All About Pocket Knives

That H&R has some very classy handles. Good choice.

Not so Sassy but I think this 1993 Case Mini-T sporting some Appaloosa Bone is kind of classy. Looks kind of drab and dirty in the picture but it's worlds better in hand.

jerryd6818 wrote:That H&R has some very classy handles. Good choice.

Not so Sassy but I think this 1993 Case Mini-T sporting some Appaloosa Bone is kind of classy. Looks kind of drab and dirty in the picture but it's worlds better in hand.

Thanks, jerryd.

The appaloosa bone has always intrigued me for the very reason you stated, it has a kind of "dirty" look to me, like a white, mud-spattered pick-up truck that needs to be hosed off. But, at the same time, it has a certain appealing look as well...like a white, mud-spattered pick-up truck that sparks the imagination and suggests an interesting a story of where it might've been and what it might've been doing there.

I really like a clean, white, smooth bone (or ivory) handle; so, I'm never quite sure how I feel about appaloosa bone; sometimes I love it and sometimes it just looks like it needs a good washing.

One thing you must admit about it is that, much like stag, each appaloosa handle has its own unique pattern/design, character...and I love uniqueness and individuality as much as my OCD loves conformity and uniformity.

These are my only two appaloosa Mini Trappers.
Legal Disclaimer: Appaloosa Bone Mini Trappers posted in accordance with Monkey See, Monkey Do Amendment, NOT as an official Mini TrapPER DIEM daily entry.

~Q~

DAY 27

Ahhh, Thursday...perhaps today I'll call it Threesday since my Mini TrapPER DIEM today actually consists of a set of three Mini Ts. But, not just any old, standard, run-of-the-mill Mini Ts, mind you...these babies are Case Classics...and what could be classier than that? Notice that each one sports a different shield (Bomb, Bow Tie & Oval), two have the signature Case "XX" stamped on the master blade and one has a fancy script "W.R. Case & Sons" blade etch. They may be 'triplets' in that they all share the same 62007 1/2 pattern number and yellow-tan jigged bone handle scales (classy), but each one has its own distinct personality and characteristics (sassy).
I'm not 100% certain, but, I believe the 007 1/2 pattern number on these Case Classics probably indicates the larger 3 7/8" frame size as compared to a regular Mini Trapper (pattern number 07), which is 3/8" inch shorter at 3 1/2". (Case also has a Mini Trapper with pattern number 61007, which, to the best of my knowledge, has only been used exclusively on the 1997 Case Collector Club Jr. Member Barehead Mini Trapper; which is the only Barehead Mini T Case has ever released...to the best of my knowledge.) ~Q~

Very 'classy' classics ~Q~. Good show old chap.

Today's offering has a special 125th anniversary tang stamp and if you look real close, a clever special shield incorporating the CXXV Roman numerals standing for 125. So I guess that's enough to lend it some class.

That is a real beauty, jerryd...VERY Classy, indeed. It's those little details like the tang stamp and the shield that raise its status from 'run-of-the-mill' to a 'collector-must-have'. As a collector/Mini-Trapper addict, that's the kind of stuff that really gets me excited. I don't know how common that particular Mini Trapper is in terms of total production run number released; but, believe it or not, I don't recall ever seeing that one before. And as you know, I spend an inordinate amount of time looking at/searching for Mini Trappers to add to my collection. So, either it's somewhat rare (limited production), or else those who have them aren't letting go of them (and quite possibly both), and I can totally understand why.

Yet another one to add to my must-have list.

~Q~

Love that 125th Anniversary knife Jerry!
That one is a sweetheart!

I am drawn to anything out of the ordinary.

DAY 28

Final day of Classy & Sassy theme week and I don't know about you but I still have a few Mini Ts that qualify. Hmmm...What to do? I suppose I could continue to follow the rules and choose just one knife to post--my OCD says, "Yes, absolutely follow the rules, you idiot, unless you want the whole world to spin out of control in utter chaos when everybody starts breaking the rules because you set a precedent by wantonly and willfully breaking them...after all, that's exactly why we have rules in the first place, to maintain order and protect the world from destabilization!" My OCD makes a valid point; I don't want to set a precedent that could later come back to bite me in the butt.

But, on the other hand, my highly developed sense of equality and justice demands that any remaining knives I own that legally qualify under the Classy & Sassy theme have a right to be posted & seen. Furthermore, as an honest, Knife-God fearing, Gold-Level supporting member of AAPK as well as a conscientious citizen of the greater knife collecting community at large, is it not my responsibility, nee, my duty even, to post them as they are so entitled? (Sometimes my OCD and my Moral Compass get into very heated debates over issues such as this...I can tell you from experience they've come to blows over much less.)

