Neck knives

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

I really like that knife, clean and simply straight forward. The sheath is beautiful also.

 

[pichou]

On swinging a neck knife around to your back while doin' stuff, there is a painting of a Native with a huge silver cross slung around backwards too. Canadian early 1800's.

Great topic! :thumbsup:

 

[crockett]

I think Wick was right, use what ever works for you. There is one point here that no one has brought up. Neck knives seem (to me at least) to be more common in cold weather regions. The Scandinavian type knives with the ring on the sheath- I think those were originally designed to be worn around the neck.
In the snowy Winter I used to put a knife sheath on my belt and then I put on a heavy coat. Everytime I needed the knife I had to fumble through the coat, it was really hazardous trying to put the knife back. I then tried wearing an additional belt over the outside coat for the sole purpose of carrying the knife but if I got heated up from walking and wanted to take off the coat or open up the front- more problems; and, the second belt seems to be one belt too many.
There's a lot of hazards in the winter- like breaking through ice. In any event I sort of just ended up with a neck knife because it offerred a fast, accessible location but here's the thing- I wasn't trekking. I was on snowshoes or ice fishing and found it a convenient location and I was using a Mora type knife with the ring on the sheath. Could be the Great Lake Indians came up with the same sheath for the same reasons and they just kept wearing the same in Summer.

 

[flaming canvas]

There's a lot of hazards in the winter- like breaking through ice. In any event I sort of just ended up with a neck knife because it offerred a fast, accessible location but here's the thing- I wasn't trekking. I was on snowshoes or ice fishing and found it a convenient location and I was using a Mora type knife with the ring on the sheath. Could be the Great Lake Indians came up with the same sheath for the same reasons and they just kept wearing the same in Summer.

Interesting point about breaking through the ice. In that situation a neck knife might be the most accessible to use to help pull yourself back up on the ice. Not being from the north country, that is something I'm not familiar with.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Along the same line of thought, neck knives can be swung around and worn down the back, so that just a subtle pull on the necklace will life the knife hand up to the colar where it can be quickly grabbed and brought into use. When I see police officers frisking suspects, but failing to run their hands down the necks and spine( all the way down to the tailbone) of the suspect, I want to scream at them.

 

[huntman58]

Interesting point about breaking through the ice. In that situation a neck knife might be the most accessible to use to help pull yourself back up on the ice. Not being from the north country, that is something I'm not familiar with.

or even used like an ice pick to break the ice that can form after you fell in.

 

[crockett]

Well let me tell some of you non-ice trekkers..... walk across ice for a few years, and you get sort of careless. I only time I broke through ice, well imagine you are in a boat and you step off the boat into the lake, in you go. If it ever happens again I hope I'll be more prepared but in any event the worst part is you are totally confused about what just happened and heavy boots, etc are about ready to pull you under. You grab the ice around you and you slid right off, not good, NOT GOOD AT ALL. If you drive a knife into the ice you can keep your head above water and try to collect your wits about how you are hopefully going to roll back on the ice but you'll probably just keep breaking the edge of the ice as you try to get out of the water because you now weigh about 300 pounds in your water soaked clothes. In my case someone crawled up to me on their belly and tossed a jacket sleeve and I got pulled out.
If you travel on ice don't get careless. You ought to carry an 8' pole and wack the ice a bit to test it. The pole hopefully may span a hole if you break through. If there are several people, stay fairly wide apart- running a line between people wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[oletymepreacher]

I use a 3 1/2 " neck knife all the time. Made from saw blade with walnut scales. If it gets in the way , down the shirt it goes. It is used primarily for slicing food, occasionally for cutting patches, maybe cleaning under fingernails. Find it a handy tool.

 

[crockett]

If you are bending over to work, you can also just swing a neck sheath around to your back, easy to do.

 

[crockett]

PS: A lot of folks think of neck sheaths as only used around the Great Lakes. Alfred Jacob Miller shows a couple of western Indians with neck sheaths.

 

[pichou]

I personally think this is due to the fur trade, with the Ojibwe expanding west from the Great Lakes/Mississippi Valley to Red River, and the development of the Métis culture there. That seems to be where the wolf eared hat/hood originated. There were a lot of Red River Métis on the Missouri, like Larpenteur mentions.

 

[crockett]

That makes sense.