Your dream job, and dream knife to go with it

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

Slipjoint Addict
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
20,039
Going through some old VHS tapes, and came across Misty of Chincoteague. I've been visiting Ocean City MD since I was a baby, and have come to dislike the hustle bustle of the resort town. However, I enjoy the slow moving life of Marylands Eastern Shore (except for the traffic on Route 50 and Delaware's Route 1). I enjoy visiting Assateague whenever I'm "down the ocean", but would like to visit Chincoteague. Back to this movie, I could care less about the horses, I just liked seeing an old shore town. Epitome of the Delmarva peninsula. A lot of hard work, but I would love to just kick back in one of these slow moving shore towns, and take up working my own boat. I have a great, secure job right now, but the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Lots of terrible hours, backbreaking work and eking life out on unemployment in the winter (although I see a few watermen driving brand new trucks). Anyway, I really liked the slow moving pace, if only presented as movie imagination. Got me thinking about jackknifes stories about growing up on the Eastern Shore. I figure a big stockman would be enough to carry on the workboat, maybe an old German or Brazilian machete for good measure. One of our esteemed members actually worked out of Chincoteague a couple years ago.

So, my dream job would be to work off my boat, crabbing, fishing, dredging, with a big 3 blade stockman made by Tony Bose, steel doesn't matter ;). Off the Delmarva coast.

What is your dream job, and what traditional knife would you carry?
 
Last edited:
It sounds funny, but I really think I was born about 150 years late. I would have been perfectly happy living on the range, running cattle. I know it wasn't an easy life, but it was a simple life. People cared about others, always willing to help and their word was everything...

I have always liked working on cars, and have built and owned a few race cars, and numerous muscle cars.

I like every aspect. The planing, the fabrication, building the engine, painting, and the final tuning of the engine and suspension .I would like to have a small shop again and do nothing but build race cars and street rods...
The reality is that there isn't much money in it.
Most racers are cheap by nature.

My other dream would be to have a nice sized cattle ranch. I grew up around it when I was younger. With the costs of everything these days, it is very hard to start out from scratch though, unless you have some deep pockets.

So I guess in reality I am doing my dream job. I have been driving truck for 30 years now. All my relatives had there own trucks, and it was a natural progression. I can't complain because I am fortunate to have a good job driving the gas tanker. I am home every night, most weekends off, the people I work with are good people, and the pay and benefits are excellent.

I tried working indoors for awhile and that about drove me crazy. I can't do it.. I need to be outdoors...
Even in the winter when the weather and roads going over the passes are terrible, its still not that bad.

As far as choice of knife, I guess nothing would change. I have been rotating between two Schrade Waldens I received awhile back and a Case red bone sepr. jack (circa 40-64) and have no reason to change.

When I was younger, I use to see places where some of the workers drove new pickups pulling boats and think they must make good money.
Only to figure out when I got older that just because people drive new rigs, it doesn't mean they make good money. They are just like most people and had big payments.

We all need to make a certain amount of money, but all the money in the world doesn't matter if a person is miserable everyday at work.
 
Forest Ranger back home in the Temagami district of Ontario. I would like to have a Randall Model 7 in my pack, a Buck 110 on my hip and a Case cv slippie in my left front.
 
Warden of a Conservation/Wilderness protection zone (as big as possible) Endless hours of tramping through forests&meadows,enhancing diverse animal/bird habitats (keeping most humans out..) Planting trees and bushes,setting up beehives,gathering dead wood for winter(but leaving enough for stag beetles and other insects). Physical work leading to a harmony by not having to confront the usual daily pressures and annoyances. Doing something rewarding,creative and promoting wildlife and nature. Bliss!

Knives? Couple of decent puukot or other sheath-knife. Stag handled Locking knife-GEC or Weidmannsheil. Böker Large Stockman Red Bone, Queen Cutlery Teardrop D2, CASE Swayback Jack in Bermuda Greenbone stainless. That little lot ought to take care of needs and tasks, there could of course be others......

Thanks for the thread, very attractive idea.
 
