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Thanks for the shout out Dale. AAPK sounds a little like rimfirecentral, which is a pretty civil place with the admins taking an active role in how the board behaves. So thanks for the welcome. I look forward to learning a lot.
Funny, about six months ago I went on the lookout for a pocket knife for my nine year-old son. He likes to whittle and he had gotten pretty comfortable with the Opinel I usually had in my pocket. So whenever we took off in the woods for a hike, the first thing he would look for was a good stick. Seems to me that I got my first knife (a Swiss Army) around when I was his age, so I posted on RFC (rimfire central) to see what the collective wisdom had to say. They are a good bunch of folks and pretty generous with their time.
I got a couple of recommendations, (a Case Sodbuster Jr. or Mini Copperlock, a Moki lockback, or and so on). Some of the recommendations were a little fancy for a 9 year-old. I wanted him to love that first pocket knife, but not go broke if it went "walkies." Another part of the reason I wanted to buy him a pocket knife was to teach him how to handle it safely and how to be responsible for its care. But, facing reality, I wanted a stainless blade for him and something that would stand up to "kid use." Turns out he wanted an Opinel like his dad (we got him an Opinel with an Inox blade 3.25 inches with a Opinel's collar-lock). But those knives that I looked at for him kept "reminding me of themselves." Before long I had a full size Sodbuster, and then a Copperlock, and then a GEC . . . you know how that goes. He is doing great with the Opinel and I now have several great knives in daily rotation. Btu that got me thinking about classic American-made knives, which led me back to RFC and then to AAPK, to try and sort out what's what with the various Uticas, Camilli, Schrades and so on.
We live in the country and I use a knife every day for something or other. But it has just that extra "ping" of satisfaction when it is a nicely made tool. The Opinel is now one of several in rotation, in danger of becoming one of many. The descriptions of your knives and particularly the sense that they'd been looked over at least once by someone who knows what he is doing
, made the decision to purchase pretty easy. E-bay seems like something of a roll of the dice, if you know what I mean, although some of the knives I have seen might work OK after a repair session (or several). But - one thing at a time.So: Thanks for the warm welcome. If it is OK with you, I may cut and paste the above into the "Member Introductions" section of the forum.
Best regards,
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flangster
. You'll discover there are several county boys on the AAPK forum 
.
