The Slip Joint Conundrum...

From jackknife, above - "The main clip was kept vey sharp for clean cuts on fish and game, the sheep foot was somewhat sharp for opening boxes and packages, and the spey blade, since I was not doing any castration on creatures, was dull and my scraping, poking, and whatever blade that I didn't worry about messing up the edge."

A perfect explanation for keeping a multi blade knife as an EDC :thumbsup: Well said.

Ray
 
Eli Chaps said:
... the last three decades thoroughly convincing myself that slip joints are at best inferior and even dangerous.
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Taking a contrarian view, I'll argue that locking blades are more dangerous. Why? Because they allow you to get away with unsafe usage and safe knife use doesn't become second nature. The problem is relying on a lock rather than treating it as a back up safety for those times when you screw up. Locks can and do fail. If you're relying on one when it does, it's going to close with a lot of force and you're going to do a lot more damage than you will with a slipjoint in the same situation. As to inferiority, you have to decide what attributes of a knife are important to you. The nice thing about traditionals is that the blades tend to be much, much thinner than moderns. That makes them cut better. And cutting is really the one thing a knife should do well. If you want a rescue tool that can cut through a car door, a traditional is not the answer. If you open paint cans with your knife, a traditional is not the answer. If I had a dime for every Buck 110 that had it's tip snapped off digging bullets out of wood of some sort, I'd be a rich man. And so on. The tool should fit the job. A knife should have a thin blade. An axe should be built stout. Peeling an apple with an axe is possible, but just as silly as cutting down a tree with a knife.
 
As much as it amazes me, I think the large part of the popularity of the one hand locker is hype. Now before I grab my asbestos suit, I'll explain.

Right now, at least two generations of knife knuts have grown up knowing nothing else but the one hand wonders and super steel of the month that are the modern day knife market. Never mind that we are in an unprecedented amount of IT industry and office cubical age of high tech. We have a society today that was began in the great migration after WW2 from the farms to the city. All those young guys came home from the war, and didn't want to go back to 'life on the farm' like before. They'd tasted the world and liked it, and moved to the cities for better jobs the military had trained them for. Electronics, mechanics of all kinds, officer and management jobs, medical, transportation industry. They had job skills they didn't have before and had sampled life in London, Paris, Rome, and liked it. Going back and working for daddy plowing the back 40 wasn't that compelling. Then came the baby boomers. Home construction went off the charts.

Through the 1940's and 50's and well into the 1960's the knife industry was doing well. Then the high tech end of things got caught up and the 1970's and 80's more and more young people worked in office environments and more and more people stopped even carrying a knife. Camillus, Schrade, and other knife companies got into the red on the year end profit figures. With the increasing high tech society, there just wasn't the need for a pocket knife for the regular Joe anymore. The cutlery industry had to think of something to stimulate sales. Buck was first one to recognize this in 1963 with the 110 folding hunter. It wasn't a new idea, there had been lots of lock blade knives going back to the 1800's. But what Buck did was publicity and marketing. By the 1980's there was a black pouch on most construction workers belts, warehouse workers, even bikers. The Buck knife was listed in add's in Iron Horse magazine as the "official bikers knife" for sale. It was quietly pushed with some weapon capability. It ws the favored knife of the Manson gang. A new and gradual trend and stated. Then came a young guy named Lynn Thomson and a knife company that openly promoted the knife as a Weapon and the tactical trend was started. Other companies took notice and did likewise. Then they discovered Hollywood paid product placement. There were even knife companies that hyped the new reality so hard they openly advertised the fantasy of "de-animating enemy sentries" and other bunk.

I think right now, the majority of knife fan boys didn't grow up in a world where the pocket knife was a companion cutting tool for life's little problems that need a little bit of sharp steel. They have no experience in using a tool for the purpose of doing a job, no matter of that job is opening a heavy cardboard box shut with packing tape or cleaning a fresh caught trout. No life or death struggle, no dramatic music as the villain or hero pulls a carefully placed product to save the day. Just getting it done in a business like fashion.

Society changes in time, like most things. Maybe I'm just an old fart who is a little stuck in the past. But given things were a little harder in the past, things had to work well to be sold well. No matter knives, guns, tools whatever. I'd rather have a two or even three bladed pocket knife on me than any whiz bang single blade knife with limited use.
 
Eli Chaps said:
Hello Knife Nuts,

First and foremost, I absolutely do not intend this thread to be contrarian or trolling in anyway.

See, I've spent oh I don't know, probably the last three decades thoroughly convincing myself that slip joints are at best inferior and even dangerous. But, I've recently been hard bit by the beauty and design of French knives, many of which are slip joints. So, I've pulled out the one remaining traditional I have, a Buck, sharpened it up and am trying to resign myself to carrying it. Old habits die hard...

So, am I just being stupid? That's a trait I've refined. :D

My knife tasks are typically pretty light duty and I know stabbing is not a grand idea. Anything else?

Thanks in advance.
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Your French knife thread in GKD really got me itching for another slipjoint even if I don’t carry them that often. I do own and carry a pair of GEC’s when I’m not flying direct or I’m traveling to a place I don’t know just to be safe.

6C665137-0964-40E6-B269-824734FFAD17.jpeg

I like the bolsters and the blade shape while it’s not going to replace the Sebenza I think I’ll keep it in my bag and perhaps use it as a gentleman’s knife

Perhaps there’s a French knife enthusiast that can give a bit of history regarding Roquefort knives. I understand that it is in essence a pattern but I’m sure there is some regional history there
 
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GermanyChris said:
Your French knife thread in GKD really got me itching for another slipjoint even if I don’t carry them that often. I do own and carry a pair of GEC’s when I’m not flying direct or I’m traveling to a place I don’t know just to be safe.

