This is still one of the best explanations of the use of whittling knives anywhere. Mr. Thomas breaks it down to the simple choices and offers encouragement to give whittling a try before your actually out in a situation in the woods.

Love the history, context, and stories you provide. You have KZfaq down to an art form.

I wish you were more popular so more people could benefit from your wisdom. Thank you for sharing.

I want to thank you for your insight on pocket knives. Since I was a kid I always wanted to have a pocket knife with me for practical reasons. The utility of these knives is cannot be overstated.

Blackie--I don't comment much but I've watched many of your videos and they're all so thoughtful and entertaining. Your stuff is original and I enjoy the h*** out of them.

I grew up with a $1 blunt nose Barlow knife ( and , yes I carried it to school too ) ! I like those to this day !

I'm liking watching and commenting as much as I can blackie

Blackie Out all pocket knives I tried the barlow is best for my carving shape fits comfortable in hand I collect barlows I may get me a grandaddy barlow I would use it to clean wild pig when I shotgun boar much obliged for sharing impressive collection too 👍🐾🦊🇬🇧

My grandfather had a jumbo K-Bar trapper. It was there mostly to cut his tobacco and after each cut the edge was immediately touched up with a pocket stone before he put it back in his pocket. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this. Enjoyed it very much and appreciate the mention again.

Great video! I love your no nonsense approach to things! Keep em coming Blackie!

Thanks again Blackie. Learned alot from your videos.

Blackie, I really liked this video. I've carried a medium 3 blade Old Timer (US made) for about 40 yrs along with a belt knife. I used to love to watch my uncle clean fish and snapping turtles with his small 3 blade Old Timer (also US made back then). All the "Old Timers" in my home town carried some type of slip joint as their EDC tool. Most were oil fielders or farmers and none was ever without the old slip joint. Like you say, they used it for about everything knife related.

Great video, really took me back to my childhood. God Bless.

Great points. I would say Whittling knives went out because of modernization pf culture. We dont make things out of wood much anymore. It's mostly plastic. It was the indistrial revolution and mass production that made hand crafted items appear crude or archaic. Funny thing is, as you pointed out, it has made us much less self reliant and it has feminized our culture as it has taken creativity and resourcefulness out of the hands of the everyday man. There seems to be a search in our culture for a return to that self Reliance and resourcefulness. We need to identify how to blend these trates into modern day culture. Thanks for the great knowledge!

As a wood carver,I never leave the house without at least 1 or 2 knives with me.Many times I have been able to help people with some difficulty they are having,by reaching into my pocket or bag and having a knife to use.It alarms some folks when I readily access them,but they are always grateful in the end;for someone being prepared...Great video Blackie !!

Great video, and an amazing amount of history and explaination. And Lord knows I love it all! So, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Excellent video! Educational, knowledge broadening, and practical.

Blackie,can't stop watching your pocket knife vids as I'm just now very interested in the traditional and history of these old style knifes.I do value your opinion and knowledge on these styles and have bought some of the ones you have shown.THX'S.

Wow! Thank you! Your videos are the second best thing in learning these kind of stuff. I would actually prefer learning this face to face from someone with experience and the thirst to teach, but since i don't have the opportunity, this is the second best thing for which i'm grateful. I hope you have the opportunities to teach some kids in person aswell.

Great video again!TY!

Thanks man, really thorough.

Excellent video I am looking forward to many more to come!

thank you for the information you share. you truly cut the nonsense out of day to day bs and get down to the meat of living. I look forward to your future posts

Blackie. Another nice video. And more great information. I now have a couple Rough Riders because of your reviews and just ordered another one ( a medium stockman). I like them pretty well, especially for the price. I've carried an Old Timer (U.S. made carbon steel) med stockman for over 40 years, probably at least twice a week and always when camping. At my old job, my work knife was a SAK Super Tinker or Fieldmaster about 5 days a week. I usually have a multi-tool and a large locking folder on me, as well. Each has it's purpose, but the most used is always the little slip joint.

