Worries about carrying a very expensive slipjoint

on_the_edge

on_the_edge

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I'm thinking about carrying a very expensive slipjoint (T. Bose) and am wondering from those who have already carried one--how do you carry yours and do you worry about losing it? I am not averse to throwing it in my front pants pocket (I usually wear jeans) provided nothing else is in there other than maybe a hankerchief. My only fear is that I would somehow accidentally lose it. Should I just get over it and get on with the carrying?

Thanks in advance, folks!
 
While I don't begrudge anyone carrying a very expensive pocket knife, I won't ever carry one because I know my propensity to lose things like that. If you are better than I at keeping up with it, then by all means I would carry it and not worry about it.

But at the end of the day, it's a thing and can be replaced.
 
A Tony Bose custom is way out of my league but I will say this:

Tony would want you to carry it.
 
on_the_edge said:
I'm thinking about carrying a very expensive slipjoint (T. Bose) and am wondering from those who have already carried one--how do you carry yours and do you worry about losing it? I am not averse to throwing it in my front pants pocket (I usually wear jeans) provided nothing else is in there other than maybe a hankerchief. My only fear is that I would somehow accidentally lose it. Should I just get over it and get on with the carrying?

Thanks in advance, folks!
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When I carry an expensive or even irriplaceable folder, I carry it in a slip case. One is to protect it from keys, change, and those ever present pocket lint. Two - they add some friction in the pocket, so it is less likely to slide out. I have lost a few in my day, and it is never fun. For a T. Bose, I would get a case from Arne Mason - That is what I use. They are the best that I have found.
 
I carry most of my customs. I do occasionally worry about losing them. But recently I came to the realization that I will never pay over $500 for a custom. A higher value than that and it immobilizes me. It stays in the safe and never gets carried. It becomes like a priceless Ming vase, which is not how slipjoints should be viewed. So most of my customs are in the $200-$450 range.
Thus losing them would be painful, but not a soul-crushing blow like misplacing a $2,000+ Bose.
 
Right after I purchased it, I lost my Bruce Bump swayback and went crazy before I found it after maybe a week. Sadly, it was in a pair of pants identical to the ones I had checked first in my search for it, thinking the wrong pair were what I had worn the previous day. Still, it was enough that I stopped carrying it for awhile, then threw it in a CRK slip pouch, thinking that as the pouch would make it bigger, it would be harder to lose. After about a week, I gave that up and carried it loose again. The only time I don't carry it is if I'm wearing pants or shorts with shallow pockets.

My thought is I bought a knife, not a paperweight, and a knife not in my pocket is just a paperweight. I would rather lose a knife that I like to use than have a pretty paperweight. It is tough to lose a knife, but whether lost or never carried, the result day to day is the same. It's up to you to decide whether you would rather never risk losing it and not often use it, or use it a lot and accept that potential. For me, I like my customs too much to not carry them.

edited to add: Sometimes I will stuff a slipjoint under my wallet and phone in my front pocket, and then there's no chance of it escaping.
 
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That is a legitimate concern. I take the train to work and one day my Kerry Hampton KHnutbuster slipped out of the pocket of my slacks. This is one of my most treasured possessions as I carried it the day I got married and the day my daughter was born. Were it not for the sharp eyes and honesty of a complete stranger, this knife would have been lost forever. I have since semi-retired the KHnutbuster, saving it for anniversaries and special occassions and such, and I never carry it if I have to take public transportation.

On the other hand, I carry my Sebenza and Ohta regularly. Both were more expensive than the KHnutubster and it would undoubtedly sting if I lost either of them, but I enjoy carrying and using a finely made knife. So I choose to carry them, though I do take a bit of care when I do so.

- Christian
 
Thought for the day. Several years ago, my home was broken into and several knives that I wasn't carrying were stolen, including a couple of irreplaceable customs. Not carrying it doesn't guarantee you won't lose it.
 
kreole said:
Right after I purchased it, I lost my Bruce Bump swayback and went crazy before I found it after maybe a week. Sadly, it was in a pair of pants identical to the ones I had checked first in my search for it, thinking the wrong pair were what I had worn the previous day. Still, it was enough that I stopped carrying it for awhile, then threw it in a CRK slip pouch, thinking that as the pouch would make it bigger, it would be harder to lose. After about a week, I gave that up and carried it loose again. The only time I don't carry it is if I'm wearing pants or shorts with shallow pockets.

My thought is I bought a knife, not a paperweight, and a knife not in my pocket is just a paperweight. I would rather lose a knife that I like to use than have a pretty paperweight. It is tough to lose a knife, but whether lost or never carried, the result day to day is the same. It's up to you to decide whether you would rather never risk losing it and not often use it, or use it a lot and accept that potential. For me, I like my customs too much to not carry them.

edited to add: Sometimes I will stuff a slipjoint under my wallet and phone in my front pocket, and then there's no chance of it escaping.
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Good post, kreole.

