- Joined
- Feb 3, 2001
- Messages
- 32,293
I agree to a point, I think with traditional knives, at least I do, give a little more leeway as far as F&F comes. The more blades the more leeway, at least with production knives. This is why I like older traditional knives. I seem to find better versions of older patterns made in better quality which still have years of usability in them. The order knives when you buy a premium knife, using premium material and manufacturing processes were far superior to many of today's handmade versions.
An old Robeson Stockman from the 40s with that jigged red bone they covered their knives with was gorgeous. Even at a premium price for a vintage knife today you'll still make out better than if you bought a modern knife of equal quality.
A lot of what I hear in this thread are fit and finish issues, poorly ground kicks bring nail nicks below the liners and scales, it hides behind another blade but all just poor QC on the factory's fault. My post is most older knives if they were properly taken care of and used not abused will have none of the fit and finish issues.
Some blades, especially high carbon steel steel blades tend to repelling rust better with a polished blade so a lot of times the shiny blades are a result of achieving the best low maintenance finish. Check out some of the old blade from the 20s-40s with a crocus finish, it was a non reflective finish but required regular care.
I seem to always defer back to older knives mostly because that's what I collected back in the day but some of the knives where extra monies were spent came with engine turned liners, file worked back springs and inlaid scales with polished filed NS bolsters. These were options on a knife and most didn't want them because they could triple even quadruple the price of a pocket knife. Keep in mind everyone carried a pocket knife back when these old traditional s were made.
When it comes to billboards, my take is if you wanna advertise your brand name on my knife than sell it to me cheaper. I don't need for you to write the pattern on the side of the blade for me but I do like a nice etch job and people have entire collections based on advertising knives. I guess an argument could be made that a modern knife like a Bear Gryllis (sp?) Buffalo Slayer Trapper could be an advertising knife for Bear.
I have an old nickle silver twist ring Schrade Walden with the letters Wurlitzer embossed/stamped into the side, it's a beautiful piece, well designed well made.
On the deep craggy stag I agree but the smaller and smoother, bordering on smooth bone lookin' stag I like some of the older traditional bomb and chevron shields or the arrows like Northwoods uses. It's dependent on the texture of the stag IMHO
Lust curious, why the dislike for the California/Turkish clip. Schrade's 81OT is a great example of that blade and when it comes to small game it's a great blade shape, very handy for processing small animals.
I guess it's not so much options I don't like as much as it is common sense manufacturing processes I've come to expect. Sunken joints so there's no exposed tang when the blade is closed. Easily accessible nail nicks placed in a common sense position, no gaps, evenly ground blades that come sharp outta the box. These are things I've come to expect from a quality knife old or new but with so many patterns and so many blade configurations why wouldn't you just buy a knife with the blades and configuration you want?
If it's a quality made blade/knife most if not all of the things described here would be a non issue, well except for Emspop's dislike of Cali clips
but even this is addressed when just buying the pattern you like with out that blade the rest like I said are non issues with a quality knife.
