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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
What does your path to the traditional folder look like?
- Thread starter farmboy
- Start date
Pretty short path for me also. Dad gave me a boy scout knife when I joined the scouts and I carried that for years. Joined the army after high school, and carried the service issue all steel scout knife for a few years, then bought a Buck 301 stockman at the PX. Carried that for over 20 years. I never got into any other kind of knife, and even though the Buck 110 was a popular knife when I was in the army, I just couldn't see weighing myself down with a heavy brass framed knife that had only one thin blade. I grew up carrying multiple blade pocket knives, and never changed. Got my first SAK in the late 1960's as sport of a more refined scout knife.
Still carry only traditional pocket knives and/or SAK's.
These days I've scaled down a bit.
Still carry only traditional pocket knives and/or SAK's.
These days I've scaled down a bit.
I got my first knife when I was 8. An Ulster BSA knife. Promptly ignored my grandfather's admonision to never carve towards myself and got 5 stitches in my left thumb. That knife still sits on my work bench.
Other than multi-tools, I've never owned a modern knife. Only traditionals.
I take that back. I did buy a Bucklite Max and immediately Dremmeled off the rivets holding the clip on and used pliers to remove the stud. I'm not sure which I hate more.
Today's carry.
Untitled by Pinnah, on Flickr
Other than multi-tools, I've never owned a modern knife. Only traditionals.
I take that back. I did buy a Bucklite Max and immediately Dremmeled off the rivets holding the clip on and used pliers to remove the stud. I'm not sure which I hate more.
Today's carry.
Untitled by Pinnah, on FlickrImperial Scout knife (late 1950s) > [lost] > Vic Classic (mid-1970s) > Vic Lumberjack (late-1970s) > more Vic Classics (super design, but not really robust) > lots of knives, traditional and modern, folders and fixed, too many to enumerate, moderns now stuffed in a box, never to see daylight again probably (2000s) > back to scout/camper/utility 4-blades, plus a Vic Classic somewhere in a pocket and a few selected fixed blades, all of them traditional.
Just for a pic, this is the current watchpocket contents:
Camillus Army engineer knife (1942-44), still with a bit of original mirror polish on the blades. Cleaned up somewhat and better lubricated than it was when this photo was taken.
What I keep being amazed by is how versatile the 4-blade camper is, even though I never open cans with it or punch holes in leather belts or horse harnesses. With one long edge sharpened, the awl is a great scraper/punch/screwhole starter, and the lower blade of the can opener is a great probe of things (like cleaning under fingernails, for example). Can't beat 'em, and I for one wouldn't change a blade on them.
Just for a pic, this is the current watchpocket contents:
Camillus Army engineer knife (1942-44), still with a bit of original mirror polish on the blades. Cleaned up somewhat and better lubricated than it was when this photo was taken.
What I keep being amazed by is how versatile the 4-blade camper is, even though I never open cans with it or punch holes in leather belts or horse harnesses. With one long edge sharpened, the awl is a great scraper/punch/screwhole starter, and the lower blade of the can opener is a great probe of things (like cleaning under fingernails, for example). Can't beat 'em, and I for one wouldn't change a blade on them.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2007
- Messages
- 1,599
All I ever had in the way of a Knife was a Boy Scout Knife until I was 18 and I was dating a young lady whose Dad had just bought out an Air Products Business and wanted me to drive his company truck up to Columbus,Ga. to drop off some empty tanks and bring back full ones.! Told me he would give me a $100 or I could have his display of Knives off of his front Counter as he had no need for them and didn't like Knives.* It was a display with 12 Knives or so behind plexiglass
and I decided to get the display.! Got back the next day and went to load the Knives and when I slid the big old wooden box off the top f the Counter I almost dropped it as it was really heavy !* I just barely got it into my Truck without dropping it and when I got home I noticed there was a wing door on the backside and as I opened this all I saw was wall to wall Knife boxes "a whole bunch of boxes" and they were all mine.!^^ Told MaryAnn's dad about it and he said he would not take them back so I started giving everybody I knew who wanted a Knife a brand new Puma Knife of whatever they wanted.! Boy I sure wish I had of known what I had there at that time as there were 5 & 6 of everything Puma had in that one wooden knife display ! I still have 3 of the original knives from there.* Year later I went to Nam.!******
The end.
