July 26, 2024 • 24 mins
Brent's taking us on a trip to the Case Knife factory in Bradford, Pennsylvania. He's also teaching us a game he used to play with his friends in elementary school that got his personal knife collection started. Leave it to Brent to have toothbrushes and pocket knives playing pivotal roles in one activity. All that and a homecoming story you don't want to miss on MeatEater's "This Country Life" podcast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to this country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves.
From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
I want you to stay a while as I share
my experiences and life lessons. This country life is presented
by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
the best outdoor podcast the airwaves had off. All right, friends,
(00:28):
grab a chair or drop that tail gate. I've got
some stories to share for the love of a knife.
If you're a new listener or a highly decorated veteran
of this struggle each week, you've no doubt surmised by
now that I have an affinity for Case pocket Knives.
(00:51):
I'm going to tell you a little how that relationship
started over a year ago, where we are now, and
how to play a game that can fill your pockets
with knives or your mouth with dirt. But first, I'm
going to tell you a story. It was a case
(01:13):
medium Stockman pocket knife, and it cost fourteen dollars in
nineteen seventy nine. It was brand new, The sizes were
made of yellow del run and it ran a close
second to the Mini Trapper that we the Reeves family
considered a gift from Heaven. I remember standing at the
display case, listening to mister Leland Bryant tell stories about
(01:35):
him and my dad while I smushed up the glass
with my hands and painstakingly scared over each knife, the colors,
and the blade configurations. Fourteen dollars was a lot of
money to a thirteen year old in April of nineteen
seventy nine, especially when the money came from what was
left from selling further previous winter, and maybe a little
(01:55):
of my birthday money from March. But I was determined
to give my dad a case pocket knife for his birthday.
The case display at Hurley's Hardware was the flame, and
I was the moth. I couldn't walk by that store
on the sidewalk without going in to look at him.
I didn't have a lot of opportunities to go in there,
living so far out of town, so when I had
(02:18):
the chance, I took full advantage of it. Whenever I
was in town and turn loose, my friends and I
would go inside, taking a break from the heat to
soak up some air conditioning, fingerprint the glass, and stink
up the place like only young boys can. Mister Leland
and all the other folks in there would ask each
of us how our parents were doing by name, mostly
(02:41):
out of curiosity and care, but maybe a little just
to remind each of us that if we broke anything,
they knew who to call to seek reimbursement and retribution from.
It didn't matter when or who I was with. If
I had the chance to go in and look at
that knife display, I did it. And I've said this before.
You can bait a trap with a case pocket knife
(03:02):
and catch me every time. This should explain to what
degree my weakness for these things is. But on this
particular day, I was shopping for one for my dad.
I wasn't just ogling all of them and dreaming about
holding them each in my hands. I was fixing the
walk out of there with a brand new one and
then give it away to him on his birthday. It
(03:26):
would be the first case knife I would ever purchase.
I had want in my pocket that day, one that
my dad had given me, and I owned more than
one of them at that time, but they'd all been
given to me as gifts or I'd want them playing
mumbletypeg on the playground at school. What's mumblety peg? Well,
(03:47):
I'm so glad, you asked It's a game dating back
to the eighteen hundreds where folks would flip pocket knives
into the ground and competition. Some did it for money
and some did it for fun. But here's how we
played at West Side Elementary in Warren, Arkansas, the same school.
Me and another fellow sophisticate skipped by hopping a train
(04:08):
and hoboing all over town. And I suppose this is
where I should put the disclaimer don't try this at home.
That's for all the nerd lawyers that are listening and
looking for an opportunity to get Brentley in some litigations.
Since we are dealing with a sharpened instrument, at least
it should be sharpened. But if flipping a knife off
(04:28):
your fingers into the ground sounds dangerous, you probably ain't
toting one. And if you are toting one and it
still sounds dangerous, odds are your knife's about as sharp
as you are. Nonetheless, consider yourself warned. Before school and
at the big resist, we'd gather up, hopefully out of
(04:49):
the constant eye of the duty teacher standing out there
surveying the playground with their X ray vision and hound
dog smelling abilities, searching out anything that was fun. They
could immediately put a stop to it. Mumblety peg was
at the top of their list, not because it involved
a pocket knife. We could tote pocket knife to school.
Then that wasn't a big deal or the problem. No,
(05:13):
it was because of the gambling. And it wasn't really gambling,
not really. It was more of a game of skill.
