I know that I posted this the other day, but...

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Fishtail Picklock
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I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by Fishtail Picklock »

<img src="https://www.bladehq.com/imgs/knives/tac ... 637-LS.jpg" alt="Ontario XM-3 Combat Deploy Automatic Knife G-10 (3.75&quot; Black) "/>

Does anyone else favor "working" autos? I appreciate "working" knives. The ability to clean them, hone them, and keep them in serviceable condition adds to the appeal of owning an automatic knife.

Collecting stilettos is a fun activity, but an EDC, or "working" auto, helps to dispel the "only hoodlums and thugs carry switchblades" philosophy. Police, Fire, and Security personnel all know this and quietly nod in assent when they hear this. Has anyone outside these professions feel this way? :?:
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sammy the blade
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by sammy the blade »

I've always liked the picture of having something nobody else has. They are legal in Indiana now but you don't see many for sale. When I pull one and press the button to cut something, besides myself, the eyes go wide open and it makes my day.
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whippersnapper
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by whippersnapper »

I first found the forums while looking for an automatic knife that would be a useable working pocket edc type blade. A few hundred knives (of all kinds) later I'm still looking. Since, I have owned dozens of styles including stilettos, even though never really floated my boat. I prefer a style that will actually cut something if I ever felt the need to.

I never intended to collect switchblades. Only really wanted one or two. Just something to replace the manual pocket knives I had carried since being a boy and used for everything. Somehow I failed and caught the bug for quite a few years, although my enthusiasm and curiosity has waned alot the past few.

So yeah, most of my interests are in what I would consider working knives.
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Bill DeShivs
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by Bill DeShivs »

I have always favored working knives.
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JimBrown257
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by JimBrown257 »

Fishtail Picklock wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 4:43 pm Does anyone else favor "working" autos?
I've always appreciated a knife of leisure.

But seriously, I like the utility autos, but once you become a collector, it is really hard to bring yourself to actually use them.
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jerryk25
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by jerryk25 »

"Working knife" and "Throw-away Knife" are synonymous.
So if I'm going to sharpen it, pry with it, lose it "on location" . . .it had better be "inexpensive".

K12-ALs were fun, but they broke, and you could not sharpen them. Soft Steel.
Most of my life I always had an X-Acto blade taped to the back of a card in my wallet,
so I never expected a pocket knife to stay super sharp.

My Dad always carried a tiny 2 blade Case, Kabar or the like to cut his Marsh Wheeling Virginian cigars in half.
So I keep them around in excess, just out of memory of the "old days".

Most of my working knives were 9 inch italian clip point lock-backs converted to flick open easy.
I made Pseudo-Picklocks, and ground off the nail nick for a long bayonet point, and ground off the blade heel to flick.
I made about 20 this way, some with carved wood walnut handles, some with lanyard bails.
I usually traded them for weed, or another knife or something.
I regret wrecking the real horn bayonet points. . . . .but not the plastic scale clip points.

In the 1980's, I carried about three 9 inch automatic model 120's italian tilt bolsters, that always got traded away.
But I found that a spring loaded knife was a bad thing if it popped open. So I always preferred gravity knives..

I have a Chicago Spike clone that takes and keeps a sharpening pretty well. I wrecked 2 of them.
I only have 2 left, so they are "Retired". Of all the TRUE AUTOMATICs these were the closest to a viable working knife.
Stilettos and others were impractical. The Chicago Spike looked a lot like a standard Razor-blade holder.
So when I pulled it out, I would not let it "flick" open, being coil spring it would open fully even if my fingers caught it.
so they never attracted attention, like a stiletto.

My favorite were those Japan / Tiawan clones called "Eagle" or "Silk Rippers" , they were flat and light weight.
The blades were usually pretty hard, and would keep an edge.
At the chemical plant, I put a lanyard on them, you could open them by squeezing them with safety gear on (gloves).
Most of the time they were for slitting bags or opening boxes, or scraping motor name-plates so you could read them.

But once assisted openers or torsion bar openers hit eBay around 1998,
I switched to them as a Throw-away. . . . .finally settling on the "BuckShot" yellow handle.