Hmmm my dream job? That is easy. I want nothing more than to open a business with my father. That is what I have wanted since I can remember, same with my father. It can be his golf store, my paintball or skate store, his bakery. I don't care. Any of it would do. As for my dream knife...that is easy. Either a gorgeous 1940's or 50's Hen and Rooster stockman, or a Bone handled Schrade stockman. Those would have me set for life.
 
Well, I guess I have my dream job- I'm a woodcutter in the hills of Colorado. My wife and I live in a 100 year old cabin with our three dogs on 40 acres. I get to go out everyday and cut wood for firewood, fence rails, for the mill and I get paid for it occasionally. Not gettin' rich, but I get to be outside, carry whatever knife catches my fancy that morning, lately a Case trapper and a J. Hoover fixed.
 
338375 said:
My other dream would be to have a nice sized cattle ranch. I grew up around it when I was younger. With the costs of everything these days, it is very hard to start out from scratch though, unless you have some deep pockets.

So I guess in reality I am doing my dream job. I have been driving truck for 30 years now. All my relatives had there own trucks, and it was a natural progression. I can't complain because I am fortunate to have a good job driving the gas tanker. I am home every night, most weekends off, the people I work with are good people, and the pay and benefits are excellent.

I tried working indoors for awhile and that about drove me crazy. I can't do it.. I need to be outdoors...
Even in the winter when the weather and roads going over the passes are terrible, its still not that bad.
Click to expand...

+1 on all that 338375! :thumbup:

I'm a farm boy by birth; a CPA by education & training; and was a truck driver by choice until they closed my local terminal. After about 15 years of working inside as an accountant, it became clear to me that I had 2 choices: blow my freakin' head off or find another line of work not in an office. Truck driving was good to me, too - home every night, weekends off, excellent pay & benefits (local LTL freight) - probably made more money than if I'd stayed cooped up in that stupid old office, and was a heckuva lot happier!

Anyway, my dream job would be to own a section or two of good Iowa farmland free & clear, and farm it. I'd have a nice, big, well equiped machine shed/shop and just putter in it during the off season. Maybe run a few head of cattle on the side. For the knife I'd have to go back to my roots and carry a Buck 301 Stockman.
 
Well, I don't have a dream job. I was in the U.S. Navy for 24-years and then worked for a local power company and finally fully retired in 1996. While in the Navy, I carried a 5¼ Case Folding Hunter while on duty and sometimes off duty. When off duty, I mostly carried a 4 1/8" Case Trapper and carried it when working for the power company too. Now I carry pretty much what I want, even some non-slipjoints at times but I'm never without at least two knives.
 
Last edited:
My dream job would be a park ranger at Glacier National Park or Banff National Park in Alberta. Been there 3 seperate times, and just love it. My dream slipjoint would be a custom Ken Erickson large stockman. That should take care of most day to day tasks but I would probably also want a Randall small fixed blade to keep in my pack.
 
Do I get my Superman cape and Batman utility belt with this wish?

I wanted to be Matt Dillion growing up, and in high school I wanted to be a game warden until I found out my eyesight was too bad (when I started college). Twenty years later the eyes are fixed (or were, I think I'm starting to need glasses again) but I'm not in shape enough to be a game warden.

I guess now my dream job would be to be a gentleman farmer. Have a large enough place to have 5-10 acres of alfalfa or hay, as much garden as I want, couple good dogs, handful of chickens, maybe a head or two or three of cattle, a couple horses (need a short cleydesdale to ferry my butt around and still be able to get on and off). Nice tractor big enough to hay with and small enough to mow and garden with. And of course enough rifles and shotguns not to get bored with. Would be nice to have some sort of trees and a pond.

I'd probably want my Schrade 250 OT (or is it 25 OT, I can never get it straight). Course I'd need a bunch of other stuff too.

If I really am the "gentleman" farmer I should have enough money to keep Ken and Kerry and Brian and Gerry and Butch and several others busier than they want to be too.
 
Dream job? Piloting a Coast Guard Motor Life Boat off the Oregon Coast. I'll always kick myself for not doing that when I had the chance.
I think I'd carry the Myerchin rigging knife that I already carry and a CV Swayback in my pocket.
 
