By preliminary, I mean I hope readers will be kind and,if I say things that are wrong they will help me to get it right.  Anyway, here it is:

 The “Trapper” pattern pocket knife emerged in the 1920’s and quickly overtook the Barlow as the leading American pocket knife form.  Although no pattern for pocket knives or for just about anything else emerges “whole cloth” or totally new, the Trapper seems to me to come about as close to that as possible.  It is not difficult to see the…