All About Pocket Knives

My father sold new and used cars back in 1954. Sold my mothers father a more deluxe 1953 Buick Road master, trading in his I think 1951-52 Buick in 1954. He drove it to the end. I had a 1953 Buick Special straight 8 stick. you could look through the floor board and watch the street go by. Mom drove a 1953 Cadillac Fleetwood. Later owned a 1955 Sedan DeVille with the Eldorado engine with two 4 BBl carbs. Dual quads. It would lay a strip at the stop lights. Mom kept a album of newspaper used car ads back around the 1954 era. not sure if I have it. Amazing what $50-$200 would buy. Even a Hupmobile.

In CT antique cars are very popular & numerous - I have never seen so many in wonderful condition (and I am sure many have been restored though I know some were housed for years in a garage)... On Sundays many take them out for their "Sunday Drive" - and antique car rallies after hours in large parking lots are also very popular... I enjoy looking at them but no real motivation to ever own one - except I would love to have an old "Woodie" probably because I drove my truck on the beach fishing for so many years... and Woodies are not often seen even here... Attached is a photo from the internet of a 1932 Ford Woodie just to give you an idea as to the beauty of these

One other area of accumulating is old pocket watches.....
Here is a Fusee (Fyou-zee or Foo-zee) movement pocket watch. It is my oldest functional watch dating to about 1830 - 1840. The best part of this watch is covered up by the case...... The balance cock of the movement.
I love the detail on this movement.... This movement is just a little larger than a silver dollar in size.
The cool thing about a fusee watch movement is the fusee cone. There is a small cone with a "track" cut into it. That cone has a tiny bicycle chain wrapped around it..... Hand made.
Here is a picture of the chain.... Mike

Very cool Mike and you are following in big footsteps. Henry Ford, from an early age, expressed an interest in mechanical devices. He was given a pocket watch at the age of 15 and quickly developed a reputation for being an experienced watchmaker. He flirted with the idea of entering the watch manufacturing business on a large scale but is quoted as saying "I did not because I figured out that watches were not universal necessities.”

bestgear wrote:Very cool Mike and you are following in big footsteps. Henry Ford..... He flirted with the idea of entering the watch manufacturing business on a large scale but is quoted as saying "I did not because I figured out that watches were not universal necessities.”

Watches sure 'nuff aren't necessities today. EXACT Time is on everyone's cell phone.

I still love to sit and watch an old pocket watch run......

Or listen to one tick.

When my father passed, my brother & I flipped a coin to see who would get my grandfather's old Elgin pocket watch. I lost...

Meridian_Mike wrote:

bestgear wrote:Very cool Mike and you are following in big footsteps. Henry Ford..... He flirted with the idea of entering the watch manufacturing business on a large scale but is quoted as saying "I did not because I figured out that watches were not universal necessities.”

Watches sure 'nuff aren't necessities today. EXACT Time is on everyone's cell phone.

I still love to sit and watch an old pocket watch run......

Or listen to one tick.

...cell phone??????........

Watches sure 'nuff aren't necessities today. EXACT Time is on everyone's cell phone.

[/quote]
...cell phone??????........[/quote]
Yeah,, what he says.

I love old pocket watches.

That London made fusee is great.

Charlie Noyes

I got these two boxwood rules/caliper off Ebay for $18.00. I was the only bidder.

I have wanted some of these for many years. Would like an ivory one, too, but that's probably not going to ever happen.

These are auction photos. I have them in-hand and there is a bit of grunge. I don't know how to go about cleaning them up. Mineral spirits, maybe? Do not want to shine up the brass or remove the black in the numerals and gradations.

Charlie Noyes

Same seller had this little jeweler's or watch-maker's anvil.

I got it for ten dollars. Again, I was the only bidder.

It's five inches long and quite heavy.

Seller refunded half the shipping charges and sent all in one box.

Charlie

Charlie I love stuff like that. I just added this to my pile.

That's cool.

My grandfather was a master machinist for Gulf Oil.

I have no idea what happened to his tools and implements.

I have three of his little stainless steel pocket rules, one 3" and two 6". The larger ones have conversion tables on the back. Also have one inside and one outside calipers, although, right now, I couldn't lay my hands on them. They are in one of several tool boxes in the basement.

Charlie

This afternoon I made a run through a couple of the local antique malls, and this little guy made me do a double-take...

The blue paint on the spoon indicates that it SHOULD be an inert training grenade. Operative word - SHOULD.

When I was in the Army they made us throw a few of those hand grenades. ........... I didn't like it.

The grenade pit in Army Basic Training is just about the most dangerous place you could ever be, unless you were in an actual war.

Cannot imagine being the NCOIC of that thing, running guys through that all day, that have never really thrown anything in their entire lives.

Charlie Noyes

More than likely there should be about a 5/8" hole in the base of that one. When the pin was pulled the striker hit the detonator and timed fuse and it popped in about 5 seconds. Seems like there was a cork in the holes of the old practice grenades. Been too long to remember.
Treefarmer

Hearing stuff like this is why I was in the Air Force and a Weather Service repair. We fixed the equipment that told the pilots when it was safe to go to where it wasn't safe to go. I never was fond of blowing stuff up. ____Dave

RobesonsRme.com wrote:The grenade pit in Army Basic Training is just about the most dangerous place you could ever be,

Charlie Noyes

Too true Charlie. Recruits are real knuckleheads. That's why they had "Oh S*** Holes" in the bottom of those pits. Don't know if they worked. Never wanted to find out.

I saw some YouTube videos of grenade training when the safety holes where needed and used. I also just remembered being taught that when digging a foxhole to create what I believe was called a "sump." This was a hole of some depth in the wall at the base of the foxhole. If a grenade made an unexpected visit to one's position you threw the grenade into that hole. This was supposed to be faster than trying to throw it out and away. Of course, if you were sharing a foxhole you could cover it with your body. If you were killed you received the Medal of Honor. If you survived the blast, you did not receive that highest of awards. Never figured that one out as the act was the same in either case.

Are there any good ways to tell if that is a genuine military issue training grenade versus a more recent reproduction?

If it's a repro and someone aged it, they sure did a hair of a good job.

Their was a estate household sale near me a couple of years ago. A military man I'd one as a live one inside the house. They evacuated the area and the Sheriff block the road until a unit form Battle Creek came and got it! Right after high school a couple of kids took one from the coffee table riding in the car. Someone pulled the pin. must have been a practice one, but a kid lost his hand. or it would have destroyed the car. 1964-65.

A friend of mine (when he was about 15 Y.O.) took one of those inert grenades and filled it with black powder at that hole in the bottom. He put in a piece of cannon fuse and then started to seal up the hole with candle wax....... yes.... a LIT candle dripping wax.
The fuse lit and in an attempt to put the fuse out (since he was in his BEDROOM).....he stayed with the grenade too long. He had just enough time to put his arm up in front of his face. The shrapnel from the grenade shattered his elbow and left several other cuts on his body. He was lucky to survive a grenade going off right in front of him.