When did you realize that carrying a slipjoint was important.

For me it was right after I was born. I was lying there on my mother's stomach waiting for someone to cut the cord and I heard the doctor say "Sh$t, I dropped the damn scissors. Anyone got a knife?" and one of the nurses pulled out a stockman and handed it to him. Razor sharp and got the job done slicker than you could imagine.

Actually, I grew up where knives were just part of what went on. My dad always carried one, and all of the boys in elementary school had them. Later on I worked on farms and needed one to cut the twine on the hay bales, open sacks, etc. It was just the normal thing to do.
 
Add me to the farm/ranch contingent. As many of you can attest, you may not always need a knife on a ranch, but when you need one, you *really* need it. I still think it's a bit peculiar to not carry a pocket knife, although I recognize that many people don't have the opportunity to do so.

James
 
I'm another old farm boy. I've carried a knife since I was old enough to help with the farm chores. I went to a one room country school and all the guys had a knife. When there weren't chores, it got used for plenty of whittling and carving. One of the northern Mn. winter sports is darkhouse spearing so many winter evenings were spent carving fishing decoys.
 
Blues said:
Grandpa carried a knife so I wanted a knife.
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That was my situation exactly. He never did end up giving me one (cancer took him), but Mom did.

Now, as to when I started really carrying a knife every day, that was in about seventh grade.

We weren't supposed to carry a knife at school (though back then, the penalty was more like a detention, losing the knife, etc. -- not expulsion, a visit from the SWAT team, and an expose on a 24-hour cable news channel). Still, something just clicked in me and I said to myself, I'm old enough to carry a knife every day and that's just what I'm going to do, whether they like it or not. :mad:

So I started carrying a SAK Classic to school. Move over, Rebel Without a Cause! :D

In high school, I upgraded to bigger knives: Vicious ninja slayers like the Schrade Old Timer 33OT, a Case medium stockman for awhile, or a Buck 503 Prince lockback that my dad bought me (till some jerk stole it from my gym bag in the weight room).
 
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I never realized the importance of carrying a slip joint; but did realize the importance of carrying a knife when I was very young. My Mom used to take me fishing & camping, hiking and other such outdoorsy activities. Mom taught me the paramount importance of carrying a knife; and how useful a tool it is. I have carried a knife since I was a little girl.
 
From the age of about 8 years old, I had a small pen knife in my pencil case that I took to school to sharpen pencils.
It had a 1" blade.

From about 10, I had a Camper (scout type pattern) that I carried in Cub Scouts on a clip on my belt.
Later in Scouts, I had it on a lanyard.

In scouts I had a stag handled sheath knife. (still have it)
 
I think on a school outing when some older types had pocket knives to spread food and prepare rolls and apples.Then on I had to get handy equipment. It could have been seeing a gardener cutting veggies in his kitchen/garden at about the same time,just seemed so much easier.8 is an impressionable age!
 
The first time I got my A$$ Whooped at grade school fer bin a indin, and it worked too....
 
In college. My father always had a small two blade case or schrade in his pocket even though he worked in an office. He started out as a machinist and got promoted up to a supervisory position. I guess I picked up the habit from him. In highschool senior year I lost the little vic classic I carried and never replaced it. Fast forward to freshman year in college I remember riding around with some friends and a cousin who was visiting. We stopped at a local texmex restaurant to eat when we realized my cousin could not get his seat belt off. He was stuck like chuck in the car. There were at least five of us there and no one had a way to cut my poor cousin out of the car. I missed my little classic that night and pretty much decided I would always have good pocket knife on me. I can always be found with a little sak on my person whenever I leave the house. As for my cousin well we ended up smasing a shot glass he had in his car against the curb and cut him out of the car with the jagged edge.
 
My buddy always had a knife on him. One day he was fishing wearing waders, and as he tells it, he must have stepped off a ledge and the water started pouring in. The current pulled him under using his waders as a water anchor. He couldn't get himself loose for whatever reason, but he got to his pocket knife and cut himself loose.

He told me that he'll never be without a knife and, well, I liked that idea. Plus, my Dad worked 2nd shift and would always sharpen his slippies after dinner. And GrandDad always had one, too.

I love knives! Wish I could afford more.

And, for the record, so do my sons.
 
cub scouts when i was seven. i went to the camp store and said daddy i want this one! it was my first knife. now im fifteen and i know the importants of slipjoints because of cutting power... plus they soo pretty
 
I didn't grow up on a farm, but I've been a woods/river rat my whole life. Grandpa gave me his yeller Case Trapper to carry on our forays into the wilderness and one of my fondest memories is skinning a rabbit with Grandpa guiding my hands. Since then, I'm never without a knife of some sort, usually more than one.
 
kidwholaughs said:
... Twisty(sp?) RailRoad. ...
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That would be "Tweetsie", a little steam train featuring a boarding by wild west badguys halfway through the ride. Halfway between Boone and Blowing Rock, NC. My family owns a house in Blowing Rock, I was last there in the early 90s.

You are the second person outside of my immediate family that I have ever heard mention Tweetsie in my entire life (49 years). Oddly, the other person is a co-worker who just mentioned it a couple of months ago.

As for knives, I've always been fascinated by things I wasn't supposed to have, so have known I'd needed a knife since I was about 4. Carried a SAK all through school, never an issue. Picked up a few over the years, but only started collecting them as I got older.

-- Sam
 
I wanted one early on, when I was 4 years old. Finally was allowed to have one when I turned 7. Now, grandpa used to let me use his well before I got my own and he taught me knife safety

Watching my grandfather, he always had a pocket knife on him and used it all the time. Opening mail, cleaning fish, cutting up apples, etc, all the regular stuff most of use use them for. In fact, he was the reason I wanted a pocket knife in the first place. My first knife was like what he had (different brand) but it was a medium, three blade stockman, carbon steel blades, got it in 1967 and I still have it.

