a little "questionaire" for you...

[rev_jch]

Okay guys lets have a little "questionaire" if you will.

How long have you been collecting knives? How old were you when you started? And What is the "appeal" to you?


Myself, I have been collecting for 31 years. I began at the "tender" age of four, something rarely any parents would allow these days. Personally the appeal for me is the memories of sitting down on the porch of my Grandparents house whittling with Grampa's old tort. shell jack knife. Also memories of being out in the country when times were still somewhat "simpler". Knives were everday tools, not weapons, we carried them everywhere, camping hunting, school, etc. When I carry a nice SJ I remember how much "simpler" times use to be. We had no video games, vcr's, cd's, etc. when I was young.

Personally I miss that. We had to sit down together at dinner time, there was no watching TV and eating. There was no back talking, cussing to parents, it was "yes sir and no sir", etc.


What about you?

 

[newdovo2]

I got my first pocket knife at about 10. I was in Indian Guides at the YMCA and we had to strip and whittle a big stick to put feathers on. My dad got me a Schrade Old Timer stockman. I carried it everywhere.
I've carried a knife off and on since that first one. Only really started accumulating a few years ago. I'm not sure what the appeal is to me. Although I have a few updated style knives, I do prefer the more traditional style folders. Maybe that's my nostalgic side.

I began at the "tender" age of four, something rarely any parents would allow these days.

My 6 year old daughter asked for a pocket knife for her birthday. She sees daddy using one all the time, so she wanted one. Got her a little peanut. Took the liberty of getting myself one, too, so we'd be using the same knife while she's in training.
I do keep the knife when not in use; she has to ask for it, and I'm with her when she uses it.
We've whittled about a cubic yard of mulch off of sticks, carved soap boats (Ivory soap is great... it floats!) and critters, sharpened pencils, cut twine, even cropped photos on a cutting board while on vacation.
She has been really attentive about safety. Her favorite line is "It's a tool, not a toy." The first time she cut herself (the only time so far; a little blood, but not bad) she looked at me and said "I wasn't looking where it would go if it slipped." We wrapped it with a band-aid and went back out to whittle some more.

Personally the appeal for me is the memories of sitting down on the porch of my Grandparents house whittling with Grampa's old tort. shell jack knife.

Those memories of times past are great. I hope I'm building those memories now, too, for my kids to look back on.
Parry

 

[rev_jch]

Parry,
sounds good! now that she has cut herself she will hopefully be more attentive to being careful. We've all cut ourselves...me...no comment

I gave my oldest one when she was 10. A SAK with her name enragved on the handles (shes now going to be a teenager this april.... but I suppose she has to grow up somtime ).

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Parry,
sounds good! now that she has cut herself she will hopefully be more attentive to being careful. We've all cut ourselves...me...no comment

I gave my oldest one when she was 10. A SAK with her name enragved on the handles (shes now going to be a teenager this april.... but I suppose she has to grow up somtime ).

Rev don't let her grow up , just kidding, when kids are good they're great but I think a they're a lot tougher to raise than we were.

As for your question, I started collecting when I was 15, got my first knife around 8 or 9, now serious collecting didn't really start till my 20's when I had a little more disposable income.

The appeal for me was mostly necessity, I used a knife as part of my job, and I was always looking for newer, better knives that fit my needs, I'm still lookin' at 300 + knives you figure I'd have found what I was lookin' for.

Lately I've begun to enjoy the look and feel of more traditional knives and have found that there are a lot of older used folders available to use and collect in the more traditional patterns, and for reasonable prices too.

 

[rev_jch]

i completely agree !!! Traditonal folders are not as popular. That's good and bad!!! Good we can get better prices, but bad because we want them to be around for a while and not to suffer like Schrade had.

 

[sunnyd]

rev_jch,
GOOOOOOD STUFF,
Sounds like you and I have similar minded and well rounded kids! I suspect many on this forum would also.. You, I and they are extemely blessed!!

As for your little questionaire, I started my edc on my person in around 1966-67 at age 6 or 7. First carry knife was a case stockman dark red bone hand-me-down. Got it from a fellow me and my bothers called uncle Jake. He was a self proclaimed Mountain Man and trapped, hunted and fished and took more game than most any man we ever knew then, or since. Taught us saftey and respect for knives and firearms, and how to take good care of both... Since then I found a discarded old wooden micoscope box and filled it full with about a dozen knives I aquired here and there... However, on my thirteenth birthday, I got my first brand-spank'in-new-out-of-the-box folding Buck Knife lock blade w/belt sheath. That year was 1973. At that time I realized that I truly loved knives and firearms and could not live without them. I was no longer embarresed to call my self a knife and gun collector...

My son was 4 when he asked for his first pocket knife and my daughter is only 11 months his junior (was 3 going on 12) and has always demanded what ever her brother had. So, like you, we purchased peanuts for they're first knives. I purchased three older Case Peanuts. One for each of them and one for Dad to keep everything consistent. We (my wife & I) made it a great expeirence and went and took them to the local knife & gun show and let them pick out what ever handle material they wanted. We ended up with brown bone for my son, red bone for my daughter and Dad got stag. Kids are so great, and mine veiwed it as the perverbial right of passage, and have been collecting and using they're knives ever since. They are now 9 and 8 and are both very respectful of they're 'tools'...

