A Knife Lost A Long Time aAgo

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VorpelSword

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I was a Scout Master for the Boy Scout troop our son was in for 118 months . . .a long time ago. It was a small troop and nearly each of the fathers had been Scout Master at one time or another. We brought in a new group of 11-year-old kids one spring and were doing some training with the older boys. One week end we had a controlled camping event on the property where the trop met. Tent set up, fire building cooking that sort of thin.

One kid needed a knee for some legitimate reason, and I pulled out a nice SAK. Dont recall what model or maker, but it was a practical camper's knife. Other things immediately grabbed my attention. A few hours later I asked for my knife back. It was in his tent. Ok, and we did other things. Next morning, I asked for it again . . .not to be found. I insisted and he went through all his stuff again. Now the kids' father was involved and getting stern with the kid. And I knew this father. If this knife didn't turn up, the kid was in for a serious stretch of "re-education." And so,I let it go. Refused to make any further issue out of it and dropped it.

W#ell, who among us has never lost a knife?

Time passes and life goes on. The kid in question eventually became an Eagle Scout. I was around for most of that transformation, and he had matured into the young man who deserved the award. As part of the presentation, I publicly gifted him a really nice SAK with the Boy Scout logo. But there was a little catch to it. I had the blade engraved with his name on one side and the date of the Eagle ceremony on the other. I don't think he ever got to carry it let alone cut anything with it as his mother enshrined it in the china cabinet!
 
VorpelSword said:
I was a Scout Master for the Boy Scout troop our son was in for 118 months . . .a long time ago. It was a small troop and nearly each of the fathers had been Scout Master at one time or another. We brought in a new group of 11-year-old kids one spring and were doing some training with the older boys. One week end we had a controlled camping event on the property where the trop met. Tent set up, fire building cooking that sort of thin.

One kid needed a knee for some legitimate reason, and I pulled out a nice SAK. Dont recall what model or maker, but it was a practical camper's knife. Other things immediately grabbed my attention. A few hours later I asked for my knife back. It was in his tent. Ok, and we did other things. Next morning, I asked for it again . . .not to be found. I insisted and he went through all his stuff again. Now the kids' father was involved and getting stern with the kid. And I knew this father. If this knife didn't turn up, the kid was in for a serious stretch of "re-education." And so,I let it go. Refused to make any further issue out of it and dropped it.

W#ell, who among us has never lost a knife?

Time passes and life goes on. The kid in question eventually became an Eagle Scout. I was around for most of that transformation, and he had matured into the young man who deserved the award. As part of the presentation, I publicly gifted him a really nice SAK with the Boy Scout logo. But there was a little catch to it. I had the blade engraved with his name on one side and the date of the Eagle ceremony on the other. I don't think he ever got to carry it let alone cut anything with it as his mother enshrined it in the china cabinet!
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Beautiful story. I too was an assistant scoutmaster, from Cub Scouts through to Boy Scouts. My boys made Eagle and Life respectively and it was a rewarding experience.
 
VorpelSword said:
I was a Scout Master for the Boy Scout troop our son was in for 118 months . . .a long time ago. It was a small troop and nearly each of the fathers had been Scout Master at one time or another. We brought in a new group of 11-year-old kids one spring and were doing some training with the older boys. One week end we had a controlled camping event on the property where the trop met. Tent set up, fire building cooking that sort of thin.

One kid needed a knee for some legitimate reason, and I pulled out a nice SAK. Dont recall what model or maker, but it was a practical camper's knife. Other things immediately grabbed my attention. A few hours later I asked for my knife back. It was in his tent. Ok, and we did other things. Next morning, I asked for it again . . .not to be found. I insisted and he went through all his stuff again. Now the kids' father was involved and getting stern with the kid. And I knew this father. If this knife didn't turn up, the kid was in for a serious stretch of "re-education." And so,I let it go. Refused to make any further issue out of it and dropped it.

W#ell, who among us has never lost a knife?

Time passes and life goes on. The kid in question eventually became an Eagle Scout. I was around for most of that transformation, and he had matured into the young man who deserved the award. As part of the presentation, I publicly gifted him a really nice SAK with the Boy Scout logo. But there was a little catch to it. I had the blade engraved with his name on one side and the date of the Eagle ceremony on the other. I don't think he ever got to carry it let alone cut anything with it as his mother enshrined it in the china cabinet!
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Perfect
 
When I was young my older brother gave me a Western L66 that I used to run around in the woods with playing Rambo. Started using it as a throwing knife because I didn't know any better, and broke the tip off it. I threw it in a junk drawer and I think it got thrown away years ago. A few years back I started thinking about it and was wishing I hadn't destroyed it by being so stupid, so I found a replacement one.

As far as pocket knives I remember back in the early 80's having Imperial Barlows that we would use and abuse. Once I bought an Anvil brand stockman made by Colonial in a local convenience store. I loved that knife, carried it a bunch, accidentally cut myself with it at least once that I remember. Then I lost it somewhere along the way. I have always wondered what happened to that knife. Last week I saw one like it on Ebay, so I had to replace it too :)

It's funny how of all the stuff you have you always seem to miss the stuff you lost or got rid of.
 
When I was a kid (~10) my father use to travel overseas and be away from home for several months at a time. He brought me a Hoffritz Partner knife back one time and I had it in it's box in my bedroom. A neighbor kid was over one day and I remember showing him the knife. Several days later I noticed the knife was missing and could never find it. I remember telling my mother about it and we looked all over the house, but never found the knife. To this day I think that neighbor kid took it. I still have the box the knife came in, but never found it. I am 55 now and just recently looked for one on eBay and found what the knife looked like. It had red plastic/nylon scales and black coated blades. The neighbor kid ended up in jail several times that I knew about. Him and his two brothers were all in jail several times through their lives.
 
jjg6319 said:
When I was a kid (~10) my father use to travel overseas and be away from home for several months at a time. He brought me a Hoffritz Partner knife back one time and I had it in it's box in my bedroom. A neighbor kid was over one day and I remember showing him the knife. Several days later I noticed the knife was missing and could never find it. I remember telling my mother about it and we looked all over the house, but never found the knife. To this day I think that neighbor kid took it. I still have the box the knife came in, but never found it. I am 55 now and just recently looked for one on eBay and found what the knife looked like. It had red plastic/nylon scales and black coated blades. The neighbor kid ended up in jail several times that I knew about. Him and his two brothers were all in jail several times through their lives.
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Deservingly so it seems.
 
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