What did they really use?

When I was a youngster back in the 1950's and early 1960's, I recall my grandfather using a medium sized bone stockman. I also remember him having a Russell Barlow, at times.

My uncle Joe, an every day farmer and avid fox hunter, carried a Barlow and I believe it was saw-cut bone. I remember that he often discussed with others the merits of a good knife, a good hunting dog, or a good rifle. The name Remington, Case and John Primble usually came up. I do remember that he disliked what he called plastic ( most likely Delrin ) handled knives.

I don't remember how used their knives looked. What I remember most about their knives was actually seeing them used for farm tasks and also for whittling.
 
Liberando said:
My grandfather was raised a farmer, but decided to sell the farm and work for the railroad. He worked his way up to engineer on the Milwaukee Road in steam locomotives, and then transitioned to diesel.

Though he died young, all our of kin describe him as a knife nut, with a particular knife that he sharpened and oiled at the kitchen table every night (when he wasn't on the road). Though I've quizzed endlessly, no one can remember what brand or style of knife it was. He was buried with it, so it will remain a mystery for now. I've got his old grip sack with his engineer's hats, sun glasses, meal tickets, etc., and his railroad watch. But not the knife.

His son (my father) was a career helicopter mechanic in the US Air Force. He was (and still is) true to the medium Old Timer stockman. In his footlockers from his service in Viet Nam (flying crew chief on rescue choppers), he has three Case sheath knives that are razor sharp.

As a scout, my first knife was a TL-29 electrician's model. Then a beater Imperial stockman, then add a Kamp King. My first decent knife was a Buck 112, followed by a Buck 102 I bought with my paper route money. Still have that 102, the stories it could tell!

I joined the AF myself and served 30 years. Carried a variety of knives. In blues, I'd carry a Buck 309 or a small stockman. In the field or deployed, perhaps a Bucklite, or a big old stockman, like a Buck 307 or an Old Timer 8OT.
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*hand salute * to you and family from an old Coastie who BTW cant carry his fave knife!!
 
TonySal said:
*hand salute * to you and family from an old Coastie who BTW cant carry his fave knife!!
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**Salute returned** Thank you to you and your family as well!

Wow, I'd forgotten about my post. An good update: one of my aunts remembered--slightly--what my grandfather's knife looked like. It had stag scales and was probably a stockman (this my guess, based on my aunt's general description).
 
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I don't know if any of my grandparents carried a knife in their working lives, and certainly my surviving grandfather didn't during retirement. But he had a few tools including an advertising pocket knife that were kept in a drawer. Must've had some meaning to him, but I never thought to ask. Anyway, the pocket knife was handed down to me, along with his watch.

My dad was a management consultant when I was a child & carries a Victorinox classic.

I was a refrigeration technician & these days a controls tech. Most of my life I've carried some sort of SAK or SAK copy. For a long time (before the internet) my user was a Victorinox economy Huntsman. These days I always have a Victorinox Rambler on my keys unless flying. On & off a Victorinox multitool on my belt, and usually some modern OHO. The latter get swapped out fairly frequently for traditionals, most often a small hawksbill no brand pruning knife that I got from my favourite antique shop back in the UK.

Most tradies I meet carry a version of a Stanley blade OHO. I think a lot of it comes down to what's available locally & (particularly the disposable blade types) convenience. Not many people learn to sharpen tools these days.

In my experience it's extremely unusual for an office worker to carry a pocket knife.
 
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This was my paternal grandfathers knife. He was a cowboy in the 1950's, of course this schrade 8OT isn't that old so I don't know what he carried then. After that he was a landman for an oil company. I don't know if he had other knives he used but this one was his for sure. I have his carborundum stone as well, with a wood holder he built for it (anything he could make himself he did, which was a lot of things). I carry a stockman just like my grandpa, though I came to prefer them (and prefer schrade) before I took possession of this knife or even knew it existed. I have a ridiculous amount of knives, but amongst all of them this is one of the very few that is truly special.