Mike
 
I realized carrying a knife was important when my girlfriend's mother (now my Mother-in law) smacked me on the back of the head because I didn't have a knife in my pocket. Back in '87 or '88 (I was 19 or 20) I was helping my girlfriend's mother do some work on her house. She needed to cut something, so she asked to borrow my pocket knife. I told her I didn't own a knife. She immediately whacked me on the back of the head(mom style) and said "what's wrong with you boy?" She scolded me some more as she went in search of her Schrade Old Timer. She stated that "ALL MEN NEED TO CARRY A POCKET KNIFE." Later that evening she bought me a Buck pocket knife. I've never been without a pocket knife since that day.

She was right. "ALL MEN NEED TO CARRY A POCKET KNIFE."
 
I became aware of the value of carrying a slipjoint after reading a great article by Don Rearic, entitled "Low-Tech Knives in a High-Tech World".

http://www.donrearic.com/lotechhitech.html


In the article, Rearic asks,

"What if you can't have your "newest and bestest" folding knife with the Space Age Steel and the latest Wiz-bang, slide-rule developed locking device that you can hang weight plates from, what then? Is everything lost?"

...

"Through many conversations with Fred Perrin, I started to develop this whole idea that I did not have to leave good tools behind that were no longer considered "Modern." They did not have to be sentenced to the dustbin of cutlery history, no, quite the opposite."

"Fred Perrin spends a lot of his time teaching various Military and Police Units in Europe and elsewhere how to do various things like fighting with knife and stick, hand to hand combat and he teaches them about various concealed weapons. He teaches much, much more and that is totally beyond the scope of this article, it would have to be a series of articles to cover it all."

"One of the most important things is how to survive in areas where you cannot get the "latest and greatest" equipment. Or, in places where if you did try to get the "latest and greatest" equipment, it might mean you draw attention to yourself."

...

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After reading this article, I began to think seriously about carrying a slipjoint instead of a tactical, and in fact began doing so.
 
Last year, I picked up an Opinel at a local store. (not a slip joint, but still traditional). Previously, all I bought were tacticals. I was amazed by how much better it cut, and how simple it was too sharpen. That's how I was one over to traditionals.
 
augustus88 said:
I realized carrying a knife was important when my girlfriend's mother (now my Mother-in law) smacked me on the back of the head because I didn't have a knife in my pocket. Back in '87 or '88 (I was 19 or 20) I was helping my girlfriend's mother do some work on her house. She needed to cut something, so she asked to borrow my pocket knife. I told her I didn't own a knife. She immediately whacked me on the back of the head(mom style) and said "what's wrong with you boy?" She scolded me some more as she went in search of her Schrade Old Timer. She stated that "ALL MEN NEED TO CARRY A POCKET KNIFE." Later that evening she bought me a Buck pocket knife. I've never been without a pocket knife since that day.

She was right. "ALL MEN NEED TO CARRY A POCKET KNIFE."
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THAT! is a great story.
 
When I grew up, men carried pocket knives.. even in the heart of Chicago where I lived. I've lost sight of that from time to time but eventually rediscovered the joy of carrying a pocket knife. When I found the first case senator my dad gave me (which I've misplaced once again). Most recently, when my oldest son joined cub scouts. He's a boy scout working on Eagle now, but the story bears repeating...

Please forgive me my friends, but about 10 or so years ago, I had become enamoured with carbon fiber, talonite, and titanium. I had the most incredible tactical knife. Carbon fiber handles, ti frame, dagger ground talonite blade, snapped open with a flick of the wrist and the slightest push on the thumb stud. Perfect. Or so I thought.

On my sons first cub scout campout, the dads were sitting around showing the kids how to whittle. "Dad, teach me how to whittle." My god. I used to whittle. Whittling is fun. I can teach Jacob all that. So we sit down, I whip out my carbon handled, talonite bladed wonder, flick it open with a snap that drew the attention of everyone gathered. Pick up a stick, lecture Jacob with authority, and then start cutting. Except it wasnt cutting. I may as well have been using a rock. I couldnt shave the bark off a stick. We struggled thru it, but when I got home from the campout, I went into my closet and pulled out some old knives of mine and my dads. I found my dads old case xx 64052 4 blade congress. And without cleaning it up or sharpening it, it outcut my tactical wonder. And so did his old timer stockman, and his buck stockman. WTF? Could it be that these dirty old knives are better cutters than the fancy new stuff? I cant carry this. No pocket clip. Too slow. What if I had to kill a man with my pocket knife? Besides, I'm a custom knife guy now. I wonder if anyone makes custom versions of these great old knives? So off to ebay I went. There I found a bunch of beautiful custom slipjoints for sale made by a couple guys named Bose. Never heard of them but the knives looked great. There among them was a 4 blade congress that was almost identical to my dads old case. This custom had some so-so looking bone. In spite of that boring Remington bone, I wanted the knife. So I bid, and later bid again. Won it!! Paid way up, almost 1000 dollars, maybe more. The seller was actually a pretty nice guy, and we struck up a friendship. It was John Nugent. Some months and several knives later, he told me to call Tony directly and order a knife. I felt like I was talking to Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth when I called. But Tony was patient and walked me thru ordering my first knife, which happens to be my avatar knife. Tony asked me how I got interested in custom slipjoints, so I told him about the tactical knive that couldnt whittle a stick. He laughed his a$$ off, and we've been friends ever since. And I've carried slipjoints almost exclusively since then. And I plan to someday get a couple more Boses to give to my kids as gifts when they make Eagle scout.
 
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