My Dream Job; Outdoor Photographer.
All case Amber Bone Cv
Peanut in left front
Canoe in right front
Muskratman modified to a single clip blade trapper rear next to wallet.
On my hip a Schrade Sharpfinger.
 
Mine would be hand crafting furniture in a wood working shop with a carbon steel whittler in my pocket.

I had a pretty decent woodshop back when I was in college living at home and did plenty of work for folks. I wasn't getting rich but it provided me running around money when I was young and life was simple.

Some of my fondest memories. Hopefully I will be selling and moving soon and can find something with a detatched shop so I can start amassing tools again.
 
I already had my dream job working in a development lab on black projects.
The managers were engineers. The president of the company was an engineer. Goals were clearly defined. Projects that were important. No BSing yammerheads trying to make the world PC wasting my time. When they staffed, they looked at how much work had to be done and staffed to that level. (today they staff based on maintaining the profit margin.) If the company was doing well, everybody saw it in their paycheck. When the company was doing bad, everybody tightened their belts, including the brass.

Such jobs no longer exist and I feel darn lucky to have had one back in the days when they did exist.

Let me tell you how I really feel.
 
I would own and supervise the entire Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, from the Hole in the Wall country against the east face of the Bighorns to the Yellowstone River, 200 by 300 miles, for all kinds of game, from Buffalo to sage grouse. I would tear down all the fences and burn the houses. I would carry a different bone or stag handle knife every day, in mint condition, all made in the 1920's and 1930's.
My father said I should wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which one filled up the fastest.:)
 
I've never actually had a day to day job. I've had a few ventures of my own, my own businesses, and some odd jobs more helping friends than working a job.
I Can't do the 'work for someone else for a living thing'... can't get my head and soul around it. I'm doing my damnedest to stay independant, and on my own... (and failing miserably but thats beside the point)

338375 said:
It sounds funny, but I really think I was born about 150 years late. I would have been perfectly happy living on the range, running cattle.
Click to expand...

Ditto!

Like I've just said in the "who'd you ride with?" thread, Cowboy is it for me...

I've also thought of a ranch, even a modern one instead of living the old west... But it wouldn't work for me now/modern.

But for this day and age, these times, ideal for me would be my writing. A novelist/journalist, but being able to travel and write what and where I want to... a traveler, a rambler, no clock in or out, no place to be at any certain time. Just my Boots, had, peanut, a fountain pen and notebook, and a small bag with a change of cloths... and a Rail pass for the World.

:thumbup::thumbup::cool:



Funny, another paralel to 338375's post, along with the old west, I am getting ready to get my CDL and start driving truck.. another dream of mine for a while.

As to the dream knife, it'd be what I have and carry now, the peanut, the congress, and maybe a moose. could probably never choose one, but if I had to it'd be the Peanut. Some nice bone, nice steel (carbon or SS) and lots of honest pocket wear. It'd have to be the one I have and not another one honestly.

G.
 
Dream job would be building traditional wooden Skipjack work boats on the Chesapeake. (Maybe St. Michaels MD) I'd love to have my own boatyard building with my own hands beautiful functional craft that with the proper care could last 100 years.

EDC knife I see being a rigging knife with a sheepsfoot blade and a marlin spike. I'm not sure of a maker though.

I've also recently imagined a teardrop Jack in Ivory.
 
Mine would be a guide in British Columbia or where there are goat and sheep. I would pull out my trapper pattern and dress the animal. Of course everyone would be impressed at what a sharp knife could do in the right hands. :)
 
When I was a kid, I'd thought about running away from home and learning to be a trapper from old Bill Harding. Maybe even be his partner in crime for all the pelt gathering he did. It seemed like he was having sooo much fun in his ongoing cold war with the game wardens and hanging out at the Jenkin's store porch by day. He always seemed well fed, had tobacco for his pipe and a cold beer in hand. Of course I'd carry a well used little finn on my hip, and a yellow soddie in my pocket.

My other choice would have been to be born 150 years back, and been a sailor on the old Baltimore Clippers. The Chesapeake Bay built schooners were some of the fastest ships under sail, and made east coast U.S. to Europe runs in record times. Of course I'd have to have a big stag handle sheepsfoot blade sailors knife on a lanyard.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top