and I decided to get the display.! Got back the next day and went to load the Knives and when I slid the big old wooden box off the top f the Counter I almost dropped it as it was really heavy !* I just barely got it into my Truck without dropping it and when I got home I noticed there was a wing door on the backside and as I opened this all I saw was wall to wall Knife boxes "a whole bunch of boxes" and they were all mine.!^^ Told MaryAnn's dad about it and he said he would not take them back so I started giving everybody I knew who wanted a Knife a brand new Puma Knife of whatever they wanted.! Boy I sure wish I had of known what I had there at that time as there were 5 & 6 of everything Puma had in that one wooden knife display ! I still have 3 of the original knives from there.* Year later I went to Nam.!******
The end.
Carboniferous
Basic Member
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2015
- Messages
- 778
I think the first knife I ever bought for myself was a Kershaw Chive. It was "cool," with the recurve in the blade and the assisted opening. I was a kid, so I mainly just wanted a knife that flicked open like an auto.
After that I bought a lot of tactical folders, Kershaws and Spydercos and such. Pocket clips, one handed openers, a lot of black plastic handles.
I think what started turning me towards traditionals was an EKA Swede 88. I realized how much I preferred natural materials and how a pocket clip and thumb stud were unnecessary. Since then I've sold all of my "tactical" folders and have only bought and carried traditionals, mostly slipjoints, for years.
After that I bought a lot of tactical folders, Kershaws and Spydercos and such. Pocket clips, one handed openers, a lot of black plastic handles.
I think what started turning me towards traditionals was an EKA Swede 88. I realized how much I preferred natural materials and how a pocket clip and thumb stud were unnecessary. Since then I've sold all of my "tactical" folders and have only bought and carried traditionals, mostly slipjoints, for years.
- Joined
- May 9, 2010
- Messages
- 10,039
My very first knife was a sak classic clone that was sold at CVS, I was in grade school at the time, 2nd. from there it was cheap knives at the junk shop, from ccc balisongs, to pakistani trappers. then i bought my first decent knife at a store called Treasures which I later found out over charged me for a lot of knives but buying local to support. I eventually bought a SAK pocket pal, opinels, boot knives, fixed blades, a sak tinker, a sak hiker. A boker slim line trapper. A few more china knives until I eventually got a job, then some knife clones. Some spyderco harpys. Finally here I am, my first gec was a 48 in stag, then HMTs from 2dead, and like 7 gec 15s from the for sale, a 77 from bigbiscuit, jsega, the forum knife. now im on the hunt for one of those swing guard lock backs from queen or something. its been a wonderful journey! I guess I cycle between patterns and knife types. If fixed blades are the first traditionals, and the folding knife became the second, does that make lock backs the third? then locking method evolves to stuff like liner, and frame, and axis and so on.
Henry Beige
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2015
- Messages
- 3,727
The only knife I can remember from my single-digit childhood is a dimpled steel scout knife, probably a Camillus. Cub Scout stuff, whittling, mumblety peg, making slingshots, that kind of stuff. I lost track of it long since.
As a young adolescent, I wanted a switchblade, but settled for a gravity knife. That one is long gone, too.
By the turn of the century, my accumulation of knives included:
1. The Loewen Hippekniep (which I would now call a sodbuster) I bought in Amsterdam in 1970 while backpacking in Europe.
2. Four or five SAKs I bought over the years to carry on my motorbikes in supplementation of the bikes' tool kits. The first one was a Wenger; the rest were by Victorinox. I don't know what happened to the Wenger but three of the Victorinoxes are still with me.
3. A Mauser-branded Victorinox GAK that never saw much use; I recently dug it out of some boxes I hadn't looked in for years.
