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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on June 30, 2014 at 11:30

Reply by Sue OldsWidow on November 12, 2013 at 11:40

This was an interesting read from knife.ezine

History

Roman period pocket knife from Gellep, Germany and reconstruction

The earliest known pocketknives date to at least the early iron age. A pocketknife with bone handle was found at Hallstatt, dating to around 600-500BC. They remained quite rare until modern times compared to fixed-blade knives. For most of history, knives were worn inside sheaths or scabbards attached to the belt. Pockets in clothing are a relatively modern invention. Before this, pockets or pouches were attached to belts, in which these early folding knives would have been carried. In recent times, it has become illegal to carry fixed-blade knives in certain jurisdictions, which has made pocket knives much more common.

Slipjoint knives

Most pocketknives for light duty are slipjoints. This means that the blade does not lock, but, once opened, is held in place by a spring device that allows the blade to fold if a certain amount of pressure is applied. Most slipjoint locking knives have only one blade that is as large as can be fit in the handle, because the locking mechanism relies on the spring along the back of the blade to lock it and it is difficult to have multiple levers for each blade. Slipjoints tend to be smaller in size than most typical pocketknives.

Some popular styles of slipjoints are:

Style

Description

Image

Barlow

The Barlow knife has a characteristically long bolster, an elongated oval handle, and two blades. It is assumed to be named after its inventor, although there is some dispute as to which Barlow this actually was.

Canoe

The Canoe knife has a handle shaped somewhat like a native american canoe and usually comes with two spear point blades

A Canoe Knife

Congress

The Congress knife has a convex front with a straight or shallow convex back. It usually carries four blades.

A Congress Knife

Elephant's toenail

The Elephant's toenail is large design similar to the sunfish but usually tapers on one end giving it the "elephant's toenail" shape. These knives like the sunfish usually have two wide blades

Peanut

The Peanut knife is a very small knife with one or two blades.

Penknife

The Penknife was originally intended to sharpen quill pens, but continues to be used because of its suitability to fine or delicate work. A pen knife generally has one or two pen blades, and does not interfere with the appearance of dress clothes when carried in the pocket.

Sodbuster

The Sobuster has a simple handle with no bolster and usually only one blade.

Stockman

The Stockman has a clip, a sheep's foot and a spey blade. They are usually middle-sized there are straight handled and sow belly versions.

A Medium Stockman Knife

Sunfish

The Sunfish is a large design with a straight handle with two bolsters. The blades are usually short (sub 3 inches) but both the handle and blades are very wide. Sunfish knives usually have two blades.

A Small Sunfish Knife

Trapper

The Trapper is larger knife with a clip and a spey blade.

Whittler

The Whittler is slightly larger than a pen knife and has three blades.

Multitool slipjoint knives

Main article: Multitool

Multitools have enjoyed a revival in recent years, thanks in part to newer options. These new varieties often have for the "main blade" a pair of pliers, but there is typically one or more knife blades included (e.g. spear and serrated), often locking.

A Swiss Army knife

Multitool knives often have more than one blade, including an assortment of knife blade types (serrated, plain edged, saws) as well as a myriad of other tools such as bottle openers, corkscrews, and scissors. A large tool selection is the signature of the Swiss Army Knife. These knives are produced by Victorinox and Wenger and issued to the army and sold to the public. The German Army knife is large but light, with two blades opening from each side. It has hard plastic grips and aluminum liners. The United States Army knife, made by the Camillus Cutlery Company and Imperial Schrade, used to have carbon steel blades and brass liners (both vulnerable to corrosion), but as of the Vietnam War became more durable with all-stainless steel construction. It has four blades opening from the same side. The Imperial model has a bottle opener with Standard screwdriver blade on the tip, a can opener with sharpened curved blade for piercing metal tins (and is so labeled to avoid confusion with the bottle opener), a sharpened knife blade, and an auger. The unpainted stainless steel handle has "US" stamped in the center with metal hoop for attaching to a lanyard. The handle, as manufactured, has rough edges but these can be rounded, yielding an excellent and versatile knife. Another method of non-locking knife is the friction-folder. These use simple friction between the blade and scales to hold the blade in place once opened. An electrician's knife typically has a locking screwdriver blade but a non-locking knife blade. The credit card knife is a very thin knife that is the shape and size of a credit card. It is designed to be carried in the wallet along with regular credit cards. Some of this shape of knife also contain other small tools, such as tweezers, or toothpicks.

