What started you on the "Traditionals"..?

G

garryt

Joined
Dec 8, 2013
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Apologies if this has been covered before gents, but me and search engines just don't seem to mix...:D

Anyway, for years I was into just tactical type folders and nothing else.
I was placing an order one day for this...(link to non BF dealer removed. The referenced knife is a Schrade Heavy Duty Tanto) ended up tagging a Buck 371 to the order. I can't even remember why?

Anyhow, when they arrived and I unpacked the Buck, it made me realise just how tactile / good looking these knives are. I just wanted to fiddle, use it and play with it. Being 52, it also suddenly brought back memories of these type of knives which were common when I was a lad.
Since then, I've bought a few more traditionals, and my tactical folders don't seem to get a look in much these days..

The stockman has become my favourite pattern, with trappers being a close second.
I'm now looking at Muskrat's as well, but never handled one, so may start with a cheapie such as this...(link to non BF dealer removed. The referenced knife is a Colt Muskrat Brown Stag) and see what I think.

Just ordered 2 x Opinels as well.....

So, what started you guy's off?.........
 
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The first knives I carried as a kid were slippies as did other men in my family. There weren't any modern/tactical etc. knives around. Except for switchblades.

I still prefer them overall but I do have a couple tacticools with assisted opening (vs over 100 slippies). They both have their place and uses.
 
Since I'm 58, there weren't any tactical/OHO knives around for much of my lifetime. I have tried modern knives from Spyderco, Kershaw, CRKT, Gerber, Buck, but they just don't have the combination of charm, carryability and slicing ability of a good 3-4 inch traditional. Plus, and this is a BIG plus, traditionals can and, for me at least, usually do have multiple blades for all-around utility.
 
I was born in 1960 and thats the only knives I knew about until high school.
We all traded(at school) cheap or broken knives our father/older brothers would give us. Then a friend who's father(he helped start Three Rivers Knife Club a few years later) owned the local hardwear store and was a huge Case collector brought a Case Barlow to school in the 5th grade. Many of us bought one soon after, and thats when I started really getting into knives, and have been ever since.

My first locking knife was a Puma Game Warden that I bought while in high school.
 
First knife I ever had was a SAK as a kid, red cellidor handles, no idea what model it was. When I try to think of what tools it had to identify the model I come across a few that look like it but I just can't remember for sure. Eventually the scales fell off and I still carried it. No idea what happened to it in the end. Didn't carry a knife again until two or three years ago (I'm 28 now). Got the urge to get one for work, so I got a Kershaw Oso Sweet. Decent knife I guess, but even after I learned to sharpen much later I still could not get that thing sharp, don't know why. Maybe if I tried now I could do so. Maybe not. Anyways, it worked well enough for what I used it on, but aside from a KABAR I bought for kicks I had no other knife until I started reading Bladeforums. Got myself a Buck 110 (before joining here I think) and gave it away to a friend. Got a 112, kept it and carried it but not often. Read the forums a fair bit but never bought another modern knife, just kept browsing. I wasn't keen on buying online at the time until I was finally willing to get a Paypal account and knifeshops are a rarity in Toronto.

I never liked traditional knives much at first. In the General forum people would post pics of what they were carrying and I'd kind of roll my eyes a bit when slipjoints were posted. Don't know why, they just didn't grab me at the time. I've always loved old and traditional things and read history books all the time so it's odd that they didn't do much for me. But then when unsure what knife I wanted next I decided to finally open that Traditional subforum I always avoided (I was still a lurker to that time, only opened an account to view pics better). Well I became hooked quickly. Got myself a Bark River Mini Fox River (I still like that knife a lot and used it quite a bit but thinking of selling it off now). Then it started. I got myself a stag handled Northfield #42 Missouri Trader. That's when the love affair started. Seeing the old timey knives in non-plastic handles and most especially, seeing them used and patinaed, that's what started the love affair. A connection with the knives of old from the historical time periods I always loved reading about. After that was my first slipjoint, my Tidioute #15 Boys knife clip/pen in ebony. It was seeing old knives from back in the day that were the inspiration for the Boys knife that got me wanting one, a spear blade version. I'd missed out on what was at the time the spear blade run from GEC so I got the clip version to make do until another spear run came down the pipeline. By then I'd fallen so in love worth my clip/pen version that I couldn't get it out of my pocket, save for those times that things needed to be cut or a worrystone was needed/wanted.