But now as I sit bed-ridden in my Easy-Chair Recliner. . . .My go-to EDC is a flavor of the month.
And it's only for letter-opening, fingernail maintenance and back-scratching.
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Fishtail Picklock
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by Fishtail Picklock »

jerryk25 wrote: Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:59 am "Working knife" and "Throw-away Knife" are synonymous.
So if I'm going to sharpen it, pry with it, lose it "on location" . . .it had better be "inexpensive".

K12-ALs were fun, but they broke, and you could not sharpen them. Soft Steel.
Most of my life I always had an X-Acto blade taped to the back of a card in my wallet,
so I never expected a pocket knife to stay super sharp.

My Dad always carried a tiny 2 blade Case, Kabar or the like to cut his Marsh Wheeling Virginian cigars in half.
So I keep them around in excess, just out of memory of the "old days".

Most of my working knives were 9 inch italian clip point lock-backs converted to flick open easy.
I made Pseudo-Picklocks, and ground off the nail nick for a long bayonet point, and ground off the blade heel to flick.
I made about 20 this way, some with carved wood walnut handles, some with lanyard bails.
I usually traded them for weed, or another knife or something.
I regret wrecking the real horn bayonet points. . . . .but not the plastic scale clip points.

In the 1980's, I carried about three 9 inch automatic model 120's italian tilt bolsters, that always got traded away.
But I found that a spring loaded knife was a bad thing if it popped open. So I always preferred gravity knives..

I have a Chicago Spike clone that takes and keeps a sharpening pretty well. I wrecked 2 of them.
I only have 2 left, so they are "Retired". Of all the TRUE AUTOMATICs these were the closest to a viable working knife.
Stilettos and others were impractical.

My favorite were those Japan / Tiawan clones called "Eagle" or "Silk Rippers" , they were flat and light weight.
The blades were usually pretty hard, and would keep an edge.
At the chemical plant, I put a lanyard on them, you could open them by squeezing them with safety gear on (gloves).
Most of the time they were for slitting bags or opening boxes, or scraping motor name-plates so you could read them.

But once assisted openers or torsion bar openers hit eBay around 1998,
I switched to them as a Throw-away. . . . .finally settling on the "BuckShot" yellow handle.
I bought one of the K12-AL Knives from Westbury Sales Company when I was 12 years old. (I couldn't find or buy, a switchblade to save my soul). I carried that thing and avoided trouble because I didn't want to lose it. I usually carried Saber brand (Japanese steel) fruit knives for pocket carry and enjoyed the hell out of them. Mom used to borrow my fruit knife to spread Mayonnaise and cut sandwiches when we were on a road trip in our 1968 Rambler Rebel Station Wagon.

Those were the days!
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jerryk25
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by jerryk25 »

Had a few Sabre Brand . . . .kind of a white pearloid plastic, more like satin metallic white/grey.
We were semi-rural . .lots of Horse farms. . . .Tomato farms. . . .Pepper farms. . . all on top of coal mines.
I carried a Sykes-Fairbaine Commando Knife to Boy Scouts . . .Can't do THAT anymore.
Fishtail Picklock
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by Fishtail Picklock »

jerryk25 wrote: Fri Sep 10, 2021 2:23 am Had a few Sabre Brand . . . .kind of a white pearloid plastic, more like satin metallic white/grey.
We were semi-rural . .lots of Horse farms. . . .Tomato farms. . . .Pepper farms. . . all on top of coal mines.
I carried a Sykes-Fairbaine Commando Knife to Boy Scouts . . .Can't do THAT anymore.
My daddy gave me an original Sykes-Fairbairn British Commando Knife when I was 10!
We were born at the right time, weren't we?
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button_man
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by button_man »

.

I just can't bear to inflict any damage on a knife that I like.... I can't even bring myself to sharpen it. My go-to Knife Guy carries a $400 (manual) folder that's a real beast -- he could probably cut his way out of a cargo ship with it -- and he uses it all the time... but I can't bring myself to do it.