Locking knives

Medium-sized lockback knife with deer-antler grips, nickel-silver bolsters and brass liners

A Claspknife (Opinel No. 10)

Locking knives, such as the lockback knife or claspknife have locking mechanism such as a twisting ring or catch that must be released in a distinct action before the knife can be folded. This lock improves safety by preventing accidental blade closure while cutting. In contrast, slipjoint knives rely only on a small sliding spring to keep the blade open, and if enough force is applied to the back of the knife, the blade will close.

Locking knives have appeared as early as the 15th century, in Spain in a knife known as the navaja. Opinel knives use a ring lock, where a ferrule rotates to lock the blade open. In the late 1800s locking pocket knives were popularized and marketed on a wider scale. Companies such as Buck Knives, Camillus, Case, SARGE, and Gerber, created a wide range of products with locks of various types. The most popular form, the lockback knife, was popularized by Buck Knives in the 1960s, so much that the eponymous term "buck knife" was used to refer to lockback knives that were not manufactured by Buck.

The lockback is a refinement of the slipjoint, where the spring along the back of the knife has a hook on it and the blade has a notch. When the blade is fully open the hook and notch align, locking the blade in place. Closing the blade requires the user releasing the blade to apply pressure to the back of the blade and in addition press on a lever located on the back of the knife handle to disengage the hook from the notch and thus release the blade.

The Walker Linerlock and the framelock came to prominence in the 1980s. In both designs the liner inside the knife is spring loaded to engage the rear of the blade when open and thus hold it in place. In the case of the framelock, the liner is the handle, itself. The Swiss Army knife product range has adopted dual linerlocks on their 111 mm models.

Tactical folding knife

Buck's lockback was originally marketed as a "folding hunting knife" and while it became popular with sportsmen, it also saw use with military personnel as it could perform a variety of tasks. Custom knifemakers began making similar knives, in particular was Guatemalan-born knifemaker Bob Terzuola. Terzuloa is credited with coining the phrase: "Tactical Folder".

In the 1990s in the United States, as a response to restrictive gun laws, tactical folding knives became popular. The trend began with custom knifemakers such as Bob Terzuola, Allen Elishewitz, Mel Pardue, Ernest Emerson, Ken Onion, Chris Reeve, Rick Hinderer, and Warren Osbourne. These knives were most commonly built as linerlocks, although Osbourne introduced the Axis lock. Blade lengths varied from 3 inches to as long as 12 inches, but the most typical models never exceeded 4 inches in blade length for legal reasons in most US Jurisdictions.

In response to the demand for these knives, production companies offered mass-produced tactical folding knives. Companies such as Benchmade, Kershaw Knives, Buck Knives, SARGE, Gerber and Spyderco collaborated with tactical knifemakers; in some cases retaining them as full-time designers. Tactical knifemakers such as Ernest Emerson and Chris Reeve went so far as to open their own mass-production factories.

There has been criticism against the notion of a "Tactical Folding Knife". Students of knife-fighting point out that any locking mechanism can fail and that a folding knife regardless of lock strength can never be as reliable as a fixed-blade combat knife. Lynn Thonpson, Martial-artist and CEO of knife manufacturer Cold Steel pointed out in an article in Black Belt magazine that most tactical folding knives are too short to be of use in a knife fight and that even though he manufactures, sells, and carries a tactical folder, it is not ideal for fighting.

Other features

Traditional knives were opened using nail-nicks, or slots where the user's fingernail would enter to pull the blade out of the handle. This became somewhat cumbersome and required use of two hands, so there were innovations to remedy that. The thumb-stud, a small stud on the blade that allows for one-handed opening, led the way for more innovations. One of these being the thumb hole: a Spyderco patent where the user presses the pad of his thumb against a hole and opens the blade by rotating his thumb similarly to using the thumb-stud. Another innovation of Sal Glesser, Spyderco founder, was the clip system, which he named a "Clip-it". Clips are usually metal or plastic and similar to the clips found on pens except thicker. Clips allow the knife to be easily accessible, while keeping it lint-free and unscathed by pocket items such as coins. Assisted opening systems have been pioneered by makers like Ken Onion with his "Speed-Safe" mechanism and Ernest Emerson's Wave system, where a hook catches the user's pocket upon removal and the blade is opened during a draw. . One of the first one handed devices was the automatic spring release, also known as a switchblade. An innovation to pocket knives made possible by the thumb-stud is the replaceable blade insert developed in 1999 by Steven Overholt (U.S. Patent no. 6,574,868), originally marketed by TigerSharp Technologies and as of 2007 by Clauss.