Great video on whittling knives. I don't usually see them but your points about them are well taken. Thanks Blackie. atb Opal

Great job. Thanks

I usually pack 2 pocket knives on me. Me and my wife set on the front porch and whittle a lot to pass the time.

Awesome video!!

Excellent content and presentation brother

I find my interest turning back to the older style knives. Sadly most are made in China now.

Great video! Love the pocket knives, always have one on me. My grandfather and my Dad passed on knives to me too.Do you have a video on making that neck knife lanyard? Thanks!

Awesome. I like a swiss army tinker. For a edc. I wore one out but it took me 4 years of heavy use. I carved all sorts of odds and ends with thoss two blades. But im a plumber so the extra screwdrivers and the awl were constantly too

Say Heah Blackie, I totally agree, I also just like to take a slipjoint pocket knives just to save the edge on my main blade. I like going out with my friends bake a potato and have a hot cup of coffee on the open fire while enjoying the coffee and fire, I like to just whittle as we chat around the fire, I have a bunch of cheaper slipjoints when I was grounded with my broken leg and I found the knife corner on T.V. but some of them are really nice, I don't know how well tempered tgey are, but most of them have little dot and a arrow pointing to it and it reads 56-58 RC, But then some are German made and are very nice looking with Buffalo handles. But I also have some vintage, Scrades, Western, Ka-Bar made in the U.S.A. Oh and Camillus, which is one that I carry alit, I have pouches for them so I don't loose them as essy, one of my Fav's is my Camillus Silver Sword #836 it's a three blsde on a Canoe Pattern and made with their Silver Sword TM Stainless and boy does it hold a great edge, Yeah, I like tinkering with it. But most recently I got a couple of Moose Pattern Slipjoint Pocket Knives by Rough Rider very nice looking and both appear to be made as good as my vintage Case pocket knives. But I also like a Awl that I use alot, and my vintage B.O.A. slipjoint O chewed the Awl on it from years of use, it was time to get another pocket knife. I do have some Multi Tools with Awls, But I got a Victorinox Delemont Collection Ranger Grip 78 because the main blade lovks and so does the Screwdriver when you press down on it. and it has a long saw which is almost if not longer than my Puma Warden with Saw and in bone, both blades are lockbacks but my Vic is a Liner Lock that unlocks with a push of a botton on the logo on the handle very nice, If I haven't Wished You a Merry Christmas, Lemme be the first to Wish You a Merry Christmas, I really enjoy your videos, Thsnx, Partner, , ,

I really enjoyed this video Blacky. You know, growing up, my grandfather always carried a pocket knife. I don't know what kind it was but he used it for everything. I had a traditional Boy Scout knife as a kid but as I grew up it was replaced by more modern designs. A few weeks ago the folks at Taylor Brands sent me their whole lineup of "Genuine Bone" Old Timer pocket knives. 3 Trappers and 3 Stockmans with bone handles and upgraded steel blades. They are not only beautiful and affordable but they are amazingly useful. I find myself gravitating to them more and more for all the reasons you talked about there.

Enjoyed this

Say Heah Blackie. a few years ago, I traded for a Camillus Silver Sword, It has sort of a Canoe Payter, but three blades. Yeah, I take this into the bush and use it as my whittler when we're enjoying a Afternoon Delight hot cup of coffee A La Mors (eveporated milk with alittle honey) . It was used by a man that worked for a Cash Register Co. cutting wire etc. I got it in great condition and with a very good edge. I leather pouch carry it. ,,.

Blackie thomas I would love to have a granddaddy roughrider Barlow knife . I will be getting one after seeing that one you show.

Victorinox does not make a Wood Carving knife that has two carving blades, a saw, and a large roughing blade. Blades that have 58 or better Rockwell hardness or 440 or better stainless steel. Just three slots (not sure what they are called) handles. that are rounded for comfort, with locking blades. Folded no more than 3 1/2 inches long. If all the carvers out there will unite and keep bugging Vicky about it, I am sure they will listen.

Luckily you were not sitting under that tree.

Great video Blackie! I'm up here in Bibb co. Btw.