Well, as a famous politician once said: You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time (my paraphrase). So, I think I'll split the difference and make my final Classy & Sassy themed Mini TrapPER DIEM of the week a pair (which, technically, is a singular noun) of my two classiest Mini Trappers.

There, now everyone can end the week feeling satisfied and happy (or classy & sassy, whichever the case may be).
~Q~

Holy cats ~Q~!! That top one takes a plain old everyday Carhartt to a whole new level. They are both 'Classy', 'Sassy' and 'Snazzy'. GREAT way to close out the week.

My final entry for the week also fits the 'Snazzy' category (what's that doing to your OCD? You may have to go on 24x7 bed rest. )

jerryd6818 wrote:Holy cats ~Q~!! My final entry for the week also fits the 'Snazzy' category (what's that doing to your OCD? You may have to go on 24x7 bed rest. )

When the Mini Trapper Monkey on my back saw your Snazzy Patriot Swirl Kirinite he began jumping up and down frantically, pointing his monkey finger at the computer screen and screeching "Monkey See, Monkey Do...Monkey See, Monkey Do" over and over.

The only way I could placate him was by invoking the "MSMD Amendment" and posting this one:
As for my OCD...he was last seen stomping off into the bedroom closet to make sure all my shirts were facing the same direction on the hangers, evenly spaced and organized sequentially by color (according to the color wheel) while muttering & sputtering something about the imminent collapse of Civilization.

What a week it's been...

jerryd6818 wrote:I am drawn to anything out of the ordinary.

...which is a great idea for next week's Mini TrapPER DIEM theme: "Unusual or Out Of The Ordinary"

~Q~

I can't keep carrying you ~Q~. You're starting to get a mite heavy.

jerryd6818 wrote:I can't keep carrying you ~Q~. You're starting to get a mite heavy.

OK, jerryd, I'll try to "lighten up" a bit...but it won't be easy. From where I sit, the view's pretty nice...and it's only getting better every day.

~Q~

DAY 29

New week, new Mini TrapPER DIEM Theme: Unusual, Out Of The Ordinary.

This theme is wide open to a multitude of interpretations (just as it should be) in order to allow for maximum diversity. What I will find interesting is why a particular Mini T is considered out of the ordinary to the owner. It could be something as simple as the knife is the only example of a particular brand the owner possesses, or perhaps it has a unique type of handle material, etc., etc. It's entirely possible that a knife one person considers "ordinary", another person may find unusual for some reason. It's really just a matter of subjective perspective, so almost anything goes and quite possibly every knife could fit this theme (as long as it's a mini trapper, of course).

An explanation telling why the owner considers the knife unusual or out of the ordinary is not required to post a Mini Trapper; but, it certainly is encouraged, especially if the "abnormality" is not blatantly obvious or self-evident.

My first unusual Mini TrapPER DIEM is this Case 5207 with an unusual, gnarly stag handle. I think the photos pretty much speak for themselves; so, no further explanation is needed.
~Q~

That is indeed gnarly stag

For me ~Q~, what's unusual about that knife is that Case didn't haft the Stag until you could hardly tell it's stag. She's a beauty alright you lucky duck.

Made in China, I thought it was unusual that Buck released a Mini-Trapper.

The second knife I ever purchased (when I was about 12 or 13 years old) was a Burgundy Buck Esquire Drop Point Lock Back. (My very first knife was a 1975 Case Brown Bone--or it might have been Delrin, I'm not sure--Dogleg Jack...I don't think Case had started making Mini Trappers back then.)

One of the reasons I chose to buy a Buck knife (even though it was more expensive than other knives) was because all of my Dad's hunting knives were Buck fixed blades and, so, of course, I trusted my old man's judgement when it came to such things as he always got the best and I wanted to be just like him. I loved that Buck and carried and used it for many years. Well-made knife with smooth-as-silk walk and solid as a rock lock up talk.

Now, however, this is the only Buck knife I own. Although it's nowhere near the same quality as my first Buck knife that I purchased in 1978; ironically, I think I only paid about half as much for this one as I did for the Esquire (maybe even just a tad less). So, from my perspective, that's what makes this one kind of unusual..the price. Although, in reality, that probably says more about the changing world we live in than it does about the knife itself or Buck knives in general.
Note: MSMD Amendment.

~Q~

DAY 30

As I mentioned yesterday, it's entirely conceivable that a knife could be considered "unusual" by one person for reasons that might make it completely "normal" to another. This is not as much of a contradiction as it may seem since the basic underlying concepts of what constitute "unusual" and "normal" are highly relative and subject to individual interpretation, particularly when it comes to people. I mean, we consider it perfectly normal for an infant to cry when it's hungry and poop in its pants after eating, that's just normal baby behavior. However, if an adult were to do that it would not be considered normal at all even though it's the exact same behavior.