Legal issues

Main article: Knife legislation

Pocketknives are legal to own in most countries, but they face legal restrictions on their use. While pocketknives are almost always designed as tools, they do have the potential to become weapons. In some jurisdictions it is illegal to conceal knives larger than a certain size, or with certain locking or opening mechanisms. They are often banned or heavily restricted in secure areas, such as schools and airports. Switchblades and other "auto-openers" are banned from interstate shipment by the U.S. Government and prohibited entirely in some states, although certain statutes allow an exception permitting ownership by the handicapped, military, and police.

It is illegal to carry knives in public in the United Kingdom without "good reason". This term is not defined, but examples of "religious duty", "national dress" and "requirement of employment or hobby" are given. It is up to a police officer's individual discretion, and ultimately a magistrate to decide whether or not the requirements of "good reason" are met.. Folding knives with blades of 3 inches or less may be carried without needing to provide "good reason" so long as the blade is not capable of being locked in the open position. However, it is illegal to have the intention of using any object in public as a weapon, meaning that even a knife that is legal to carry without needing 'good reason' may still be found to be illegal if the police officer has grounds to suspect it will be used as a weapon.

References

^ Lake, Ron; Centofante, Frank; Clay, Wayne (1995). How to Make Folding Knives/a Step-By-Step How-To: A Step-By-Step How-To. Krause. pp. 190. ISBN 0873413909.

^ Stewart, Ron; Ritchie, Roy (2000). Big Book of Pocket Knives: Identification & Values. Collector Books. pp. 348. ISBN 978-1574321784.

^ Horvth, Lszl; Kovcs, Tibor; Szab, Mikls (1987). Transdanubia I (Corpus of Celtic Finds in Hungary) (v. 1). Akademiai Kiado. pp. 3841. ISBN 978-9630538077.

^ Emerson, Ernest R. (2003), "Grandpa Gave a Part of Himself With That First Knife", Sporting Knives 2003: 5459, ISBN 0-87349-430-X

^ Barlow, Edson. "Our Knife". www.barlowgenealogy.com. http://www.barlowgenealogy.com/Edson/barlowknife.html. Retrieved 2008-11-18.

^ "History of Barlow Knives". Advantage-Advertising,LLC. http://www.barlow-knives.com/history.htm.

^ Pacella, Gerard (2002). 100 Legendary Knives. Krause Publications. p. 101. ISBN 978-0873494172.

^ Price, C. Houston; Mark D. Zalesky (2008). The Official Price Guide to Collector Knives, 15th edition. House of Collectibles. pp. 164166. ISBN 978-0375722806.

^ a b c Dick, Steven (1997), The Working Folding Knife, Stoeger Publishing Company, pp. 280, ISBN 9780883172100

^ Terzuola, Bob (2000). Title The Tactical Folding Knife: A Study of the Anatomy and Construction of the Liner-Locked Folder. Krause Publications. p. 158. ISBN 978-0873418584.

^ Hopkins, Cameron (2000), "The Worse it Gets, the Better We Like It", American Handgunner Magazine 25 (157): 9293

^ Walker, Greg (1993). Battle Blades: A Professional's Guide to Combat/Fighting Knives. Krause Publications. p. 210. ISBN 978-0873473274.

^ Hartink, A.E. (September 30, 2005). Complete Encyclopedia of Knives. Lisse, The Netherlands: Chartwell Books. pp. 448. ISBN 9781854091680.

^ a b Delavigne, Kenneth (2004). Spyderco Story: The New Shape of Sharp (Hardcover). Colorado: Paladin Press. p. 312. ISBN 1-581-60060-7.

^ Young, Robert (2001). "Secrets of the Blade". Black Belt 39 (4): 9297.

^ "British Knife Collectors Guild 'The Law' page". http://www.bkcg.co.uk/guide/law.html. Retrieved 2006-11-19.

