Old School Knife Carry!

[stonyman]

This topic was inspired by Agent Starling's thread and just a walk down memory lane. I took a mental picture of how I view my knives (tactical in nature) and for the life of me it does not add up to what my long gone uncles use to believe.

One uncle in particular was so fluid with his buck 110 or its equivalent that it was mesmerizing. He worked construction and also did lawn work. You know a Man's Man! I would go to work with him on some weekends and got the opportunity to spend a great deal of time with him. Unlike me now he had just that one knife, no formal martial training.

That one knife did everything from peel fruit, to whittle, to cutting open feed bags to scraping. It also was used to take a man's life! :eek: He moved like one with this knife. I think he carried the same knife sense young adult or childhood. His take was the knife was just a tool in nature to get whatever he had going on DONE! He built 4 houses of his own (around his normal construction job) with his own hands and this knife was there every step of the way.

Why on earth can I not limit myself to one knife for all applications like he did? I do a lot of testing and evals on knives and switch quite a bit depending on my job detail at a given time, teaching, working details etc. For the life of me I cannot get that picture of him and his brothers fluid movements with the knife out of my mind. After the better part of 20 years involved in martial and combative training, those men really impressed me. Where am I going with this........we are definately spoiled in this day and time with the ever increasing technology and new materials. A Spyderco in there hands would have been too much to handle. Maybe they would have purchased 20+ knives like many of us, but I highly doubt it.

Oh he also kept it razor sharp with a crude piece of stone! :D

[Dslteck]

Oh he also kept it razor sharp with a crude piece of stone! :D

Just reading this makes me think of this man I used to work with about 6-7 years ago before he passed on. Like your uncles he had just one pocket knife-small little thing-but he ALWAYS had it on him. He also used it for everything, just like you mentioned. I will always remember the edges he could put on a blade-scary sharp! :eek: with just one stone and FOUR passes! Amazing! I was always trying to get him to show me the tricks, but he left us too soon.

you know "old timers" like them are a rare breed and we all have benefited from them in one way or another! :D

[DelicaDude]

I guess I must be old school. I've carried the same Delica SE for over 15 years straight now (except for a few months once when I misplaced it). Most of my friends, family and co-workers are well aquainted with my knife with "the hole in the blade". It's been used extensively on the farm for cutting baling twine, carried on countless hikes, camping trips and canoe trips where it's been used for everything from an eating utensil to shaving sticks for kindling for a fire, been my EDC knife where it gets used for everything from opening boxes to opening mail, it goes with me hunting where it's been used to dress out small game. I really can't think of any chore I've used this knife for where it didn't do an admirable job. I'm not a collector so I don't buy knives I don't use. I'm not on a quest for that "perfect knife" because I don't think it exists. When it comes down to it for me a knife is just a tool. All that matters is that it has an edge and it's able to retain it. The rest of the knife is just packaging for that edge.

[Dr. Snubnose]

Stonyman...Great Thread!....I guess the answer to your question sits with the user....as you know I have many a knife and carry many a knife each one serves a different purpose...My father was old school one blade to do everything till it fell apart...I would cringe as I watched him destroy and abuse knives like they were garbage, yes a tool no different than a saw, or screwdriver....he would open paint cans with it and if the tip broke real bad it then became his favorite chisel and was replaced by a stronger tipped knife...For his 40th birthday my sister and I saved up money and bought him one of those expensive Bucks in a leather beaded Indian style belt case, fringes and all....I think he liked the case better than the knife, It only took him one week to destroy the knife, there was so much epoxy built up on the blade, one would have thought the knife blade was made from epoxy, LOL....When I was four years old he bought me my first knife...it was a small fixed blade with a small compass in the wooden handle, maybe a two inch blade...he bought it for me at a carnival/theme park we had gone to on a family trip we took...he caught **** from my mother after giving it to me, so he decided to keep it in his possession, (in his tool box) for safe keeping...he used to let me handle it when I asked and was hanging out with him in the garage...I have fond memories of holding the knife and quickly spinning round and round trying to determine which directions I'd be facing while looking at the compass in the handle...I was always told..."this is your knife...treat it with respect and when you get older...you'll have a nice knife and get a lot of use out of it"...That knife sat in his tool chest for about four years in perfect condition...until one day he needed a quick tool/Knife for his own use while working on a project....(well I think you can guess where this story is going) it only took him one afternoon to destroy my first knife, when I finally got it in my hands..It had black electrical tape around the wooden handles holding the slabs in place, the compass was no longer functioning..the arrow was broken and kinda free floating under the glass top, the blade was chipped so bad it looked like a serrated edged knife...needless to say I was very upset....Many years passed and my mother bought him two Spyderco Knives for his 65th birthday and I had heard about these great knives he got but never saw them (I knew nothing about Spyderco Knives at that time) I only had heard that he thought they were too good a knife to use...A few years after his death I found them NIB inside one of his fishing tackle boxes....A Blue FRN SE Delica and A Red FRN Ladybug....I had the blade engraved with my father name, my name and when I gave it to my son when he went off to college I had his name engraved on it...it was always referred to as the knife Grandpa never used (LOL) and a good thing for that...I carried that Delica for 15 years and I still carry that same Red FRN Ladybug and use it everyday....I have yet to destroy it.....Doc :D