Knives are no different in this respect, i.e., the perceived normality or abnormality of any given knife is subjective and relative and entirely determined by the owner.

The Mini Trapper I'm showing today is not so much 'unusual' as it is out of the ordinary. Out of the ordinary to me, anyway, because although I keep it in my Mini Trapper collection and consider it as such (and I realize there will be those who would argue this point of classification for any number of reasons), it is actually more different than similar to the majority of my other Mini Trappers.

For starters, it's not really a Mini Trapper, it's more of a Dogleg Jack (one of those points of classification I just mentioned) since it has a pen blade instead of a spey secondary blade. Furthermore, it has a swedge on the master clip blade, which most of my other Mini Ts do not have. And it also has a long pull opener which is also out of the ordinary as compared to most of my other Mini Trappers. Finally, it's the only Mini Trapper in my entire collection that was made by Utica Cutlery...so that also makes it unique relative to my personal collection. In fact, about the only thing it does have in common with my other Mini Trappers is the frame size (3 1/2") and shape.

So, as far as I'm concerned, my Mini TrapPER DIEM for today is very much out of the ordinary...but, as always, YMMV.
~Q~

And a fine looking Utica it is too.

This one is an 07 but unlike other 07s (and the unusual part for me) the secondary blade is not a spey blade or a Wharncliffe blade or even a pen blade. It's a cap lifter which seems to be semi-popular these days even though almost all caps are twist-off. There's another one with stag jigged amber bone in my future.

Now that is a good example of what I was talking about. IMO, the cap-lifter makes perfect sense as a secondary "blade" on a Mini-Trapper because I have noticed that more of the smaller breweries (micro-breweries) that seem to be popping up everywhere and gaining in popularity, as well as many or most imported beers, still use the old style (non-twist off) bottle caps. Additionally, since it doubles as a flat head screwdriver, you get two tools in one...three if you use it as a pry tool, and four if used as a small putty-knife-like scraper; so, that is actually a very handy and versatile secondary blade/tool to have. It may be out of the ordinary because it's not traditionally considered common on a Mini Trapper, but, then again...neither was a wharncliffe, once-upon-a-time, not all that long ago.

What I find unusual about it is that it's a relatively recent addition to the Mini Trapper configuration; someone should've thought of this a long time ago. Personally, I would've had more use for a Mini T with a cap-lifter about twenty or thirty years ago when I was a much younger man who was not only a "competitive" beer drinker, but too lazy/stupid to bother going to my toolbox to get a more appropriate tool for a specific job. (Also, I had fewer tools back then. Now, I have so many tools, I have tools for using other tools!) And nowadays, it seems that it's only men 'of a certain age' who carry and/or collect traditional pocket knives...the younger generations, by and large, seem to prefer tactical knives.

~Q~

I agree. When I was in my 20s-30s that would have been a very handy EDC and I would have been one very popular guy.

Make no mistake about it, jerryd, you are one very popular guy...at least right here in AAPK world.

~Q~

QTCut5 wrote:Make no mistake about it, jerryd, you are one very popular guy...at least right here in AAPK world.

~Q~

Q that Utica is special for sure nice, Super bone and a swedge on the clip blade sweet! Case places the clip first but that Utica has the pen blade in the first position so that makes it special too.

Thank you, Steve.

And, excellent observation of another difference between this Utica and Case Mini Trappers...I had not noticed that.

~Q~

DAY 31

My Mini TrapPER DIEM for today is this 1983 Case 107 Midnight Pearl Mini Trapper which, as you can see, was made as a special factory order for the Smoky Mountain Knife Collector's Club in a very limited quantity of only 75 knives. That, in and of itself, makes this knife somewhat out of the ordinary simply because so few even exist. But, there are other unusual things about this knife that are noteworthy besides its relative rarity.

Perhaps the first thing that struck me as unusual is the fact that this knife has no pattern number tang stamp like every other Case knife I own (or have ever seen). It has a normal date tang stamp indicating that it was made in 1983, but on the reverse side of the tang all it has is a strange little symbol that I have never seen on a Case knife before and have no idea what it means...very unusual, indeed. You may have noticed that earlier I identified this knife simply as a 107, with no number indicating handle material. It's called "Midnight Pearl" and is obviously a synthetic material, so if I had to guess, I would say the complete pattern number would probably be 9107...the number "9" indicating imitation pearl...in this case, imitation black pearl. But, why the knife has no pattern number stamped on the tang is a mystery.

Another thing about this knife that makes it somewhat unusual is the fact that it's a single blade Mini Trapper...not that there aren't other single blade 07s (especially 07Ws), but the single clip blade on this one also has a "New Grind" which, as most of you will know, is somewhat rare simply because Case only made New Grind blades for a couple of years in the early 1980s.
~Q~