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Knives and daggers

Types of knives

Aircrew Survival Egress Knife Athame Balisong Ballistic Bayonet Boline Bolo Boning Boot knife Bowie Bread knife Cane knife Cheese knife Chef's knife Cleaver Combat knife Commander (knife) Corvo CQC-6 Dagger Deba bocho Electric Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife Flick knife Gerber Mark II Ginsu Grapefruit knife Gravity knife Hunting knife Jacob's ladder Karambit Kirpan Kitchen knife Kukri Laguiole knife Machete Mandau Mezzaluna Misericorde Mora knife Multi-tool Nakiri bocho Navaja Opinel knife Palette knife Pantographic knife Penknife Penny knife Phurba Pocket knife Putty knife Puukko Rampuri Rondel dagger Sabatier Santoku SARK Scalpel Seax Sgian dubh Sharpfinger Sheath knife Shiv Sliding knife SOG Knife Straight razor Survival knife Swiss Army knife Switchblade Taping knife Throwing knife Tomato knife Trench knife Ulu Utility knife X-Acto Yanagi ba

Types of daggers

Anelace Bagh nakh Baselard Bich'hwa Bollock dagger Cinquedea Dirk Ear dagger Facn Hachiwara Hunting dagger Jambiya Kaiken Kalis Kard Katara Khanjar Kris Parrying dagger Pata Poignard Push dagger Seme Shobo Stiletto Tant Thracian dagger Marine Raider Stiletto V-42 Stiletto Yoroi tshi

Knife manufacturers

American Tomahawk Company Benchmade Brusletto Buck Knives Calphalon Camillus Cutlery Company Cattaraugus Cutlery Company Chris Reeve Knives Cold Steel Columbia River Knife & Tool Cuisinart Cutco DOVO Solingen Dexter-Russell Emerson Knives, Inc. Ek Commando Knife Co. F. Dick Fllkniven Fritechnics Gerber Legendary Blades Global Glock Hanwei Imperial Schrade J. A. Henckels Ka-Bar Kershaw Knives KitchenAid Korin Japanese Trading Company Kyocera Leatherman Mad Dog Knives Microtech Knives Morseth Murphy knives Ontario Knife Company Rada Manufacturing Randall Made Knives Rsle SOG Specialty Knives Sabatier An & Perrier Spyderco Strider Knives Thiers Issard Victorinox W. R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. Walther arms Wenger Western Knife Company Windlass Steelcrafts Wsthof

Knifemakers

Bob Loveless Chris Reeve Ernest Emerson Ken Onion Murray Carter Phill Hartsfield William Harsey, Jr. Daniel Winkler

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 5, 2014 at 13:53

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_knife

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 12, 2014 at 14:15

Reply by Derek Smith on October 12, 2009
I've wondered about the "congress" name for that pattern myself.

I have an old 1870 dictionary by Noah Webster (thank you ebay). Here's what Noah has to say,..

The word "congress" comes from hand full of old Latin words that basically mean "to come together".

The blades in a congress pattern knife certainly have "to come together" in a harmonious fashion in order for all of them to fold up and fit together.

The word congress is closely related to the word "congruent" which again could describe the way the blades fit and come together.

Congrue 1. To come together, to agree,...

Congress:
1. "A meeting of indivduals,..."
2: "A sudden encounter,... "
3. "The meeting of the sexes in sexual commerce."

I swear, I did not make that up! That's word for word from Noah Webster.
No wonder our present day congressmen are frequently in the news for the wrong reasons.

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 12, 2014 at 14:18

Reply by Trent Rock on October 13, 2009

OK
I got one
Sausage tester
Just how are you supposed to test sausages with it??
AKA melon tester
I get the melon testing part...................
**********************************
I found the answer about Congress:
Joseph Rodgers & Sons
Senate Knife
Congress Knife

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 12, 2014 at 14:18

Reply by Brad Hyde on October 13, 2009

The jackknife is reportedly named after Jacque de Liege. He was a French knife maker who is said to have invented the first back-spring assembly.

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 12, 2014 at 14:19

Reply by DELBERT COVER on October 13, 2009

The sleeve board pattern come from being the same shape as the sleeve board that trappers use to stretch hides after skinning them.