View attachment 1042949

I like the bolsters and the blade shape while it’s not going to replace the Sebenza I think I’ll keep it in my bag and perhaps use it as a gentleman’s knife
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WOW!! Please give more info on thisun!!!
John
 
GermanyChris said:
Your French knife thread in GKD really got me itching for another slipjoint even if I don’t carry them that often. I do own and carry a pair of GEC’s when I’m not flying direct or I’m traveling to a place I don’t know just to be safe.

...
I like the bolsters and the blade shape while it’s not going to replace the Sebenza I think I’ll keep it in my bag and perhaps use it as a gentleman’s knife
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Beautiful!
 
Never experienced any safety issue using slipjoints all these decades. Probably because I'm safety concious.
They can handle anything but battoning IMO.
 
PS to my above post ,how many have ever tried to carve or whittle with one of the new one hand wonders that some us really do like.?Or tried to peel an apple
 
I honestly prefer slipjoints

when I'm in need of one it makes no difference that it locks - I do however really like I can close it one handed
 
I feel like the major advantage a modern has over a slipjoint is not in the lock, but in the ability to open them with one hand.

If you’re mindful about what you’re doing, you never need to open a knife with just one hand, but who’s always mindful of what they’re doing?

All that to say, I really don’t think slipjoints are dangerous. Except for my wife, who can’t tell the difference between the spine and the cutting edge of a SAK.
 
redcanoe said:
I really like old fashioned slipjoint knives but I grew up with them.I have spoken to a few folks that are uncomfortable with them.To each his own maybe your Buck will grow on you maybe not.
Don't see any reason you'd want to force yourself to carry it.
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Exactly. That is the important thing-----if you grew up with slip joints, you know now to use them and use them safely. It is just second nature when you use one. But take a younger person who has only used a lock blade knife, well, the slip joint to their way of thinking is dangerous and it might very well be in their hands. They have grown dependent on the lock feature.
 
marchone said:
J jackknife is right insomuch as everyday hand tools are passé. Pocket knifes are archaic anachronisms of the past in a high tech world.
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Unfortunately the whole high tech thing has affected everything. Knives, guns, tools. I have some Japanese saws that cut on the pull stroke and I don't have any power saws in my backyard shop. I was working on a project and a neighbor wandered over. He watched me cutting a piece of wood that was going to rebuilding a drawer in an old chest of drawers. He remarked that I was doing it the hard way. Not too long ago I went to a shooting range and it was the hight of Texas summer. I didn't feel like shooting out in 105 degrees. I was shooting an old Smith and Wesson revolver and a small crowd of the young tactical guys were standing there watching. One remarked that they'd never seen a old boom-boom gun from the 30's.

At a backyard cookout back in Maryland, I was helping out with the cooking and I had an old yellow sodbuster, and I handed it to a young lady needing to slice some of the nice fresh Baguette. Her boyfriend told her to be careful of those old knives because they were dangerous!

The older I get, there it seems like old school stuff is like something from a history book with young people. God knows what they would think of my .36 Navy Colt that loads from the front!
 
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Hey, to each his own.

I don't care much for the combat letter openers being sold as 'Tactical Knives' these days. Don't care much for them at all. In fact I only own twenty three of them. Just can't abide the things.
 
A few posts above have mentioned a point I personally agree with - the locking feature is ‘mostly’ redundant for most tasks.

The one handed opening is a useful feature though, for those of us who need to use a knife in situations where one hand is engaged. Kayakers, rafters, mountaineers etc. Even home jobs on occasion.

I woud lean toward those modern features for the adventure sports environment. But for just opening a package or for out in the garden - no discernible difference between a modern knife and a traditional. I will pick up whichever type is in my eyeline!
 
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To be clear, I grew up using and surrounded by traditional slip joints. Bucks and Old Timers were about the only locking knives I saw until I went into the military. As is the nature of that venture, I was exposed to many new things and new exciting knives was no exception. But still, I carried a tiny little mini-Buck and a Leatherman and/or fixed blade for years. I don't need fancy or tactical, I just need practical and am predominantly a function over form guy.

Hell, these days I don't own a center fire rifle that isn't a Marlin lever action and I own several fine examples (pre-Remington) of those.

But, I did go down the rabbit hole of locking folders. I in no way think of folders as hard use. Zero, zip, nada, and I have many posts here reflecting my disdain for such things. Yet, my mindset was, a lock is an advancement in safety and therefore there was no reason not to have one.

There are some great modern folders and there are certainly times when one-handed opening is very handy. So I'm not going to knock on modern knives, but the point is, I am softening my harsh stance on non-locking folders. I'm climbing back out of the rabbit hole, reevaluating my current needs and realistic vs. perceived notions and diving back into this segment of the knife world.

I don't think it is at all fair to point to youngsters as not understanding the value of a fine tool. I work in manufacturing and I can tell you without any hesitation that there's plenty of old guys, even highly skilled machinists and such, who carry crap knives. In fact, I encounter more people under thirty that are carrying better knives than I do older guys and the older guys typically have no interest in a nice knife. The youngsters that I interact with are more likely to be on line doing research and while I may not always align with their thinking, I find them often at least able to articulate why they have what they have. Not hard and fast on any of these fronts for sure, but just a general experience.

That said, most all of the people I interact with, regardless of age, profession, political stance, background, bar vs. liquid soap, lager or pilsner, you name it, they just don't give much thought to knives. They typically own, carry and use junk in their pockets and kitchens and just about always their blades are duller than Larry King.

I grant that as we age, many of us appreciate simplicity and purposefulness in things. I just don't think it is exclusive or necessarily all that inclusive. :)
 
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