But when a younger would lose his knife or get
a mouthful of dirt trying to keep it, some of
them would go squalling to the teacher. That's the kind
of folks that need warning labels on paper coffee coaps
contents may be hot. Really, did you not just order
(05:36):
hot coffee? Or right about the road signs that say
bridge may ice in cold weather? Was the in cold
weather part really necessary? For that matter? Was the bridge
may ice necessary if it's rain and sleeping or snowing
and the temperatures are dipping around the freezing mark? Shouldn't
you already know that? Don't get me started. Here's how
(06:01):
you wind up losing your pocket knife at school or
go home with your teeth looking like you had a
mouthful of burnt matches from chewing the dirt up trying
to keep your knife. Check it out. MUMBLETYPEG requires you
to stick your knife in the ground by flipping it
(06:21):
from lying flat on your closed fist both hands, then
by throwing it by gripping the blade both hands, then
with the point of the blade resting on each finger
and thumb, both hands, again your arms crossed across your
chest both hands from the top of your head, and
backwards over each shoulder, with the finale ben when you
(06:43):
would slap that knife as it stood in the ground
from your last over the shoulder throat, having to successfully
stick your knife in the ground again. Now that last
one was called plowing the ground, and it was not easy.
You each took turns, and when someone missed, the other
person started whenever he missed. If he did, the previous
(07:06):
contestant would pick back up from where he stopped until
one person made it all the way through, depending on
how many steps the loser had left determined how many
times the winter got to hammer a finger long limb
whittled down to somewhere between a pencil and a toothpick
into the dirt. Now we played an abbreviated version of
(07:28):
mumblety Peg because we didn't have time for a real
game due to our primary reason for being at school
was to get an education and not holne our skills
as a future circus performers. So if the loser was
four steps away from finishing when he got beat, the
winner got four licks on that peg that was just
in the ground enough to hold it upright. The hard
(07:51):
ground wasn't an issue, and if you broke the peg
when hammering it in the ground, the game was a tie.
This discouraged folks from trying to pound a peg to
China out of meanness. But if the ground was soft,
you'd be gnawn. You'd be gnawn at the dirt trying
to get that peg like a beaver on a pinnock,
(08:12):
or you had the option of giving up your pocket
knife to the winter. If the peg was so deep
you didn't want to be digging for it with your choppers.
If you got that peg out of the ground successfully,
you got to keep your knife and your reputation as
a sportsman. Our playground version took out the over the
shoulder throws and apply on the ground throw. Those were tough,
(08:34):
and we wanted to get to the peg rooting as
fast as possible and for as many folks we could
get before the bell rang. If we could just have
one young and eating dirt, it was a victory for
us all. Now more than once I watched boys hauling
butt to the bathroom to wash the dirt off their
faces and out of the mouths, to get to their
seats before the tarte bell rang. I was in that
(08:57):
number occasionally myself, but I never lost a knife, not
one that's mumblety Peg, or at least our version of him.
We played another game called Chicken, that one I ain't
talking about, not today.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Back to Hurley's Hardware and the case display, mister Leland
opened up the display cabinet and pulled out a brand
new Steal in the box medium yellow model thirty three
eighteen CV case Stockman pocket knife. I ainted him fifteen
dollars and had a twenty dollars bill left in the
bill of my overalls. I asked him to go ahead
(09:43):
and hand me that brown bone mini trapper for myself.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Now.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I left there with three dollars in change and two
new knives, one for my dad and one for me.
I wrapped his present the best I couldn't. When his
birthday came a few days later, I gave it to him.
I remember his big smile when he opened it up
and how proud he was to have his new knife.
We both said it was a match to his yellow
(10:07):
trapper that he already had. I showed him the one
I bought that day. He gave me a quarter in return.
That keeps you from having bad luck. Hey, I don't
make the rules, I just follow them anyway. My dad
would carry that knife on and off for a while,
just like I and others I know do, swapping them
out for new ones that had been added to the rotation,
(10:28):
and eventually putting them back in the box. They came
in and placed him in a drawer. That's where I
found it thirteen years ago after he passed away. We
were getting his affairs in order and doing all the
things you have to do when taking care of someone
in the state, and I found it, and I recognized
it immediately, the birthday gift I had given him on
(10:51):
April to sixteenth, nineteen seventy nine. I knew which birthday
because if you know case knives, you know that they
have a stamp dating system on the blade, things that
change every year. He was forty two years old when
I gave it to him. That knife is now forty
five years old, three years older than he was when
(11:13):
he got it. There's no surprise ending to this story,
and you really know, unique revelation, just just a footnote
in the legacy of an inanimate object that I shared
with my dad and for the last thirteen years he's
been sharing it back with me. I'll share it with
(11:34):
one of my children one day and a host of others.
And that's just how that happened.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
But is at the end, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
For the love of a knife. I guess y'all heard
the new opening for the show. If you skip through,
I'll save you the trouble of going back. This Country
Life is now presented by Case Knives. If you're new
to This Country Life, go back and start at the
beginning of all the shows if you really want to
get an idea about my family's history with this brand.