I almost exclusively post in the Trad forum and they're all I carry. I wouldn't be opposed to a modern, and I think about it sometime, but it would probably not get carried much and would always have a slipjoint in my pocket with it if I did get one. They're what people carried for so long and they're what I carry now.
 
I'm 60+. There just weren't any tactical (what does tactical mean?) when I started buying pocket knives. I grew up with what we now call "traditional" folders. I started off with a Boy Scout knife, then I bought an Imperial Toothpick, then Buck and Old Timers. I carried theses until I bought a few Sogs.

Tom
 
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My first pocket knife was a little pearl-handled slipjoint, given to me by my father when I was about 7 years old. I've carried a knife ever since. My knives are mostly of the "traditional" type, with very few modern/tactical knives in the bunch.
 
When I actually staring to USE my OHO, tactical, whatever....I noted that they could be cumbersome for lots of things. Plus, the NKP factor in my office/cubicle setting. When I would take out the skinny little SAK, I noted that it can get the 'accurate' work done. Safer to, working with a smaller blade on most tasks, like blister packs, box flaps, rappelling ropes (LoL), coupon separation, tape rolls, etc. SO, in spending time here, I did develop a hankering for few patterns and particular knives. It makes sense to have a multi-blade knife, particularly like a Stockman, with blades you can choose from for the task.
 
I purchased this when I was a teenager……….It just looked right. Since then I have been a fan.:)

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A truly horrible enabler that goes by the screen name CJZ...thanks a lot Chris. :grumpy: :( ;) :D
 
Growing up in the 60's, my Dad and my uncles all used Old Timers...I was given an 8OT (my first knife) by Dad in the mid 60's....bought a Victorinox Champion in '72.
 
My father bought me my first knives in the late 70's early 80's and they were traditionals. I own and use all types of modern knives but I will always have a place in my pocket for traditionals.
 
As a 14 year old with a lawn mowing job, I carry a spyderco Byrd robin 2, victorinox signature, opinel #7 and a kershaw chill.
 
To me there is a touch of class that I don't get with tactical knives. Don't get me wrong, I have some for sure and carry one from time to time. All that said I carry a traditional everyday even if I have another with me.
 
jsg71 said:
To me there is a touch of class that I don't get with tactical knives. Don't get me wrong, I have some for sure and carry one from time to time. All that said I carry a traditional everyday even if I have another with me.
Click to expand...

My sentiment exactly!
 
Around 1962 I got a Cub Scout knife, around 1966 I got a Boy Scout knife, and in 1970 I got a Buck 301 (all gifts from parents and grandparents). I have carried a traditional ever since - own a footlocker full today - all traditionals. I have never owned a tactical folding knife - my only true "tactical knives" have been US issue M-7 bayonets from my time in the Army and ARNG - and they are all back in a supply room I guess (I do own an Imperial M-4 my father handed down to me from his Army service and a M-1 bayonet I bought to go with a WW-II M-1 Garand). OH
 
My family always lived on a small farm where we had cattle and hogs, and my father and grandfather carried stockmans. My grandfather gave me a small jack knife in when I was in the 4th grade (1957) and I later got Cub Scout and Boy Scout knives when I was in the scouts. After high school I started carrying a SAK (still do in my left pocket) until recent years when I rediscovered the knives I knew as a youngster (along with rediscovering Gillette Super Speeds) and ran across sites like this one. Right now I'm fighting TKAD, which I think most of you know what that means.
 
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