better to have loved and lost....

[Old Hunter]

I started my career selling wallboard products in 1983; part of the job is going out on complaints and determining whether it is valid (manufacturer issue) or customer error. Also sampling, which is taking pieces of our product from the field and sending them into the lab for analysis - a part of the quality control process. Soon after starting I bought two Schrade penknives, a 108OT and a 808UH, I’d use the Sheepfoot to score and snap wallboard and the end of the Clip to bore into plaster and joint compounds. I lost the Uncle Henry in the first ten years, but managed to hold onto the 108OT until 2005 when I left it on a job site in Fayetteville NC. Went back 20 minutes later but it was gone. Stopped into a hardware store and learned Schrade USA was no more - that led me to looking for the USA made knives that were still in stock, and that led me to hoarding the Schrade USA knives. That was a very expensive loss! OH
Ps, the Uncle Henry was an 807UH, not an 808UH.

 

[hsherzfeld]

I started my career selling wallboard products in 1983; part of the job is going out on complaints and determining whether it is valid (manufacturer issue) or customer error. Also sampling, which is taking pieces of our product from the field and sending them into the lab for analysis - a part of the quality control process. Soon after starting I bought two Schrade penknives, a 108OT and a 808UH, I’d use the Sheepfoot to score and snap wallboard and the end of the Clip to bore into plaster and joint compounds. I lost the Uncle Henry in the first ten years, but managed to hold onto the 108OT until 2005 when I left it on a job site in Fayetteville NC. Went back 20 minutes later but it was gone. Stopped into a hardware store and learned Schrade USA was no more - that led me to looking for the USA made knives that were still in stock, and that led me to hoarding the Schrade USA knives. That was a very expensive loss! OH

Same here. I’ve over-compensated for the Schrades that I lost as a child by purchasing far too many 108OTs and 104OTs. Not that there really is such a thing as too many.

 

[Rookie82]

Carl, what condition was it in after a week in the wild?

The brass had started to fade just slightly. Otherwise, perfect. Buck makes a hearty knife.

 

[CelloDan]

"better to have loved and lost ... and found "

I lost my treasured Medium Case Stockman this past January when it fell out of my pocket in the snow on my driveway.
I found it 3 days later when the snow had melted on a warmer day.
A very fortunate event as another snowstorm buried us that evening.

A few years ago when new

Over the yeas the bone discolored a bit

FOUND

A bit of rust and dirt to show for it's reckless adventure

Nothing that a good cleaning and some Flitz could not handle.
The bone discolored a bit more after exposure to the elements and the driveway salt.
It don't matter, I am so happy is back with me

 

[kamagong]

"better to have loved and lost ... and found "

I found a long lost knife recently as well.

My sister bought a new couch. In prepping the space for the new addition, my brother-in-law heard something rattling underneath the old one. As it was going to be thrown away, he cut open the bottom liner and found this inside.

There were some pepper spots on the blade, but luckily the edge was still clean.

 

[ISKRA]

Since I posted this one in the Totting thread today ....

This 66 slim was a gift from our good Will Power a few years ago. It was my first GEC and the only one I kept. One summer day it went missing and I couldn't find it anywhere. The shorts I was wearing had pockets made for stuff falling out and I guess while I was shifting gears the movement of the leg was enough for it to slip out. I found it in the car seat after almost a year. Something told me check once again and I pushed my hand in deeper. Survived quite well, no rust formed. Now I take better care of minding all my knives, not just this one.

 

[Will Power]

See post 35.....

I have an extremely heavy leather armchair in one corner, let's say it doesn't get moved much and has very low legs so the vacuum doesn't reach these regions.... Like to read in it as it has a suitable lamp and I can look out of the window from time to time. Many a long arctic winter night has been spent here, sometimes slumbering I'll confess.

This morning I wanted to put the humidifier in its box somewhere, where? OK behind that armchair might work....no stuck, so heaving this behemoth away from the wall, a thick plateau of dust is revealed .....aargh have to vacuum but what is THAT??? The 83 Stag I was convinced I'd lost at the country house- must have been dropped in the garden and by now a rotted corpse of a knife? No! There it was I'd searched the armchair many a time nearly skinning my fingers as the seat is tight, it must have fallen somehow and got into the dust cosmos under it Two years two months MIA.

Moral: never give up hope, the knife gods will respond, do a bit more furniture shifting now and then perhaps It looked a bit dry, dusty and parched after its desert sojourn but some furniture wax, oiling and sharpening worked a treat.



