Weekend Open Thread: Literally Stupid Edition

H. Clay Aalders
Weekend Open Thread
·8 Comments·

Howdy everyone.

I want to start by saying our thoughts and prayers are with all involved in the Kabul evacuation, and in particular those families who have lost loved ones. As difficult as it is to watch the scenes coming out of Afghanistan, I can’t imagine how hard it is for those who shed their blood there. It is hard to laugh in a situation where I am so angry, but I am going to try to brighten your weekend anyway.

 

In case you aren’t terribly plugged in, this week’s distraction from reality has been the “Milk Crate Challenge” where people stack milk crates into a staircase, attempt to climb said staircase of milk crates, and usually proceed to fail spectacularly.

 

I am old school like that.

Speaking of old school, the ABS has their Mid-America Bladesmithing Symposium this weekend

ABS Mid-America Bladesmithing Symposium & Knife Show

The Gateway Area Knife Club Cutlery Fair is also taking place.

Gateway Area Knife Club Cutlery Fair

Remember that you can always check the Events Calendar to see what shows are coming up.

Last week we continued our Vero Engineering contest. So far Cmeat and Mark R. both have one “token” in the pool. First person to be drawn twice wins the knife. This week, Hocky gets added to the list, unless he wants another Goins Encyclopedia or Military Knife Reference Guide.

We are taking a week off from that contest, to be continued next week. This week we have a KnifePurveyor.com cleaning kit, the same one that is shown in the video I shared this morning.

https://www.knifemagazine.com/news/how-to-clean-a-one-of-a-kind-custom-knife

The usual rules apply. Up to 5 comments or replies count as your entries, and first time commenters will be held in moderation until I approve their comments. Be patient, I will get to it. Entries are accepted all week, until I write next weekend’s thread.

Go check out their newly redesigned website. https://www.knifepurveyor.com/

This rings true more everyday.

The Enterprise would have been cooler with a Firebird logo. And Snowman should be driving.

I do have one almost knife themed meme. Or at least a melee weapon meme. Please pardon the language.

Last week I shared a few memes that were related to the debacle in Kabul, as dark humor is an outlet and a defensive mechanism. There have been some whoppers, but most are way too political for this forum. But there was one series of Sun Tzu parodies that I thought were clever, and let’s face it – One does not need to be a military genius to see that this has been a fiasco.  Here are two of the best.

 

What a cluster.

Finally, a legend was lost this week. Requiescat in Pace Mr. Charlie Watts.

 

Not the flashiest drummer, but as tight as they come. The man was a human metronome. I will let him play you out. Have a good weekend.

(Who would have thought he would be the first to go?)

 

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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.

8 Responses

  1. suntzu sums things up well. helpful when trying to dampen pontificating.
    a literalist eats shoots and leaves.
    best weather of the year started right on cue 9/ 1. had to rubber mount the rear exhaust point on the paint mixer to guarantee proper enjoyment. ground off the cracked weld and machined provisions for ducati fuel tank rubber mounts. old bikes, fabrication.
    how long you had a week back?

    Reply

  2. Hockey I spent over an hour researching “Lut”. The most frequent answer is that it is Arabic for Lot of the Old Testament. In German it is a nickname for both Louis and Luther. It may also be a German version of an American Indian word for red. Curiously, it is also one of 2 speeds for German torpedoes that had a zigzag course. So maybe he was a red headed kid who ran back and forth all day! It may also be short for Lutz- a municipality in Germany. Where do your people hail from?
    My first pocket knife was a Barlow. I’m pretty sure I got it when I was 7 or 8. The bone handle cracked somehow on the move to Houston in 1969. I may have used it once or twice since then. It’s one of those things that probably isn’t worth much, but it triggers several happy memories of my father and grandfather.

    Reply

    1. MARK: Thanks for the research on “Lut”. My Mom told me that her father had red hair. She added that he was given to drinking whiskey and froze to death in the mountain. Billy Graham relates that “God loves all sinners”. Lut fit that category in his life. Both my Mom and Dad’s lineage go back to Germany. My nephew, Billy, did a genealogy search on my Dad. Went back 16 generations or something . . . 16th Century, “Hackenschmidt”. I had enough difficulty with 11 letters in Hockensmith!

      On “Barlows”, over the years I have bought many a Barlow at flea markets, yard sales and public auctions. Some have one main blade; and, some have two blades. My Utica “10” is always in my 5th pocket when out and about in the yard and garden. Most of my “outside Barlows” cost me fifty cents. I do have a few vintage “dress” barlows: Bulldog, Henckels, Schrade, et al. I also have a real nice vintage Camillus TL-29, New York, that I carry around the property on occasion. I will probably be able to pass down to my grandson, Axel, quite a few pocketknives from the ’50s, ’60s and “Lut”s 19th Century “John Russell” (. . . it’s blades are worn down to “awl shucks”. I will tell him the story of his great-great grandfather who roamed the woods on Warner Hollow Road.)

      Reply

  3. I live on a modest sized hill elevation-wise. Front yard slopes toward Wandering Lane. Back yard is flat. My garden is on southward slope. I can not fathom how NOLA survives hurricanes. Sun Tzu lives on in his seminal book. Yep, abandoning Bagram was a blunder. STUARTB: Mineral oil and a cotton rag works for me. I do like “3-in-One”, too. Back in the late 19th century ( . . . circa 1897 or so), “3-in-One” came in a pretty blue-green glass bottle stoppered with a cork. I got two of ’em in my collection of vintage oil bottles/cans. I got my September “Knife”! I thoroughly enjoyed the “Barlow” article by Steve Crowley. That cover with the “Russell” superimposed on the “Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is suitable for framing. Who photographed that cover? I am going to send Clay some photos of my “Russell”s . . . one of which was my maternal grandfather’s, Jesse “Lut” Warner. My Mom could not explain how he got the nickname, “Lut”. I never knew him. He died in the mid-40’s.

    Re the “fungible token” awarded to me for the Vero “Large Synapse”, I will “bank” it. I am in good company with CMEAT and MARK. Oh, if I am lucky enough to have my name drawn for the “knife care kit”, please draw again. I have plenty of mineral oil and rags.

    Reply

  4. That would be an upgrade to me cleaning kit, though there are few things that cant be fixed by a dab of mineral oil and wipe down with an old T-shirt rag. Sunny Sunday here, may bike down to the breakwater and try my luck with a Yo-yo hand reel.

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      1. CMEAT – that looks cool, thanks. Sing of the times on Sunday; I got skunked, but the LAPD, on the next breakwater across, pulled out a dead body. Surreal watching that get gurnied into the coroners van. More of the ‘new normal’ I guess?

        Reply

  5. Had to watch the video twice- I was too distracted by the knife to absorb everything! Looks like a nice kit. Sun Tzu memes are spot on. And it looks like Ida is going to smack New Orleans on Sunday. Gonna be a rough weekend. Thank you for brightening up the Weeknd
    .

    Reply

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