[fishtale]

My dad is the same way. One knife is all he ever really needed. I often joke with him about it. He had a Native that was sharpened down to a tooth pick...the kick/choil was taken down so the blade could sit low enough for the point not to stick out! I have this in safe keeing to give to my kids.

I bought him another Native last year and he's on the same trajectory...use, sharpen, pry, poke, sharpen, etc. In few years it will be another family heirloom. :)

[spydutch]

I guess I must be old school. I've carried the same Delica SE for over 15 years straight now (except for a few months once when I misplaced it). Most of my friends, family and co-workers are well aquainted with my knife with "the hole in the blade". It's been used extensively on the farm for cutting baling twine, carried on countless hikes, camping trips and canoe trips where it's been used for everything from an eating utensil to shaving sticks for kindling for a fire, been my EDC knife where it gets used for everything from opening boxes to opening mail, it goes with me hunting where it's been used to dress out small game. I really can't think of any chore I've used this knife for where it didn't do an admirable job. I'm not a collector so I don't buy knives I don't use. I'm not on a quest for that "perfect knife" because I don't think it exists. When it comes down to it for me a knife is just a tool. All that matters is that it has an edge and it's able to retain it. The rest of the knife is just packaging for that edge.

Wow, that's flat out amazing. The same knife for 15 years :cool: :cool:

Just curious how that knife is now in terms of blade play and the such after that amount of time of rather heavy use?

I wonder as well if the new generation of Delica's will last just as long?

It seems just cool, only using my very Delica 3/SE and locking away all my other Spydies. Just gives so much more peace of mind. Only 1 Spydie.....

I doubt if I could though :o

[Veegun]

I just gave my 17 year old son his first knife. My old Buck.

I see him caressing it while we drive around.

If he doesn't lose it but continues to use it I'll get him a :spyder: for his B day in August. Knowing him he'll keep it till eternity.

[bladese97]

:spyder: :spyder: :cool: :spyder: :spyder: That story of your uncle sounds like one of my best friends...Rick. This guy used his ONE knife for EVERYTHING :eek: He carried a scharade oldtimer, and when he beat the $h!t out of that, I gave him one of my buck alpha hunters, and he LOVED it, and still is beat'n the $h!t out of it now :eek: He isn't afraid to cut anything at all, and keeps his sharp as ****....I have no idea what his sharpening methods are :rolleyes:

[Manix Guy 2]

My Dad was not a big knife guy himself , Teamster , fists and tire iron was a go to for him . Knifes ? If needed but were abused and never really a biggie , favored a Colt 38 Snubnose for serious stuff . MG2

[white cloud]

my father was a professional soldier (82nd airborne). i have never known anyone who could put a shaving sharp edge on knife as quickly as he. his favorite was the vietnam era pilot's survival knife. these are just good old fashion carbon steel blades. i watched him field dress and butcher deer with one and do it very quickly then touch the edge up a little and back into the sheath. it was a tool he was very very comfortable with.

[Fred Sanford]

Really good thread!!!

I feel the same way. I wish that I could keep myself to just having one knife and use the crap out of it. I however fall into babying some of the knives I have. I wish I could find the quote that someone has in their sig about what Sal said. It was something like 'cut, oil, cut cut cut, is what......" I can't remember the rest.

I notice that a lot of these guys I know or run into that have had and used one knife for such a long time either went through the depression or had parents that had gone through the depression.

I would like to be more conservative like those folks.

[stonyman]

I do not know folks, I just cannot put a finger on it. Maybe conceptual at best........... Same knife edc 15 years + is quite impressive! I think I fall into the line of always trying to trump what I currently have or exhaustingly search for something that would work better...........beginning of extremist behavior! :o

These guys lived to work and everything else was thrown in for good measure. They were workaholics, their tools were just an extension of their existence. It was not even about fighting, it was just like breathing to them, conversation during a break, knife comes out to cut a fruit. Pull to the side of a bridge to fish, blade cuts line without even stoping in midsentence. Clean fish, throw in cooler, clean knife, back out later to cut some other material for flooring.

Yeah I can translate my skill to extensive training in blade work, but I have not blended skill from years of usage to a one knife only concept. For these guys it would be like changing the place were you put the brakes on the truck that they have driven for years! Everything that they had or possessed was exactly what they needed to get their work done.

