeake Bay, Potomac river and various lakes. On a small boat a lanyard may be a nice thing. But on dry land, it just seems to get in the way. Now living in the semi arid hill country of Texas, I don't see any canoes or kayaks in my near future, so there will be no more lanyards. I've become lanyard free in my old age.
I see some customs come through with a nice brass lined lanyard hole, and I wonder if others find it a unused feature of their knife?
I don't know why, but I find even at this age, I still have the occasional epiphany. The old light bulb still goes off, although bit dimmed by time. This time it was the question of the lanyard.
For most of my life, the two knives that have been my most carried and used, have been the SAK and the stockman. I got into SAK's as an offshoot of my boy scout days and the ubiquitous scout knife. Later in the army and duty with the combat engineers, I carried the issue Camillus 'demo' knife that they handed out like lollypops at the doctors office. It had a real bail like the scout knife, and I kept a dummy cord of O.D. green para cord on it to keep it from being lost in action. But the lanyard often got in the way, and most guys in my unit just made a nifty little belt pouch sheath from the green nylon webbing that was around. No lanyard to get in the way when using the screw driver/bottle opener or awl. They just took a single piece of webbing and stitched up the open top sheath with a belt loop on it. The sheath was deep enough to swallow almost the whole knife and you just squeezed the bottom fit to make the knife push up to expose enough to pull put.
Later I got a Buck 301 stockman. Like most stockmen, there was no lanyard hole and I didn't miss it. I kept the knife in my top right shirt pocket of my fatigues and it stayed there. Later out of the army I just dropped it on my right hand jeans pocket. I ended up using that knife for the next 25 years as my EDC knife for every occasion. Fishing, woods rambling, opening packages, whatever. I used the ever lovin dog poo out of it and it took it all in stride. But what was weird was, I never missed having a lanyard on the stockman, and when I went through the Barlow stage and then the sodbuster stage, I never had one on any of them either. But if I had a SAK on me, it had to have a lanyard on it or I felt something was wrong.
Growing up in age where the traditional knife reigned king of pocket knives, I never saw a lanyard on any pocket knife that was not a military bring back from the service. The small one and two blade jackknives and pen knives with the cracked ice handle scales had no lanyard on them and the men that carried them just dropped them down in the pocket with no thought of it. Later in the army, when every swinging Richard had a Buck 110 in the black belt pouch, no lanyards were in sight. Buck thought it not needed, so it wasn't. It didn't seem to affect the popularity of the big lock blade among service men, construction workers, Outlaw bikers, and hippy cults.
Yesterday I had to replace some master bedroom closet hardware. The plastic mounting cups for wood rods that clothes were hung from were distorting and cracking. They were light duty things with a single wood screw in the center holding them up. I replaced them with all metal ones that had three screws around the outer edge. Making starter holes for the wood screws, I used my old Wenger SI awl to bore a starter hole. Like always I had to remove the lanyard as it kept wrapping around the awl in an annoying way. After I was done, I didn't put the lanyard back on the knife.
I thought about how I never really used the lanyard for anything, and mostly the lanyard got in the way. I thought about how in all the years I used the stockman and Barlow patterns that I never had a lanyard. And didn't miss them. I still am a fan of the Buck 301 and 303, and still carry one often.
A goodly part of my life in years past has been in Maryland and out on small boats in the Chesapeake Bay, Potomac river and various lakes. On a small boat a lanyard may be a nice thing. But on dry land, it just seems to get in the way. Now living in the semi arid hill country of Texas, I don't see any canoes or kayaks in my near future, so there will be no more lanyards. I've become lanyard free in my old age.
I see some customs come through with a nice brass lined lanyard hole, and I wonder if others find it a unused feature of their knife?
Lanyard holes might be a newer innovation on the Traditional scene..but I suspect they appeal to closet one hand openers and the PC (pocket clip...
) brigade
I find them particularly pointless on small knife. On a pocket-knife why have it attached to something and then have to fiddle with it or remove the thing before using the knife?
I'd agree