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My Grandfather carried a black handled Scout or Stockman with a federal shield.
My father never carried a knife as far as I know. He mostly used a retractable blade utility knife.

I also read the thread about Cowboy Knives that was linked...
I was a "working" cowboy for most of my younger/single life. So, I've worked with a lot of cowboys and seen the knives they carried. There certainly were a lot of stockman knives, that's for sure. But into the 80s there was a big switch to modern one hand knives like Spyderco, myself included. We liked that we could get the knife out quickly when emergencies arose. This was especially true with the rodeo cowboys and horsemen. Now that I've settled down and have a better paying career, I'm back to traditional knives and a slower pace of things.
 
Gosh, I don't remember seeing this thread from the dead before. My dad worked the tropical indoor foliage business for over 50 years. After he passed, I went through his meager selection of pocket knives and found an old Old Timer 33OT and the 125 OT. I also found an early Buck 505 I don't remember seeing before, and a little tiny pen knife that I think is an old Imperial. I cleaned them all up and added them to rotation. There was an old hardware store in town, Stokes Hardware. Old wooden floor with big galvanized nail bins and wooden and glass counter tops. I spent a lot of time there. They also sold firearms and traps and I don't know what all. I remember the Schrade knife display. I remember a lot of the old time nurseryman wore khakis and boots and white button up short sleeve shirts. Most carried some sort of medium jack, stockman or barlow. I myself bought my first pocket knife from Oshmans sporting goods store in the mall with money I earned mowing yards for $12.95. It was a Buck 301 Stockman. That would have been around 1975 or 76. Oshmans was kind of a high-end store and I was so proud of that knife. I carried that knife all through school and used it in Ag class and I worked in a greenhouse after school. I lost that knife in 1993 after some dirt bag broke into my house and stole some things. It's interesting to me to see all the regional differences and memories that everyone has.
 
Some of the knives used by farmers/cattlemen in my family 3-5 decades ago...
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Al, that's quite a collection! All well-used...bet they have a million stories they could tell if they could talk! That's the kind of knives I remember my extended family having and using. I don't have a photo of it, but my Uncle Hank (my Dad's older brother) used to carry a bone handled Barlow, that had one of the scales partially missing. It was the only pocketknife I ever saw him use! It wasn't that he couldn't afford to get a new one, it's just that the one ha had still worked! He passed away in 2007 at the age of 96. I don't know how long he had that Barlow, but I remember it from the 1950's, and it had the broken scale even back then!

Ron
 
Thank you, Ron! They are treasures... a lot of memories of the men behind them.

R rwc53 Re: your Uncle Hank's Barlow. I couldn't find this one when I took the group shot.
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It was my grandfather's. I saw him clean many a squirrel, rabbit and coon with a pocket knife, including this old Barlow. It looked just like this in the late 1960s. I think a lot of folks who lived through the Great Depression balked at throwing away anything unless it was completely unusable... even long after their situation improved.

One of the first knives I looked for when I discovered that big auction site was a Winchester Barlow like his. After a time, I ended up with two.
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TheChunk91 said:
This was my paternal grandfathers knife. He was a cowboy in the 1950's, of course this schrade 8OT isn't that old so I don't know what he carried then. After that he was a landman for an oil company. I don't know if he had other knives he used but this one was his for sure. I have his carborundum stone as well, with a wood holder he built for it (anything he could make himself he did, which was a lot of things). I carry a stockman just like my grandpa, though I came to prefer them (and prefer schrade) before I took possession of this knife or even knew it existed. I have a ridiculous amount of knives, but amongst all of them this is one of the very few that is truly special.

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That spey looks like it may have been heated at some point. The patina is different than the other blades. Nice old knife..KV
 
kvaughn said:
That spey looks like it may have been heated at some point. The patina is different than the other blades. Nice old knife..KV
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Thanks. Yes the spey has been heated. My dad says he's pretty sure he did that to it after grandpa passed away and he had possession of the knife.
 
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