Aug 11, 2012

Pocket Knives, Don't leave home without it!

 

My love affair with knives goes back to when I was just a kid, before I even had a knife I would sit on the front porch and sharpen a popcicle stick to a point on the concrete. Why I did that I'm not       sure, maybe it was some primal inclination to or a move towards self relience. Nonetheless after I got  my first pocketknife at the age of seven or eight (which is the small faux pearl handled penknife)  I've had one in my pocket ever since. 

When I was in my early teens I started working on the neighbors farm stacking hay in the mow,feeding and helping to milk the cows.  A pocketknife was a necesity, a tool you carried and used everyday on the farm and at home.
I even carried a knife in school but back then almost everyone I knew carried some type of a knife to school and it never raised an eyebrow.In fact it wasn't uncommon to see shotguns hanging in the gun racks in the school parking lot during small game season and no one got stabbed or shot, but times have changed I guess.                                                 

When it comes to pocketknives the skies the limit and theres a style, size or specific use you can get one for. They can be works of art or mechanical wonders with a multitude of functions combined with a cutiing blade. For the most part they can be carried and used without raising unjustified alarm, well maybe unless your getting a patdown by the TSA.

Rant Warning:
There was a day and age I think when a man was expected to 'fend for himself' or at least try, you were expected to be responsible for yourself.  From one of the many books I've read I remember a quote "I wouldn't trust a man who doesn't carry a knife". Where I read that I can't remember but I think it holds true in that the unprepared expect they will benifit from those that are, that they really don't have to do their part...that someone will be there to bail them out and that they don't even have to try. 
 Like the Boy Scout Motto "Be prepared"
"Be prepared for what?" someone once asked Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting,
"Why, for any old thing." said Baden-Powell.

Stay safe
Bob













2 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice post, nice bunch of knives too

Back Creek bushcraft said...

Thank's Jim!