All About Pocket Knives

Difficult (for me) to capture the fine color in this MOP S&M. Would like to see other S&M pearls.

Nice one Dave. Here's a couple of mine. Slim

here's one

Nice one Dave

Good looking knives. Thanks. Slim, I'm not sure why you call me Dave but it is a fine name.

Nice pearls/knives fellas, I've always fought and still fight with indoor photography but capturing the brilliance and fire of pearl in still shots has got to be the most difficult of any materials I've ever cared to try shooting. It's kinda like taking a picture of a race car at the right film speed to make it look clear as if it wasn't moving at all which is kinda cool if it's a race car going a couple hundred MPH but it is exactly what you don't want pearl to do. The magic that happens when light moves across pearl almost makes it seem as if the pearl is alive and moving, I guess I'm making sense. Well, Pearl seems organic in the way it plays with light unlike mirror polished blades and seems to soak up the light in pictures 80% to the 20% it refracts so, it seems like it's all in the playing with the lights.... At least you can force some sparkle and try to find the best color tones allowed by the blade glare your trying to avoid ... ~~~ Am I on point? Or was it about showing the knives themselves? Dang it I'm doing it again

Exactly on point. And showing the knives. Good MOP is beautiful but hard to bring to life photographically.

I think so, thats why they have college courses for photography.... I have a hard enough time with blade glare ... If you ever figure out the formula or best technique please share

I definitely will. And vice-versa please. Thanks.

How's this?

That is great. Could you share your secrets? I'm guessing you use a light box. But your camera and lens setting etc.

old Schatt trapper. mint

Queen# 4

Q#9

Slim -- I'm guessing that first one is from the Keystone series. Can you tell me which series it's from so I can be lazy and not have to look it up?

Edit: Never mind. That's the "Doctors Knife" from the 2010 Series XX. No wonder I didn't recoginize it. It's a neat looking knife but it doesn't look anything like a doctors knife.



Can I add a Doc like the one RedDirt posted? It's from the Keystone Series V released in 1995.


In the 1998 Keystone Series VIII was this Gunstock.

Quick Steel wrote:That is great. Could you share your secrets? I'm guessing you use a light box. But your camera and lens setting etc.

I'll tell you what the camera is set at but I have no clue what it all means, DUMB LUCK I have a Nikon COOLPIX 14.0 Megapixels 3.6x Zoom camera and the Windows photo gallery edit tool. The camera setting is set at the full 14m 4320x3240. When I take pics like the ones above indoors I turn the flash off and do it in dim light using the macro function. All that means is it automatically comes to a clear focus no matter how close I get. This camera finds enough light somehow. It's pretty good. I usually have to take about 10 shots to get one good one. Also practice, practice, practice Outdoors is a whole new ballgame.

Thank you Wazu. I appreciate the input.

jerryd6818 wrote:Slim -- I'm guessing that first one is from the Keystone series. Can you tell me which series it's from so I can be lazy and not have to look it up?

Edit: Never mind. That's the "Doctors Knife" from the 2010 Series XX. No wonder I didn't recognize it. It's a neat looking knife but it doesn't look anything like a doctors knife.



Can I add a Doc like the one RedDirt posted? It's from the Keystone Series V released in 1995.

The attachment S&M Pearl Doctor.JPG is no longer available

In the 1998 Keystone Series VIII was this Gunstock.

The attachment S&M Pearl Gunstock Jack.JPG is no longer available

I was thinking perhaps the crimped "pill-buster" bolster was one of the things that made it not look anything like a doctors knife to ya Jerry until you posted the Keystone Doc which has the same bolster so I'm thinking the Primary blade must be the thing that makes it look nothing like a Doctors knife or did I miss something else? My guess is that the Doctor who might have owned and used this knife in the field utilized this blade type as often as his other more "traditional" specialty knife if not more. If those two knives weren't cutting it and he was needing a Doctors knife with 3 scalpels and right before he broke out the SAK he may have used this (not pearl,sorry) ...

Awesome Baby Fish Toe Wazu and Cool numbers 123.Great job bringing out the pearl in your pics also. I'm thinking low light may be the key when in macro mode... Wazu, Does your Nikon ever refuse to take a picture in high light or very low light conditions while in macro mode? I have a point and shoot Olympus that does. It's like it can't figure all of the auto focus parameters while in auto/macro setting so it just flashes a red light. Usually it is on knives or angles where there is a lot of shine or glare but if I step back a bit or change angle it will give the green. I thought it was just a point and shoot cheaper camera issue so I got a better camera and it is even more sensitive. The pics of the SxM 2 blade jack knife I posted were done in macro actually super-macro mode with anti-shake and autofocus on and flash off and possibly too much light..
JERRY SIR. Nice pair The way you took the indoor pics really brought out the pinks and there was no light diffusion. Was there a skylight above the knives perhaps or just a nice mix of natural light from windows and artificial light?

Sorry Quick Steel, I think I was looking at the quote under your posting Slim

reddirtknives wrote:Awesome Baby Fish Toe Wazu and Cool numbers 123.Great job bringing out the pearl in your pics also. I'm thinking low light may be the key when in macro mode... Wazu, Does your Nikon ever refuse to take a picture in high light or very low light conditions while in macro mode? I have a point and shoot Olympus that does. It's like it can't figure all of the auto focus parameters while in auto/macro setting so it just flashes a red light. Usually it is on knives or angles where there is a lot of shine or glare but if I step back a bit or change angle it will give the green. I thought it was just a point and shoot cheaper camera issue so I got a better camera and it is even more sensitive. The pics of the SxM 2 blade jack knife I posted were done in macro actually super-macro mode with anti-shake and autofocus on and flash off and possibly too much light..
JERRY SIR. Nice pair The way you took the indoor pics really brought out the pinks and there was no light diffusion. Was there a skylight above the knives perhaps or just a nice mix of natural light from windows and artificial light?

My camera gives me the red light once in a while but I just start over and it usually comes around. It takes patients sometimes.

Here are two more.
a Schatt & Morgan swing guard for Wolverine Knife clube in 2001:


And a Queen minihunter 41L P from sometime around 2005

Photos are the best I could do - sorry. They do not begin to capture the beauty, especially of the big handles of the 1L. My appreciation for the beautiful picture of the (former) president's sunfish.

Gold Lip Mother of Pearl with copper bolsters