All About Pocket Knives

Courtesy of Tom and from the archives of Camillus, shall we all review the rules? Dated 1959 and it refers to a knife apparentlly called the 'Mumbly Peg' copyrighted by Camillus.

I am showing a detail from this scan that I think is telling of the time this is from and the times we live in now. 'Take Care of Your Knife', tells the kid that the knife is a valuable tool as well as a plaything. I think that attitude is refreshing.

Phil

That is cool Gr8Scout (aka Phil) and Thanks to Tom also, I have never seen the paper work before.
Hate to repeat images, but it has been awhile since I posted these.

9ball
aka
Rick

Cool game rules Phil and and knife 9-ball. I don't see many players in my neighbourhood. Maybe I should start a league in my local park and cause some mass hysteria Thanks

Hey S-K

The hysteria starts when they find out you are playing "Chicken"

9ball

Thanks for posting the pic again, 9ball, cause I missed it the first time and I have never seen that model. Pretty clever marketing move by Camillus to copyright that name, huh?
Phil

ps, SmilingKnife, times have changed. Note again the part of the paperwork I scanned.. The knife is a PLAYTHING as well as a tool. That's right, kids, enjoy yourself. Have fun with your knife.

I remember my father talking about this game that he simply called "knife" He used to play it with his father and brother on the floor of the kitchen farm house by lamp light. It contained most of the same "moves" as above, but nothing about driving the peg into the ground.

In the kitchen, the rules were changed somewhat in that instead of the ground the knife had to stick into a soft piece of pine board.

This was a game of choice for my father (when he was a kid) in the late 1930's and early 40's.

Thank you for reminding me of my father's story. I had forgotten, but won't again.

WOW!
I had forgotten Mumbly Peg.
When I was 4 or 5 years old my Mother & Grandmother took me on a trip to Pomona, CA to visit my Great Grandmother. She was in her 80s at that time. I suppose I got a bit bored so Great Grandma got a pen knife and took me outside to a flower bed and taught me how to play Mumbly Peg.

No wonder I ended up collecting knives. I never had a chance. It was in my blood at an early age!

Great post! Thanks for the great memories.
Dale

This thread is another good example of the uniqueness of this particular forum and I thank you guys for your comments and again- 9ball- for that great photo. Interesting how a simple game and a knife that cost less than a dollar can provide such good memories.
Phil

Just wanted to revisit this old thread. Looks like there were sevral variants on this game - each of which would cause your Mama serious nightmares ...
This version was printed in the 1911 Boy Scout Handbook.

Thanks for the post Phil and Tom! I always wanted to know what the rules were.

I know I've brought this up before. When I was in grade school during the '50s, during recess, we would play marbles or break out our pocket knives and play a game called "stretch". Two boys would face each other and alternately stick their knife in the ground by the other boy's foot. Then that boy would have to move his foot until it touched the knife. The object was to stick your knife far enough from your opponents foot that he couldn't "stretch" far enough to touch the knife with his foot.

Try that one in today's pink and fuzzy society.

Thanks for the Mumbly Peg rules. I don't recall ever playing it though I have heard of it.

Here in Pa we all played mumbly peg. Its my dearest memories of a young knife owner. We played it off the chin and nose and forehead also (using our thumb of course).

I have submitted my latest manuscript to SMKW for the book "Hey I Want To Collect Knives Too!" In this book I talk about games kids played with knives in the old days. Of course this one was memtioned as well. I also played knife baseball. It is important that we get and keep the younger generation interested in cutlery from all angles. Nice thread gang.