What traditional knives have you seen people in your area with

[AndreLinoge]

Traditional tastes go to 3 flavors here in southeastern Ohio: small lock back, medium stockman, and 110 type lockback.

Most everyone at work that carries a traditional style knife has a stockman, and it seems like most people like the slimmer style (like case #18 frame and uncle henry 897 ) with only me and one other fella at work preferring the larger ones like the 885. My landlord carries Muskrat and Moose patterns, but still built on that samw 3 7/8 frame the stockmans are.

Most often if you see belt sheaths around here that dont have a spare mag or a multi tool in them, its because of the big lockback hogging the slot.. seems like everyone has one for something, whether its their beater work knife, truck knife, fishing knife, or favorite knife. Lots of them around with heaps of character, all sorts of different dings and scratches and stories imprinted on their bolsters alone. Great knives for story time, for sure.

I love me some trappers, personally, but they're least common among the pocket knife sightings I've had in the wild. People just want that third blade around here I reckon, even the couple die hard fur trappers i know have stockmans as their preferred pocket knife. In general, not really for peeling trapline fruit... One ol fella does use his winchester stockman for all his gutting during deer season. "Don't need much blade to empty one, ya know"..

 

[Henry Beige]

Most of my friends do not carry a knife at all. At work, they are nominally verboten, but a few of us still need to slice up an apple and carry one anyway. The others carry moderns, undistinguished ones at that, except for the safety coordinator who carries an Opinel 8.

My son knows a hipster girl who sports an Opinel 3 on a neck cord and a Leek in her pocket. Her boyfriend likes a Marttiini, but usually carries a Delica. To humor me, I think, my boy carries a Biltong to supplement his Mini Grip. He has a variety of Moras and Condors ready at hand in his bar.

 

[glennbad]

I don't see a lot of people carrying or using out in public here in NH. However, we have a big hunting contingent, so I see a lot of fixed blades and Buck 110's getting used for that purpose. I work for an electrical contractor. Some of the guys in the office carry a traditional pocket knife, but very few. Our field guys tend to carry modern knock-off junk on job sites that they beat on, or utility style knives like home depot carries. A few of them carry nice modern folders, and I have seen a few of the older fellers carrying traditional folders like Old Timers.

 

[traumkommode]

Some kind of unique, one-off handmade fixed blade, most certainly a carbon or tool steel. WNC primitive skills folks think that folding knives, especially without a lock or "safety", are "unsafe" and not suitable for carving or whittling...

I also think there's some element of belt sheath jewelry going on, even for small patch knives.

 

[afishhunter]

WNC primitive skills folks think that folding knives, especially without a lock or "safety", are "unsafe" and not suitable for carving or whittling...

I also think there's some element of belt sheath jewelry going on, even for small patch knives.

Sounds like them WNC Primitive Skills folks don't know how to use a knife, or they ain't got the skills they be pretending to have.
Have you ever asked one of them "If a non locking folding knife is "unsafe" to use for carving or whittlin', how is it people used them for that, for hundreds of years (and still do), without cutting themselves, or cutting off their fingers?" (You should also mention that friction folders date back to at least the Roman Empire days.)

 

[rwc53]

Around here, you see a lot of Case Trappers being carried in belt pouches...a lot of them carved fancy. Stockmen of various sizes are carried in pockets. I carry a Buck 500 in a plain belt pouch I picked up at Big Bend Saddlery in Alpine, Texas about 9 years ago. Usually carry an old 34OT or my personally-made "pocketworn" yellow handled Case 3318 in my pocket, as well.

Ron

 

[ccsavage]

Really , well that's a shame.
A couple years ago when I sold my collection of modern style flea market " knives " ( if you can even call ghem knives ) in my yardsale most people who checked them out were searching for lockbacks to close them with or simply trying to close them as they would a slipjoint.
Maybe they weren't knife people, they sure didn't ask about the fixed blade on my hip.

I was having a hard time finding new modern knives that weren't just flat out ugly. weird looking fat blades and disco-tech looking handles. lol it is the era of the butt ugly flipper knife. High tech, laser cut, synthetic, urban tactical hunk of s__t pocketknives. I have rekindled my love for nice looking, well built good ol fashion knives. Been carrying a 43 in a pocket clip slip from CK and Im digging it.

 

[Hickory n steel]

I was having a hard time finding new modern knives that weren't just flat out ugly. weird looking fat blades and disco-tech looking handles. lol it is the era of the butt ugly flipper knife. High tech, laser cut, synthetic, urban tactical hunk of s__t pocketknives. I have rekindled my love for nice looking, well built good ol fashion knives. Been carrying a 43 in a pocket clip slip from CK and Im digging it.

