What would the men of our families have carried?

M

mdsmith

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Jan 7, 2009
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I don't know everyone else's reasons for chosing traditional slip joint knives over modern folders, but for me, a big part of it is the imagery these knives stir up of a simpler, more humble time. One where most all men carried a pocket knife, and used them daily. One where a knife was a tool, and was bought for it's usefulness, and not it's brand name or image. I was thinking the other day about what these men might have carried given the choices we have today. What if they had both traditional slip joints, as well as locking one handed opener to choose from. What do you guys think?
 
Interesting topic, mdsmith.

It's hard to say really but I think we would have seen a variety of knives in their pockets like we do today. I think it would have been a matter of personal preference just like it is now.

It's hard to imagine my Grandpa carrying a Spyderco Military or a Benchmade Griptilian :eek: but you never know.
 
I agree with Railsplitter. Assuming that they were equally available and at a comparable cost, I believe that you would have seen the same variety carried then as you do today. Each style has it's own pros and cons. Personal opinion was as diverse then as it is now.
 
Lol, I agree. Actually, what got me thinking about it was a similar thread on a survival forum. People were saying how in ancient times no one needed special gear to "survive" in the wilderness. All the needed was the knowledge they had and a few item that could be found. Someone else argued that , while that may be true, the newer gear makes life easier, and that given the choice, those people from years ago would have jumped at the chance to use something that would make things easier for them, they just didn't have that option. That got me thinking that there must have been numerous time when someone using a slip joint, say on a farm, would have benifited from a locking blade, or the ability to open their knife with one hand. Being that knives back then were mainly looked at as functional tool, and not art, or something to collect, I would think that a lot of them would have choosen the locking, one hander, just for it's functionality.
 
Seems that I remember something being written about Kephart once that stated he was not afraid to use newer styled gear in his life and work. I found it interesting because he was/is considered one of the top outdoorsmen of all time and his knife designs are still popular today. Hard to imagine Horace tramping around in the woods with the latest, greatest, but I would have to agree that with all of the possibilities available today he might have chosen something other than what was available then. Question is would he have stayed with the new gear or gone back to what worked for him for so long? Kephart inspired assisted opener, with H1 steel and titanium liners?
 
I think working men of earlier generations would have opted for the tool that worked efficiently, quickly and safely. They were pragmatic much more than romantic.

They took good care of their tools because they usually couldn't afford to (or want to) replace them unnecessarily.

I don't doubt for a second that many would opt for easy opening, locking, one hand operating folders were they given a choice of knives available to them.

We, their heirs, can afford to be nostalgic and romantic where many of them couldn't be. We carry on the tradition out of fondness and respect for what they represented...not because the tools themselves were optimal (in all cases).

At least that's my take...And I, for one, continue to prefer the knives and tools that keep me in touch with that time (but for the occasions when it's impractical or unsafe to do so).
 
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Blues said:
I think working men of earlier generations would have opted for the tool that worked efficiently, quickly and safely. They were pragmatic much more than romantic.

They took good care of their tools because they usually couldn't afford to (or want to) replace them unnecessarily.

I don't doubt for a second that many would opt for easy opening, locking, one hand operating folders were they given a choice of knives available to them.

We, their heirs, can afford to be nostalgic and romantic where many of them couldn't be. We carry on the tradition out of fondness and respect for what they represented...not because the tools themselves were optimal (in all cases).

At least that's my take...And I, for one, continue to prefer the knives and tools that keep me in touch with that time (but for the occasions when it's impractical or unsafe to do so).
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You just summed up what I was trying to say in my original post...... you just did it much better.
 
mdsmith said:
You just summed up what I was trying to say in my original post...... you just did it much better.
Click to expand...

Well heck, let's just call it a collaborative effort. ;):thumbup:
 
Hmm, maybe, maybe not.

Don't forget, one hand opening knives were very available before a certain U.S. senator went nuts in 1957. I remember growing up, there were working men who carried a Schrade or Hammer Brand automatic. Heck, one wild young lady I knew carried a red handled Hammer Brand "switchblade" as her edc. There were one and two bladed models available that looked like the two blade pen knives of the day. But they never seemed to gain a real lot of popularity. Even when they were available right there at the knife case at the hardware store, it was rare to see one being used "outside".

What would our fathers carry?

There may be some that would go for the one hand knife. But I think most would have stayed with the traditional multiblade. It was just their mental philosophy that would make the difference.

Carl.
 
Well, if finances allowed, maybe one of each.
That's what I'm doing today, carrying a Spyderco Military and Case peanut.
I do tend to agree with Elliott in post #6 though.
 
The one thing that I can think of that may have kept them from going with the one handers would be the preference for multiple blades. That would really be the only advantage I can see of the slip joint.
 
Blues said:
I think working men of earlier generations would have opted for the tool that worked efficiently, quickly and safely. They were pragmatic much more than romantic.

They took good care of their tools because they usually couldn't afford to (or want to) replace them unnecessarily.

I don't doubt for a second that many would opt for easy opening, locking, one hand operating folders were they given a choice of knives available to them.

We, their heirs, can afford to be nostalgic and romantic where many of them couldn't be. We carry on the tradition out of fondness and respect for what they represented...not because the tools themselves were optimal (in all cases).

At least that's my take...And I, for one, continue to prefer the knives and tools that keep me in touch with that time (but for the occasions when it's impractical or unsafe to do so).
Click to expand...

Well.... put a +1 after that one for me. I don't think it could be said much better than that!

My grandfather was born in the early 1890s, and was a blue collar guy his whole life. Knives were tools, and were only prized after proof of their performance. "A good knife" was used until there was nothing left of it, and when the blade points stuck out of the case, a backspring broke, or a scale fell off, it was still carried until that situation became unworkable.

