Thread: Knife Belt or no knife belt?

Originally Posted by Tahr

I've been thinking about this thread and why I wear stuff on my belt, and why some don't or never had.

I wonder if its sort of a reflection of the growing divide between town and country - a cultural thing.

I spent 25 years farming and shepherding and a knife and note book pouch was always on my belt. Both as a shepherd and as a farm owner. A sort of badge of honour as well as being totally practical. We even wore them in the pub. -

Then when I went meat hunting it was the same except it was a knife and ammo pouch. It didn't matter what background we came from - it was what we did - cullers were the same. A shared rural/land culture and because we didn't use any day packs or if we did it was a sugar back it was best to have our stuff easily accessible on our belt.

So even today (in my 70th year) I feel naked with out something on my belt when I go hunting. Inspite of spending the last 30 years as a professional in a city. For me, its embedded culture,

Nowadays though I expect that many hunters get kitted out by shiny arsed shop attendants or mates who have no rural connection. Their connection is with the internet and advertising and no rural connection at all. That's their embedded culture.

Its sort of like me feeling naked without my knife and my grandkids feeling naked without their iPad.

So having all of your shit in a modern day pack is probably quite sensible, and having it all dragging your pants down is probably a bit silly. But I prefer the latter because its embedded into my personal culture.

Classic. Presumably you swaggered into the Pongoroa boozer with your Green River on your hip and told the barman to stack up the beers as blood dripped off your swanny.