(12:27):
None of it has been planned or orchestrated in any way,
and was actually started by someone who contacted the good
folks in Bradford, Pennsylvania and said to the effect of, Hey,
there's some dude that works for me theater that has
a podcast, and y'all want to hear it. Now, fast
forward a year and a half later, and those folks
(12:48):
are inviting me and my family to come to the
Maid in Bradford event celebrating one hundred and thirty five
years case knife production. One hundred and thirty five years
ago was eighteen eighty nine. The Eiffel Tier was finished.
North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington were admitted as states.
(13:08):
Brook Trout were introduced into the Firehole River and Yellowstone
National Park, and the New York Giants won their second
consecutive World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Bridegrooms three to two.
And up in New York, not far from Bradford, Pennsylvania,
the Case Brothers whooped up a case pocket knife. Ma'am?
(13:33):
Was that a good year?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
What?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Anyway, as things have a tendency to do, they worked
out In last week, my wife Alexis, and my youngest daughter,
Bailey and I found ourselves in the company of a
bunch of like minded folks whose only difference in us
is that they used just about all the letters of
the words they're speaking. They called it a family reunion
every year, and spending a little time with them, I
(13:56):
can see wire there were folks from all over the country.
There knife collectors and traders from every direction and points
of the compas setting down under one big tent, showing
off their collections and visiting and reminiscing about old times
and talking about the new ones to come. There were
some really amazing knives, both new and old, there, and
(14:17):
I gave a couple of them a ride home to Arkansas.
They like it here. But the best part of the
trip we were treated to a tour of the factory
where all the knives are made, all of them, every
one of them right here. Five minutes into the tour,
I asked Tony Defonso, who was over plant production above
(14:39):
the din of the fans and the operating machines, if
I could take a video, and he said, yeah, but
make sure you get that big American flag hanging on
the back wall. We're proud of that flag and these
knives that we're making here in America. Over six thousand
knives were being turned out in that plant every day.
(15:01):
The majority of it is by hand. The only automated
production was a robotic welder that was added to weld
bolsters onto spacers. Now we're gonna talk about exactly what
each of those are in a minute, and I promise
you don't want to hang around for it. It's going
to be the best part of this whole episode. I
(15:23):
met Miss Linda, who's been working there for thirty three years.
She was one of the many long tendered employees that
worked there, some of them generational employees, along with parents
and children and spouses, siblings and cousins, all making a
living producing of product that goes through one hundred and
sixty steps from the time it gets there is raw
(15:43):
materials until it leaves wrapped tighter than bark on a
beech tree with wax paper and secured it in a box.
I talked with Tammy at the wrapping table and I
asked her for a lesson in rapping, and she gave
me one. I challenged her to a race on the
next one. She finished so far ahead of me that
she could have took a nap before I was done.
(16:04):
I saw trays and tables full of every model of
pocket knife in production. The workspaces were all orderly and clean,
unlike what I would assume the nine factory would be.
It was obvious that the folks working there take a
lot of pride in their work, and they should. City
of Bradford has a population of less than eight thousand
people that lies three miles south of New York State
(16:28):
in the Alleghany Mountains and is a paradise all its on.
Remember when I said I was going to talk about
welding bolsters and spacers and it was going to be
the best part. Well, we're at that part now, and
if you happen to have a case pocket knife close
it can do so safely. Whoop that rascal out and
follow along. I've got my dad's dockmen in front of me,
(16:51):
so I'm gonna use that one to tell you the
rest of this story. Each end of the knife has
a shiny silver part on both sides. Those are called bolsters.
If you turn the knife over and look at the back,
you'll see the brass or gold colored thin line. That's
(17:12):
the spacer that allows the blade to move in and
out of the knife without touching the other blades or
rubbing against the inside. Not very exciting stuff, I know,
but very important to where I'm going with this. For
the last two years, Case out of a machine that
helps the folks weld the bolsters onto the spacers. Because
(17:32):
of the demand for more knives. This is in addition
to the folks that were already welding them by hand,
and an activity that is taking place right now, regardless
of the time you're listening to this podcast, there's folks working.
That machine didn't replace anyone. This corner of the factory
was actually the first place we visited on the tour,
(17:53):
but it made the biggest impact on me, not only
for the tour, but for the whole trip. Tony introduced
me to a man i'd been watching concentrate on his work.
