What the heck were they doing?

Lemmy Caution

Lemmy Caution

Joined
Aug 17, 2013
Messages
1,558
I see some old knives pop up in such terrible condition, I mean deep awful sharpening marks, chipped to the point of serrated, I just wonder what were they doing? I mean I understand working a knife hard but I guess I just cant see what the point of sharpening a knife on 50 grit sandpaper would be.
 
Knives used to be a common tool used for all sorts of things. When it came time to sharpen, some folks used whatever they had at hand. I can remember one fella who used to sharpen his pocket knife on a concrete step. He got it sharp enough to do what he wanted it to do.

And don't forget those spawn of the dark one: the electric sharpener. No knife was safe from that evil machine.
 
I sold a custom made folder I no longer wanted to a guy who told me a week later how he liked to throw it at the tree in his backyard. Not something I would do, but his knife now.

Too many. It's a screwdriver, pry bar or all around tool
 
I was walking around town when I found this one on the sidewalk. I'm pretty sure someone did a little electrical work with it at some time.

img0736ua.jpg
 
yeah i guess that old timer would think it pretty ridiculous that I get my knife razor sharp so I can cut ribbons of magazine paper.
 
My dad's father, was an army engineer. He tinkered with a vast armoury of tools in his workshop up until his nineties when he died. He liked a good sharp blade, but would have been amused by the paper slicing that many knife nuts obsess over. He would have been of the opinion that if you have a job that needs doing, use the right tool if you can, but if you can't, get it done with what you have. Just get it done.

I think I'm too precious with knives sometimes.
 
Many pocket knives were inexpensive tools sold for a few dollars or so off of a cardboard display at every hardware store and gas station, back before gas station = convenience store.

I know from first hand experience of people who sharpened knives (kitchen knives, in particular) on the edge of concrete back porch steps, or used those dual wheel electric sharpeners (which were considered a great invention at the time).

I don't think the pocket knife was considered a holy relic to be venerated in those days, but a tool that you used if you had it on you, and if you wore it out or broke it, another one wasn't that expensive. Multitools weren't that prevalent and slotted screws were the order of the day, so sometimes all you had was a pocket knife on you when something needed doing. As a kid I saw people intentionally grind off the point on a pocket knife on the sidewalk or a brick wall to flatten out the point to make it work better as a screwdriver. There was still plenty of cutting edge left for other stuff. You just didn't think about it as a work of art or a collector's item.
 
That burnt blade reminds me of some of my knives in high school that I used to jump the starter on my 1960 Ford when the solenoid would crap out.--KV
 
jc57 said:
I don't think the pocket knife was considered a holy relic to be venerated in those days, but a tool that you used if you had it on you, and if you wore it out or broke it, another one wasn't that expensive. Multitools weren't that prevalent and slotted screws were the order of the day, so sometimes all you had was a pocket knife on you when something needed doing. As a kid I saw people intentionally grind off the point on a pocket knife on the sidewalk or a brick wall to flatten out the point to make it work better as a screwdriver. There was still plenty of cutting edge left for other stuff. You just didn't think about it as a work of art or a collector's item.
Click to expand...

This^:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I think it was Remington, back when they still made knives before the great depression, that did a survey. They found out that the expected life of a pocket knife was something like 2 years. A pocketknife was not a venerated object that was obsessed over back then. It was something most men, and all workingmen, had in a pocket and used for whatever came up, right tool or not. If he needed a screw driver, or can opener, or wire stripper, the pocket knife got used and abused.

To we, the obsessed and afflicted, this seems like some sort of sacrilege, but that was life. To some of the unwashed masses, it still is.
 
Not all people love knives. To some, they are just a tool to get something done.... sometimes they use it to improvise on the job..... with bad results. Most probably didn't think much about sharpening beyond their skills and I just need it to cut XXXXX.
 
The cheap, mass production of all kinds of tools, along with the advent of multitools has made the 'scrub innovation' style of pocketknife use obsolete to the point of obscure. Also, nowadays, most things are drop in disposable rather than fixable, so imaginative fixes are usually just rigs to get to where things can get fixed with money. "Use" and ,"abuse" on second-hand items can only be speculated; maybe it was hashed out by legitimate helpful tool activity, maybe it was a victim of ignorance and neglect. The forensic 'knife whisperer' has his work cut out......
 