Blackie, love the vids. What do you think of a 3 blade stockman for a whittling knife? Thanks!

Love my pocket knives I have field dressed several deer with my pocket knife instead of my hunting knife went to work one day and only once left my pocket knife at home I felt naked I bet I reached for that thing 30 times that day should have just drove home and got it

Blakiethomas I have made 6 knifes out of lawnmower blades in the pass 5 month s. It's a lot of fun and hard work .been making knifes for 5 years . So far I have made about 200 knifes .

I meant to ask what is your opinion on swiss ary knives for an all round 1 tool/knife option for camping? Also what are your thoughts on Opinel knives? many thanks - Jim

would you recomend an opinel for a pocket (carving) knife?

What do you think abt the r h russel Canadian belt knife

I recently bought a Buck 371 Stockman pocket knife. Would it be a good whittling knife?

I have a lot of knifes but for some reason I have not got a Barlow knife . Blackie do you have any ganzo knifes .that is a knife I want to get .

Blackie Thomas you just can not beat a roughrider or a marble knife for the price the price that they cost you just can not .

I don't believe those slippies are differentially hardened, as you somewhat indicated when you stated that these knives were "sharpened to the back until the steel was soft where there was not hardness anymore". The whole blade was the same RC.

Mornin, Blackie; Just subbed ya up Brother # 4838,here ! Dang if ya aint got the same Barlow Father gifted 2 me, waaaay back in 1970 ! shes a rid-N in my dungarees everywhere I go, Cant think of a better Lil-Compact Do Anything, least that I need 2 do ! This video was a High-Light 2 my Mornin, Glad I watched this & Just had 2 sub a Good-Ole Bama Boy ! Have a close Friend, Lives in Theodore. Cant go wrong with that ! Will git caught up on yer others soon, Blackie !..Happy Trails From The Maritimes In Canada........ATB Terry......................................God Bless

Hmmmmm,,, now U tell me,, i been cleaning my chickn's with a chainsaw fer year's,, works pretty darn good too..🍗

