Weekend Open Thread: With a Distinctive Woodsy Taste

H. Clay Aalders
Weekend Open Thread
·6 Comments·

Howdy Everyone,

We have slogged through another week, nothing exciting to support. I am supposed to go to SMKW on Tuesday to check out their new customization shop, which will end up as a print article next month.

I am sitting by a fire in the woodstove in my workshop. My muse isn’t taking me in any specific direction this evening, but my meme trawl yielded a few with a somewhat festive theme. I actually stole the one at the top from Creig M., who is a collector, subscriber, and occasional commenter here on the blog.

Did anyone watch the fight last weekend? My wife and I got married the weekend of the Roy Jones Jr./John Ruiz fight out in Vegas. We went to the fight the next evening. It was a blast.  We used to watch a lot of boxing, in fact it was one of our early favorite Friday Evening activities when we were dating. Cook dinner and watch the fights. I bought her a signed First Edition of AJ Liebling’s The Sweet Science for Christmas one year. That said, I sure wasn’t shelling out the cash to watch Tyson and Jones fight.

For those who don’t get the meme, it was one of the greatest Baesball moments of all time. At least for everyone but the bird.

Life is a matter of timing as they say.

Jason K. is the winner of the Ruana Shirt. I was thinking about him today as my wife and I grabbed some wings and a beer during our annual shopping date-day. I have a feeling things aren’t as open in his neck of the woods. My heart breaks for all of the small businesses that are getting clobbered right now.

I have a Spyderco Shirt to give away this weekend, though I don’t have a picture. I will post one monday.

Have a great weekend folks.

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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.

6 Responses

  1. Sad to say that I don’t have any boxing stories to relate, but I’d punch the bugger who put a secondary grind on my Mora Eldris light duty, I mean, seriously WTF! Once I got it ground back down to a skandi it seems like a keeper, but I still can’t shake the fact that its more cash for less knife.
    Jason – heartening to hear that the beer still flows on Hood’s slopes.

    Reply

  2. My grandfather led a colorful life. He was a bare fisted boxer at the turn of the 19th-20th century. Undefeated in 13 fights. Boxing in some barn in Indiana, his best friend killed a man in the ring. Everyone in the barn that night was “banned for life”. As a kid in New Jersey, we watched the fights on TV every week from Madison Square Garden. I asked him once why he didn’t go into the city to watch them live. He told me about the night in the barn. My response was something like,”But you love boxing! No one will know.” He responded that it was a lifetime ban and “I would know..” He honored that ban until he died at age 93. Compare that to Tyson’s “lifetime” ban.
    Hockey, I agree-the ’76 Olympics were something special! Glad you’re feeling better.
    Jason, glad there’s some cash flowing!

    Reply

  3. Christmas 1980, Cus D’Amato’s boxing camp in Catskill, NY. Some of us Navy nukes were visiting the camp. A couple of us put on the gloves and good-naturedly sparred. Cus had taken under his wing a 14-year old Mike Tyson. (Tyson at the time was a “resident” of the Tryon School for Boys in Johnstown, NY. In boxing terminology, I was a middleweight (160 lbs). One of our guys was a solid 200 lb with amateur experience. He sparred with Tyson (Tyson was 200 lbs at age 14!). It was like watching a grizzly bear attack a deer. Even with the protective gear, our friend hurt all over for days. Cus died in 1985 and Tyson “lost” this guiding light in his life. In 1986, Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history.

    I have always enjoyed boxing, notably the Olympics. The 1976 Olympics were the best in my lifetime. Hocky

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  4. WooHoo, a clean… er new shirt. Thanks, Clay. I mentioned last weekend, I gave my kalashnikov to a friend. As fate would have it, Blade HQ finally dropped the “Dessert Warrior” version yesterday. I got a couple for gifts before they quickly sold out. Never thought I’d be so excited about a pink, budget auto, but here I am. Firewood is the name of the game here now. Outdoor service only for the pub, had a friend fabricate some junkyard wood stoves to pepper around the beer garden. Dumping snow, so we’re getting the ski traffic coming off the mountain. Much needed. Hope everyone is doing well.

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  6. i remember friday night boxing being hours of peewee, bantam, feather and lightweight. it rekindled my enjoyment of the sport after years of plodding, sensationalized heavyweight matches. having access (i must have known someone with cable- my neighbor had “on tv” required for the hawks games) to the non- stop furious barrage of punches was almost as good as golden gloves live at st. andrew, where i’d see friends get pummeled. the other thing that really grabbed me was the heavy coverage of various hydroplane and offshore boat racing. uspba is your friend.
    too bad they determined the formula that most of the u.s. wants to view.
    why won’t hbo release a box set of hardcore t.v.?

    Reply

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