UKC

This subject was archived by UKC. Today an older Cumbrian climber has revived the conversation.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/01/threlkeld-lake-district-...
I am glad to see that he has expanded the countryside's version of how life is here.

In reply to mockerkin:

"Today's penknives have rounded points" no they don't - look at any Swiss Army knife...

In reply to Gordonbp:


A Swiss army knife is not a penknife. How many children are given Swiss army knives? They are expensive. The children in the article are 7 to 10 years old, I know that, as I was one of them. The parents in rural areas know what kit to give to their youngsters to satisfy their learning.

In reply to j0ntyg: I've always thought of the two as synonymous.

In reply to j0ntyg:

......... The parents in rural areas know what kit to give to their youngsters to satisfy their learning.

That "ugh" feel as the blade folds up across the back of your fingers! It certainly taught me to be careful as a child.

Adam

In reply to whenry:


A penknife was a knife for sharpening pens i.e. quills as in the old days. When modern pens came in e.g. fountain pens and biros the knife wasn't needed for pens, but had become useful for other day to day things such as scraping a pipe bowl and other simple tasks but it was never thought to be a weapon.
A penknife can be closed, but so can "clasp knives". All that means is that they can fold the blade away. Some are designed to be weapons but penknives are not.

In reply to j0ntyg:

You're just being pedantic on the name of the thing. When I was a kid a pen knife and a Swiss army knife were one and the same. The more blades the better. Swiss army knives used to get swapped about at school, sometimes for a lot of pocket money - I remmeber getting my first one - an amazing feeling.

E

In reply to Enty:

In reply to Gordonbp:

I would say that the three Swiss Army knives I have all have a more rounded point than a pointy point.

Just sayin' (since Jonty has brought knife pedantry into the thread)

If you are between 7 and 10, any knife is acceptable. I don't think they differentiate

In reply to mockerkin:

Time for the good old never did me any harm point of view.

I would have been about 7 or 8 when I was given my first knife by a family friend, it was a folding knife with a blade that was maybe 1.5 to 2 inch.
I had it for years and used it for making Spears so that we could big game hunt on the rough ground, once we found a dumped tarp on the ground (the rough ground was about 1/4 mile square half open and half covered in trees with a few bomb holes, it backed on to our houses and was everything possible to a bunch of young lads).
With the aid of our pen knifes, some found string and some tree branches it made a few tents and dens.
Not one of us were ever stabbed though we did shoot home made arrows from home made bows at each other but I suspect short of point blank to the eye they were so weak no damage was ever done.

In reply to Enty:

yup its just a flash variant of a pen knife (with the flashness depending on the model).

In reply to Gordonbp:


What, like this one:-
http://www.dofe.org/go/victorinox2/. Opinel also do a knife intended for children http://www.opinel.com/uk/tradition/mon-premier-opinel
Given that there is relatively little need for a sharp tip to a blade intended for use by kids it's a good thing. Most of my scouts seem to break the ends of theirs anyway by levering open things.

In reply to mockerkin:

Considering I mostly used my last swiss army knife for making sandwiches a rounded end would have been ideal. the scissors on that one stopped closing properly (quite dangerous in the pocket!) and got relegated to being my mate's kitchen knife (...yes...) and my new swiss army is one of the locking blade ones so I don't need to carry a locker in the hills as well.

Since pen knives aren't used for sharpening pens anymore it seems to me that one of those and a tiddly swiss army (one of the 1.5 inch ones) are really the same thing.

I shot a pigeon once with a homemade bow and arrow. I wasn't aiming for it but my arrows tended to fly in rather unexpected directions. I felt awful. My dad seemed to think it was rather funny until I asked him to help me clean it up.

In reply to mockerkin:

I found this interesting.

over the years many village children have ticked a trout during school playtime - and you could try it too.
Don't worry if trout dart away during your approach. They will return to the stream banks once you have settled down to wait.
After a time you can move your arms and the trout will probably ignore the movement.
Feel gently under the bank until your hand touches a fish's tail. Stroke slowly along the body.
Before you know it your fingers will have reached the gills. Squeeze in with thumb and forefinger and lift.
If you're after a big fish, country titches would advise you to put a handkerchief round your hand first. It gives you a better grip.

In reply to Toerag:

Opinel also do a knife intended for children http://www.opinel.com/uk/tradition/mon-premier-opinel

I have that knife. These days it's my go to knife for just about everything, the only downside I have found to not having a point is its lack of puncturing. Opening plastic blister packs are a problem but iit's sandwich buttering ability more than makes up for that.

In reply to j0ntyg:

Cheapest Victorinox on Amazon - £8, How is that expensive?

In reply to mockerkin:

When I was a kid, we all had "rambo" knives in leather sheaths on our belts. These were definitely pointy ended, serated on the top, blackened steel so we didn't give our positions away in sunlight, compass and sewing kit in the handle and the blade was about 8 inches long.

TBH i'm suprised it was legal in the 80's, they were definitely lethal in the wrong hands

In reply to Enty:

I remember getting an opinel, which was what I'd always thought a pen knife was, and still do. I already had a swiss army type knife, which I think my dad had gotten at a conference, as it had some medical brand on it. But I didn't really think of that as a pen knife, more of a multi-tool with a pretty useless couple of blades, that got totally trumped when leatherman tools came along.

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

Flash bastard, mine was a good Swedish hunting knive though. We had six patrols of six, all tooled up, and the worst injuries were grazes, nettle rash and ticks on your scrote (saw that once, the APL of the Falcons, still scares the shit out of me.....)

Wee tw@'s outside the Spar, tanked up on Buckie carrying a blade are a completely different conversation.

In reply to contrariousjim:

I bought my first Opinel the other week. Don't really know why i never bought one before. It has a carbon steel blade and you could probably shave with it.

E

In reply to mockerkin:

surely you cant do much damage with a non locking blade though, the most damage I did to anything with my trusty victorinox fishermans knife was to my own fingers when the blade folded on itself, several times I might add.

A small folding penknife isnt really a risk and is very handy tool.

In reply to Enty:


My kids live for the Wednesday market in Buis, the week when that huge artic lorry pulls up with every possible variation on knives and machetes, catapults, crossbows. They look at you with that 'Please can I have that? I will be careful...'

In reply to Enty:

To be fair on the danger of knives, I've taken a fair few slices (needing stitched) into my fingers using that opinel, through stupidity more than anything else, but then nobody taught me how to use it properly. I was mostly using if for fishing, cutting rope for tarps, and carving wood.

Interesting point of view in my work (path), which was being told from the outset of training that to avoid injury you should always use the biggest knife possible, and from experience, that's definitely true, you're far more likely to cut yourself with a little scalpel blade than a big knife, which you always far more aware of where it's cutting edge is.

In reply to butteredfrog:

That's why you get something that locks. If it doesn't lock there's no way you can trust it and half of the utility is gone. That said I do have a tiny spyder sliplock on my keyring.

In reply to Gordonbp:


It's not today but then it isn't a Swiss army knife, it's a cheap imitation.

In reply to Timmd:

over the years many village children have tickled a trout.
>> That description is mostly as we were taught in our village except that you had to walk gently along the bank and look for the fish. Then having spotted it slowly move your hand into the water behind it and start the tickling process as you described. Then grab it, best by sticking a finger into a gill. We were also taught to rinse our arms into the river so that when you put your hand into the water the fish didn't smell anything strange.
The handkerchief or similar was frowned upon, it was see the fish first, not feel for one. But then we had clear streams.
All this stopped when busybody noticed us on the riverbank with old XXXX one of the local poachers and told the village policeman.