Mister Dave was in what seemed like perpetual motion, moving
around this station, welding bolsters onto spacers, steadily placing the
(18:14):
finished parts into a tree. He was obviously well versed
in his duties, and I shook mister Dave's hand, and
I was surprised to learn that mister Dave had been
working for Case for nearly fifty one years. For the
last fifty one years, mister Dave had his mits on
just about every case pocket knife that was made there.
(18:35):
Here's where it gets good. Before I left home, I
thought about what two knives I'd take with me. Y'all
know where most of you do anyway, that I told
two pocket knives. One used to be an off brand loaner. Well,
I retired that practice and I now carried two case knives,
and I don't loan either one of them, but I
(18:55):
wanted to bring two knives with me on that tour
that meant something. One of them I brought was a
twenty twenty three Model sixty two oh seven Mini Trapper
than John Pantuso gave me last year. John works on
the marketing team and he sent it to me after
he heard the podcast. That was my introduction to the
(19:17):
company and the rest of the folks that worked there,
and that knife means a lot to me. It was
the first token of appreciation from a company that not
only me, but my entire family has been promoting for
the last six generations. I accepted it on behalf of them,
and it was for all of them that I carried
(19:37):
it with me back to Bradford. The other knife, the
second knife I carried, was the case document that I
gave my dad for his birthday in nineteen seventy nine.
I planned to get a picture of both of them
in that factory. I thought that'd be pretty cool. The
first case knife that have been given to me by
case in the first case that I bought that had
(20:00):
also been my dad's, the guy that started me on
this whole trip to Pennsylvania when he gave me my
first one when I was just a little boy. While
I stood there listening to mister Dave tell me what
he did and for how long you've been doing it,
started doing some math in my head. I said, mister Dave,
you were working here in nineteen seventy nine, right. He
(20:23):
smiled and nodded yes. I pulled that knife out and
handed it to him, and I said, would you have
worked on this knife? He opened up the blade and
checked the tang stamp markets indicating what decade in year
it was produced, and handed it back to me, smiling. Yeah,
I would have worked on that knife, he said. I
couldn't tell him the story of that knife fast enough.
(20:44):
As a matter of fact, I couldn't tell him but
about half of it before I got so emotional I
couldn't say anything. Lexis had to finish the story for me.
Mister Dave understood, and he smiled. He allowed me my moment. Then,
when he found out I was from Arkansas, he wanted
to know how good the deer hunting was I regained
(21:07):
my composure and I told him how proud I was
to meet him, and I thanked him for his work
he was doing there and that he had been doing
throughout his career. I told everyone I met him there
that could hear me how much I appreciated the effort
that they put in to turning metal and bone into
utilitarian pieces of handmade art. It's not just knives that
(21:27):
they're making, and they know it. The next day at
the Case Museum, Miss Heather and Jeremy were set up
outside during the events, sharpening and polishing knives for anyone
that wanted it done. Now. I'd met him the day
before on our tour and I watched him masterfully doing
the same job, But now I had the opportunity to
(21:49):
really watch them and for them to tell me about
each step and how they did it and how long
they been doing it. I let him polish and re
sharpen the knife that John had given me and how
I came about receiving it, each commenting and laughing that
they probably handled that knife before I did. Then, before
I handed him my dad's knife, I told him that story.
(22:13):
I know they've heard no telling how many tales just
like mine at events like that one. But they each
listened intently, and they thanked me for telling them about
each knife and for letting them become part of the
history of this one. I probably could have summed that
last twenty five minutes up with one sentence. I bought
(22:33):
a knife for my dad when I was young, and
after he died, I got it back. That's a fair
assessment of the tale. But the knife isn't the story.
The story is all the people, from my friends on
the playground and the teachers at school, to mister Leland
and Hurley's Hardware, mister Dave, all the other wonderful people
(22:57):
that I met along the way, and my wife and
daughter went with me on this journey to a little
valley in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. It started generations
ago on my great grandfather bought a pocket knife. How
thankful I am for that seemingly inconsequential act. That was
(23:18):
the first ripple in the pond that is still making
waves today. I thank you so much for listening and
being a part of this country life of mind. It
truly is something special, and I'm forever grateful for all
(23:39):
of your support for me and ol'clay bow here on
the Bear Greece Channel. Speaking of that rascal, me and
him will be down in Venice, Louisiana at the Cypress
Cove Medieater Fishing Experience on October tenth through the sixteenth,
and there's still some slots available for that. If you're interested,
you can find out on the Meat Eater website. I'll
(24:00):
be in the Great State of Kansas with the Latvian
Eagle himself, mister Giannis puld tell Us on December the
thirtieth through January the second. Come bring into New Year
with me and Giannis and help us put some ducks
toes up in the decoys. There's a couple of spots
left that are gonna go quick. I keep telling them
that we should be blowing up beaver dams and running
(24:21):
trot lines in the Selein River bottoms. Maybe we could
do something like that one day, who knows. But that's
it for me until next week. This is Brent Reeves
signing off. Y'all be careful
Welcome to this country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves.
