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What makes a traditional fixed blade to you?
- Thread starter Thalestin
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Due to other threads on this subforum, I am rethinking what I would consider a traditional knife, and have decided that like others it is easier to see what I consider a non-traditional than a traditional.
For example, how is a Buck 110 not a traditional? It has been around for 50 years now and stood the test of time (with flying colors!) with little or no changes. 50 years! I look at the design and see a heavy duty worker, super strong bolsters, a good quality steel that isn't hard to sharpen, and a mechanism that is bank vault quality.
I would liken this knife to a Barlow knife in its heyday. It is used in the field by all manner of trades for all manner of tasks, it is relied on by many for hunting and camp chores, and still for literally millions of others it is simply the knife of choice due to its reliability and utility value. And speaking of value (back to the Barlow comparison) it is hugely affordable with a life time guarantee from our local sporting good store for less than $35. This is the working man's, hunting man's, blue collar man's knife. And with tens of millions sold, it still isn't considered by many to be a traditional.
On the other hand a knife/collectible maker of some repute is now making knives without traditional scales and engineered to require little or no fitting of parts. Using their existing tooling, they are using the same blade and case patterns used for their other knives, but are now pinning plastic scales on the knife instead of bone, wood, stag, etc. Plastic handles with the name formed into the scales of a knife that is rough ground with little or no finishing? Not a traditional knife to me no matter what pattern it is. Yet I have read on this sub forum of folks that have these lightweight plastic handled knives really like them. To me, they remind me of Spyderco when they started. I saw them as 5 - 6 pieces of all man made material that are put in a press and pinned together. Fast, cheap and easy to make, they require little or no human interaction and less craftsmanship. Doesn't seem like a "traditional" knife to me.
For a traditional knife I want a utility proven design (task specific OK like a trapper, cattleman, bird and trout, skinner, etc.) with some or at least a couple of the following: bone, stag, wood, leather, German silver or nickel silver, brass, aircraft grade aluminum, a reasonably sized hilt, no exposed blade from the butt, no laser carving (don't care if it is the manufacturer's name) on the handles or blades, and some polished surfaces that show a bit of time was spent on the knife.
I have broad parameters to define a traditional. But to me, I think it all boils down to "I know it when I see it".
Robert
For example, how is a Buck 110 not a traditional? It has been around for 50 years now and stood the test of time (with flying colors!) with little or no changes. 50 years! I look at the design and see a heavy duty worker, super strong bolsters, a good quality steel that isn't hard to sharpen, and a mechanism that is bank vault quality.
I would liken this knife to a Barlow knife in its heyday. It is used in the field by all manner of trades for all manner of tasks, it is relied on by many for hunting and camp chores, and still for literally millions of others it is simply the knife of choice due to its reliability and utility value. And speaking of value (back to the Barlow comparison) it is hugely affordable with a life time guarantee from our local sporting good store for less than $35. This is the working man's, hunting man's, blue collar man's knife. And with tens of millions sold, it still isn't considered by many to be a traditional.
On the other hand a knife/collectible maker of some repute is now making knives without traditional scales and engineered to require little or no fitting of parts. Using their existing tooling, they are using the same blade and case patterns used for their other knives, but are now pinning plastic scales on the knife instead of bone, wood, stag, etc. Plastic handles with the name formed into the scales of a knife that is rough ground with little or no finishing? Not a traditional knife to me no matter what pattern it is. Yet I have read on this sub forum of folks that have these lightweight plastic handled knives really like them. To me, they remind me of Spyderco when they started. I saw them as 5 - 6 pieces of all man made material that are put in a press and pinned together. Fast, cheap and easy to make, they require little or no human interaction and less craftsmanship. Doesn't seem like a "traditional" knife to me.