4. The remaining three or four of what had once been maybe a half dozen Opinels, mostly 7s and 8s. Also travel knives.
5. The Tapio Wirkkala puukko I bought out of the Brookstone catalog sometime around 1980, still on my shelf. It got carried on the bikes a lot and saw plenty of use.
6. A couple of Leatherman tools. These tended to supplant the SAKs for emergency tool use on the road.
7. A small Anza hunter I bought from the maker at a motorcycle swap meet in St. Paul around 1980. This one also spent a lot of time in a tank bag, but also got carried in a pocket pretty frequently. This knife personifies the term "working knife" for me, and has also been carried more than any other knife I own.
I would not have called myself a knife enthusiast of any kind. I just picked up knives that were useful to me, or interesting. Some of these became useful. Then about ten years ago, my wife bought me a knife. Actually, she bought me a headlamp. It came packaged with an undistinguished Browning folder. It was my first one-handed opener. I began to carry it.
The next year, she bought me a USMC Ka-Bar. We had seen somebody using one around a campground, and I probably remarked it would be a handy thing to have in camp.
I had begun spending some time on a gun forum, where knives were also discussed. Next thing I knew, I had a Griptilian for Christmas. I bought some modern folders, and also bought some traditional slipjoints along the way. I looked at the GEC pages, and found them too rich for my blood. I began paying more attention to knives in general. I Googled my Wirkkala, and discovered it had acquired some cachet over the years, as well as some apparent collector value.
The knives that really captivated me were the Opinels, and their ilk: Moras, Marttiinis, Condors, low-tech and relatively inexpensive knives. One day, I counted the knives on my shelf and came up with something near fifty. Heck with fewer than twenty motorcycles, I belong to half a dozen motorcycle forums. Only half a dozen guns, and I spend a lot of time on a couple of gun forums. Fifty knives, why don't I belong to a knife forum? That brought me to BF. The Moras and Opinels led me to the traditional forum. Jackknife's tales, along with the great photography found in these pages, gave me a renewed appreciation for the slip-joint folders.
As a consequence, in the last several months, I have bought: three Cases, a couple of Rough Riders, a couple of Filmam friction folders, and a few old knives at estate sales. There are no modern knives in my present plans. That's it in a nutshell.
As a young adolescent, I wanted a switchblade, but settled for a gravity knife. That one is long gone, too.
By the turn of the century, my accumulation of knives included:
1. The Loewen Hippekniep (which I would now call a sodbuster) I bought in Amsterdam in 1970 while backpacking in Europe.
2. Four or five SAKs I bought over the years to carry on my motorbikes in supplementation of the bikes' tool kits. The first one was a Wenger; the rest were by Victorinox. I don't know what happened to the Wenger but three of the Victorinoxes are still with me.
3. A Mauser-branded Victorinox GAK that never saw much use; I recently dug it out of some boxes I hadn't looked in for years.
4. The remaining three or four of what had once been maybe a half dozen Opinels, mostly 7s and 8s. Also travel knives.
5. The Tapio Wirkkala puukko I bought out of the Brookstone catalog sometime around 1980, still on my shelf. It got carried on the bikes a lot and saw plenty of use.
6. A couple of Leatherman tools. These tended to supplant the SAKs for emergency tool use on the road.
7. A small Anza hunter I bought from the maker at a motorcycle swap meet in St. Paul around 1980. This one also spent a lot of time in a tank bag, but also got carried in a pocket pretty frequently. This knife personifies the term "working knife" for me, and has also been carried more than any other knife I own.
I would not have called myself a knife enthusiast of any kind. I just picked up knives that were useful to me, or interesting. Some of these became useful. Then about ten years ago, my wife bought me a knife. Actually, she bought me a headlamp. It came packaged with an undistinguished Browning folder. It was my first one-handed opener. I began to carry it.
The next year, she bought me a USMC Ka-Bar. We had seen somebody using one around a campground, and I probably remarked it would be a handy thing to have in camp.
