Here's another little item about knives and growing up in WV. Every teenage boy was thrilled to have two knives. One was a good knife, which he would not part with for love or money. The other was an “old plug” that was kept in secret for swapping, the uglier and less useful the better. Swapping knives took place in the form of a game called “dropping knives.” To drop knives, an individual extends his hands forward to another with the palm up on one hand while the knife being traded is concealed in the other. The other participant does the same with the closed hand of one participant positioned directly above the open palm of the other. On signal, the knives are released, they drop into the waiting palms and the swap is complete. Naturally, the objective is to come away from the trade with the better knife. If we were really successful we could start with an old plug Barlow and wind up eventually, by repeated swaps, with a good Buck or Old Timer. But this could be accomplished only through devious means. Remember that good knife? Those of us in the know, keeping secret that we also owned a worthless knife, made sure that everyone we associated with saw and would covet our good knife when they compared it to their own. Once one opinioned that theirs was the lesser of two knives, they would suggest a swap, which was usually accepted with much feigned reluctance, Many a neophyte knife swapper, much to his surprise and chagrin, was left with a knife that was worth nothing while his pal walked away with a prize. We all paid our dues. The fun was not so much in getting a more valuable knife, but in being able to put one over on a pal. STAN