For a traditional knife I want a utility proven design (task specific OK like a trapper, cattleman, bird and trout, skinner, etc.) with some or at least a couple of the following: bone, stag, wood, leather, German silver or nickel silver, brass, aircraft grade aluminum, a reasonably sized hilt, no exposed blade from the butt, no laser carving (don't care if it is the manufacturer's name) on the handles or blades, and some polished surfaces that show a bit of time was spent on the knife.
I have broad parameters to define a traditional. But to me, I think it all boils down to "I know it when I see it".
Robert
silenthunterstudios
Slipjoint Addict
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It is getting a little cliche, but a traditional knife just has that "feel", if it looks like one, it is. My great great Uncle Chick, who used to ride his horse from Baltimore to the area my immediate family lives in now (N MD), carried a sawed off double on his leg. This was the 1920's/1930's. He had a nice gun collection, and I'm sure he must've had some great knives too. He got around, and he would've known a real sheath knife if he had seen it.
The Hudson's Bay camp knives were heavily used, at least in the far north, during the 1800's. Repurposed kitchen knives, reshaped by men heading west to make their fortunes in the American fur trade. The infamous bowie, the 1911A1 of the time
. The Marble's Woodcrafter and Buck Woodsman style knives over the last 85 years. Lots of great craftsmen like Matt Liesnewski and Mike Mann are bringing a lot of the old fixed blade patterns back, and let me tell you, they are not wall flowers. A lot of custom makers have brought back some neat, useful patterns designed by wilderness writers Nessmuk and Horace Kephart, the Nessmuk and the Kephart. I've seen some of these models with stainless steels and micarta scales, heck, I just ordered a Kephart with S35VN blade and micarta scales. My order is not a true traditional, but the blade shape and handle shape are. The Kepharts I have with A2 blades and cocobolo scales are traditional.
Backwoodsman and Tactical Knives writer Dan Schectman recommended a book called Knife in Homespun America by Madison Grant, in an article for Backwoodsman, and told me in person to pick up a copy. This book is extremely hard to find in stores, you won't find it in Barnes and Noble and probably not the used bookstore. I did get a copy from an online muzzleloading dealer. This book has old photographs, and line drawings, of knives that Grant encountered. These were riflemen's knives, mountain men knives, and just plain old knives of great design, made by the farm blacksmith, or by the blacksmith in town. Lots of neat, useful knives.
In the cities, the small cheaper barlows or no frills jack knives might have appealed to the every day user. Out in the country, whether you were in the mountains or working the fields, you carried a fixed blade.
The Hudson's Bay camp knives were heavily used, at least in the far north, during the 1800's. Repurposed kitchen knives, reshaped by men heading west to make their fortunes in the American fur trade. The infamous bowie, the 1911A1 of the time
. The Marble's Woodcrafter and Buck Woodsman style knives over the last 85 years. Lots of great craftsmen like Matt Liesnewski and Mike Mann are bringing a lot of the old fixed blade patterns back, and let me tell you, they are not wall flowers. A lot of custom makers have brought back some neat, useful patterns designed by wilderness writers Nessmuk and Horace Kephart, the Nessmuk and the Kephart. I've seen some of these models with stainless steels and micarta scales, heck, I just ordered a Kephart with S35VN blade and micarta scales. My order is not a true traditional, but the blade shape and handle shape are. The Kepharts I have with A2 blades and cocobolo scales are traditional. Backwoodsman and Tactical Knives writer Dan Schectman recommended a book called Knife in Homespun America by Madison Grant, in an article for Backwoodsman, and told me in person to pick up a copy. This book is extremely hard to find in stores, you won't find it in Barnes and Noble and probably not the used bookstore. I did get a copy from an online muzzleloading dealer. This book has old photographs, and line drawings, of knives that Grant encountered. These were riflemen's knives, mountain men knives, and just plain old knives of great design, made by the farm blacksmith, or by the blacksmith in town. Lots of neat, useful knives.
In the cities, the small cheaper barlows or no frills jack knives might have appealed to the every day user. Out in the country, whether you were in the mountains or working the fields, you carried a fixed blade.