Well sirs I am done rambling hope you all have a great weekend.
HAK
Darn good rambling HAK.
I think you will find you have a lot of company here on this forum. Love for the old 'folksy' things runs deep here. After all, it is called the "Traditional" forum.
I think in todays almost souless world, nostalgia plays a big role in things. Look at the popularity of cowboy action shooting and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, not to mention old movies. Heck, the Turner classic movie channel wouldn't be there if the old stuff didn't have a following. Not to mention how popular the old guns have become. Checked out what a new Sharps rifle goes for? You can buy a complete AR or other black tactical rifle for less, but people are buying the Sharps in numbers enough that the Sharps shop in Big Timber Montana is way back ordered.
Your grandfather gave you something to remember him by. He set an example to you, and you learned a lot from him. Grandfathers are like that. When you pull out that sodbuster, it's a link to a past that for many of your own personal reasons are both a comfort and an inspiration. Memories are a very powerful thing, they are to a large measure who we are and what we become. And the people who gave us those memories are special. Thank whatever God you worship to that you had a man like you're granddad in your life, some young folks are not that lucky.
Sure, your Benchmade or Spyderco will do just as well if you have to cut something. In truth, they are a knife, and they will cut. But there's no conection for you. There's no memories for you. And there is the crux of the matter. Too many young people growing up as latchkey kids with parents working to support some materialistic lifestyle and no bothering to raise thier kids. Kids being kids, will instictivly seek a role model. Too often it's some Hollyweird or video game charater. You though, had a grandfather. A grandfather who was a Case collector, and more importanly gave you some values. I don't think many here had a graddad who packed some tanto bladed high tech folder. You have a family heritage with Case.
Heritage can be a very powerful thing. I've suffered with it gladly for most of my life. Looking back on it, I have to admit that I've carried the same knives as the men I looked up to in my youth. My grandfather as a tough old Irish immigrant, and had the thick brogue in his voice till the day he passed. When I was a little kid spending time with the grandfolks down on the Chesapeake, grandmom gave him a stockman to replace the old seamans knife he'd been carrying since they left the old country. In the boy scouts I had this scoutmaster, Mr. Van, who always had a scout knife on him no matter what else he may have been carrying. My own dad was a die hard Case man. He was the first one in his family to go off to college, and his mom gave him a gift of a small Case peanut there on the train platform when he was leaving. In that little box was a new Case peanut, that grandmom thought would be a better pocket knife for an academia person. Dad carried that little peanut the rest of his life.
So here I am, and in my life the knives I've carried have been a stockman, scout/sak types, and a Case peanut. Heritage. I ended up fallowing right in the footsteps of the men who I admired growing up. When I handle one of those knives, I remember all kinds of things. All priceless.
It's a good thing to ramble sometimes.