FI have no idea how or when every non-locking pocketknife came to be called a slip joint, but it isn't that simple. Friction doesn't hold a slip joint open, the main spring does. It has nothing whatsoever to do with friction. Friction knives were the first pocketknives, and dated back to the early Roman Empire. Many of these were make from broken daggers, and sometimes even from the tips of broken swords. It should take a fair amount of pressure to raise the spring and close the knife. If the knife has a spring, friction does NOT hold it open, and it's a slip joint. If the knife has no spring to hold it open or closed, it's a friction knife because friction is the only thing keeping it open or closed. Take the lock off an Opinel, and you have a friction knife. Put a spring in the Opinel to hold the knife open or closed, and you have a slip joint. You do not have to maintain pressure to hold a slip joint open. The spring hold sit open all by itself. Bumping the knife is applying pressure which overrides the pressure of the spring, especially on a cheap knife. A slip joint knife won't and can't close up on you unless you simply have no clue how to use it. Simply put, if you know enough not to try drilling with anything other than a blade with the point at the bottom, such as a sheepsfoot or Wharncliffe, and if you know enough not to make cuts by pushing the blade forward, and why would you do either of these things, and slip joint knife simply will not EVER close unless you want it to. You should never use your thumb to keep a knife open when using the point that way. You should neve ruse the point that way. It's unnecessary, dangerous, and silly. If you don't know enough not to do these things, you really need knife lessons. And what they whittled with a pocketknife was EVERYTHING that needed made. The palm of their hand had nothing to do with it. In the woods, the slip joint pocketknife did ALL the whittling. They used the pocketknife to whittle axe handles from the tomahawk to a full size felling axe, and they used the pocketknife to whittle full length gunstocks for their Kentucky Rifles when a mishap in the woods broke one, and a hundred other things. Even today, people use knife blades two inches long, and shorter, to carve very sculptures. Full size turkeys, ducks, and geese are common. I've seen life size head and shoulders of wolves, mountain lions, and even horses. Just like spoon carving today, they used a hatchet or tomahawk to rough out the shape of anything very big, and then finished it with a pocketknife. Of course, even today, any blade longer that two inches is considered a machete in the world of woodcarving. Even many HUGE projects are whittle with a knife that has a blade the same length as the first joint of your thumb. And wherever you read that about conserving resources, it was dead wrong. That big knife was always a joke, and no one cared about the steel in it. It was probably going to break the first time you used it for anything serious, anyway. That knife was for self-defense, and for skinning and processing large animals. Resources be damned, as soon as repeating firearms meant the weren't as likely to need a knife for self-defense, they threw away those big knives, or gave they away, or stuck them in a trunk in the attic. They didn't care in the least about the steel. The Barlow was hardly the first knife to use strong bolsters. Knives had been using steel bolsters for a long, long time, and brass bolsters before that. There were several high quality work knivs on the market before the first Barlow was made, a couple of them superior to the Barlow in every way. What made the Barlow special was the fact that it was a good work knife, durable and long-lasting, but its price made it famous. Pocketknives of the time were far too expensive for the average worker to afford. Even pure work knives culd cost a month's wages. But Obadiah Barlow found a way to use production techniques to turn out a good, high quality knife that sold few a few pennies. This was unheard of. The knife spread all over Europe in nothing flat. When it made its way to America, the same thing happened for the same reason. The demand for a Barlow knife was so high in America that within three years of its arrival here, a dozen American companies started cranking out their own versions of the knife. Pocketknives have always been more complicated, more difficult to make than fixed blade knives, and there simply were no high quality low price pocketknives on the market. Obadiah Barlow did, in a very real way, invent the Mora of his day. No one tried to conserve resources by using a pocketknife, rather than a big belt knife. That's silly. If anything, it was the other way around. There was some darned good carbon steel back then, but the best of it went into pocketknives and swords, not into belt knives. Everyone used the best used the best pocketknife he or she could afford, , and they used them because they did a better job at almost everything than did a belt knife. . Pocketknives, slip joints, were almost always made in factories, and a dozen different factories only stayed in business by outdoing their competitors. This meant high quality scales, brass, and steel. Belt knives came in two forms. Good ones owned by the wealthy, and trade knives owned by the poor. The rest were whatever the local blacksmith could make from whatever steel he could find. Anyone who says a big knife can do anything a small knife can do, but a small knife can't do everything a big knife can do is a total fool who is, at best, suffering from "knife" envy. A big knife can do a fair number of things a small knife can do, but you have to be blind, deaf, dumb, and completely uneducated to think a big knife can do everything a small knife can do. There's a reason professional woodcarvers consider a two inch blade large, and a three inch blade a machete. It's because a blade longer than that can't reach in and make any one of a dozen cuts a two inch, or a one inch, blade can make. Art shows, woodworking events, and museums are filled with carving that would be completely impossible with even a medium size knife, even a with a three inch Mora blade. And even most of the things a big knife can do that should be done by a small knife are inefficient, awkward, and stupidly dangerous when done with a large knife. Only a fool tries chopping his way through a jungle with a pocketknife, and only a bigger fool tries doing any one of a hundred jobs best done by a small knife with his big belt knife. I've known a number of professional woodcarvers who used a Stockman for everything from carving figures all the way down each side of a chopstick, often fifteen per side, all the way up to carving a life size wolf's head, shoulders, and front legs. But I've never known a professional carver dumb enough to use a big knife for really fine carving because most of it is impossible with a big knife. Few things evoke faster behind the back laughter than someone coming into the woods with a huge knife on his belt. Laughter, and fear. It's a natural assumption that the person doesn't know very much about knives, and less about safety when he's wearing a huge knife. And when he starts trying to do things with that knife that should be done with a machete, an axe, or a small knife, someone is bound to whisper, "The bigger the knife. . ." This is short for 'The bigger the knife, the bigger the fool", which has been used in the woods for more than a hundred years, ever since big knives started disappearing after the Civil War. It was true then, and it's true now. Fortunately, outside of KZfaq's narrow, round robin, almost incestuous way of keeping myth alive and truth in the shadows, most of the world still understands these things.

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