Weekend Open Thread: I’m over it. (and a second-chance CRKT Montosa drawing)

H. Clay Aalders
CRKT Montosa
·7 Comments··1 view

Or if you prefer…

Happy Friday Everyone. We made it through another week. I spent 2 days on the water, flyfishing in the GSMNP. Sunday was with my daughter, and then again on Thursday with my buddy Sean. Low water, but reasonably solid fishing.

I actually did get a knife this week (and an awesome pen from Cmeat), in case you missed it:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBgYVy7jVYJ/

I really like the Banter, even without my personal connection to Ben.

Hocky won’t like it, since it is made in China, but it is not junk. I understand his American-made point of view, and am certainly sympathetic. It will be interesting to see if that point of view shows up in the cash register receipts in the coming months, as it always out-polls its real-world sales data.

Speaking of the future of the knife industry:

Knife Industry Reopens Amid Changing Landscape

My first paid writing gig was at a local weekly paper in Idaho. As much as I enjoy writing reviews and the like, it is nice to do actual “journalisming”. I am pretty proud of it.

How are y’all doing? It seems like the overall situation is relatively unchanged from last week. What the anarchist morons are losing in intensity (the mayhem is less widely spread), they are making up for in significance. The sight of the George Washington statue being toppled in Portland made me physically ill. It isn’t about George Floyd. It is about destroying America. Sod them. The “protests” have long exhausted my goodwill.

In better news, we are giving away the CRKT Montosa again. It turns out our winner , “Melina” , works at Smoky Mountain Knife Works, and opted to donate the knife back for us to give away again. So other than Steve T., who is the winner of last week’s Fight’n Rooster, the rest of you can enter up to 5 comments or replies. Remember: If you are a first time commentor, your comments will be held in moderation until I can approve the first one. So be patient. After I hit your first one, you will be free to post at will.

Here is the Montosa, for those who have forgotten:

You can talk about current events, fishing, my new knife, your new knife, pretty much anything you’d like. It is the Weekend Open Thread, make it yours. Be well everyone.

 

Here is last week’s open thread. I backdated it to make room on the homepage:

Weekend Open Thread: Knife Abuse and another Fight’N Rooster giveaway

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H. Clay Aalders

H. Clay Aalders is a lifelong edged tool user. He spent the past 20 years as a woodworker and fishing guide in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Tennessee. While guiding in Idaho, Clay worked part-time writing for a local newspaper, and upon moving to Tennessee began writing for the blog The Truth About Knives - spending his last 5 years there as Managing Editor. His background is in fixed-blade hunting and bushcraft knives, but has jumped into the world of vintage slipjoint collecting with both feet since coming to work at Knife Magazine. Clay’s primary role is as Digital Editor, curating and creating new content for our website and blog, as well as maintaining the Knife Magazine social media accounts (FB/IG: @theknifemag, Twitter: @knifemagazine). He is also a contributor and Associate Editor of the print magazine.

7 Responses

  1. The Buck 110 was a favorite of many of my shipmates aboard the USS Bainbridge DLGN-25 (later redesignated CGN-25 because the Russians had one more cruiser than we did . . .) I transferred to the USS George Bancroft SSBN-643 in early 1976 out of Charleston, SC. The “boat” was ported in Rota, Spain. Many “bubbleheads” of my crew carried the 110. I owned the Ranger 112. I spent many watches in the engineering spaces during patrols “tuning its edge” on a ceramic insulator salvaged from an O2 generator. I still have the “112” and the insulator! Yep, submariners are kinda unique. Mark Zelesky’s father was a submariner.. Billybob Sowell, MS-ABS, served on the Nathanial Greene. (He was a weaponeer, a Missile Tech (MT). I hope Billybob reads this! Your automatic that I own, with scales made of the “fossilized cheekbone of a walrus”, was a sensation at the 2019 USS Bancroft reunion in Cleveland. I will be in Kings Bay, GA in March 2021 for our next reunion. Any other “boomer” or fast attack sailors out there who are knife people? Hocky in Hagerstown