From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
I want you to stay a while as I share
my experiences and life lessons. This country life is presented
by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
the best outdoor podcast the airwaves had off. All right, friends,
(00:28):
grab a chair or drop that tail gate. I've got
some stories to share for the love of a knife.
If you're a new listener or a highly decorated veteran
of this struggle each week, you've no doubt surmised by
now that I have an affinity for Case pocket Knives.
(00:51):
I'm going to tell you a little how that relationship
started over a year ago, where we are now, and
how to play a game that can fill your pockets
with knives or your mouth with dirt. But first, I'm
going to tell you a story. It was a case
(01:13):
medium Stockman pocket knife, and it cost fourteen dollars in
nineteen seventy nine. It was brand new, The sizes were
made of yellow del run and it ran a close
second to the Mini Trapper that we the Reeves family
considered a gift from Heaven. I remember standing at the
display case, listening to mister Leland Bryant tell stories about
(01:35):
him and my dad while I smushed up the glass
with my hands and painstakingly scared over each knife, the colors,
and the blade configurations. Fourteen dollars was a lot of
money to a thirteen year old in April of nineteen
seventy nine, especially when the money came from what was
left from selling further previous winter, and maybe a little
(01:55):
of my birthday money from March. But I was determined
to give my dad a case pocket knife for his birthday.
The case display at Hurley's Hardware was the flame, and
I was the moth. I couldn't walk by that store
on the sidewalk without going in to look at him.
I didn't have a lot of opportunities to go in there,
living so far out of town, so when I had
(02:18):
the chance, I took full advantage of it. Whenever I
was in town and turn loose, my friends and I
would go inside, taking a break from the heat to
soak up some air conditioning, fingerprint the glass, and stink
up the place like only young boys can. Mister Leland
and all the other folks in there would ask each
of us how our parents were doing by name, mostly
(02:41):
out of curiosity and care, but maybe a little just
to remind each of us that if we broke anything,
they knew who to call to seek reimbursement and retribution from.
It didn't matter when or who I was with. If
I had the chance to go in and look at
that knife display, I did it. And I've said this before.
You can bait a trap with a case pocket knife
(03:02):
and catch me every time. This should explain to what
degree my weakness for these things is. But on this
particular day, I was shopping for one for my dad.
I wasn't just ogling all of them and dreaming about
holding them each in my hands. I was fixing the
walk out of there with a brand new one and
then give it away to him on his birthday. It
(03:26):
would be the first case knife I would ever purchase.
I had want in my pocket that day, one that
my dad had given me, and I owned more than
one of them at that time, but they'd all been
given to me as gifts or I'd want them playing
mumbletypeg on the playground at school. What's mumblety peg? Well,
(03:47):
I'm so glad, you asked It's a game dating back
to the eighteen hundreds where folks would flip pocket knives
into the ground and competition. Some did it for money
and some did it for fun. But here's how we
played at West Side Elementary in Warren, Arkansas, the same school.
Me and another fellow sophisticate skipped by hopping a train
(04:08):
and hoboing all over town. And I suppose this is
where I should put the disclaimer don't try this at home.
That's for all the nerd lawyers that are listening and
looking for an opportunity to get Brentley in some litigations.
Since we are dealing with a sharpened instrument, at least
it should be sharpened. But if flipping a knife off
(04:28):
your fingers into the ground sounds dangerous, you probably ain't
toting one. And if you are toting one and it
still sounds dangerous, odds are your knife's about as sharp
as you are. Nonetheless, consider yourself warned. Before school and
at the big resist, we'd gather up, hopefully out of
(04:49):
the constant eye of the duty teacher standing out there
surveying the playground with their X ray vision and hound
dog smelling abilities, searching out anything that was fun. They
could immediately put a stop to it. Mumblety peg was
at the top of their list, not because it involved
a pocket knife. We could tote pocket knife to school.
Then that wasn't a big deal or the problem. No,
(05:13):
it was because of the gambling. And it wasn't really gambling,
not really. It was more of a game of skill.