I, like you used to carry my knife to school, church, hunting small game, fishing, the play ground and was never without it, just like my bothers and my friends. We used them for the uses for which they were intended, and even our teachers at school counted on us on several occasions to sharpen pencils, open boxes or disect frogs and such in biology class when the cheap little plastic scalples broke or were dulled on bone. Its so dishartening to me now to see where we have moved from in that much more 'simpler' time to our current era, and in regard to knives having been veiwed now more as a weapon than a tool...

Anyway,, Thanks for the questionaire, your input, and the trip down memory lane Maybe we parents can LEARN much from this thread and all remember that it is we that make the difference in our children when it comes to what they are taught..

 

[done-dirt-cheap]

i got my first folding knife when i was only nine or ten years old. my daddy and uncle both hunted and fished for supper nearly every afternoon in central florida back in those days. i was expected to chip in with chores and help to put eats on the table whenever possible same as my sisters and brothers. this little folding knife was my pride and joy and was not much to look at but i always kept it razor sharp. i filleted fish, skinned squirles & rabbits, cut veggies in the little garden we had and countless other things that was required. i honestly do not know how children get along today without one? what do they do when they get a splinter in there finger on the playground or need to cut string when flying a kite?

 

[Bob W]

Twenty-five years; first knife when I was ten.

As far as the appeal... that's tough. Aesthetics, the 'clicky' noise, the interesting variety, genetics...

-Bob

 

[Grateful]

I have been buying way more knives than I will ever use for about 4 years or so. Started carrying a knife when I was 8 or 9 I guess. Traditional pocket knives and hunters are where it's at for me. They are from a time and part of a way of life that is nearly gone.
They reming me of my grandad and his old cronies who met on the court house lawn to visit and chew tobacco and fiddle with their knives. The only thing I really want to be "besides a good husband,father and employee" is a woodsman. The only real woodsman I ever met did everything with a SCHRADE muskrat and a camp ax. I guess in a way I am trying to be like him. Traditional pocket knives are honest hard working tools that are completely respectable. I wouldn't be ashamed to be refered to that way myself.

 

[Peregrin]

I think my first knife was a cub scout knife. I guess that would have put me at 7 years old or so. I've still got that knife, 40 plus years later. I've had a knife in my pocket almost every day since and I have collected more then I could ever use. I also have some of my dads old knives and a few my grandfather carried. I guess it runs in the family.

I bought my first son a Shrade trapper when he was born. It has his year of birth on it, 1983. Although he's away at college now it still sits in his dresser drawer with his other treasures. He carries a Case canoe I bought him.

My youngest son, a college freshman, carries a tiny trapper I gave him. When I handed it to him he told me it was one of the nicest gifts he had ever recieved. It brings a smile to my face when I think of that.

Knives are part of my familys heritage and I hope that will continue through the generations.

Thanks for reading.

Gary

 

[silenthunterstudios]

Well, I guess my collection started when my father gave me a Boker Congress with bird dogs on it, maybe when I was 7 or 8, I remember him telling me constantly that it was a very sharp knife, now, I can't even cut butter with it . After that, I got some cheap Chinese made hobo knife as a gift, that I promptly lost (although I found it last year, buried under about 3 feet of earth, in my fathers orchard. It's pretty much gone, but theres still enough to know by sight that it was knife). Then, our neighbor gave me a Schrade Old Timer Cave Bear, that I, after several months, promptly broke the tip off of . In high school, after I got my license, my friends and I would go to the flea markets and junk shops and buy crappy Chinese blades, among other escapades . After having several locks collapse on me, I started buying name brand knives about two to three years ago. Before, when I didn't have "real" bills to pay, the appeal was the coolness factor, coupled with the pretty factor. Needless to say, I have quite a few big tactical folders. Now, I am selling off a large chunk of my collection, and just keeping what I think I can use. About every few weeks, I make a list of knives I have and whittle it down, what can I use, what will I never use, and what will I leave on the shelf. I still have a lot of the Chinese folders, probably about 15, spread throughout tool boxes, art boxes (use one specific folder in my traveling art box), tackle boxes, door pockets, coats, cargo areas etc. I was going to give them to my little brother, but I decided against it, for obvious reasons. My little brother pesters the hell out of me, he wants one of my folders, and it's always a different one each week. When he's old enough, I don't mind helping him out. My father has a small collection, mostly old Schrade folders, a Frost stockman I got him with the sole purpose of being his fingernail cleaner and something he won't feel bad about losing, got him an el cheapo boat knife w/ spike that stays on his boat, and he wanted me to clean his skinner, an old Buck or Puma, haven't seen it in a long while. My little bro has a crappy Chinese made hobo knife, he uses it pretty hard. His friends love it, and they want one too. My one uncle, I bought him a Harley Davidson dress folder, and many years ago, I got him some cheesy motorcycle knife on a keychain. Also, got him the same boat knife as my fathers, and that lives on his boat. My cousin wants to see my entire collection and has started pestering his father about getting a good knife. My sister thinks I'm goofy for having about 50 knives (just counting the good stuff I'm keeping), but now she wants a knife to carry in her purse. I'm converting as many as I can, I've been told that society has no use for a knife, we have scissors etc, and the average person doesn't need one. I say phbbt!

