101 Uses of an Alan Wood Woodlore....No.37

[Marts]

Maybe Knife throwing can be included in the olympics when we host it?

 

[Dunelm]

We used to play "Split The Kipper" as well - the rules were vague but I remember standing face to face about 8 feet apart, somebody would throw the knife and the other lad (it was always lads...) had to move his closest foot to that point. If the knife didn't stick it didn't count. The object was to get your opponents legs so far apart that he couldn't continue.

We also played "knifey" on a very big tarzan-swing down the local woods, known funnily enough as the "Big Swing". You swung out as far as possible then on the return swing lean down with one hand and stick the knife in the most awkward place possible for the next swinger. I clashed my self against treet roots and the bank on many occaisions...there were no PlayStations in the 1970s...

 

[FeralSheryl]

We called it "split your kipper", if I remember you had to move your foot to where knife stuck in, then take it turns,if knife didnt stick in ground you had to put your own foot to it, so causing you to do the splits and split your kipper! a version of twister with knives!

Yeah, I remember that! I've no idea what we called it though. Great fun, until my mother rushed out, confiscated all our knives and phoned everyones parents.
Not so good

How on earth did we all get hold of knives like that at our age (13ish)?

 

[tenbears10]

How on earth did we all get hold of knives like that at our age (13ish)?

Sheryl, you were obviously in the days before the world went mad. I was given a swiss army knife before I was 10 so I could grow up using and respecting knives as tools. Now children are not credited with sense or responsibility until they are 18 which is way too late.

If you don't teach sex education you get more teenage parents not less.

[/rant]

Bill

 

[FeralSheryl]

The 1970's was a different world indeed.

My mother was afraid that we might fall on a knife or accidently hurt eachother (not altogether unlikely when I think back to being 13) but I think we would certainly have been more responsible if someone had taken the time to show us the way. But that's the only reason they got confiscated. It would never have crossed her mind or anyone elses that they might have been used deliberately to do harm. A little different for everyone now, sadly

 

[Graham_S]

i got my first folding knife at 9 and my first sheath knife at 11. most of my friends had them as well. the local woods were a dangerous place to be if you were vaguely cuttable........

 

[mammy_nun]

We used to play "knifey". You went on one of those rope swings that were always around, you know the ones with a stick tied as a seat. You went on the swing with a knife and had three swings during which you had to stick the knife somewhere, ground, tree, where ever. The next person had three swings to retrieve the knife and stick it somewhere else. If you could not retrieve the knife you were out. The onlyy catch was if you managed to put the knife where no one else could get it you did not win unless you could retrieve it, so no point in just throwing the knife. You could also play the game with a sharpened stick but then you could not stick it in a tree.


i have many fond memories of hanging upside down from a swing holding onto a tree with a knife gripped in my teeth pulling myself into a difficult spot to place the knife out of reach.

ha ha I also played a lot of knifey. There was an excellent swing down at the end of the Cloch road in Gourock. My pal got stitches when he got the swing seat in the forehead. Also played knifey like 'split your kipper' trying to make your opponent do the splits and fall.

 

[JimH]

That game is called "mumbley peg" where I come from.

When I grew up, mumbley peg was a spread hand, palm down and bouncing the knife tip off the table top between each pair of fingers in succession then back again as fast as poss.

Interesting times...

Jimmy 3 fingers