But when a younger would lose his knife or get
a mouthful of dirt trying to keep it, some of
them would go squalling to the teacher. That's the kind
of folks that need warning labels on paper coffee coaps
contents may be hot. Really, did you not just order
(05:36):
hot coffee? Or right about the road signs that say
bridge may ice in cold weather? Was the in cold
weather part really necessary? For that matter? Was the bridge
may ice necessary if it's rain and sleeping or snowing
and the temperatures are dipping around the freezing mark? Shouldn't
you already know that? Don't get me started. Here's how
(06:01):
you wind up losing your pocket knife at school or
go home with your teeth looking like you had a
mouthful of burnt matches from chewing the dirt up trying
to keep your knife. Check it out. MUMBLETYPEG requires you
to stick your knife in the ground by flipping it
(06:21):
from lying flat on your closed fist both hands, then
by throwing it by gripping the blade both hands, then
with the point of the blade resting on each finger
and thumb, both hands, again your arms crossed across your
chest both hands from the top of your head, and
backwards over each shoulder, with the finale ben when you
(06:43):
would slap that knife as it stood in the ground
from your last over the shoulder throat, having to successfully
stick your knife in the ground again. Now that last
one was called plowing the ground, and it was not easy.
You each took turns, and when someone missed, the other
person started whenever he missed. If he did, the previous
(07:06):
contestant would pick back up from where he stopped until
one person made it all the way through, depending on
how many steps the loser had left determined how many
times the winter got to hammer a finger long limb
whittled down to somewhere between a pencil and a toothpick
into the dirt. Now we played an abbreviated version of
(07:28):
mumblety Peg because we didn't have time for a real
game due to our primary reason for being at school
was to get an education and not holne our skills
as a future circus performers. So if the loser was
four steps away from finishing when he got beat, the
winner got four licks on that peg that was just
in the ground enough to hold it upright. The hard
(07:51):
ground wasn't an issue, and if you broke the peg
when hammering it in the ground, the game was a tie.
This discouraged folks from trying to pound a peg to
China out of meanness. But if the ground was soft,
you'd be gnawn. You'd be gnawn at the dirt trying
to get that peg like a beaver on a pinnock,
(08:12):
or you had the option of giving up your pocket
knife to the winter. If the peg was so deep
you didn't want to be digging for it with your choppers.
If you got that peg out of the ground successfully,
you got to keep your knife and your reputation as
a sportsman. Our playground version took out the over the
shoulder throws and apply on the ground throw. Those were tough,
(08:34):
and we wanted to get to the peg rooting as
fast as possible and for as many folks we could
get before the bell rang. If we could just have
one young and eating dirt, it was a victory for
us all. Now more than once I watched boys hauling
butt to the bathroom to wash the dirt off their
faces and out of the mouths, to get to their
seats before the tarte bell rang. I was in that
(08:57):
number occasionally myself, but I never lost a knife, not
one that's mumblety Peg, or at least our version of him.
We played another game called Chicken, that one I ain't
talking about, not today.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Back to Hurley's Hardware and the case display, mister Leland
opened up the display cabinet and pulled out a brand
new Steal in the box medium yellow model thirty three
eighteen CV case Stockman pocket knife. I ainted him fifteen
dollars and had a twenty dollars bill left in the
bill of my overalls. I asked him to go ahead
(09:43):
and hand me that brown bone mini trapper for myself.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Now.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I left there with three dollars in change and two
new knives, one for my dad and one for me.
I wrapped his present the best I couldn't. When his
birthday came a few days later, I gave it to him.
I remember his big smile when he opened it up
and how proud he was to have his new knife.
We both said it was a match to his yellow
(10:07):
trapper that he already had. I showed him the one
I bought that day. He gave me a quarter in return.
That keeps you from having bad luck. Hey, I don't
make the rules, I just follow them anyway. My dad
would carry that knife on and off for a while,
just like I and others I know do, swapping them
out for new ones that had been added to the rotation,
(10:28):
and eventually putting them back in the box. They came
in and placed him in a drawer. That's where I
found it thirteen years ago after he passed away. We
were getting his affairs in order and doing all the
things you have to do when taking care of someone
in the state, and I found it, and I recognized
it immediately, the birthday gift I had given him on
(10:51):
April to sixteenth, nineteen seventy nine. I knew which birthday
because if you know case knives, you know that they
have a stamp dating system on the blade, things that
change every year. He was forty two years old when
I gave it to him. That knife is now forty
five years old, three years older than he was when
(11:13):
he got it. There's no surprise ending to this story,
and you really know, unique revelation, just just a footnote
in the legacy of an inanimate object that I shared
with my dad and for the last thirteen years he's
been sharing it back with me. I'll share it with
(11:34):
one of my children one day and a host of others.
And that's just how that happened.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
But is at the end, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
For the love of a knife. I guess y'all heard
the new opening for the show. If you skip through,
I'll save you the trouble of going back. This Country
Life is now presented by Case Knives. If you're new
to This Country Life, go back and start at the
beginning of all the shows if you really want to
get an idea about my family's history with this brand.