I had begun spending some time on a gun forum, where knives were also discussed. Next thing I knew, I had a Griptilian for Christmas. I bought some modern folders, and also bought some traditional slipjoints along the way. I looked at the GEC pages, and found them too rich for my blood. I began paying more attention to knives in general. I Googled my Wirkkala, and discovered it had acquired some cachet over the years, as well as some apparent collector value.
The knives that really captivated me were the Opinels, and their ilk: Moras, Marttiinis, Condors, low-tech and relatively inexpensive knives. One day, I counted the knives on my shelf and came up with something near fifty. Heck with fewer than twenty motorcycles, I belong to half a dozen motorcycle forums. Only half a dozen guns, and I spend a lot of time on a couple of gun forums. Fifty knives, why don't I belong to a knife forum? That brought me to BF. The Moras and Opinels led me to the traditional forum. Jackknife's tales, along with the great photography found in these pages, gave me a renewed appreciation for the slip-joint folders.
As a consequence, in the last several months, I have bought: three Cases, a couple of Rough Riders, a couple of Filmam friction folders, and a few old knives at estate sales. There are no modern knives in my present plans. That's it in a nutshell.
btb01
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2008
- Messages
- 7,655
As a kid, I had various camp knives, an SAK or two, a couple traditionals, and the occasional cheap lockback from Walmart (I seem to remember an Imperial with a really cheap-feeling molded plastic handle, though I don't know what ever happened to that knife). I grew up in the 90's, and don't ever remember my dad carrying a strictly "traditional" knife. He had a thing for SAKs when I was younger, which then turned into Leathermans later (usually a Micra daily, but he had a couple big ones, too). I remember my grandpa carrying a few traditionals when I was a kid, but being a bit of a handyman and a constant tinkerer, at some point he switched to carrying around a Leatherman Micra as well. (Personally, Leatherman was never something I got into that much, though I do have a few lying around.)
Somewhere around 8th grade, my dad let me buy a Smith & Wesson SWAT knife (large modern liner-lock folder), which I used pretty hard for several years, messing around in the woods and all that. Then in high school, I started going on these annual summer fishing trips up to Minnesota with a friend and his dad. We stayed with his uncle who lived in Glenwood, MN and would fish the lakes around there for about half of each trip, then we'd all go up north and rent a cabin somewhere and fish up there for a few days. Anyways, the first year that we went, my friend's dad had this Benchmade 940 that he was carrying, and I absolutely fell in love with that knife. As soon as we got back home, I went down to AG Russell's (which just happened to be the local knife shop where I grew up in Arkansas) and bought one for myself.
I carried that Benchmade every day for close to 10 years. I bought a couple other knives during that time (some other modern folders, one or two traditionals, a couple Opinels, etc.), but non of them every replaced the 940 in my pocket.
The thing that actually brought me back to traditionals for carry and use (rather than just having a couple sitting in a drawer while I carried and used my Benchmade) was actually knife sharpening. I got tired of taking my knives somewhere and paying someone $3-$5 a piece to sharpen them. (Actually, when I still lived in Arkansas, I didn't mind taking them to AG's shop - they always did a great job - but when we moved out to Arizona about 4 years ago, I never found anyone that I was quite happy with.) So I picked up a couple Arkansas stones to try my hand at sharpening... except I really didn't know what I was doing, and when it came down to it, I was too afraid of screwing it up to take my Benchmade to the stone. So I started digging out knives that I didn't really use, those old camp knives and SAKs from my childhood, a beat up old stockman that was my grandpa's, etc., and started the learning process by sharpening those. Once I got the hang of it, and got those knives good and sharp, I was pretty proud and wanted to use them. So I carried my grandpa's old stockman for a while, and really fell in love with the thing, and I also started carrying and using my Opinels.
From there, I picked up a couple of Case knives and really enjoyed those. Then at some point in the last year, I saw a picture of a TC Barlow and thought, man, I've gotta have one of those! Well, that was easier said than done, but it did introduce me to this place, and to the world of GEC and other traditionals I wasn't aware of before, and now I'm hooked. I got my first GEC at the end of September, and now all the sudden I have 7 of 'em!
