Posted on 01/04/2013 2:10:40 PM PST by virgil283
"1st Century Romans created the first folding pocket knife. They made for easy carrying for soldiers and other explorers on their journeys and conquests. However, as the use of sheathed knives became more popular, the use of pocket knives fell somewhat into disfavor......There are three common designs of pocket knives: the jack knife, the pen knife, and the multi-purpose knife. We’ll discuss the features and benefits of each one, in order to help you decide what kind of knife you should get.
A jack knife has a simple hinge at one end, and may have more than one blade. The jack knife is popular among hunters, fishermen, and campers.... A pen knife is hinged at both ends of the handle, and usually has two or three blades at each end. The pen knife was originally designed to cut or sharpen pen quills for writing. The pen knife is good if you want more than one type of blade. It’s also small and lightweight and won’t be noticeable in the pocket of dress clothes.....Multi-purpose knife. These are probably the most popular pocketknives. The Swiss Army knife and the Handyman are probably the most well known of the multi-purpose knives.....
(Excerpt) Read more at artofmanliness.com ...
I ordered a Harpy and a Tasman Salt with the black FRN handle. Impressive function and value.
I have seen the Gerber and noticed it looked just like the Fiskars except for color. I noticed the Fiskars have “Finland” written in the plastic around the head.
I wonder if the Gerber are made by Fiskars? If so they should have “Finland” on the plastic too.
Carried these for years and continued having issues with the pins connecting the handles to the pliers becoming worn and causing a lot of frustration when things didn't unfold correctly.
Leatherman fixed this problem in the new wave model. I've been carrying the same LW for over three years now with no issues.
I noes what you mean! ;)
Check out #6! Btw, I've owned six of the twenty listed... lol
http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/kentucky/2008/05/20-best-knives-ever-made
When I was in high school 60 years ago every mexican gangbanner carried a 6 inch switch blade.
Guess that’s why they made them illegal!!!
Kbar...check
WAVE....check
Swiss...check
Schrade Uncle Henry....check
I’ve had several Buck 110’s since high school
Woodsmans friend. I should get another.
I have a T2. Overpaid for it.
I would love to get a few of the others.
Thnx for the link.
If you hurry, you can still get a Victorinox USB keychain knife. Detach the USB drive, use it for something else, and mill a fire starter to fit the empty slot. Just an open hook at the pivoting end to leave it in the frame, or remove it completely.
Something strange is going on with the "assault model" of the USB keychain knife. I paid $200 for the all-up version with 32GB, a fingerprint reader, laser, and IR projector controller. Now it's going for about $750. A "naked" USB-only device is about $8 and up (for a small amount of RAM). Anything with a knife, light, laser, or scissors on it is well over $100. RAM upgrades are relatively cheap, but a bit more expensive than cheap generic chicom USB drives. Besides the custom packaging, they have been tested by independent labs to meet and far exceed all the EU standards for RAM that everybody claims to meet.
For $158, you can get still(?)this Alox model with 32GB, knife, file, and scissors. But no target designator or remote detonator. Something fishy definitely going on, waaaay under the radar.
If anybody buries me with anything except the cheapest chicom knife they can find, I will come back and haunt them for eternity for committing sacrilege against good steel. Maybe I'll find the proper cheap knife now, and put it in with my will, with explicit instructions as to its purpose. :)
Watched a mega factories episode on discovery channel a few years ago on victorinox Swiss Army Knives .... The heir apparent / CEO is a freaky individual ..... Very very strange way of speaking.
I’ve written a lot of letters to victorinox Over the years with suggestions and they have been very professional and kind in their responses even to the point of sending me free knives as thanks.
As you state there is something religious about basic hand wrought steel. my grail of knives is a simple Parang made for me from a leaf spring off a Russian truck by a little yellow bug eater in Laos . It is next to my Michelin tire sandals and my elephant hair bracelet and brass Buddha that one can still see just a little bit of the lake city markings on the 7.62mm brass used to make it.....
Bo Randall # 14, Terzoulas ACTF, and Vaughn Neeleys Timberline Chute knive are all cherished knives, carried for many years. Those men know the needs of working knives be they dressing out harvested wild game or dressing for the wild game of hunting enemies.
Brother recently picked up a du**star Magen fixed blade while he was in Israel ... Well made in Tel Aviv ....they made it while he waited in their shop for me.
http://www.dustar-knife.com/apage/83808.php
Good people, great knives ....
Stay safe 300 !
There's also something impressive about building your very own supersteel an atom at a time, which is one of the projects my nephew is doing for his PhD at Georgia Tech. First application will be in a new generation of jet engines.
Even the humble Swiss Army knife has some impressive qualities. Many years ago, I was running errands at a dressage show, and had my eyes on the ground to avoid all the mid-filled tire ruts from the rainstorm from the night before.