If I were in this situation I think your post would have talked me into carrying it. Very valid points.
 
I carry a Bose Wharncliffe Trapper, It's not easy at first! But once you do and get a scuff or two, It makes it easier...lol. I don't carry it everyday
but it's in the rotation for sure. All knife makers want folks to carry and use there knives, So enjoy it. You want lose it I promise...lol. I do
a pocket check all day when I'm carrying any of my custom knives. Just throw it in your pocket with no change or anything like that and you'll be good to go.

Jason
 
I just carry them (anything from a Bose to an SAK) in my right front pocket with nothing else in there. Have not manged to have one jump out of the pocket at 56, but it is a habit to have a knife there since I was in the first grade.
 
As Tony has said many times...you can't take it with you when you reach the end of the road. I would carry it alone in your pocket, take it out and clean it weekly (and oil the joint!), and make sure there aren't occasional coins dropping out of your pocket. It doesn't take much of a hole in your jeans/pants pocket to loose a folder.

- Joe
 
yablanowitz said:
Thought for the day. Several years ago, my home was broken into and several knives that I wasn't carrying were stolen, including a couple of irreplaceable customs. Not carrying it doesn't guarantee you won't lose it.
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Been there. This is how I lost some of mine. I'd be upset if I lost one on my own, but I can usually get over that. On the other hand, it still infuriates me when I think about the (unknown) knuckleheads who stole mine from me. Probably sold them for cheap, too. After that, I began to believe the 'safest place' for mine were on my person, where I always can touch 'em and know they're still there.
 
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Did you buy it to carry it or did you buy it to admire it?

Either way, not faulting you, but I think you need to make up your own mind. I would hate to be the guy to say, "yeah Chris, go ahead toss it in your pocket", to hear you come back a later time, "Kevin, I lost my T. Bose...."

Kevin
 
For about 30 years I had the privilege of calling Bill Moran a friend. Bill was a little strange by some counts, and his values sometimes ran in ways a so called normal person didn't quite grasp.

Bill loved old muzzle loaders. Authentic ones, not he stuff marketed by Dixie Gun Works and Navy arms. He finally got a real nice one, an 1847 marked Purdey rifle in .75 caliber. Pretty nice shape, some ivory and gold embellishments, made for some landed gentry of a lordship for African game. Bill being bill, took the rifle hunting, and got a nice deer on a friends farm.

One day he gets a call from a guy at the big N.R.A. museum that had heard of the gun and had been tracing one down. Bill tells him to come on by. The guys going gaga over the gun, and Bill tells him it shoots really good. Guy gives Bill a weird look and ask's "You mean you've shot this gun?"

Bill being Bill, shows him a photo of him with the deer he shot at 90 yards with it. Guy gets pale and asked "You mean you actually took this gun out in the woods hunting?"

Bill explained to him that to not use an object for the express use it was created for was a crime. If old man Purdy was looking down, he'd be darned happy to see his rifle dropping game a century and a half after he made it.

I've never met Tony, but if he's any kind of craftsman like Bill, he'd want his stuff used for what it was made for.

Carl.
 
Bastid said:
I just carry them (anything from a Bose to an SAK) in my right front pocket with nothing else in there.
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canineforge said:
I would carry it alone in your pocket, take it out and clean it weekly (and oil the joint!), and make sure there aren't occasional coins dropping out of your pocket.
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You guys will think me a Philistine, but I keep my slipjoints in the same pocket I keep my keys and coins. Doesn't matter if it's an old Camillus or the Ohta, I drop it in without a second thought.

ohtaandtuominen.jpg


Maybe I'm just a clumsy gorilla, but it seems that no matter what I do my knives seem to pick up the marks of usage. Little dings here and there, scratched bolsters, pocket worn handles, and the like. My knives don't seem any the worse for wear, so I no longer worry about it. After all, my guns, my watch, my car -- none of them are pristine. And I have to admit that more often than not, my knives look better with some wabi-sabi, a Japanese term that roughly translated means the patina of age.

- Christian
 
Are you running a knife museum?
If not, why not have it in your pocket. You could get hit by a bus tomorrow and never even had the pleasure of using your own prized pocket knife.
 
If it were mine, I'd use it. But at the same time I would not drop that kind of cash on a user :)
 
You guys are correct in that I prefer use to non-use, that's for sure. I just don't want to lose it. That said, I get the sense that with a little care and common sense, the likelihood of losing it out of your pocket drops to nearly zero. And that is good enough for me. :) Yes, it would kill me to lose it, but if I don't carry it and use it, then in some sense, a part of me would already be dead.

Thanks for all the input, gents, and for re-centering me on what's really important in life (at least to me!).
 
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