Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Knives





I have always liked knives. Probably started as a Boy Scout, when you always had a knife in your pocket and always found something to carve or whittle. Like most of my other stuff, I have way more knives than I need, but, with SHOT Show coming up, I'll probably get a few more. I know a little bit about the knife construction but am by no means any form of an expert. It's sort of like art - if I like it, I like it. I might like the functionality, the weight, the blade structure, or just the way it looks. When I was going throught my knives recently, I took some pictures and thought I'd share them. Some have neat stories, some no story at all.

A Camillus Yellow Jacket


This classsic pocket knife is known as a muskrat skinning knife with its two long, thin blades. I always liked to use a long bladed knife when rabbit hunting as a youth, and this is my favorite. One of the few I own that are not some form of lock-backs. Sadly, Camillus Knife Co is no longer in business. When I lived in NY, I sometimes would fish in Ninemile Ck against their building for trout!



Beretta Airlight knives


When I repped Beretta in the early 90's I fell in love with these knives. The stteel is good, the knives are durable, and they are LIGHT. The 1/3 serrated knife shown at the bottom of the photo will do about anything you need a knife to do. At the time , Gary Fadden headed up their knife business at Beretta. Gary is now the President of Al Mar Knives, a maker of truly spectacular knives .


An Al Mar Hawk w/ Mother of Pearl handle






An Al Mar Sere folder


Gary's Al Mar knives are treasured by knife lovers around the world. They are terrific knives, no matter how much you know about knives, and you can't help but to appreciate their quality. Seeing Gary and the Al Mar booth at SHOT Show is an annual event for me.





A Sog Crosscut and a Leatherman Micra


Victorinox Money Clip


Leatherman showed the world the versatility of the mini-tool, and nearly everyone has some sort of these multi-function pieces today. Over the years I hacve found that the single most useful item on the pieces pictured above is the scissors. I find myself reaching for them more than I could ever imagine. If you don't own something with a scissors, you owe it to yourself to try one of these out.



In 1995 I was a guest on a trip to Norway with Rapala. We started the trip in Rovenimi, Finland at the famous Martiini Knife Co. (which is now owned by Rapala, but was owned by the Martiini family at the time) TRIVIA: What is the largest city in the world NORTH of the Arctic Circle? Rovanimi, Finland! The Martiini family were terrific hosts, and they gave us some very nice knives as mementos. We could also buy knives if we desired. The following are from that trip.

A pair of curly birch handled knives - one filet and one hunting - that go into one dual sided tooled sheath




A high carbon steel hunting knife. This is one of their earliest models. The carbon content in the steel makes it relatively easy to hone to a razor edge, but the knife dulls more quickly than harder steels.








This rosewood handled filet knife has a bronze salmon head on the end of the handle.


So - what do I normally carry in my pocket? An old, beat up Buck folder! Go figure.


got any knife likes or dislikes??


Wolfy


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

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T. Brook Smith said...

I carry a Gerber multi-tool that I have had for several years now. Apparently I like it because I would have lost any other knife long ago.

The functionality of a multi-tool is something I have become addicted to over the years. A day hardly passes that I don't use it for something, and frankly, the tool box does get a little dustier because of it. I had an embarrassing moment last year when my father-in-law was in the house and wanted to use a Phillip's head screwdriver. Well, I HAVE a Phillip's head screwdriver, but the only one I use and can actually find is on the multi-tool. I wasn't there, so the screwdriver wasn't either. Maybe I'm not the most handy guy ever, but I swear, I DO OWN A SCREWDRIVER!!

Basspastor said...

Nice blog. I found you thanks to Ben's Madison Fishing Log. My main blog is Bass Pundit and mainly centered around bass, but I do fish for pannies, pike, bowfin, and walleye as well. I have added your blog to my Blogroll-O-FishNblog.

Wolfy said...

BP - welcome aboard. Your site(s) certainly have no lack of things to link to and read!! Thanks for joining in, and feel to comment anytime.

Wolfy

LarryB said...

Great blog Wolfy! Tons of interesting stuff that is covered well and great photos to boot.

I've been hooked on the 6 inch Rapala fillet knives ever since they were the Only Rapala knives imported by Normark, back in the beginning . The four inch Trout & Panfish model hadn't even come out yet. :-)

Cheers,