What did they really use?

My grandfather was a county lineman for Bell from the 40's until he retired in the late 80's. I know he carried a TL-29 on the job and carried an Old Tinmer 34OT until his passing. I inherited the knife.
 
My grandpa died in the sixties and carried a basic swiss army, he was a NYC cab driver. My friend's husband died w/o heirs, and I got some of his knives. The oldest is a well worn schrade premium stockman, early 20 th century. His family were SE Kansas store owners.
 
The knives recovered from the Arabia probably represent a good cross section of what was used on the frontier in the mid-1800s. Look at the catalog pictures thread for plenty of examples from the late 1800s. I have always felt that my HSB and Maher & Grosh catalogs from the 1880s show a variety of what could have been carried then. The less expensive models by young and/or lower income laborers, ranchers, and trappers, the more expensive patterns by more established folks. Not too much different from today.
 
I grew up in New Hampshire in the 60's/70's, and in the summertime, my uncles would let me and my brother help them out sometimes as "lumpers". They were in the construction, painting, roofing trades. Lumpers was the term they used for fetching things, cleaning up debris, scraping paint etc. I clearly recall seeing TL-29's being used by them. They were cheap tools which they would use mercilessly to scrape putty, open paint cans, dig out some caulk, etc. These men were ex GI's and they picked up these knives at the army surplus store for cheap money.

My Grandfather from my mothers side of the family was a machinist who worked for the mill. I remember him as a retired man, tending his gardens, and in the summer being recruited to help with the splitting and stacking of fire wood. He carried a Barlow. In my minds eye, it seems it was just a cheap knife with well worn blades. Nobody in the family seems to recall what became of it, ( I was a knife knut even as a young kid) He taught me to sharpen things, first wedges, then axes, on an old white stone wheel, foot powered with a tin can with a nail hole in the bottom full of water which dripped onto the wheel...nobody in the family had a clue as to whatever happened to that wheel, I would give a kings ransom to have it today. Later on he taught me how to sharpen knives and chisels, on bench stones. He didn't have a lot of things, but the things he had were well cared for, and used to their potential.

On my fathers side, my Grandfather was a shop owner from when I was young, and I don't recall any pocketknife ever being associated with his memories. He was however, an avid wood carver, and had an extensive set of dedicated carving knives on his workbench.

My father was a machinist, tool & die maker, and he carried a Japanese swing guard knife, smallish, but well made for his daily carry, and his fishing and hunting knife was a homemade one off ground from a file, with aluminum handle slabs. It took a keen edge for sure!

When I reached about age twelve or thirteen, I was working a paper route, and saved my nickels and dimes till I had enough to buy my first "real" knife ( there were the shell handled "banana" knives with fish scaler and bottle opener that we kids had and abused/destroyed), but my first real quality knife was a Buck 112 Ranger, I remember how the ebony covers on it were almost completely black in color. That knife cleaned many fish and other game in those days, and was my every day companion. It followed me into the Coast Guard, and sadly, was dropped overboard while working on some netting on the flight deck of the cutter I was stationed on somewhere off the coast in the Gulf of Alaska.

I think folks bought and used whatever was locally available, and affordable, in whatever circumstance they were in. Interesting thread, and thought provoking to hear the different regional differences, and similarities.
 
I used to live in rural Alaska and knew/worked with a lot of trappers.

The knife of choice (now and in the past) for skinning out animals was usually a simple small 3-bladed stockman like the Buck 301 or similar Old Timer.
 
My grandfather was a police officer in Cicero Illinois in the 1920`s and 30`s. I`ve got a great photo of him and some other officers standing by Model A Fords holding Thompsons and Winchester Model 97 riot guns, with full flap holsters. He used to show me his knife, it was some style large toothpick. The knife I inherited from him is a small yellow pearl handle Kent, which I still have. It was his "Sunday knife." I also inherited his old wood nightstick, which I gave to my daughter when she graduated the academy.
 
My uncle, a NYC cop in the 60s - 80s, carried a Buck 110 and a Gerber Touche belt buckle knife.
 
This is my grandfather. He farmed for nearly 60 years full time.

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This is what he did carry and still carries. It's an old Kabar.
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My dad has farmed all his life and he has always carried a US made Schrade SP-3 Firebird. I'll update this post with a picture later. It always cracks me up seeing guys that work in an office carry a 3/16" thick knife for "hard use." Most of them would faint if they saw what my dad does with a knife.

