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Traditional knife maker?


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1 hour ago, hughd said:

Thank you both, I can't believe I was not really aware of Olbertz...

Also, any idea why there seems to be little to no traditional slip joint activity on this forum? 

Slip joints aren't tactical, and are of little use in killin' zombies or terrorists. :) 

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So I had to look up "slipjoint" knife, it is just a long blade folder that does not lock open.. So to answer the question.

6 hours ago, hughd said:

Also, any idea why there seems to be little to no traditional slip joint activity on this forum? 

 

5 hours ago, mikegideon said:

Slip joints aren't tactical, and are of little use in killin' zombies or terrorists. :) 

Cut myself the worst using a no lock folder, some are nice to look at, whittle and such.

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4 minutes ago, RED333 said:

So I had to look up "slipjoint" knife, it is just a long blade folder that does not lock open.. So to answer the question.

 

Cut myself the worst using a no lock folder, some are nice to look at, whittle and such.

I grew up with them. Whittle yes, stab no. Stabbing with a slip joint is a good way to wind up with short fingers.

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Yes, the focus tends to be on the more tactical knives, but I appreciate a traditional folder as well.  I frequently carry one of my Victorinox knives depending on my needs.  I used to have a really nice Boker folder that had beautiful stag scales.  I loved that little knife and I have no clue what happened to it.  

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I have a few very old ones that belonged to my dad. They are not very collectible to anyone else because he used them everyday to cut off a chew of tobacco, clean his fingernails, shorten a gas line on the old car or boat or even cut a tomato for his sandwich. They are priceless to me however.

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Yeah, they can bite you.  My middle finger on my right hand is crooked - bent a little to the right at the second joint - because my pocket knife closed on it when I was cutting open a present my dad got me for my 18th birthday (I am 45 now.)  I kept my knives literally razor sharp (still try to, mostly, but had more time to keep them that way back then) and the knife had a fairly long blade.  I don't think a person is supposed to be able to see the bones in his knuckle but I did that day.  I'm not quite sure how it didn't cut my pointer finger, too, but it didn't.  I guess I sliced the tendon or ligaments or something on one side a little so that they were weaker than the other side but all they did at the walk in clinic was sew it up and send me home.  At least it doesn't pull sideways so much that I periodically have to pop it back into place anymore.  That was when I really started becoming a fan of lockblades and fixed blades although I never really completely quit slipjoints.  I also like being able to open and close a knife with one hand which is something I really came to appreciate when I was doing more fishing than I am right now.  If a fish I want to release swallows the hook and I need to cut the line in order to avoid injuring or killing it then it is a whole lot easier to use a one-hand opener while holding the fish in the other hand.  Having a pocket clip also facilitates quick and easy access in such situations.

Another factor, for me, was that my favorite slipjoints were made by Schrade when they were still an American company.  For a carry/using knife I liked them even better than Case although the Case Sodbuster and Sodbuster, Jr. were and remain a favorite design.  When Taylor Brands first bought the name the knives in the Schrade line were garbage and I quit buying anything from them.  They have improved over the last, few years and I have bought a few of their fixed blades but still haven't gone for a slipjoint, yet.

I guess the last, big factor, for me, is that the majority of fixed blades [edit: meant to say 'slipjoints' not 'fixed blades' - stupid typing fingers] that actually seem worth a crap any more are more expensive than the 'budget lines' from Kershaw and others.  I don't tend to spend 'big money' on pocket knives (or knives in general, for that matter) because I have lost too danged many pocket knives to want something expensive in my pocket.  For the same price as I would pay for a not-that-great slipjoint I can often get a decent Kershaw but they tend to be single blades with thumb studs and liner locks.  Decent, economically priced slipjoints are also a little harder to find in local brick and mortar stores.

