Favorite novels that feature traditional knives, guys?

mnblade

mnblade

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I'm re-reading "Lonesome Dove" for like the 15th time (still hoping Gus won't die at the end).

It occurred to me that there are a lot of knives in the book, from Pea Eye's bowie, to Gus' clasp knife, to the knife Po Campo uses to carve the boys little figurines of women, to the "long, thin knife" Clara uses to geld horses, to the pocketknife Capt. Call uses to scratch GM on Gus' makeshift tombstone at the end.

So, what about some other good books that feature our kind of folksy knives, guys?

And while I have your ear, got any good recommendations for other good westerns? (I've read the entire "Lonesome Dove" series, by the way.)

Many thanks in advance.
 
I recommend "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. Both a Kukri and a Bowie knife are described and (spoiler alert!) the old blood sucker is offed with the Bowie and not with a wooden stake.

You can't go wrong with Zane Grey. His style is a bit old-fashioned, at times, but there has never been a better story-teller, IMHO.
 
Lois La'more (not sure on the spelling) is one of my favorites along with Will Hobbs.
 
Cormac McArthy's Blood Meridian features a bowie and a green river among others. Some Whitneyville Colt Dragoon revolvers get alot of attention too. It's beautifully written, but extremely gruesome.

His other westerns like the three books of the Border Trilogy (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain) also feature some knives and other traditional gear, lavishly described; the author is a stickler for detail.
 
I don't have any "traditional knife" novels, but this topic reminded me of a knife story from a few years ago, before I knew much of the jargon: I was reading a modern adventure novel of some type, and the author was describing the main character getting ready for an encounter. This included "clipping on a tactical folder". For the life of me I could not figure out what they were talking about. Something like a waterproof document holder? A "Top Secret" envelope? A clipboard? Seriously, it wasn't until later in the book, when he used the knife, that I realized that's what was meant.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled Traditional Knife novels...

-- Sam
 
John D MacDonald's Travis McGee character used knives in several books. I don't think any were mentioned by name but he use fishing knives, dive knives, pocket knives...just about everything. In Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novels one of the main characters, Amelia Sachs carries an Italian made switchblade despite departmental rules.
 
mnblade said:
So, what about some other good books that feature our kind of folksy knives, guys?
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Let's please try to stay on topic so we can keep this thread within the forum.
 
Both Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer had Barlow knives. You can't get more traditional than a Barlow.
 
Jeff Clark said:
Both Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer had Barlow knives. You can't get more traditional than a Barlow.
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Amen! Taken from wikipedia:

Tom Sawyer, of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Tom Sawyer" owned a barlow knife:

"Mary gave him a bran-new "Barlow" knife worth twelve and a half cents; and the convulsion of delight that swept his system shook him to his foundations. True, the knife would not cut anything, but it was a "sure-enough" Barlow, and there was inconceivable grandeur in that - though where the Western boys ever got the idea that such a weapon could possibly be counterfeited to its injury, is an imposing mystery and will always remain so, perhaps.”

Huck Finn had one too:

“We got an old tin lantern, and a butcher knife without any handle, and a brand-new Barlow knife worth two bits in any store...”
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It's what drove me to get a barlow!
 
Not to mention Mark Twain talked about some of our very own Mods in his books as well....

All the stores was along one street. They had white domestic awnings in front, and the country-people hitched their horses to the awning-posts. There was empty dry-goods boxes under the awnings, and loafers roosting on them all day long, whittling them with their Barlow knives; and chawing tobacco, and gaping and yawning and stretching - a mighty ornery lot.
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

least ways sounds suspiciously like a few of them....:D

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:thumbup:CANNOT go wrong with William Johnstone Especially the Mountain Man series(lots of bowie knife usage;)) Or Elmer Kelton from San Angelo TX. is an excellent writer of Western reading!


Larry McMurtry"s (Lonesome Dove series) as well as others he writes are well done!




Most Western writers employ some bowie knives in their writing the "Silent Killer"!!!:D UH OH that wasn't very PC of me!:p;)
Shawn
 
Jeff Clark said:
Well Matt Helm generally had something like a modest Solingen folding hunting knife on him. Here is a copy of Donald Hamilton talking about his knife background. http://homepage.mac.com/mmtz/dh/matt_helms_knives.pdf
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Hello Jeff, I loved the Helm series. Had the whole set from the first one to the last. Very well written and flowed very well. Loved the pragmatic outlook of the guy.

In the second book, Hamilton goes into a whole paragraph giving the details of the stag handle Solingen folder Helm used.

Great stuff.
 
Sailors and their clasp knives are painted as an unruly lot in classic literature:
The old fellow's fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened a sailor's clasp-knife, and, balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened to pin the doctor to the wall.
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Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
We sat down and we drank and we yarned about old times, but the more he drank the less I liked the look on his face....Then at last he broke out at me, spitting and cursing, with murder in his eyes and a great clasp-knife in his hand.
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The Return of Sherlock Holmes, A. Conan Doyle.
 
In Stephen Hunter's; Bob Lee Swagger and Earl Swagger books he mentions that both of them carry a Case folder without anymore mention of what type.

Bob Lee is described as carrying a Randall Survivor while in Vietnam.

In the movie Shooter (loosely based on one of Hunter's novels) the Bob Lee character carries a SOG Twitch and during the shoot-out scene at the ranch...some sort of SOG large fixed blade.

James Lee Burke describes his main character Dave Robicheaux as carrying a folding Puma brand knife.
 
I grew up reading Robert Heinlein, a graduate of Annapolis who had studied fencing while there IIRC.

Tunnel in the Sky featured survival knives.
Glory Road had a number of traditional knives and swords.
 
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Alright, nice idea. How about this from English rather than American literature? But still rustic and atmospheric:thumbup:

The malter, after having lain down in his clothes for a few hours,was now sitting beside a three-legged table breakfasting off bread and bacon. This was eaten on the plateless system,which is performed by placing a slice of bread on the table, a mustard plaster upon the meat,and a pinch of salt upon the whole, then cutting them vertically downwards with a large pocket-knife till the wood is reached,when the severed lump is impaled on the knife,elevated,and sent the proper way of food.

Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd

The large pocket-knife must have been a Wostenholme IXL single bolster jack in popcorn stag:D
 
I seem to recall Tarzan finding a large English hunting knife amongst his dead father's things that he uses for the rest of the series
Richard Sharp in the Bernard Cornwell novels often makes use of a clasp knife and dagger. (not to mention that bloody huge heavy cavalry sabre.)
 
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