I spotted what looked like a chip of broken-off red barn-wood, which happens all the time around weathered red barns. Faded red, and muddy, except something told me there was more to the story than a scrap of rotted wood. First, all the stables were in tip-top condition, and they were all painted white.
I looked around, and couldn't see anything that was red, so I looked closer at the object. Something was so not right, I picked it up. It finally dawned on me it was a Wenger Swiss Army Knife, and it had been there in the mud for ages.
It was jammed shut with junk that had hardened to the consistency of concrete. It took me almost a year, working off and on, to attack with various tools and chemicals enough to get something that looked like a knife. It was like scientists do when they use dental picks and brushes to free a rare fossil from the rock matrix. After getting the blades to open and close almost as good as new, I have this in my knife place of honor;
The blades themselves still take a good edge, although splotches of polish are gone, replaced by who-knows-what that destroyed their shiny surfaces. I'd use this as my EDC knife, but I'm afraid of losing it after putting in so much work bringing it back from the dead.
For an ordinary Wenger pocket knife, it probably has some extraordinary amount of story that I just can't get out of it. Maybe some day more of its history will just casually float by, the same way I rescued this knife from that muddy tire track.
Funny you mention special steel ....
One of these was in my Christmas stocking this year. A Vallotton sub hilt folder. Extremely well made.
http://m.spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=668
The part that caught my attention was the steel used. Called CMPS30V ?
So I searched and found it to be some pressed powdered steel and I’m thinking piece’o crap etc ... Till I did some research.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPM_S30V_steel
I like it ! Very sharp and already used to help butcher a friends deer this past Friday. Aka last day of deer season was Saturday here.
Razor sharp still. You ever hear of it ?
As to that Wenger .... I used to think that was what most owners did with it after they purchased it.
Wingers (pun intended) early variants were rough, hard to sharpen and keep sharp. Haven’t seen one in decades. If your looking for history there is a old colt butterfly knife in a field outside of Paw Paw Michigan that I lost in the snow when snowmobiling there in 1970 on a Rupp .Barry Woods design sold by Colt for just a few months. Uncle gave it to me, I lost it out running up and down the vineyards deep snow.
Looked for it for years .... Never located, never replaced. Was a very cool design.....
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-barry-wood-1970-colt-folding-hunter-knife-1
Enjoying this knife thread ..... Need more of this on FR !.....:o)
Stay safe !
Yeah, S30V is one of those semi-exotic steels like 154CM, N90, etc. They're usually difficult to work with, which slows down production and raises prices. Even then, the most elite steel in a blade costs only a few bucks, provided you buy five tons or more from the mill or the distributor. Often a big knife companies will sell 500 or 1000 pounds to a custom knife maker just as a courtesy so they can get those "tiny" amounts for custom work. When in doubt, you can never go wrong with plain ol' D2 tool steel.
I remember that Barry Wood Colt-marked folder! One sat in a display case at some mom-and-pop sporting goods store for years, with the original $20 price on it. I finally overcame my laziness and looked the thing up. I raced back to the store, and found that it was sold the day before. :(
Barry Wood also made a "gent's size" all-steel version of the knife. Nice and sharp, and very "pocketable". After I had broken-in mine, I could open it one-handed with almost no overt moves to give away how I did it. 90% of the guys who asked to try to open it couldn't figure it out, even after I showed them.
I collect weird-opening-knives, and will bring one out to mess with people's minds on occasion. :)
interesting discussion ping
Ah excellent selections!
For the Harpy though, I ended up preferring the stainless steel handle model for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it looks really sweet, but more importantly considering the small size of the Harpy, the steel handle gives it more weight so that I always know it’s in my pocket where it should be.
I had stoppped carrying any knife clipped to my pocket a while back because the action of walking eventually loosens the clip from the knife. One FRN handle knife that I had whose clip was not screwed in but rather riveted ended up being damaged by the clip moving back and forth and digging into the FRN handle over time.
Also I had thought that if a knife were clipped to the pocket, some people who know about knives can see that and thus know you have a knife. Also, if such a person wanted to make a quick grab for my knife, he knows right where it is.
They’re legal to own in a lot of states, but not to carry.
I own a few here in Oregon but don’t carry them.
Ed
You have a good point about the clip being an obvious tell for who's carrying what, where and their likely dominate side.
I do like the functional aspect of having that tool where it's easy to find and use and since I started carrying ones with a pocket clip, I have come to like not having the knife loose in my pocket.
The other concern was the strength of the tip and how easy it would be to break it. But after going over the comments posted on sites where it is sold, I don't think that's the issue I thought it might be. People love the Harpy!
As far as the Harpy tip goes, I have never had any trouble with it. It’s curved, but it is not overly long. Not anything at all like the Matriarch or the Civillian models. Those tips are slender and delicate, and as such their use is limited to only one thing.
I would not want to have to explain to a police officer why I had such a knife honestly, but the Harpy is so useful and so small that it is innocently inconspicuous.
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