When did regular old pocket knives become “traditional”?

The road forked in 1981 with first Spyderco knife; the Worker. It as not a runaway hit. It was a slow burn that spread because users who got one realized it answered questions they never even thought to ask. More and more sold and other would be makers started to put their own spin on this new kind of knife. It in essence went viral.
 
JohnDF said:
I'm not so sure our forefathers wouldn't have accepted a "modern" one-hand knife.
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My grandfathers would absolutely have accepted one hand opening knives, it's what they knew. I doubt either one ever owned a spring knife, unless you count the SAK Classic my maternal grandfather received when he was in his 70s. A traditional folding knife to them meant a balisong, or butterfly knife.
 
I think it was the mid 80s when the tool trucks like Snapon, Mac Tools and Matco started to carry modern knives with clips, thumb stud and liner locks and such. Kershaw, Gerber and some others were sold in sets with a tool package and had the billboard graphics all over the handles and blades. As a young man I thought they were cool but found them to be more of a gimmick than a real cutting tool. Soft steel that went dull in a short time and usually didn’t last long enough to wear the graphics off. After trying a few I went back to a good old Buck 301 stockman and I still have it.

Now a days thanks to research and technology we have better steel and heat treatment along with advanced geometry that makes for excellent cutting tools. I carry both modern and traditional and use them everyday at work and off duty and they serve me well. I think we have the best of both eras!
 
JohnDF said:
I didn't mean you, I was just talking in a general sense. :)
I'm not so sure our forefathers wouldn't have accepted a "modern" one-hand knife.
But still, there is something simplistic and natural about a slip-joint knife thrown in the pocket.
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Well someone's forefather invented the modern knife so they did by default accept. Modern knives evolved out of user demand and couldn't have come about they way they have without forefathers making them.

People used to really dream about the future and what it would look like. The same gene that produced aircraft and telephones couldn't look at a pocket knife and not see room for improvement it what would have been a daily tool for them.

If we're going that route why even have pockets? Just carry what you need rolled up in a skin.
 
hornetguy said:
They've always been traditional, I think. They were simply given that name lately, to differentiate them from the single blade lockbacks that have become more frequently seen. If you were looking to buy a "pocket knife" you would likely be shown the lockbacks with pocket clips.... to avoid that, we ask to see "traditional" pocketknives.
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That^ sums up my view on it as well. 'Traditional' was always the default, going literally without saying it, up until the 'non-traditional', very different knives starting showing up. Then we had to distinguish between the two, by overtly naming the 'traditional knives' out loud.

I'm one of those guys whom, as a teenager, I started ogling the knives at the cutlery shop in the mall back in the late '70s or early '80s. I don't remember seeing anything at that time like what we now call 'modern' knives, aside from the ubiquitous Swiss Army Knives from Victorinox and Wenger, which seemed like marvels of engineering and craftsmanship (and they still are), and the popular Buck 110 and Gerber lockback equivalents which started to hint at the 'modern' trend. It wasn't until the early '90s or so, that I started to notice the one-hand openers from Spyderco, Benchmade and others.

Very ahead of it's time...
There was one knife in particular that I started to see advertised in magazines (think it was Field & Stream at the time) in the mid-late 1970s. It was the Paul Knife by Gerber, designed by an aerospace engineer named Paul Poehlmann, with it's radically different axial button lock mechanism. I sort of obsessed over that one after seeing the ads in the magazines and LONG before I could actually afford to buy one - they were pricey, even then. Wasn't until the 1990s when I became gainfully employed in a good job with good pay and discretionary income, that I could afford to indulge myself on those.
 