 

[bettybond]

Okay guys lets have a little "questionaire" if you will.

How long have you been collecting knives? How old were you when you started? And What is the "appeal" to you?


Myself, I have been collecting for 31 years. I began at the "tender" age of four, something rarely any parents would allow these days. Personally the appeal for me is the memories of sitting down on the porch of my Grandparents house whittling with Grampa's old tort. shell jack knife. Also memories of being out in the country when times were still somewhat "simpler". Knives were everday tools, not weapons, we carried them everywhere, camping hunting, school, etc. When I carry a nice SJ I remember how much "simpler" times use to be. We had no video games, vcr's, cd's, etc. when I was young.

Personally I miss that. We had to sit down together at dinner time, there was no watching TV and eating. There was no back talking, cussing to parents, it was "yes sir and no sir", etc.


What about you?

Hey Rev. I haven't been collecting quite that long, but close! I started at age 7 and...considering that I'm female, many of my parents' friends were a little freaked out. But I also had my Daisy BB gun and my favorite pastime was hunting rabbits.

My kids are all collectors as well--with two parents who collect, sell, and trade, what choice did they have? I'm proud to have passed this particular passion on and I hope they'll do the same when they have kids.

So, the short answer is 25 years. The appeal, for me at least, is the art and creativity that goes into a good knife. I love a good, quality knife and knowing that it's something I can pass on to my grandchildren (someday).

 

[LFH]

Talk about the little chinese folder lockbacks. I bought a lot of them once and have them scattered in every drawer, tool box, car, truck, and anywhere that I might need one without having to go chasing one down. They are good for that. They get dull, just give em away, .

But my real world hunting knife has been a Buck 110 since early 70's. Now I have several of them, along with a OT Muskrat, and 5 or 6 Western Muskrats that I bought in a closeout lot once. I love the two alike blades of a muskrat. One gets dull and you are still in business.

I am 59 and have knives from way back, in addition to several limited edition numbered Buck knives.

Best find, was a box of old knives in an estate sale of an old guy that owned a hardware store. That was back in the mid 80's and no telling how old those knives were then. Maybe I should drag them out and do some research.

Latest addition was one of the Camillus Cuda Maxx 5.5 things. Is nice but just hasn't grabbed me. May look to trade it for a Buck Kalinga one of these days.

This knife collecting can get out of hand. Ebay makes it pretty easy. Wife is looking for an ebay anon support group for me.

 

[shaldag]

I cannot remember when I got my first knife, but it was certainly before I was 10 years old. I have been fascinated by knives ever since I can remember.

It's funny, I'm a hi-tech guy, love gadgets and the latest steels, and I'm still VERY partial to slipjoints. Of course, now I can get slipjoints with very good steel (in part thanks to the recommendations of a number of people in these forums) but I still like the old ones too.

My little girls (2 years old) will get pocketknives when they ask nicely and my wife and I decide that they can handle them responsibly. I sure hope that they develop an interest; I will do everything possible to make sure that they do. Ever since meeting me, even my wife won't go out without a SAK in her purse--so I have hope.

 

[glennbad]

I have posted about this type of thing before, but I never get tired of talking about it.

So, my first memory of owning a knife was somewhere around 8,9,10 years old. It was a 3 blade craftsman, that was in about '75 or '76, I traded another kid for it. The main blade I broke so I reground it years ago. I still have it.

After that my dad started giving me a knife here and there. They were all nice, good quality blades, some fixed, a couple folders. I think a Remington scout type folder, and another I remember was maybe a Grohmann?. You know, the canadian fixed blade with the funny shaped blade and handle and the drop-in sheath.

Well anyways, one day while cleaning my very disgusting room, I accidently threw them away. (They were in a paper bag)

I still kick myself for that years later.

I still accumulated in my teens and 20's, going through the crappy POS foreign knife stage. I still have some of them (perhaps you saw my "survival knife" post in the General forum).

I have always been obsessed with pocket knives, and am still to this day at almost 38 years old. My son's (age 9) first knife was a cubscout ebay orphan that I adopted. I am a den leader, so I got the privilege of working with my boys on knife safety, as well as proper use and care. (Thanks again to Larry and Robert for the useful info) When the boys earned their whittlin chip card, I gave them each a cub scout ebay orphan that had rescued and rehabbed.

It was nice to see my son asking to use his pocket knife at scouting events so he could whittle on a stick. 6 boys in my den, and so far no cuts that I know of.

As far the appeal, I have always been fascinated by something so simple in design, yet function and finish are usually smooth and precise. I prefer traditional, with 3 blade stockmans as my favorite pattern. Although I haven't bought any for awhile, I was rescuing orphans off ebay by the handful for some time there. Any makers, mostly schrades, all older. It's a nice legacy. I don't collect for value, just for owning a piece of history.

Sorry guys, I've rambled a bit long here.

Glenn