If it was something better, they would not go out of their way to find it because it was not what they had in their possession. Years of usage with a certain tool is formidable. I just think their tools just conformed to the abilities or lack thereof..........You know I am currently trying to find a do all mid-size edc fixed blade knife that I consider a do it all blade. I have been racking my brain for sometime at this too! Currently..........bud knealy PTK dagger! :o My uncles would probably give me a swift kick on the backside.........Oh well, there maybe hope yet! :D

[jedikniht7]

i myself carried the same endura for about 12 years till about 6 months ago when i updated with an endura 4. I have not found a better edc knife yet. The endura seems to meet all the daily demands with ease and its cheap enough to not want to baby it. I would like to find a higher quality model for those days im gonna dress up a little though lol.

[dete]

I think back in the day,
people bought things for using it.

people today buy it, cause they are
consumers...

does that even make sense?
like people buy things cause it's a good
deal, or it has this feature, cause it's
this brand.

the folks back then would be like, I need
a knife for SD in the bedroom. Ok so they buy
one, and it goes in the bedroom. And that's
done. Unless it breaks, or gets stolen, it's
a done deal.

[Dr.Seuscio]

Great thread
My dad gave me an endura with an ss body (same as my avitar) the day I made star in boy scouts it has been in my pocket ever since in fact there is rarely a time when I don’t have it. I’m thirty-five now and the longest I’ve been without it was the two weeks at the machine shop when i had it waved the beauty of a spyderco is you don't need 20of them. I found a feature that I didn’t want to live with out so two weeks and 25 dollars later I have in my opinion the "perfect" knife and god forbid I keep form loosing it I will hand it down to my son the day he makes star with all its imperfections and history the hundreds of stories that one knife can tell I threw it through a car window one time in high school because a dog was locked inside on a 90+ day it fell out of my pocket at 6 flags magic mountain on a roller coaster and I jumped a ten foot chain link fence to get it another time I used it to cut a mother fu cker who tried to rob me. I’m sure I didn’t kill him but his face will never look the same I have cut seat belts and extracted people from cars and never felt like I need any thing else because of the blade’s type of steel, handle, length or weight and in my eyes that’s where they earn their value


Sorry for spelling / grammar errors I read the pre-ceding post and my brain had to fart on something so there it is un-edited

[proguide]

Because we now have a ton of choices and the internet to fuel our OCD :D

It's a losing battle.

[StuntZombie]

DelicaDude,

I'd also like to know how well the Delica has held up over the years, as far as bladeplay goes. Do you have any current pictures of the knife in question?

[cjgrad23]

My maternal grandfather carried a gerber gator till the day he died. The man was like lighting with that thing and had put powdered graphite in the pivot so the thing opened just to look at it.

My paternal grandfather carried a K Bar FB on his hip, unless he was going to the city, when he carried "my" 1st gen delica.

Both are passed now, but The knives are residing in my safe right now, really the only user knives in there.

Awesome thread.

[Derkomai]

My father (63) carries a Victorinox Sportsman for about 22 years now. The red handles fell of and he just puts them back on with superglue. :eek: He refused when I offered him to replace them with new ones. The lanyard hole whore out, but he really does not care about it all that much.

He would never, ever leave his house without it; cuts everything with it (rope, cardboard, fruit etc.), opens cans and bottles of wine and uses it for those little in- and outdoor repairs that require a screwdriver or reamer. Good quality knives!

I have bought him several good ‘replacements’ that he never carries (other SAK’s, Laguiolle, Leatherman and SOG tools). Do not start about the brand new Spartan with wooden handles I bought him as a present from Paris (at Courty et Fils: Wow!). Most of them life happily in the cupboard and hardly see any action, if any. :p

The only thing he uses, is the little Victorinox screwdriver I gave him (the one you put in the corkscrew), to repair his glasses. Well, not really the only thing. The :spyder: Ladybug 3 I gave him is attached to his keys and also follows him everywhere now. :D

To be honest, I am a bit jealous with him. Owning, carrying and using a single knife for 20+ years every day, to hard of a job for me. :cool:

Jorne

[DelicaDude]

Some great stories here. I'm not suprised by some of the stories of people using the same EDC knife for years. Most of the people I know who have an EDC have been carrying the same knife for years. Maybe it's just my age.
As for my knife, it's held up very well, First off, my knife is only used for cutting. It's not a prybar or a screwdriver. Secondly, I always keep it sharp. Nothing is harder on a knife than trying to use it when it's dull. After all these years blade play is very minimal. Here's a couple of pics along with an Executive I have since sold. I did carry the Executive for a short while years ago but I prefer the light weight of the Delica.
Correction to my original post. In re-reading it I see I stated it's an SE. It's actually a PE. :o