    Reply

  2. the really bad flu is a drop in the bucket to china’s agenda against the u.s. of all the horrible things you can say about commie pinko bastards the fact that they constantly lie and renig are the most important to understand. human rights, environment (not that fracking is friendly) whatever, they lie.
    i would like to learn the story of how the folding hunter begat the ranger. i carried rangers for many years through high school and beyond. i still have a battered sheath for one that saw some significant road rash caused by a skitching mishap involving moon boots and a raised bump sewer lid. and being too stubborn to let go…

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  3. Clay, I recognize that many well made knives are coming out of China. There are plenty of quality manufacturers and solid products at almost every price point. But after this virus, the havoc it has wrecked, and the lies told in the early stages of the outbreak by the Chinese government that allowed this thing to go worldwide, bringing death, untold heartache and economic chaos to the world when the truth may have stopped it in China….it’ll be a cold day before I purchase goods made on the mainland when there are alternatives. I’ll buy American, European and Japanese steel. I’ll happily support Taiwan and the freedom loving people of Hong Kong. I can admire the craftsmanship and beauty of knives made on the mainland without contributing to their economy when I have the choice.

    Reply

  4. Been a good knife week. Got that Fightn’ Rooster from Clay, thank you so much sir. I also received a pair of matching straight razor knives I had engraved. One for my Pops and one for me. Speaking of my old man, Ricky did you carry a Buck 110 in the Navy? My Dad served late sixties, early seventies. He gave me his Buck 110 he carried then and most his life. He talked about how in the bunks at night every time someone opened the door, you’d hear the clicks from the 110s opening up. I also love the story of how the Buck 112 Ranger came about. Too many 110 knife fights.

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    1. Two of my mother’s younger brothers served in the Navy in the ’50’s.. One summer when I was 11 (I think) her youngest brother “gave” my cousin and I each a pocket knife for the summer. I believe they may have been Demo knives. I remember they were all metal. Those things were Indestructible! Carved a lot of marshmallow sticks and played Mumbly Peg for hours on end, and carried them every day on our adventures! We returned them to him at the end of summer. I recall my uncle’s carrying those or similar all metal folders. And although one of them was an avid hunter, I don’t recall ever seeing either of them with a Buck 110. I hadn’t thought of that in years; thanks for triggering some great memories!

      Reply

  5. First, I am an advocate for custom knives that are Made in America. I appreciate and support production knife companies that are based in the USA and produce MOST of their knives in the USA and/or non-communist countries. Red China knife manufacturers stamp out millions of blades, assemble them along conveyor belts, box them and ship them around the world. The “Ka-ching” of the cash registers in the “real-world sales data” is music to the ears of the authoritarian Chinese government.My forty bucks or $100 or whatever amount will be spent on a American-made knife. Usually, my money will go to the bladesmith who forges and grinds. I support the up and coming ABS-affiliated bladesmiths. I own and greatly value my knives created by ABS Mastersmiths, e.g. A. G. Barnes, Tim Potier et al. I own modern era knives by Spyderco, Bear & Sons Leatherman (Skeletool CX), Spartan Knives, Gerber, Kershaw and CKRT. My vintage USA-made knives, mostly slip-joints, include Kabar, Ulster, Schrade. I carry and use my knives. I have had my Kabar 1026 jackknife since 1959. My Kabar Mk II from my Navy days in the ’70s is treasured . . . but not carried these days. Well, Clay got me going this Saturday morning. I think I will go tend my garden and de-stress. The Silver Queen is about a foot high. Tomatoes, zukes and cukes, okra, peppers and pole beans growing NICE! My watermelon sprouted two days ago . . . Hocky in Hagerstown

    Reply

  6. Awesome, glad to hear I won last week. Good luck to everyone else this week. Tht crkt looks nice with the purple accents.

    Reply

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