So, I compromise.... since I will not risk loss or damage to an auto, I fill the desire to carry a stiletto by toting a Cold Steel Ti-Lite. Unfortunately, the big one is a little too big and the small one is a little too small; I sure wish they made a medium, but they don't. Although the knife is not cheap, I have picked up a few on eBay at reasonable prices; but fakes of this knife abound, and increasingly you have to be careful about buying it online. The Ti-Lite is very sturdy and opens fast. If I really needed a stiletto, I would actually rather have this than almost any of my auto knives because this knife is more rugged. This knife is always in my pocket. (Note: This knife was made in 2 versions -- first, a single row of holes in the handle as seen here; later this was changed to a double row. I find the single row makes the knife a LOT easier to grasp. Also, there seem to be far more fakes of the double-row version.)

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For daily chores, I prefer "throw-away" knives. For years I have carried a partially-serrated folder that Walmart sold for a dollar. (A couple years ago, they doubled the price overnight, but $2 is still a "throw-away" price!) Just recently I was at the flea market and saw a box of Frost 12-775B folders at $1 each.
I asked the lady how much for all of them (8 knives) and she said "five dollars". These are sturdier than the Walmart knife and eight should last me for the rest of my life. I really like having a "beater" knife on me that can be totally abused, wrecked, snapped in half, covered with tar, lost, whatever..... knowing that I won't even feel a twinge about its loss because it only cost me 63 cents and I can just grab another one out of the box. So, one of my
"throw-away" knives is always in my pocket too.

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Fishtail Picklock
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by Fishtail Picklock »

Tazman Tom has agreed to sell me one of his 6 1/4" Oreste Dibon Fishtail Picklocks. I can use that as a backup EDC to may Case Peanut. I'll also use my Ontario XM-3 to use here "on the farm" (I say this because I'm currently rooming in a farmhouse out in the country).

My Boker Cobra-Tec Scale Release, D2 steel, auto is working well on the farm.
Last edited by Fishtail Picklock on Fri Sep 10, 2021 7:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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jerryk25
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by jerryk25 »

I turned 70 this summer. I have a vague recollection of seeing shure snaps at a hardware store.
When I was 8 or 10, I started "mailing away" . . . but switchblades were already outlawed.
So I recall getting real horn bayo point lockbacks in the mail. . .9inch and 11 inch.
but my first 13 inch lockback italian was plastic scale. . . I remember the smell. . . .
In the 1980's, I was full of money, working at a chemical plant in an drafting office with a fridge and stove.
So I joined the Onyx Club of Rick Hamilton of Edge Co knives, I bought a LOT of kits and sold them.
I would buy model 120's and customize them, and trade them or sell them.
So my "Everyday carry" was more like a "My Dealers Sample", to always be ready to trade for a vintage broken knife.
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jerryk25
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by jerryk25 »

I'm a mangler. . . .I say it with pride. . . .I wreck other peoples art. . . .
I would buy Edge Co Kits model 120 wood and brass by the dozen.

This was before digital photography, so it was either take a 35mm photo, or Xerox photocopy it.
So a lot of my stuff is unrecorded, and traded away. . . .I keep waiting to see one show up on the internet.
typically, I would just change the top bolster to devil ears, or a simple "Trigger guard". File off the nail nick . . .
and I didn't photo it if it was a "run-of-the-mill" mangle..
Once in a while I would practice filework, and I took a moment to photocopy it. . . .

So "every day carry" was not always the "best" knife for work. . . I often had other motives.
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jerryk25
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Re: I know that I posted this the other day, but...

Post by jerryk25 »

So, a nine inch stiletto is as close to a "Working knife" that stiletto's can get.
I think 11 inch blades look so much more sexy. . . but the longer blade will bend a backspring.
and 13 inch stilettos are just to big to be practical.
So I have about 250 nine inch italian lockbacks, I should put them all out on the pool table and photo them.
about 2 dozen or so, have the blade heel ground round so the knife will gravity flick.
A. tap out the pin, replace it with brass. . . . . . . . B. File off the tail button. . . .
C. file the blade heel down round . . . . D. Under-file the lock tab for better fingernail access.
I would Tap / Peen the blade pivot pin . . just tight enough, so it would not "Fall out". . .
but with a little energy, it would flick out.
I also would put a tiny rubber block, or balsa wood block in the blade well,
so the blade would not grind on the backspring.
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