My grandmother threw away most of my grandfather's knives (grrrrrrrr) because they were "broken". Oddly, I have his old 50 cent Keen Kutter Barlow that he purchased (we think) sometime in the 20s or 30s simply because he lost it. It was found after his demise in an odd box of stuff. It has a ton of pocket wear, and is a real beauty to me.

Grandad moved to Texas City on the coast so he could fish whenever he wanted. He was both an avid fisherman and a hunter. Yet, he only owned a small handful of knives. If a knife didn't meet his expectations he gave them away, or traded them off for something he wanted. When he passed, he owned about 6 pocket knives, and 4 sheath knives. He had about 20 hunting rifles though, some custom made. Rifles were his passion, and knives were taken for granted. Excepting his sheath knives, or "hunting knives" as he called them, his folders were called on for all manner of duties.

I saw him scrape, pry, turn screws, cut anything that needed cutting, wedge things apart, cut up his lunch, cut bait and clean fish with his old yellow handled CASE stockman. To him, it had the same reliable utility value as a tire iron. It had better be dependable when called on,or it was gone.

While I don't have near the amount of folders that many here have, my lot of about 40 - 50 traditionals would have certainly not met with approval from him. I can see his disapproving scowl, asking me why anyone would ever need more than a couple of pocket knives.

So how did Grandad pick his patterns if he had so few knives? He liked stockmans because the could clean a fish with the large blade, cut rope, or clean small game. His EDC though, was an equal ended CASE congress pattern. Why? Because it had three blades on it (he snapped one off) so he had a chance at having one sharp blade on the knife. He was terrible at sharpening, so he liked the fact that when he took his knife to his buddy at the hardware/bait/fishing supplies store, he could get it sharpened for a nickel a blade in the early 60s. So in that way, it was like carrying a box cutter with extra blades in the handle.

Talk about practical!

I hadn't thought of that in years.

Robert
 
mdsmith said:
... there must have been numerous time when someone using a slip joint, say on a farm, would have benifited from a locking blade, or the ability to open their knife with one hand.
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Apropos of nothing, there's been lots of times when I could have used a helmet (bumping my head on the cellar door, for instance), but I don't wear one just walking around. ;-)

Regarding what the men in our families would have carried, I think a little of this and a little of that. Some would be motivated by price (perhaps a Chinese Buck?), some with fashion/gizmo factor (surely a Spydie), some with soul/ tradition and/or cutting performance (Case or GEC), and some with unsentimental utilitarian value (SAK or Leatherman).

-- Mark
 
mnblade said:
Apropos of nothing, there's been lots of times when I could have used a helmet (bumping my head on the cellar door, for instance), but I don't wear one just walking around. ;-)
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Not really sure I see the comparison there. We're talking about a different version of something they already carried and used.
 
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My grandfather carried advertising knives. Most were jacks. The one I have is a Coca Cola advertising single blade jack. Never knew my mothers father, he died when she was 10 years old. He carried a harmonica everywhere he went, I asked my grandmother about a knife, she didn't know. Maybe my late great uncle got it. He loved guns and was a Border Patrol agent, he must've had at least a few knives. To my fathers father, and my mothers father, knives were tools as far as I can tell. A cheaper Imperial or Colonial was the way to go.

I guess today, an inexpensive Case would be the way to go. I would definitely like to give both of them a good knife to carry :) .
 
I’d like to think the old guys (Grandpa in sunglasses with Rex the dog, his two sons and his brother Leif in their best Grapes of Wrath pose on the western Minnesota prairie) carried two-blade jacks, preferably EO’s, and would huff or snort cynically when shown some of the one-handed, pocket clipped, all-black models of today.
Yes, I am romantically biased. :D
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I only wish they were here so I could give them whatever they wanted. For one grandfather I never saw
him without a barlow, my dad always carried Texas Jacks or something very similar. My self its been stockmen,
muskrats, and toothpicks(present). I'd have to think long and hard to say that they would have preferred
something more "modern" in a pocketknife.
Ken.
 
My father passed away about a year and a half ago. When he did I ended up with all of his well worn traditional slip joints. Over the years he went through at least two trappers. One was made my Western and the other by Case. I always remember him with a trapper and they were used from everything to cleaning fish to stripping wire. He sharpened them by hand on a stone and bought a new one when there was not much left of the blade.

About 4 years before he died I gave him his first one handed opener. After that he retired the traditionals and used the modern knife. He made the switch not because they were cool and high-tech but simply because they were an easy to acess and open tool.... nothing more. His passing on his traditionals has pushed me into using only slipjoints while my 4 Chris Reeves sit in a drawer. There remains something about the classic traditional patterns that just have so much soul and also brings me back to when I was a kid watching my dad use his knives.
 
My father owned many different kinds of handsaw. 8 point, 10 point, 12 point, 5 ½ point ripsaw, coping saw, keyhole saw, bucksaw, on and on. But his main cutting tool on the job was a skillsaw. (Off topic—the skillsaw changed the specifications of the sawhorse. You want a lower horse when you use a handsaw. A taller horse is better with a skillsaw.)

He didn’t own a sawzall at first. But when they got reliable and available he bought one.

I started out mixing mortar in a mortar box with a big hoe. Later he bought a powered cement mixer, which made things easier on me. Alas, it didn’t make the hod any lighter.

For years we cut trim with a miter box and handsaw. Later he got a powered miter box.

The point is, he was pragmatic. He had to be. No carpenter could earn his pay in the thirties or fifties without using power tools.

If he had decided a (time traveling) Spyderco suited his needs, he’d have carried one. With no more fuss than he made about getting a new sheetrock knife.

OTOH, he time traveled (the old fashioned way) into age of Benchmark and Spyderco and never carried either.
 
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