Traditional Folders in the Garden: what do you keep to hand?

B

Blake the Blade

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Mar 28, 2015
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Went over to my Dad's this morning to dig over and weed his vegetable patch. He's not getting any younger bless him and, anyway, that'll be the hard bit done. I took my folder with me as always, thinking I'm almost certain to need it at some point or another....

Untitled by Blake Blade, on Flickr

....I'm carrying my Rough Rider whittler a lot at the moment, it's main blade is more heavy duty than that on my small stockman (my other main EDC knife) but it still has two useful, smaller blades and is within the U.K. legal limit in terms of blade length. For me it's a good knife and, though inexpensive, ticks all the boxes....

Untitled by Blake Blade, on Flickr

Anyway, the morning wore on but come mid-day I still hadn't found it necessary to deploy my knife. I eyed my Dad jealously as he set up his runner-bean frames, securing them with green twine. Reaching the point when his task was complete, instead of producing the small equal end Case penknife I'd given him on his 70th birthday, he simply tied the twine off leaving the remaining foot or so dangling. What a missed opportunity! With this he disappeared leaving me to my toil. Come mid-day I was just finishing off my last bed and was, frankly, knackered. Added to this someone had fired up there barbeque and the smell of whatever they had cooking was making me hungry. Just then I heard the old fella shouting out, so I went around to see what was going on.....looks like I was gonna get the chance to use my knife after all, and it's a good job I took the one with the bigger main blade....

Untitled by Blake Blade, on Flickr

Good old Dad!....:)


Seriously guys it occurs to me that the folder must see a lot of use in the garden and I was wondering what traditionals you keep to hand, and for what reasons. Please include photos if you have them. Wishing you all a great summer. :) :thumbup:

- Mark.
 
About the middle of last summer I was gifted a Case 6318 ss stockman. It was handy cutting vegetables off the vine and I usually tie up stuff with hay string and it came in handy for that. Also, on my property there is a grown up grape vineyard. Back in the day (pre-1980s)it must have been pretty nice, (probably about 100 yards long by 50 yards wide and irrigated), but when I bought the place, what once was a vineyard is a grown up thicket. Found 3 vines as big around as my arms with a little life left growing in the thicket and I've been using the same stockman in there cutting off hay string when I tie up the vines and cutting off some of the dead growth. I would have never bought a Case SS based on what I've read before this knife, but I can't find anything wrong with it.

 
Without hesitation it's the Case large Stockman #6375. Big and beefy, it does my more rough work.
A447F351-F4BA-4040-8C07-476A7C96A3AD_zpsbyi9beiu.jpg



When it really gets dirty the Sodbuster gets a nod.
BE92B481-ED09-47BC-AF59-E922F528BF3A_zpshahrnnhu.jpg
 
I have one of the pruning blade 47s hayn helpers. This last weekend it developed small rust spots all over from being in the pocket during some dirty work. I find the pruning blade is great for plant duty.
 
Nice of you to do all that work, the veggie patch looks very neat&tidy, mine's an arctic blown tundra at the moment, but it's warming up nicely now, 17c today and sunny

That meat looks droolworthy:D

I've experimented with numerous knives in the garden, this semi Hawk does come in useful for veg harvesting, pruning, opening bags or boxes, cuttings etc

IMG_0787.jpg


But frankly, I've found slipjoints to be ill-suited to horticultural tasks. too much, dirt, sand and grit knocking about. It simply does not agree with spring back knives. Once sand gets in there it's awful, and it will...:barf:

You can go fixed but they have carry drawbacks. My favourite garden knife is any kind of Opinel, particularly the small No.6. No liners, no springs to get foulled up, thin sharp blade that locks, not the most flashy of knives but a horse for this course.:thumbup:

Thanks, Will
 
I tend to reach for this boker congress;



Use, use, use, when blunt, change blade..... I've yet to dull all four at one outing. :)
 
Loving the knives so far guys... tough, no nonsense, workhorse traditionals for the most part, nice to see. Will, you should know that the knife I gave my Dad on his 70th was one of the two you gave to me, the brown delrin one. He took a liking to it when I showed it to him and now carries it regularly, hope that's okay. Really nice to see traditional folders put to work like this. :thumbup:
 
Blake A present's a present, very glad your Old Boy likes it, most pleased!

Thanks, Will
 
Digging in dirt is a job best done by carbon steel. My old Opinel #9 gets a great workout in my garden.
 
I've recently been using my jackmaster Barlow to prune our roses ( it's what's on me )
And before that I'd normally use my vic Gardner or my grandpa's old Ontario grape hook, but I'm in the process of giving the grape hook a new handle.
 
I can't find the "what did your traditional do today" thread, so I'm sneaking a couple of FBs in here. Sorry.
NNw7iNZA
 
scrteened porch said:
I can't find the "what did your traditional do today" thread, so I'm sneaking a couple of FBs in here. Sorry.
NNw7iNZA
Click to expand...

More than welcome friend. I hope my thread is distinct enough from Franks not to be treading on his toes with this one. I've done that before and it doesn't do to keep upsetting the boss. I'm most interested in types of knives used, what they're used for is of secondary interest, but still OF interest. Basically I want to see nice knives in nice surroundings. Oh! nice group by the way, the one on the bottem's a monster, for ground clearance I would imagine, very apt. :) :thumbup:
 
Peter Parker said:
Most any traditional will do ...
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Agreed. I spend a lot of time in the garden and, naturally, always have a traditional knife of some sort on me. However, the knife tasks are pretty normal ........ you might even call them :eek: light duty. It doesn't take a lot of blade to cut twine or slice open bags of mulch, compost or fertilizer. Heavy pruning duties are handled by shears or a saw, and of course a shovel or hand trowel takes care of digging.

-- Mark
 
Blake the Blade said:
More than welcome friend. I hope my thread is distinct enough from Franks not to be treading on his toes with this one. I've done that before and it doesn't do to keep upsetting the boss. I'm most interested in types of knives used, what they're used for is of secondary interest, but still OF interest. Basically I want to see nice knives in nice surroundings. Oh! nice group by the way, the one on the bottem's a monster, for ground clearance I would imagine, very apt. :) :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Thank you.
I don't often find something worth whacking with that big Collins Legitimus (probably a 30" blade before someone broke the point).
 
arizonaranchman said:
Without hesitation it's the Case large Stockman #6375. Big and beefy, it does my more rough work.
A447F351-F4BA-4040-8C07-476A7C96A3AD_zpsbyi9beiu.jpg
Click to expand...

Man I love the look of that large stockman. I've never picked one up because I'm afraid they're just too big for pocket carry, but they are awesome! I wish Case made a medium stockman with those squared bolsters and a spey blade (from what I can tell all the medium stockmans - stockmen? - with squared bolsters have a pen blade instead of a spey, and all the ones with speys have rounded bolsters.)
 
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