Knives the Amish Use

 Recently a number of Amish have moved into the rural county where I live here in Northern Wisconsin. They have always fascinated me, but I started to study and read up on them much more in the past year.  Now that I am into knife collecting I was interested in what kind of knives they prefer and use, especially since they are heavily into trade and farm work where knives are frequently used. Given that they would be serious about quality and durability, I thought this was an area to explore. 

You can find a lot of information on this narrow topic, surprisingly.  One of the first places I checked was a major knife forum, BladeForums (https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/knives-of-the-amish.999010/).  The first ones mentioned were Case and Leatherman, two brands I have yet to acquire, although Case is next on my list, as it is a quality brand easily found locally.  The Amish like to shop locally at feed and hardware stores where they pick up many of their knives.  Apparently the smaller Case knives may not be as popular, something that makes sense considering the kind of work they do. Other brands mentioned  were Shrades, Bucks, and Rough Riders. Old Timers are also mentioned in a video.  I own a small Old Timer, but was not initially impressed with the loose blade.  Perhaps I need to give it a second chance.  I was also curious about Swiss Army Knives, after reading about someone buying one in an Amish related store.  I appears these are used by Amish, as well.  I wondered about whether it would be shunned with the association of military use, but the Swiss Army Knife is not a weapon. 

They also make their own knives.  I would imagine that a custom made Amish knife would be a quality tool. This would be an area of study all in itself.