I'm a paramedic. I carry these every single day.
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This is my Dart EDC. Curly maple and 52100. Very handy little knife. I used it last night on a full arrest to open a colorimetric device. The fireman couldn't get it open and one of my hands was otherwise busy keeping the ET tube from displacing.
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Most round here carry a case knife of sorts. It all depends what the job title is. Most farmers,construction,coal miners, blue collar guys carry a trapper or large stockman. The white collar suburbanites carry smaller knives like medium stockmans and sodbusters. The guy at the feedstore told me they have sold over a hundred yellow case trappers in cv since thanksgiving. My knife guy is case dealer and said that the trapper is his best selling pattern and that the peanut is the worst selling. Every member of my family carries a case trapper. Just got my two kids the case wooden trappers for Christmas.
 
lambertiana said:
The knives recovered from the Arabia probably represent a good cross section of what was used on the frontier in the mid-1800s. Look at the catalog pictures thread for plenty of examples from the late 1800s. I have always felt that my HSB and Maher & Grosh catalogs from the 1880s show a variety of what could have been carried then. The less expensive models by young and/or lower income laborers, ranchers, and trappers, the more expensive patterns by more established folks. Not too much different from today.
Click to expand...

Although this thread has provided lots of great reading, the post above is actually the most pointed and relevant reply to the original post.
 
Most farmers and ranchers in this neck of the woods carry big carbon trappers by Moore Maker, Schrade and Boker.

No info on what my grandpa's carried. My Dad and all my uncles carried Schrade 8OT's (My dad tried a Buck 301 in the 70's but found it too hard to sharpen and went back to Old Timers). They were hard use guys...plumbers, firemen, hunters and later in life, farmers. An 8OT was my first knife and a Camillus TL-29 was my first work knife helping my Dad at his plumbing/refrigeration business beginning in the early 70's. I bought a SAK in '73 and used it camping/backpacking and as a working photographer into the 2000's.
 
I grew up in Walden, NY in the 50's and 60's, and had an uncle who worked in the Schrade knife factory...everyone in the family had Schrades. That said, while I don't remember exactly when I acquired my first Swiss Army knife, I have always had one in my possession since my Army and Navy days, and still carry one to this very day. I sometimes carry a so called "traditional" in bone, or a GEC Farmer, or sometimes I have a more modern folder on board; but I cannot help feeling naked when I don't have a SAK Pioneer or Farmer in my pocket. So, if I had to rid myself of my knife collection and was allowed only one knife for the rest of my days, I would have to say it would be a SAK alox Farmer. In 40 years or, when my descendants ask what did Grandpa' carry, they'll all say a SAK.
 
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No photos, but my maternal great grandfather was a farmer, if memory serves he carried a Barlow, and I think a Old Timer or Uncle Henry on his belt. He passed in 1973(?) age 98 or 99. Maternal grandfather was a carpenter (pre-specialization days), he carried a electrician's knife, and I believe he had a small Western Cutlery fixed blade in his tool box. He passed on in 1966.
Paternal grandfather was a chemist, I think he carried a 4 blade Congress. He passed in 1963. I don't remember my paternal great grandfather, he passed on when I was around 2 or 3 (1957 or 1958) so I don't remember what - if anything he carried.
 
I remember a picture of my grandfather (Mom's dad) who was a cowboy in Montana until he died in the late 1930's/early 1940's. The picture was of them camping and I remember him using what looked like a Barlow patterned jack-knife. My mom remembered him always having a pocket knife and a hatchet nearby. My sister has all the old pictures; I'll have to SE if she can find them.
 
Thanks for this great thread. I really like the pics with your grandpa and his ol' KaBar very much, Evan. It makes me smile everytime I see it.

In my part of the world The Old have used very simple knives for their needs. I got two knives from my grandpa long than he was past away and he was a plumber at many of the nuclear plants in Western Europe in Germany, France, Netherlands etc etc. He had three pocket knives, one was an SAK which I wanna exclude from here as it was an advertisment of his swiss company he was working for. The other two were simple penknife designs with a spear and a penblade and a corkscrew added to the backside of the knife. (Beerbottles had corks these days, AFAIK). One has synthetic handles and one has stag slabs.

When light is better - pics will come soon!
 
This interior view of a local hardware store (Greenville NC) taken nearly 60 years ago, would indicated the same patterns we choose today - look at the nice, big Boker display case in the center of the store. My grandfather was an electrician, I always saw him whip out a cheap, single Sheepfoot (wire skinning) blade Klein Electrician's knife when he needed to cut something - it was fun to watch him skin Romex cable with a single hand. My Dad's knives all came home from the Army with him; two TL-29's and one M-4 Bayonet (I have the M-4). OH

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My maternal Grandfaather was a small town shoe repairman, only knife I remember seeing him carry was a small peanut sized knife. Cann't say I saw anyone else in my family carry a pocket knife. Witch seems od as they all were hunters, some were farmers and construction workers. My wife's father was a dairy farmer and carried a medium sized stockman with broken scales and a broken spay blade. I thought it was a trapper for years until I took a good look at it one day. It was given to him by his brother who got it in Chicago with a bunch of junk. So I think the patern didn't really mean much he basicly carried and used it because it was a free knife.
 
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