(Yeah, I went on a bit of a knife buying streak.) I'm also pretty sure that everyone I know (or at least those I know will appreciate it) will be getting some sort of traditional pocket knife for Christmas. (Unfortunately my dad and grandpa are no longer with us; I would have loved to share this new interest/hobby with them. I know they'd get a kick out these great knives.)
Somewhere around 8th grade, my dad let me buy a Smith & Wesson SWAT knife (large modern liner-lock folder), which I used pretty hard for several years, messing around in the woods and all that. Then in high school, I started going on these annual summer fishing trips up to Minnesota with a friend and his dad. We stayed with his uncle who lived in Glenwood, MN and would fish the lakes around there for about half of each trip, then we'd all go up north and rent a cabin somewhere and fish up there for a few days. Anyways, the first year that we went, my friend's dad had this Benchmade 940 that he was carrying, and I absolutely fell in love with that knife. As soon as we got back home, I went down to AG Russell's (which just happened to be the local knife shop where I grew up in Arkansas) and bought one for myself.
I carried that Benchmade every day for close to 10 years. I bought a couple other knives during that time (some other modern folders, one or two traditionals, a couple Opinels, etc.), but non of them every replaced the 940 in my pocket.
The thing that actually brought me back to traditionals for carry and use (rather than just having a couple sitting in a drawer while I carried and used my Benchmade) was actually knife sharpening. I got tired of taking my knives somewhere and paying someone $3-$5 a piece to sharpen them. (Actually, when I still lived in Arkansas, I didn't mind taking them to AG's shop - they always did a great job - but when we moved out to Arizona about 4 years ago, I never found anyone that I was quite happy with.) So I picked up a couple Arkansas stones to try my hand at sharpening... except I really didn't know what I was doing, and when it came down to it, I was too afraid of screwing it up to take my Benchmade to the stone. So I started digging out knives that I didn't really use, those old camp knives and SAKs from my childhood, a beat up old stockman that was my grandpa's, etc., and started the learning process by sharpening those. Once I got the hang of it, and got those knives good and sharp, I was pretty proud and wanted to use them. So I carried my grandpa's old stockman for a while, and really fell in love with the thing, and I also started carrying and using my Opinels.
From there, I picked up a couple of Case knives and really enjoyed those. Then at some point in the last year, I saw a picture of a TC Barlow and thought, man, I've gotta have one of those! Well, that was easier said than done, but it did introduce me to this place, and to the world of GEC and other traditionals I wasn't aware of before, and now I'm hooked. I got my first GEC at the end of September, and now all the sudden I have 7 of 'em!
(Yeah, I went on a bit of a knife buying streak.) I'm also pretty sure that everyone I know (or at least those I know will appreciate it) will be getting some sort of traditional pocket knife for Christmas. (Unfortunately my dad and grandpa are no longer with us; I would have loved to share this new interest/hobby with them. I know they'd get a kick out these great knives.)
- Joined
- May 23, 2015
- Messages
- 4,161
Over the years I had accumulated 60 some knives mostly all junk. When I retired I found BF surfing around the internet and started hanging around. About a year later I joined and decided to start seriously collecting about 6 months ago. I started in general knife discussion and began buying production folders, then mid tech then a few high end customs. Spent way to much money and was not satisfied. I then bought a few used Case pocket knives and found what made me happy. I sold almost all my folders and started buying those beautiful pocket knives from my youth. Now with a bunch of Barlows (my favorite pattern) and other patterns I am really enjoying this wonderful hobby. I am presently getting several knives modified by Glennbad as a sub collection and have never been as happy with.any other hobby I've ever had.
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2013
- Messages
- 8,331
Nothing, Kershaw Chill in my knapsack to work, then crkt Drifter, UKPK to Colt peanut, to rough rider half whittler, gec slim calf roper, back to half whittler, case mini trapper. It was a pretty short path although I use moderns as much as traditionals.