Jusr like you, I like 'em plain and simple which modern folders rarely are so the shift to traditionals began almost overnight.
R8shell sent me an old imperial Barlow and that was pretty much it.

 

[black mamba]

Here in the Midwest I hardly ever see anyone else carrying a traditional. I live in the St. Louis metroplex, and very few carry a knife of ANY kind, but when they do it's almost always a modern OHO. The only group I see with traditionals are farmers, and it's usually a Case yellow CV trapper.

 

[Wurrwulf]

I only know 5 people that carry traditionals. Two of them carry Chinese stockman patterns, one (sometimes) carries his grandfather's Buck 110, one of my managers carries a Remington Canoe, and I gave my buddy a yella CV Sodbuster Jr. It's moderns for everyone else.

 

[ISKRA]

Few people carry knives in Slovenia in general. Out of those, the most common traditional knives are probably SAKs. I've never met anyone with an Opinel but those two are basically all there is to get here. Modern folders are way more popular. Older people might also have a penknife, lobster or camp knife from Solingen (German knives with a Rostfrei stamp were highly regarded here) or something made in the former East Block.

 

[The Zieg]

My farrier carries a stockman pattern in a pocket slip. One of my hunting and fishing buddies carries a Malanika puukko I gave him when we're in the field. Other than that, it's all pocket clips and thumb studs and spyder holes. Boring.

Zieg

 

[Jolipapa]

Not too many knives around me because I live in the big city. Two exceptions , a lady with a 11cm Laguiole in her bag and a friend with a Douk-Douk. The later is rarely used as he does not like patina on carbon blade.

 

[22-rimfire]

I seldom see anyone with a knife, traditional or otherwise. I suspect fair portion of the men have a knife on them, but it's just a tool and nobody really displays them unless they're using it. In the woods, I would say that the majority of the men have some sort of knife on them.

 

[Horsewright]

Around here its everybody. Lots of small fixed blades and almost everybody has a Case/Moore Maker/somebody else trapper in the pocket or purse. Traditionals are the norm, with a modern being more the exception.

 

[Grateful]

Growing up in the Ozarks the stockman was king and i saw many people carrying them in various sizes. If they weren't carrying a stockman odds are they were carrying a muskrat.
Nowadays I live in northeast Kansas and when i see someone carrying a traditional its always a stockman, usually a 3 1/4" model.

 

[greentrout]

Modern folders have taken over here for sure. My dad is an avid fan of Case's Peanut and Pen knives. I have a good buddy who carries a Case Mini Copperhead. My brother bought and carries an Opinel after seeing one that I had a few years back. I occasionally see some small to medium sized stockmen patterns and some small lockbacks as well. Case is the predominant traditional brand in my neck of the woods, though I would say Kershaw and Gerber are probably the most popular knife brands around here as that is what's in the case at Walmart.

 

[boy&hisdogs]

As far as fixed blades go, the few people who openly wear them here are usually 20-30 year old tradesmen. And half of them are carrying one of these. I think someone mentioned "belt jewelry" earlier, and I suspect that's exactly what these are. You can always tell what they are from the file work on the spine of the handle (see the 2nd pic).

The other fixed-blade-around-town people I see are bikers with Ka-Bars and vaqueros with little skinners. Though around here they mostly grow vegetables, not raise livestock.

 

[Horsewright]

Traditional knives seen being carried lately. Spring Works at Rancho Dos Marcos, Tehachapi, California, last part of April.

For us a small fixed blade is a safety item and the reason cross draw is so popular is that you can get to it with either hand if you are in a wreck. Things can go south pretty quick with livestock and ropes. That knife can save you, someone else, your horse, or the bovine. I've sold lots of knives to guys the day after a wreck.

The only time ya saw a knife out all weekend was Cookie's kitchen knives or when Salty was castrating some future steaks.

My wife and Dani P our photographer. Ya can see the lanyard thongs of my wife's knife sticking out from under her vest.

The only person in the whole crew who didn't have one was Mary Kay, here in the white. She'd flown in from Wyoming to visit her dad in the hospital here. She'd remembered to dump her purse just at the last minute before getting to the airport. She said she'd of lost half her collection, she had five knives in her purse.

 

[jmarston]

Horsewright

Interesting to see so many horse riding folk with fixed blade knives on the belt. I have to ask if these are worn both doing ground work and also on horse back?

I ask because around here, many prefer a folder when on horse back. Something about getting thrown off or taking a fall and getting stuck with the blade. I am not experienced in this field whatsoever but horses were a big thing where I live, often used for bush work guiding hunters or overland travel or maybe rounding up your horses that have spent the winter in the bush and never for cattle. Fixed blade was always very close at hand in a pack or on accessible from the saddle but always a folder on the person. I suspect kept around for cutting meat more than anything else.