All that said, I am really coming to like the Rough Rider line of very economically priced but pretty good quality folders and those may well get me more interested in slipjoints, again.  I have a fairly large, single blade from them with white bone handles called the 'Deerslayer' model.  I also bought my two nephews and one of my nieces one each of their knives for Christmas and picked up a Trapper model with glow-in-the-dark handle scales for myself.  Some of them have minor fit and finish problems, however.  If I could get to Smoky Mountain Knife Works more often so I could 'hand pick' them I would probably own a lot more.  I have a Victorinox Swiss Army knife that I keep in my EDC bag as a 'backup' pocket knife but the main blade on it has a liner lock so I don't know that it technically counts as a 'slipjoint'.

Edited by JAB
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I haven't carried it, yet, so I had forgotten that one of the blades - the clip point - in that Rough Rider I mentioned above is a lockback.  Forgetting that might not be so bad except that the locking blade feature was the main thing that made me want to buy it in the first place.  Man, getting old sucks.  Also, I bought the three blade stockman pattern from the same Rough Rider line for one of my nephews and the clip point in it locks as well.  Kind of a 'best of both worlds' thing - traditional slipjoint styling with a locking blade plus some pretty cool glow in the dark handle scales, to boot.  Not bad for $9.99 plus tax.  This is my trapper:

IMG_20170108_233110549.jpg

IMG_20170109_181750.jpg

Edited by JAB
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On 1/10/2017 at 7:14 AM, hughd said:

JAB, how is the walk & talk on those Rough Riders? 

Pretty good, at least initially.  Don't know how they would break in, etc. as I haven't EDC'd a Rough Rider for any length of time at this point.  I did carry the Deer Slayer as my EDC for a while - I bought it around the time that the no blade length law went into effect specifically because I wanted something with a blade that was (albeit barely) longer than four inches.  I now carry a Spyderco Resilience so haven't EDC'd the Deer Slayer for a while.  The Deer Slayer had and still has a 'walk and talk' that is pretty comparable to the trapper I recently got.

I brought the Trapper to work with me today so I could use my desk as an impromptu platform for shooting a short video with my cellphone so that you could see/hear the walk and talk for yourself.  Obviously the clip point blade doesn't 'jump' open from a nearly open position because of the lock but it 'jumps/snaps' closed and the other, non-locking blade 'jumps/snaps' both open and closed (I am sure there is a proper term for that but, although I did know what 'walk and talk' meant I don't know what that term is.)  Neither blade has a half-stop but both have fairly consistent and noticeable resistance up to the point they 'snap' open or closed.  The single blade on the Deer Slayer (which is non-locking) behaves in pretty much the same manner.    I've put the video in my Photobucket account but it has been a long time since I tried to post a video from Photobucket to a forum.  Hopefully this will work but if it doesn't then I can only say, "I tried." (Well, I couldn't get the video to embed but this direct link seems to work - might be a little slow to load and you might want to pause the video until it fully loads then hit play but at least it seems to work):

http://vid126.photobucket.com/albums/p116/JBFordowner/VID_20170111_120233839.mp4

Edited by JAB
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On 1/4/2017 at 11:49 AM, hughd said:

Thank you both, I can't believe I was not really aware of Olbertz...

Also, any idea why there seems to be little to no traditional slipjoint activity on this forum? 

I like them thar o'l timey folding pocket knives! I wasn't aware anyone else here cared for them.:up:

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On 1/4/2017 at 0:49 PM, hughd said:

Thank you both, I can't believe I was not really aware of Olbertz...

Also, any idea why there seems to be little to no traditional slipjoint activity on this forum? 

I knew this thread was around here, somewhere.  Just took me a while to find it.  Maybe it needs to be revived.  I would never have thought that it was from so far back - nearly three and a half years since the last post.  Still some pretty good slipjoint love even if it is only a couple of pages long:

 

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15 hours ago, hughd said:

Thanks JAB, I would say you can't beat that for $10.00!

http://vid126.photobucket.com/albums/p116/JBFordowner/VID_20170111_120233839.mp4

Yep.  They just say that they are made of 440 without telling what kind of 440 but they have a pretty good edge out of the box.  Don't know how long they retain the edge with daily use but considering what you get for the money I can hone it or pass it across a leather belt a little more often if need be.

Edited by JAB
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