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It is fun to think about how things have changed and for many of us, come full circle with regards to “traditional” knives. As I write this, I will be 53 come the end of this month Lord willing, and based just on my life, knives went something like this: slip-joints and fixed blades inherited from two grandfathers, one a shore patrolman in the Navy in North Africa and the other an Army private who after the war used the GI bill to become a machinist and get off the farm in NE Georgia. My dad likewise became a machinist and later an aircraft mechanic and had enough disposable income in the 70’s and 80’s to hunt, fish and generally buy whatever knives he wanted (Buck 110’s, 119’s and early Kershaws). He gave me my first new knife which was payment for helping him rake leaves, a Buck 309 Companion in about 1977. As I got older and was influenced by friends, I would say knives began to change sometime in the 80’s with the intro of the BuckLite type knives - not exactly one handed and no pocket clip, but lightweight for sure. Parenthetically, the brass Buck 110 has always been one-handed around these parts, just pinch-n-flip. But the game-changer at least around metro Atlanta was the introduction of the first Spyderco Delicas and Enduras, 1990-ish give or take a year or two. This opened the floodgate for copies both good and bad to overtake most pockets. But for me anyway, this was not to last for in the early to mid 2000’s I started to buy the occasional Case knife and I had a buddy with a Mac Tool truck who got all of the Camillus/Remington knives which I also began to collect. And finally I began reading Bladeforums and you guys took me down the rabbit hole into peanuts, alox SAK’s and those barlows made from unobtainium.
But at heart, I am still the kid in the back of this 73 Chevy C10, with my Dad and Grandad and a nice GA whitetail that my dad dressed out with, what else... a Buck 110.
SbJCguc.jpg
 
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I was given my first knife at age 6 in 1977 - it was a peanut (still have that one, too). Most of my folding knives until the late 80s were slipjoints, although I had a lockback at one point. From the late 80s until a few years ago, most of my knives were modern - one-hand opening, some kind of one-hand lock, pocket clips, generally higher-end modern stainless steels.

I've mostly switched back to slipjoints, because I like them and they meet my pocketknife needs.
  • I don't need a lock for anything I do (if a task needs a lock, I'd rather have a fixed blade).
  • I have grown to hate pocket clips (the only knives I've ever lost out of my pocket were clipped).
  • I do like the one-hand opening, though, but I can open most of my most-carried slipjoints one-handed.
  • I'm kind of torn on the modern steels - I very much notice and appreciate the wear resistance and low maintenance of modern supersteels - they stay sharp a long time, and they don't rust easily. But at the same time, I really like the patina of carbon steel, and will end up using my pocket knife for more tasks than I would otherwise (like in the kitchen), just so I can work on the patina.
But I'm very conscious of the fact that I'm enjoying the luxury of using an older technology. If I was an EMT, for example, I'd probably just want a modern knife all the way. I don't think our 'forefathers' were intentionally using an older technology - they were using the best thing available to them. So, you can choose to honor the tools they carried by carrying the same things, or you can choose to honor the spirit in which they carried those tools by carrying the most modern knife that fits your needs. Both approaches work fine.

-Tyson
 
Thanks everyone for your considered and informative responses. Reading through them it seems that “modern” knives began to be noticeable in the late 80’s and started to really take over the market in the 90’s. This timeline would explain why I missed out on the trend.
 
SVTFreak said:
I remember seeing my first spyderco in 1994 ...
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This would be my timeline as well. I moved from Florida to central Europe in early summer of 1993 with a Victorinox Classic that rode on my keys, and a Victorinox Adventurer that road in my day pack or back pocket (these were my only knives for five years; the rest of the collection was still back at my dad's house in south Florida). Naturally, I'd check out any knife shop I came across, gazing mostly at SAKs and Opinels. It was about '94 that I started noticing Spydercos. About the same time, I found a book store with a large selection of English-language magazines and bought a copy of Blade that had several Spyderco ads in it. AND, I made friends with a fellow expatriated Floridian who carried a Spyderco, the first I'd ever handled.

-- Mark
 
Tyson A Wright said:
I don't think our 'forefathers' were intentionally using an older technology - they were using the best thing available to them.
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There's something to this. I often wonder how many of those guys back in the day with their 2-blade pen knives would have preferred a large, single-blade folder, but found them too dern heavy to carry. Some of them, I suspect, would have gladly carried something like a FRN-handled Spyderco Endura or a lightweight Buck 110 slim.

-- Mark
 
Great topic and a feast of philosophy and flim flam.
Forgive my ignorance but I do believe the men and women who fought ww2 were more heavily armed ....along with those reliable handy pocketknives they had amongst their respective arsenals ...Thompson machine guns, Sherman Tanks ,Garand rifles, Lee Enfields,Lancaster Bombers, the Messerschmidt, The Supermarine Spitfire with its Rolls Royce Merlin Engine...what else? oh yeah the atom bomb ,the V1 & V2 rockets and methamphetamine.....Im not trying to be argumentative...but lets face it...you dont take a penknife to an atom bomb fight....although obviously if the thing got snagged on a stray rope in the bomb hatch on the way out...a penknife might have come in handy..