To be honest I don't think much thought was given to old pocket knives strictly as knives. Hard use, in relative terms to today's society equaled the "norm" when things were not as disposable and accessible and complicated. You used what you had with you to get the job done, whatever that job may be. Need to cut a wire, slice an apple or cut up food, do some wood working, scrape goop off of car parts or farm machinery, pry with an improvised screwdriver, cut whatever no matter how dull the blade?....reach in your pocket and grab your pocketknife, sharpen it up on a brick if needed. I find it pretty cool that the knife patterns used today, engineered so long ago, will work just as well if not better; we just don't need to work as hard with them or for that matter want to for fear of damaging them.
 
To also be perfectly honest, I've used knives as something other than knives for decades. If I needed to open a can, cut a piece of wire, remove a screw, hammer a tack, pull out a nail, pry loose a piece of molding, etc., I just used whatever knife I was carrying. After all, it was the one tool I always had in my pocket at all times. I'm of Medicare age now so I've messed up a few pocket knives in my day. That's probably why I started carrying heavy duty, thick bladed, one-hand opening, locking knives back in the 1980s. They weren't much to look at and I couldn't keep them sharp but they were tough enough to use as hockey pucks.

Another point to remember is that knives used to be cheap. You didn't see user knives for $50 in the 1950s and 60s. Most general utility pocket knives cost less than $5.00. I remember having lots of overtime pay and indulging in the extravagance of paying the unheard of sum of $25 for a Puma White Hunter in 1971. Since knives were cheap, they were easily replaced and disposable. Today, good knives are not cheap.

Only within the past few years have I started to appreciate the art involved in traditional knives. I also have more appropriate tools more readily available.
 
Myself and this other guy were helping my father gut a deer. Dad had left his little hatchet in the truck and was seeing if he could split the pelvis with his knife. The guy starts to look around and my father thought he may of dropped something. Then he told Dad he was looking for a rock to pound the back of the knife through the pelvis as that's what he usually does.

Dad then explained quite graphically what he thought of that idea and what he'd do if someone took a rock to his knife.

Guy was mystified. The whole thing went in one ear and out the other.
 
jackknife said:
This^:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I think it was Remington, back when they still made knives before the great depression, that did a survey. They found out that the expected life of a pocket knife was something like 2 years. A pocketknife was not a venerated object that was obsessed over back then. It was something most men, and all workingmen, had in a pocket and used for whatever came up, right tool or not. If he needed a screw driver, or can opener, or wire stripper, the pocket knife got used and abused.

To we, the obsessed and afflicted, this seems like some sort of sacrilege, but that was life. To some of the unwashed masses, it still is.
Click to expand...

Being one of those ignorant people who actually "use" their pocketknife as a daily tool--no doubt, one of Jackknife's "unwashed masses"--perhaps I can be permitted to respond?

One of the things I find amusing is that I'm not particularly hard on my knives compared to many of the older folks I grew up around. It is only "hard use" relative to the folks who treat their knives like holy relics: something to be protected and coddled, like those who buy knives with "pocket-worn" covers and apply a faux-patina to the steel, then carry the knife in a little purse to protect it from the contents of their pocket and the world outside. You know who I mean: the folks who gush like little girls over the latest star on the cover of the teen magazines when a company brings out a "new" model with covers made of "apple-rootbeer cat-scratched baby-panda bone," or bash the folks who buy imported knives that actually meet their working needs rather than the latest domestic-boutique-manufactured homage-to-the-working-knife that doesn't meet those needs. (Some amongst the hoi polloi might almost be tempted to ask if "poseur" would be a better way to describe these folks than "collector"--but no, we mustn't question the motives of our betters.)

In the past week, I've "abused" my Schrade-made KeenKutter jack while repairing storm damage to the home of a friend's widow. The knife has peeled wire, tightened screws, cut the steel bands on bundles of 2x4s, opened boxes of nails and bundles of shingles, beveled the edges of studs and siding so they could be fit into the surviving construction, cut tarpaper and shingles, spread putty on windows and tar in roof joints, cut window screening and pressed home the splines that hold it in place, split kindling for the little fire I used to make coffee, and sliced up apples for snacks. It has been in-and-out of my pocket a hundred times a day, been sharpened on the medium India stone in the toolbox, and cleaned and oiled in the evenings so it can go to work the next day.

