top five traditional folders must have

Five must haves... here goes:

1. Vic Classic.
2. Vic Cadet.
3. Case CV Peanut. Rivals the Vic Classic IMO.
4. SBJ. Preferably a Case in CV.
5. A good stockman is a must. Case does Stockmen well but there are others.

I carried a Whittler for years and could easily substitute the Stockman for a good Whittler. The trick is finding the right one.
 
I have my five; of course, all have carbon steel blades (except for the Victorinox):

Case 6265 two-blade Hunter
U.S. Schrade 8OT Old Timer Stockman
Schrade-Walden Scout knife, four-blade type
Case yellow Sodbuster
Victorinox Classic (keyring)

~Chris
 
Must have for me are:

Victorinox alox soldier / alox pioneer
Queen Dan Burke small Barlow
GEC four blade Congress
Queen Canoe
Case CV Swayback jack

sappyg said:
Five must haves... here goes:

I carried a Whittler for years and could easily substitute the Stockman for a good Whittler. The trick is finding the right one.
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I am not stockman fan, I got few of them. Parker-Frost from late 70's is identical with early Buck 301's with long pulls of the era. Very nice one but the Stockman I carry most often is GEC # 66 Calf Roper. It had workman ship beyond any Case I've had except my Texas Jack CV and Chestnut Bone Swayback in CV. No blade rub, good pulls 1095 carbon. Only thing which rivals it is GEC Court House Whittler (my top 5 list excluded of course). I haven't had Whittler long enough to put it on my top 5 list but it might bump swayback jack out... Calf Roper # 66 is my #6 in top choices of must have.

Court house whittler of GEC has no blade rub, excellent looking 1095 blades and main wharncliffe blade. I am quite stunned how GEC manage to put 3 blades there snuggly but with no blade play nor blade rub.
 
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I find it hard to answer this, I'd love a custom from Don Hanson (a nice big sunfish) but I really want more old knives...I love getting a new knife in but have lately found a great pleasure in buying a worn out nice looking slipjoint with heaps of character and bringing it back to life.

Using old knives you wonder what the knife was used for in the past, where it went with previous owners, what happened to the previous owners.
 
Camillus TL 29 in carbon steel, Case Sodbuster jr. in carbon steel, Hen and Rooster 3 5/8" carbon steel congress, Schrade large stockman carbon steel, Russell razor barlow in carbon steel. These are the knives that my dad uses most and are almost the perfect choices for me. I probably would have traded the TL 29 out for a buck 110, but my dad has that TL 29 sharp as any knife can be and customized for him ( the locking screwdriver blade is now a locking sharp spike)
 
Like others said, there probably is no 'must have' knife, and I'm far from being a collector myself. Still, I recently decided to cut my knife lot down to five (and they're all traditionals). I'm keeping a couple of modern knives for outdoors use, and that's just for now (I might get rid of them too).
So my list is:
- Opinel #7
- SAK Tinker
- 8 cm blade Arburesa
- 8 cm blade Pattadesa
- GEC Dogleg Jack (haven't bought this one yet but I guess it will be mine soon...)
Fausto
:cool:
 
I am going to say instead of specific knives buy one each from

Victorinox
Great Eastern
Case
Queen or S&M
Boker
Buck
Canal Street

Shop for a knife you like from each manufacturer and try them out.
 
Buck 110 or similar (Mine is a Camillus 886).
SAK Vic Soldier or Wenger SI
Case Peanut in CV
Schrade 8OT
Case Sodbuster Jr.
 
This is not an easy list to make. If it is for collecting then it gets even harder. I guess I'll give it a shot.

Schrade 8OT
Case 6347 Red Bone
Buck 110
Camillus Scout knife
Barlow of some kind

There are just so many to choose from. I could barely pick out five different knives for each knife pattern because there are so many amazing choices.
 
cnas122 said:
OP, you have to at least start with yout Top 5

Mine -
Remingon Bullet 1123
Tony Bose Wharncliffe Trapper
Tony/Reese Backpocket
Winchester Cattle Knife w/ Punch
Sodbuster
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Yeah, I'm sure there are plenty of Bose knives to go around for everyone:rolleyes:
 
The amount of variation in the responses is interesting. Hmmm... My picks of production knives are...

A vintage knife of some sort (at least one jack and cattle knife) that's hafted with
(1) ebony
(2) bone
(3) stag

(4) 1960s-1970s Case redbone stockman
(5) Case/Bose collaboration knife
 
after awhile you tend to gravitate towards a certain patterns and sizes for edc. looking at my small stash and what i carry the most i prefer single blades or 3 blades, sizes between 3-5/8"-4-1/4"(the case peanut and buck 110 are an exception), but i don't have many with 2 blades. but if you're just starting you should pick up a few rough riders in different patterns to see what you like. it's cheaper and they're good knives in general. but if i had to choose i think everyone that's into knives should have...

stockman--i like buck 301
buck 110/112
case peanut--just to prove bigger is not always better
GEC--they make some amazing production knives, it's a joy to own one
fixed blade---ka-bar, buck, case all make nice ones.

If you meant collection as in for profit, i really don't know. I would imagine you would want to focus on mint condition old case knives or serialized GEC knives.
 
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I just realize that I didn't post mine:

Buck 110 like
Schrade 8OT
Sodbuster Queen or Case
Trapper Case or other
Opinel
 
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