What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

One of the things that makes traditional knives distinct from modern knives is that there are defined patterns. Why some posters regard that as problematic, I am unsure. There is a General forum for discussing non-traditional patterns :thumbup:
 
Sometimes mislaid things turn up in the most unlikely of places Phil. I hope that you track it down soon :thumbup:
 
Jack Black said:
One of the things that makes traditional knives distinct from modern knives is that there are defined patterns. Why some posters regard that as problematic, I am unsure. There is a General forum for discussing non-traditional patterns :thumbup:
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Thanks for the clarification, education and illumination. It is much appreciated. OK I understand. Let us hope someone starts a thread about Barlows in general, even if they happen to have a main blade and a bottle cap opener.
 
Vinifera said:
Thanks for the clarification, education and illumination. It is much appreciated. OK I understand. Let us hope someone starts a thread about Barlows in general, even if they happen to have a main blade and a bottle cap opener.
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My pleasure. There's already a thread about customised cap-lifter knives. Some of them have long bolsters, but that doesn't make them Barlows in my opinion, anymore than this Fish Knife is a Barlow. It's simply a Fish Knife with a long bolster :thumbup:

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Again thank you for your expertise and education. I'm sorry I'm not that sophisticated and did not appreciate the nuances. All the best.
 
So I'm curious, with regards to the definition of "Barlow" that's being discussed here, would y'all say that the two-blade TC Day's Work should not be considered a Barlow.

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(Photo borrowed from pertinux.)
 
At the risk of being repetitive, and hopefully not opening a can of worms::rolleyes:
Barrett, a couple (at least) of cutleries have made Barlows with two full length blades, often a Clip and a Spey. It is just my opinion, but I think we can include them in the genre due to their longevity in service.
Everyone is free to call anything or anyone they wish, a Barlow!:D
Personally I limit the appellation to certain knives to keep chaos in check!
And I apply further limitations to those things called traditional Barlows!

I am open to further discussion - elsewhere!!:eek:
:D
:D
 
Thanks for the reply, Charlie. Whatever anyone wants to call it, I do think that particular TC might be my favorite that you've done. :thumbup:
 
philllll said:
It pains me to say that my scratted ebony ancient TC is nowhere to be found. It's been missing for a few weeks now. I know it has to be somewhere in my house but I can't find it anywhere and it's been bothering me to no end. :(
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Did you look (or search) Evan's house? If I lived in Sarasota, that would be the FIRST place I would look ! :confused:;):D:D:D Seriously - I hope you find it ! :o
 
Jack Black said:
Nice knives, but traditional Barlows do not have cap-lifters, nor are they 'easy-open', those might be nice patterns, but they're not traditional Barlows. :thumbup:

(Hoping we don't have to have this discussion again here! :thumbup:)



The only traditional secondary blade on a Barlow is a pen blade (fantastic as that Queen is). It takes more than a long front bolster to make a Barlow :thumbup:
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Not to keep beating a dead horse here or anything, but I do find it somewhat humorous that the very first post in this thread by Charlie himself contains 2 Barlows that do not fit your criteria and I believe he designed a barlow on the TC line with the caplifter that is causing all of this ruckus...

One might also interject that "traditions" also include the modification of barlow knives and the modification of similar patterns into barlow knives. Whether this be in modifying the secondary pen into a coping blade or adding tools to the pattern. Regardless, I'll leave it up to the OP to remove the pictures of the Beerlow if he sees fit.

I do appreciate the education though... I don't however plan to stop calling that knife a barlow any time soon.
 
Actually, I lay claim to the first modification of a TC Barlow.

MerryMadMonk said:
My Charlow mod
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I was going for the tanto look, but one of my Labs bumped my elbow and the Dremel went off course... it was pretty bad. So I had to come up with something else. After studying on it some, I thought it would be pretty cool to have a screwdriver tip, some wicked serrations on the spine and a caplifter. I reckon I need to sand off the etch because it's not really a sheepsfoot anymore. This probably belongs in Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment, but I wanted to share with my fellow Charlow enthusiasts.






















I kid, I kid :D
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Jfowl31 said:
Not to keep beating a dead horse here or anything, but I do find it somewhat humorous that the very first post in this thread by Charlie himself contains 2 Barlows that do not fit your criteria and I believe he designed a barlow on the TC line with the caplifter that is causing all of this ruckus...

One might also interject that "traditions" also include the modification of barlow knives and the modification of similar patterns into barlow knives. Whether this be in modifying the secondary pen into a coping blade or adding tools to the pattern. Regardless, I'll leave it up to the OP to remove the pictures of the Beerlow if he sees fit.

I do appreciate the education though... I don't however plan to stop calling that knife a barlow any time soon.
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Wrong in so many ways! You really should do your homework Jfoul31.
 
Thank you for stepping in Charlie, and sorry that you have had to (particularly when the same topic has been covered here so many times before. :( :thumbup:

This type of discussion, and the frequency with which it occurs, with some appearing to resent what they see as the confines of traditional patterns, seems to be unique to the Barlow pattern. We have a longstanding Peanut thread here for example, (for our newer members, a Peanut is a small Serpentine Jack). I imagine that if I were to keep posting pictures of small penknives there on the basis that they were of a similar size, or larger Serpentine Jacks on the basis that they were essentially the same pattern (and I was a crazy kid who wanted to break the ‘rules’), my posts would quickly become tiresome :rolleyes: There's loads to learn here in this thread guys, for those of us who want to learn, and for the cost of a knife, you should be able to buy at least one book on traditional knives, which will tell you what you're being told here for free :thumbup:

roseskunk said:
Tradition.
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roseskunk said:
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Two beautiful Barlows :thumbup:
 
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