(12:27):
None of it has been planned or orchestrated in any way,
and was actually started by someone who contacted the good
folks in Bradford, Pennsylvania and said to the effect of, Hey,
there's some dude that works for me theater that has
a podcast, and y'all want to hear it. Now, fast
forward a year and a half later, and those folks
(12:48):
are inviting me and my family to come to the
Maid in Bradford event celebrating one hundred and thirty five
years case knife production. One hundred and thirty five years
ago was eighteen eighty nine. The Eiffel Tier was finished.
North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington were admitted as states.
(13:08):
Brook Trout were introduced into the Firehole River and Yellowstone
National Park, and the New York Giants won their second
consecutive World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Bridegrooms three to two.
And up in New York, not far from Bradford, Pennsylvania,
the Case Brothers whooped up a case pocket knife. Ma'am?
(13:33):
Was that a good year?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
What?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Anyway, as things have a tendency to do, they worked
out In last week, my wife Alexis, and my youngest daughter,
Bailey and I found ourselves in the company of a
bunch of like minded folks whose only difference in us
is that they used just about all the letters of
the words they're speaking. They called it a family reunion
every year, and spending a little time with them, I
(13:56):
can see wire there were folks from all over the country.
There knife collectors and traders from every direction and points
of the compas setting down under one big tent, showing
off their collections and visiting and reminiscing about old times
and talking about the new ones to come. There were
some really amazing knives, both new and old, there, and
(14:17):
I gave a couple of them a ride home to Arkansas.
They like it here. But the best part of the
trip we were treated to a tour of the factory
where all the knives are made, all of them, every
one of them right here. Five minutes into the tour,
I asked Tony Defonso, who was over plant production above
(14:39):
the din of the fans and the operating machines, if
I could take a video, and he said, yeah, but
make sure you get that big American flag hanging on
the back wall. We're proud of that flag and these
knives that we're making here in America. Over six thousand
knives were being turned out in that plant every day.
(15:01):
The majority of it is by hand. The only automated
production was a robotic welder that was added to weld
bolsters onto spacers. Now we're gonna talk about exactly what
each of those are in a minute, and I promise
you don't want to hang around for it. It's going
to be the best part of this whole episode. I
(15:23):
met Miss Linda, who's been working there for thirty three years.
She was one of the many long tendered employees that
worked there, some of them generational employees, along with parents
and children and spouses, siblings and cousins, all making a
living producing of product that goes through one hundred and
sixty steps from the time it gets there is raw
(15:43):
materials until it leaves wrapped tighter than bark on a
beech tree with wax paper and secured it in a box.
I talked with Tammy at the wrapping table and I
asked her for a lesson in rapping, and she gave
me one. I challenged her to a race on the
next one. She finished so far ahead of me that
she could have took a nap before I was done.
(16:04):
I saw trays and tables full of every model of
pocket knife in production. The workspaces were all orderly and clean,
unlike what I would assume the nine factory would be.
It was obvious that the folks working there take a
lot of pride in their work, and they should. City
of Bradford has a population of less than eight thousand
people that lies three miles south of New York State
(16:28):
in the Alleghany Mountains and is a paradise all its on.
Remember when I said I was going to talk about
welding bolsters and spacers and it was going to be
the best part. Well, we're at that part now, and
if you happen to have a case pocket knife close
it can do so safely. Whoop that rascal out and
follow along. I've got my dad's dockmen in front of me,
(16:51):
so I'm gonna use that one to tell you the
rest of this story. Each end of the knife has
a shiny silver part on both sides. Those are called bolsters.
If you turn the knife over and look at the back,
you'll see the brass or gold colored thin line. That's
(17:12):
the spacer that allows the blade to move in and
out of the knife without touching the other blades or
rubbing against the inside. Not very exciting stuff, I know,
but very important to where I'm going with this. For
the last two years, Case out of a machine that
helps the folks weld the bolsters onto the spacers. Because
(17:32):
of the demand for more knives. This is in addition
to the folks that were already welding them by hand,
and an activity that is taking place right now, regardless
of the time you're listening to this podcast, there's folks working.
That machine didn't replace anyone. This corner of the factory
was actually the first place we visited on the tour,
(17:53):
but it made the biggest impact on me, not only
for the tour, but for the whole trip. Tony introduced
me to a man i'd been watching concentrate on his work.
Mister Dave was in what seemed like perpetual motion, moving
around this station, welding bolsters onto spacers, steadily placing the
(18:14):
finished parts into a tree. He was obviously well versed
in his duties, and I shook mister Dave's hand, and
I was surprised to learn that mister Dave had been
working for Case for nearly fifty one years. For the
last fifty one years, mister Dave had his mits on
just about every case pocket knife that was made there.