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 12, 2014 at 14:19

Reply by Brad Hyde on October 13, 2009

Most collectors know this. The Eisenhower pattern (06263). The Case 63 pattern wasn't called the Eisenhower until it became well known that this was president Eisenhowers favorite knife to carry and use. I read somewhere that during his term as president and probably after his term that he gave out hundreds of this pattern as gifts.

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 12, 2014 at 14:20

Reply by Slade Ingram on May 25, 2010

Back in the good ole days................. when clothes had to be ironed, there was a small ironing board that could be slid up up into the sleeves. this is the shape and name source of the "sleeveboard folder".
The "muskrat" was designed for skinning small game, like muskrats and other furbearers. A great skinning blade for small animals, backed up by an identical blade for when the first got dull. I've skint a pile of muskrats with one of these. Works great!
O.K. I'll stop and let somebody else have some fun...

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 22, 2014 at 20:45

There is a very distinctive pocket knife pattern known as the 'congress pattern'. It has been around since the mid-1800s. Lots of folks on hearing the name assume it is somehow directly linked to the US Congress. Perhaps it was a style of knife officially adopted by Congress? Or presented by Congress on special occasions? That is nice to think about - our august and beneficent Congress officially adopting a knife. Unfortunately there is no record I can find proving that Congress ever officially adopted anything with a sharp edge on it. The true story behind the congress pattern knife seems to be more of a self-fulfilling wish.

In the early 1800s the cutlery firms out of Sheffield, England were pouring knives and cutlery products into the young United States to fulfill an almost insatiable demand for quality blades.  At the time the US was still an agrarian society and was expanding fast, first up over the Appalachians and into the old Northwest Territories (the upper midwest), then into the Louisiana Purchase.  Land was cheap and fertile and a hardworking family could easily support themselves on a modest sized farm.  There were few labor saving devices in those days and everything on the farm was done by hand or horse power.  Most farm tasks involved a cutting edge - a knife, axe, saw, even a plow blade.  Local blacksmiths and small manufacturers in the eastern US handled the 'rough trade' implements; axes, hatchets, butcher knives, saw blades, etc., but there was still a demand for finer cutlery that American manufacturers couldn't meet - quality kitchen cutlery, fine hunting knives and well made pocket knives.  This is the market the Sheffield cutlers dominated.  Sheffield cutlery had an almost mystical reputation; English crucible steel was the best production steel available at the time and Sheffield's skilled workforce could turn out an amazing range and volume of high quality knives and tools to meet specific needs.  The blade stamp 'Sheffield' was considered a hallmark of superior quality and American customers selected Sheffield products before all others.

The cutlery firms of Sheffield were also marketing geniuses.  Lets face it, the average 19th century farm laborer or office clerk really only needed one pocket knife in his life - something to cut up his lunchtime slab of roast beef or ham and to whittle a new nib on his quill pen.  A pocket knife was a durable consumer item - something that didn't wear out in use and lasted years or decades.  The Sheffield firms needed to convince consumers that they just HAD to have a new knife long before the old one wore out - they needed to build steady, repeat demand.  The cutlery firms hit on a brilliant marketing gimmick - the concept of the cosmetic upgrade. 

More than a century before the marketing wizards of Detroit put the same plan into action, the cutlery firms of Sheffield figured out that if you gussy up a plain knife just a bit - add mother of pearl handles or silver bolsters, or put a better polish on the blade - they could more readily catch the eye of the young dandy who was doing a little window shopping.  Maybe he was tired of looking at the old, scuffed up wooden handled knife he carried around in his pocket and that new, shiny, fancy knife was just what he needed to impress his girl.  It was all eye candy appeal, and damn if it didn't work!

Then they took it to the next level.  The Sheffield firms hit on the idea of generating the perception that specific tasks demanded very specific cutting blade styles.  Any old pocket knife can slice open a letter, but the cutlers of Sheffield implied that only a specially designed desk knife with a letter opening blade can get the job done done with elegance and style.  No true gentleman should ever be caught opening important correspondence with a plain old pocket knife.  It was undignified!  Similarly, while any old pocket knife can slice up a pear or an apple the cutlers of Sheffield impressed upon their scruffy American cousins the notion that only a knife with a specially designed blade is suitable to the elegant task of carving up the dessert fruit.  It would be just so ungentlemanly to let your lady see you slice up those delicate grapes with the same pocket knife you used to clean your fingernails.  Only a specially designed Sheffield fruit knife was correct for the task.  Oh, you unwashed masses!  You have so much to learn (and so much money to spend).  Let the master cutlers of Sheffield bring elegance and orderliness into your lives!

