What was the most popular knife when you were in school?

I don't recall what was popular during my elementary school years. Most everyone had some type of cheap folding pocket knife but back then you could get a generic knife for a dollar. By the time I was in high school, the Buck 110 came a long and it was the envy of the crowd. I finally bought one when I was in my late 60's. Just for the the nostalgia.
 
Product of rural midwest public schools from late 1960's - 1980...
Carried cheap Imperial pocket knives to sharpen pencils. We all got a lecture from our 4th grade teacher about pencil sharpening with knives needing to be over the waste basket, not just on the floor. Pencil and lead shavings on old wood school room floors are REALLY slick! Did get tossed from a 7th grade dance for carrying a Craftsman Buck 110 clone...was deemed not "dance appropriate". No police were called and I was allowed to keep the knife. Knives at recess were tolerated, but not always OK...depends what you were doing with them. Sharpening sticks for a spear was about the only real recess no-no..."You'll poke an eye out!" Senior metals class shop project was making a knife from a file. Shop teacher had knife catalogs we could order from.

Fast forward to 2018...I've been a school teacher since 1989...
Zero tolerance on "weapons". A Buck 110 might be grounds for expulsion. Law enforcement will be called in, lockers will be searched, you might be removed from the premises in handcuffs. Some students question why I carry a Vic Classic..."Is it really necessary to carry a KNIFE???" Students might have a some flipper in their book bag, but I'll never see it. The consequences are just too risky.
 
Hand me down Barlow’s and Sod Busters, cherished as much as a Buck 110 in the 70’s. I still have the Barlow that I got in the late 60’s.

Chuck
 
Snow Walker said:
Product of rural midwest public schools from late 1960's - 1980...
Carried cheap Imperial pocket knives to sharpen pencils. We all got a lecture from our 4th grade teacher about pencil sharpening with knives needing to be over the waste basket, not just on the floor. Pencil and lead shavings on old wood school room floors are REALLY slick! Did get tossed from a 7th grade dance for carrying a Craftsman Buck 110 clone...was deemed not "dance appropriate". No police were called and I was allowed to keep the knife. Knives at recess were tolerated, but not always OK...depends what you were doing with them. Sharpening sticks for a spear was about the only real recess no-no..."You'll poke an eye out!" Senior metals class shop project was making a knife from a file. Shop teacher had knife catalogs we could order from.

Fast forward to 2018...I've been a school teacher since 1989...
Zero tolerance on "weapons". A Buck 110 might be grounds for expulsion. Law enforcement will be called in, lockers will be searched, you might be removed from the premises in handcuffs. Some students question why I carry a Vic Classic..."Is it really necessary to carry a KNIFE???" Students might have a some flipper in their book bag, but I'll never see it. The consequences are just too risky.
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This is exactly how I remember it in the 60's and 70's.
Dimestore knives and some kids had the cooler more expensive ones. We always pulled them out at recess (or after school) to show off along with the rest of pocket dumps. Yo-yo's and jawbreakers were also in pockets.
 
Buck, Schrade LB7, Case (yellow handle), Barlow.
Everyone had knives in school in the early 80's.
We had shotguns and rifles in our trucks in the parking lot.
No one got stabbed or shot.
I recall boys taking off their knives before fighting because they didn't want to fall on them and bruise their hips.
Life was alot simpler and safe back then.
 
76-80 South Jersey. I loved buying Italian style "lock blades" at the Farmer's Market. The boys that actually used their knives usually chose a Buck 110, or an American Schrade, Old Timer at Sears.

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NY early - mid 90's :).

Among the kids using them for less nefarious purposes, it was a hodge podge of lower end Japanese tacticals, SAKS, Buck 110 clones, and hand me downs. For a while, Gerber was the tippy top of the high end stuff.
 
The "in-thing" during my time was an orange-brown plastic comb with a handle that ended in a sharp, pointed tip. Eventually, the school banned them and frisking was a regular thing to ensure they weren't brought back into school.

Knives? No one cared about them, no one gave my Victorinox Huntsman a second thought. Back then, fights were down to fists and kicks (and chairs and tables, in one specific fight I was involved in, I'm the sort you try to bully once and you'd never try again), and very rarely utility cutters.

Of course, those involving utility cutters were big news and almost always resulted in public canings, but yeah, those were the only knives people even thought about then and considering most of us wouldn't even be able to afford a Z-Hunter, I guess utility cutters were the closest things available. My parents paid for my SAK as I was a scout and was required to have one. I paid them back much, much later.

Just for context: Singapore, in the early 2000s, when I was in secondary school which is from age 12-16. If I'm not wrong, the comb ban was a nation-wide thing.
 
70's to 80's.
Higo, Buck 110, Gerber, Kershaw, Lakota, G. Sakai, Moki, Spyderco, and Al-Mar in Japan.
Maybe some others I was not interested back then.
 
Probably the most popular for me and my school buds back in the day (1950's in farm country Michigan north of Ann Arbor) was some form of a stockman pocket knife. I still have the German made Browning 3-blade rosewood handle, silver bolstered, Rostfrei blades stockman that I bought in the '70's. I thought it was a good looking functional folding knife and it was my EDC for most of my life, currently now I EDC a Spyderco GB 1.

https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/catalog/browning-knives/19646-browning-stockman


 
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Either a Case Trapper or a Buck 110. Everybody had one or the other or both.
 
Whatever were sold at the PX. At the time, that meant a lot of SAKs, Bucks, and Gerbers (most still American made, so good quality).
 
I graduated HS in '95. Gerber was really big back then. I carried a Gerber Gator around in my back pocket everywhere I went for years and years. Wish I still had it. Had a nice Gerber fixed blade for hunting too. Both were made in the USA.
 
I always have liked knives but I’ve also liked innovation. So when the 80s came and the knife magazines were showcasing all the newest companies and knives with premium materials I like many back then learned a lot in a short time through a lot of trial and error.

We learned about customs, art knives, damascus and what we thought was a liner lock was actually a leaf(spring) lock. A liner or walker lock was a whole ‘nother animal.

The 80s saw innovations and the birth of design by the likes of Al Mar, Pete Gerber, Blackie Collins, Sal Glesser, Les de Asis and Matt Conable to name a few. Then there was the custom maker boom that made household names of Randall, Dozier, Crawford and a host of others. For me the 80s was my most prolific period of collecting.

In the mid 80s I’d read about a knife that fascinated me. It took me a year to find one and that was the same year they came out. It was so far ahead of itself that they made it for a year before they had to change it because the people weren’t ready for it.

There were a lot of firsts with that knife.

  • First US production folder to use titanium for handles.
  • First US production knife with a removable pocket/belt clip.
  • First US production lockblade designed to be disassembled by the user and use user serviceable parts.
  • First US production folder to use bushings at the pivot and lock assembly.
Lot of firsts for the mid 80s, anyone wanna guess what that knife was?

That knife was the Buck Titanium 186. Here’s the knife I spent a year chasing down.

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