Perhaps the advent of plastics and bakelite materials caused a change in the tide and designers moved ravenously towards these cheap, readily availble, easy ,more marketably modern handle materials...
I have 2 beautiful old Rodgers penknives that my Grandad owned..almost sharpened away and pretty much discarded in favour of any modern plastic gizmo that came into being..his take was " if its new its better"...which IMO is false...I also retain my paternal Grandads campaign medals...things he didnt want and I believe strived to forget why.
Lets get a working definition of "traditional"..I know we have one in the Porchenberg constitution....perhaps its time for some amendments?...eg when does delrin become considered traditional? If ever. Should the term remain frozen in time.?
Will the the thumbstud ever make the cut
(;))? Questions questions.
Cheers.
 
Danke42 said:
The road forked in 1981 with first Spyderco knife; the Worker. It as not a runaway hit. It was a slow burn that spread because users who got one realized it answered questions they never even thought to ask. More and more sold and other would be makers started to put their own spin on this new kind of knife. It in essence went viral.
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This

I bought the entire Spyderco catalog in 1982 - at that time it was a whopping 2 knives - the Worker and the Mariner. What set them apart? Spyderhole for easy one handed opening; pocket clip for easy carry; SpyderEdge serrations; all stainless construction. The Worker and The Mariner were not instant hits but very soon after (about 2 years) Spyderco came out with the Police and Military models and "modern tacticals" were defined.

Some may disagree with me but I credit the modern tactical knife genre to Sal Glesser.
 
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I was born in 1967. My first knife was a scout knife that I "found" on my grandpa's work bench when I was 5. I have loved knives since that day. No one ever told me what I should carry, nor taught me anything about knives, nor encouraged my enthusiasm . It all happened naturally and I figured it out by myself. I had a barlow and a stockman and many other patterns. But eventually, I naturally gravitated to locking knives. My first was a was a crappy Pakistani rendition of a Buck. Then I got a Japanese version of a K55...and after that, whatever I could get my hands on. My first good knife was a finger grooved Buck 112 Ranger which I still have. "Traditionals" never made an impression on me until I was in my 40s. Most of what I bought was "modern" All of my choices were what appealed to me. I own a huge mixed-bag of knives. I still buy what I like. Some are modern, and some are traditional.
 
I didn't know anything about one-hand openers until they started appearing in the mail catalogs in the early '90s.
 
My dad, grandpa, uncles carried pocketknives (Buck, Case) in the 90s. In high school in the early 2000s I first noticed that my friends who had knives, didn’t have knives like I knew, they had these cool looking modern tactical knives that could be opened one handed, and they seemed to enjoy whipping them out and flicking them open and closed. Neat trick but even then I couldn’t figure out when I would ever actually need a knife that could be opened one handed and locked. I also recall these things could be bought at every gas station, while you had to look hard for a display of “traditional” knives...
 
I read through this thread rather fast...
This one may have been listed and I missed it.
As I understand the history of the One Armed Bandit knife it was developed after the Civil War, 'cause many vets retuned with only one arm and needed to have a knife they could open one handed.
If that is so then one handed opening knives have been with us for a long time and they are 'traditionals'
Don't have one so took this image off Worthpoint...
1yTWV6J.jpg
 
There are for sure some one-handed traditionals. Like what pjsjr mentioned above, and theres also the Christy knife which was invented in the 1930s. But I dont believe the one-handedness is what makes something modern as opposed to the materials and manufacturing process more so. (Plastics instead of bone, CNC machining, etc.)
 
I dunno, but it seems like the world likes to classify things and put them in buckets. I have always ridden motorcycles that I considered enduros but all of a sudden or not all of a sudden folks were calling them dual sports, so maybe I have my buckets mixed up.

I was gifted a Spyderco in the early 2000’s that I thought looked and functioned like something NASA would make. When I look at it now it seems very simple and basic. I still appreciate that knife.

I do enjoy the Traditional forum or bucket so keep up the good work.
 
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