The 19th century cutlery catalogs put out by the Sheffield firms show a bewildering array of knives.  The combinations of blade styles and finishes are endless.  Pocket knives for camping, cooking, carving and castrating.  Doctor's pocket knives for doing emergency surgery.  Whittling knives for turning big sticks into little sticks.  Pruning knives for tending the garden.  Farriers knives with a folding pick for cleaning your horse's hooves. Delicate little bird knives that slip comfortably into the vest pocket on upland game hunts.  Knives for cutting tobacco leaf and knives for clipping the end off of a fine cigar.

Out of this crazy mix of blade styles and finishes emerged the knife known as the 'congress pattern'. It appears the name was merely a marketing device first used by Joseph Rodgers & Sons sometime before the mid-1800s. It was originally a four blade knife with edges suited for shaping pen nibs and carving and whittling. I guess the marketing guys at Joseph Rodgers figured that's all that American congressmen did with their time - whittle on wooden sticks and sharpen quill pen nibs. Thus the congress pattern knife was born.

Joseph Rodgers & Sons congress pattern pocket knife. From a late 19th century cutlery catalog.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Capitol Building.  The knife proved so popular that people naturally assumed the congress pattern was what congressmen carried and that it was somehow endorsed by the US Congress.  After all, who wouldn't want to own the very same knife that their local congressman carried?  It helped that it was also a very good design with a great combination of useful blades.  In one of the classic examples of advertising shaping reality a lot of congressmen - senators and representatives - ended up carrying  and using the congress pattern knife.  In fact, one of America's greatest presidents and an acknowledged knife and gun enthusiast regularly carried this knife.  No, not Teddy Roosevelt.  Abraham Lincoln!  The night he was assassinated in Ford's Theater he had a congress pattern knife in his pocket.  That knife is now on display in the Library of Congress.

The contents of Abraham Lincoln's pockets on the night he was assasinated at Ford's Theater.  Note the distinctive congress pattern pocket knife. From the Library of Congress 'Artifacts of Assassination' on-line display

[Editorial aside here.  Yes Virginia, Abraham Lincoln was a big gun and knife enthusiast.  He loved reviewing new weapons patents and often invited gun makers to demonstrate their new inventions right on the grounds of the White House.  He was fascinated by the Henry Rifle design and pushed the War Department to adopt it during the Civil War. That was probably the last time a gun was fired for sport or pleasure on the grounds of the White House.]

A question that is often asked is whether or not the congress pattern knife was ever sold in the gift shops in the US Capitol Building.  I don't think anyone can say for sure, but what we do know is that right up through the early 1980s various commemorative pocket knives were offered for sale in the gift shops.  While visiting the Capitol on several occasions in the early 80's I clearly remember seeing pocket knives for sale.  In his classic book 'The Practical Book of Knives' the author Ken Warner shows a Schrade Uncle Henry stockman pattern knife he bought in the Senate shop in the Capitol.  So, I think it's a fair assumption to say that at some point a congress pattern knife was offered for sale in the US Capitol.  But those days are far behind us.  I'm sure that today in a building filled with dull minds there are no sharp things on offer.

While not as popular as it once was, the congress pattern knife is still available from a number of manufacturers.  Case Cutlery, the premier US pocket knife manufacturer, offers several styles in their current catalog.  It is a good pattern and it still sells well.

Recently I came across a congress pattern knife offered by CRKT (Columbia River Knife and Tool).  I've owned several of their other pocket knife offerings and they are all very well done.  I decided to order one up and when it arrived I became fascinated by the knife's design and history (and hence this blog post!).

The CRKT Congress Pattern Knife

Blades out!  An extremely useful combination of blades.  No wonder this pattern was so popular.

As much as I love stockman pattern pocket knives, this congress pattern could steal me away.  One thing is certain, I'll have to get my hands on a few more to help me make up my mind.

http://fineblade.blogspot.com/2011/08/would-congress-sell-you-congr...