(18:35):
Here's where it gets good. Before I left home, I
thought about what two knives I'd take with me. Y'all
know where most of you do anyway, that I told
two pocket knives. One used to be an off brand loaner. Well,
I retired that practice and I now carried two case knives,
and I don't loan either one of them, but I
(18:55):
wanted to bring two knives with me on that tour
that meant something. One of them I brought was a
twenty twenty three Model sixty two oh seven Mini Trapper
than John Pantuso gave me last year. John works on
the marketing team and he sent it to me after
he heard the podcast. That was my introduction to the
(19:17):
company and the rest of the folks that worked there,
and that knife means a lot to me. It was
the first token of appreciation from a company that not
only me, but my entire family has been promoting for
the last six generations. I accepted it on behalf of them,
and it was for all of them that I carried
(19:37):
it with me back to Bradford. The other knife, the
second knife I carried, was the case document that I
gave my dad for his birthday in nineteen seventy nine.
I planned to get a picture of both of them
in that factory. I thought that'd be pretty cool. The
first case knife that have been given to me by
case in the first case that I bought that had
(20:00):
also been my dad's, the guy that started me on
this whole trip to Pennsylvania when he gave me my
first one when I was just a little boy. While
I stood there listening to mister Dave tell me what
he did and for how long you've been doing it,
started doing some math in my head. I said, mister Dave,
you were working here in nineteen seventy nine, right. He
(20:23):
smiled and nodded yes. I pulled that knife out and
handed it to him, and I said, would you have
worked on this knife? He opened up the blade and
checked the tang stamp markets indicating what decade in year
it was produced, and handed it back to me, smiling. Yeah,
I would have worked on that knife, he said. I
couldn't tell him the story of that knife fast enough.
(20:44):
As a matter of fact, I couldn't tell him but
about half of it before I got so emotional I
couldn't say anything. Lexis had to finish the story for me.
Mister Dave understood, and he smiled. He allowed me my moment. Then,
when he found out I was from Arkansas, he wanted
to know how good the deer hunting was I regained
(21:07):
my composure and I told him how proud I was
to meet him, and I thanked him for his work
he was doing there and that he had been doing
throughout his career. I told everyone I met him there
that could hear me how much I appreciated the effort
that they put in to turning metal and bone into
utilitarian pieces of handmade art. It's not just knives that
(21:27):
they're making, and they know it. The next day at
the Case Museum, Miss Heather and Jeremy were set up
outside during the events, sharpening and polishing knives for anyone
that wanted it done. Now. I'd met him the day
before on our tour and I watched him masterfully doing
the same job, But now I had the opportunity to
(21:49):
really watch them and for them to tell me about
each step and how they did it and how long
they been doing it. I let him polish and re
sharpen the knife that John had given me and how
I came about receiving it, each commenting and laughing that
they probably handled that knife before I did. Then, before
I handed him my dad's knife, I told him that story.
(22:13):
I know they've heard no telling how many tales just
like mine at events like that one. But they each
listened intently, and they thanked me for telling them about
each knife and for letting them become part of the
history of this one. I probably could have summed that
last twenty five minutes up with one sentence. I bought
(22:33):
a knife for my dad when I was young, and
after he died, I got it back. That's a fair
assessment of the tale. But the knife isn't the story.
The story is all the people, from my friends on
the playground and the teachers at school, to mister Leland
and Hurley's Hardware, mister Dave, all the other wonderful people
(22:57):
that I met along the way, and my wife and
daughter went with me on this journey to a little
valley in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. It started generations
ago on my great grandfather bought a pocket knife. How
thankful I am for that seemingly inconsequential act. That was
(23:18):
the first ripple in the pond that is still making
waves today. I thank you so much for listening and
being a part of this country life of mind. It
truly is something special, and I'm forever grateful for all
(23:39):
of your support for me and ol'clay bow here on
the Bear Greece Channel. Speaking of that rascal, me and
him will be down in Venice, Louisiana at the Cypress
Cove Medieater Fishing Experience on October tenth through the sixteenth,
and there's still some slots available for that. If you're interested,
you can find out on the Meat Eater website. I'll
(24:00):
be in the Great State of Kansas with the Latvian
Eagle himself, mister Giannis puld tell Us on December the
thirtieth through January the second. Come bring into New Year
with me and Giannis and help us put some ducks
toes up in the decoys. There's a couple of spots
left that are gonna go quick. I keep telling them
that we should be blowing up beaver dams and running
(24:21):
trot lines in the Selein River bottoms. Maybe we could
do something like that one day, who knows. But that's
it for me until next week. This is Brent Reeves
signing off. Y'all be careful
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