Such is the life of a working knife.
 
coffeecup said:
Being one of those ignorant people who actually "use" their pocketknife as a daily tool--no doubt, one of Jackknife's "unwashed masses"--perhaps I can be permitted to respond?

One of the things I find amusing is that I'm not particularly hard on my knives compared to many of the older folks I grew up around. It is only "hard use" relative to the folks who treat their knives like holy relics: something to be protected and coddled, like those who buy knives with "pocket-worn" covers and apply a faux-patina to the steel, then carry the knife in a little purse to protect it from the contents of their pocket and the world outside. You know who I mean: the folks who gush like little girls over the latest star on the cover of the teen magazines when a company brings out a "new" model with covers made of "apple-rootbeer cat-scratched baby-panda bone," or bash the folks who buy imported knives that actually meet their working needs rather than the latest domestic-boutique-manufactured homage-to-the-working-knife that doesn't meet those needs. (Some amongst the hoi polloi might almost be tempted to ask if "poseur" would be a better way to describe these folks than "collector"--but no, we mustn't question the motives of our betters.)

In the past week, I've "abused" my Schrade-made KeenKutter jack while repairing storm damage to the home of a friend's widow. The knife has peeled wire, tightened screws, cut the steel bands on bundles of 2x4s, opened boxes of nails and bundles of shingles, beveled the edges of studs and siding so they could be fit into the surviving construction, cut tarpaper and shingles, spread putty on windows and tar in roof joints, cut window screening and pressed home the splines that hold it in place, split kindling for the little fire I used to make coffee, and sliced up apples for snacks. It has been in-and-out of my pocket a hundred times a day, been sharpened on the medium India stone in the toolbox, and cleaned and oiled in the evenings so it can go to work the next day.

Such is the life of a working knife.
Click to expand...

That's just it. If you don't take the 4x4 truck out of the garage and drive it off road, it isn't going to get dirty. And a work truck that never gets things thrown in the bed is just going to sit around looking pretty.

Myself I have work knives and Sunday go to meetin knives. The work knives will get sharpened while on the go, and used for everything under the Sun, the Sunday go to meetin knives have time for spas, oils, are pampered with a towel wipe down and really don't work that hard.
 
Coffeecup......well said:thumbup: New knives are kinda like new cars, once you get that first scratch or ding, it doesn't matter anymore. I like using all my knives for whatever I need to get done, they are great pocket tools. :)
 
Its cool to see everyone's responses. To be clear I don't think abused knives are a sign of ignorance or anything negative, I just think its a different perspective on the tool, and one thats actually probably more honest and authentic. That said I just find it easier to sharpen my knives well once and generally maintain with a strop (piece of leather belt on a stick). If I chip the edge I'll grind it out on a stone and then back to the strop or ceramic rod. Doing it this way I can't see my sheepsfoot turning into a hawkbill any time soon. But yeah if knives were as cheap and common as they once were I probably wouldn't give a darn. And yet It might also be something else - I actually like caring for something that I use and depend on, oiling the blades, cleaning out crud, maintaining an edge I can count on. Though again this is probably a luxury of not needing to use the knife so hard and constantly for everything. Also if you have a bunch of knives that you rotate you spread out the wear and tear so no one blade gets subject to the brunt of your abuse.
 
mnblade said:
I nearly bid on this one, just so I could give it a proper burial.



-- Mark
Click to expand...

Ha ha! Maybe a cremation would be better...:D

It can be shocking to encounter the aftermath of some peoples' sharpening 'techniques'. I agree that knives MAY have been relatively cheaper in former times (although Rough Riders today are very good low cost knives, get some abuse in) and the fact is that a lot of people just assume that knives are cheap objects to be chucked about or worked to death-prematurely. Shudder! I also feel that most people have lacked finesse or precision in sharpening knives including in the nostalgia of the 'golden age' of knife ownership. Just get it sort of sharp whatever the cost to the metal mentality :eek: Modern guided sharpening systems are a great improvement as free hand sharpening is a tidy skill that not everybody can attain. Then there's the advent of power tools...." I'll just touch up those few old knives!!" Then give them a tormented 'edge' "Why lets shine it up on the buffer now!" BARF!:barf:

You know, this all underlines the FACT that you should not just have one knife in your life either, otherwise it has to endure a lot of use and suffers premature eradication. More is better, after all you don't have just one pair of shoes or underwear...what..?:eek::D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top