Obviously, I was delighted as it was a user and a very fine piece of antler, however, it wasn't all sweetness & light...seems the knife was happy where it had lain ? After sharpening it turned on me Or was it scolding for being a shambolic owner....?? Well, our loved ones or pets can often give us a snappy surprise

For all those who have lost a fine knife, never give up hope - and using it always carries the risk of losing it but if it's hidden away untouched, it's as good as lost too .

 

[waynorth]

See post 35.....

I have an extremely heavy leather armchair in one corner, let's say it doesn't get moved much and has very low legs so the vacuum doesn't reach these regions.... Like to read in it as it has a suitable lamp and I can look out of the window from time to time. Many a long arctic winter night has been spent here, sometimes slumbering I'll confess.

This morning I wanted to put the humidifier in its box somewhere, where? OK behind that armchair might work....no stuck, so heaving this behemoth away from the wall, a thick plateau of dust is revealed .....aargh have to vacuum but what is THAT??? The 83 Stag I was convinced I'd lost at the country house- must have been dropped in the garden and by now a rotted corpse of a knife? No! There it was I'd searched the armchair many a time nearly skinning my fingers as the seat is tight, it must have fallen somehow and got into the dust cosmos under it Two years two months MIA.

Moral: never give up hope, the knife gods will respond, do a bit more furniture shifting now and then perhaps It looked a bit dry, dusty and parched after its desert sojourn but some furniture wax, oiling and sharpening worked a treat.

View attachment 2910618

Congrats on the recovery!!!

 

[Will Power]

waynorth Many thanks Charlie, I am pleased as it was a much carried knife not a mummi....It's been literally right under my nose- or perhaps, other parts.... so it is amusing as well as thrilling

 

[oldmanwilly]

See post 35.....

I have an extremely heavy leather armchair in one corner, let's say it doesn't get moved much and has very low legs so the vacuum doesn't reach these regions.... Like to read in it as it has a suitable lamp and I can look out of the window from time to time. Many a long arctic winter night has been spent here, sometimes slumbering I'll confess.

This morning I wanted to put the humidifier in its box somewhere, where? OK behind that armchair might work....no stuck, so heaving this behemoth away from the wall, a thick plateau of dust is revealed .....aargh have to vacuum but what is THAT??? The 83 Stag I was convinced I'd lost at the country house- must have been dropped in the garden and by now a rotted corpse of a knife? No! There it was I'd searched the armchair many a time nearly skinning my fingers as the seat is tight, it must have fallen somehow and got into the dust cosmos under it Two years two months MIA.

Moral: never give up hope, the knife gods will respond, do a bit more furniture shifting now and then perhaps It looked a bit dry, dusty and parched after its desert sojourn but some furniture wax, oiling and sharpening worked a treat.

View attachment 2910618

Obviously, I was delighted as it was a user and a very fine piece of antler, however, it wasn't all sweetness & light...seems the knife was happy where it had lain ? After sharpening it turned on me Or was it scolding for being a shambolic owner....?? Well, our loved ones or pets can often give us a snappy surprise

For all those who have lost a fine knife, never give up hope - and using it always carries the risk of losing it but if it's hidden away untouched, it's as good as lost too .

View attachment 2910630

It was obviously hungry, the poor little thing. Congrats on being fully reunited!

 

[The Kidd]

I was given a NOS Camillus Jumbo Trapper by a very good friend on my wedding day. I carried it everywhere everyday for a decade, many great adventures together.

One night sitting under a lantern on the lakeshore watching my surf rods while my toddler son slept in his lawn chair it must have slipped out of my pocket. I didn’t miss it until the next morning when I shook out the prior day’s shorts to get my things as I dressed. I looked through the truck and immediately went tearing down the road to the lake to hopefully find it before any other fishermen showed up. As I was turning down the 2 track to the fishing spot I saw two pickups coming out of the spot I was heading. Desperately I flagged them down and it turned out to be a couple guys with a load of kids from the city on a Big Brother’s fishing outing or the like.

When I asked the driver if they’d found a yellow pocketknife one of the kids said, “yes, the other pickups driver had found a big yellow knife”. The driver of the first truck got out and walked back to the second and came back with my knife and handed it to me.

What a relief, and as I thanked him I made a mental note that I needed to source a replacement for my priceless wedding knife so as to avoid a less lucky repeat performance.

Just so happened that the following month to the above incident GEC released a run of 23s. Back then there wasn’t the frenzy to buy up everything to come out of GEC and I called a dealer and ordered a UNXLD in burnt amber bone.

I put an edge on the 23 and started carrying it. Had been toting it for a few weeks when, there it was GONE! I swore it had to have left my pocket at my Uncle’s office while visiting during the ritual family coffee break, but we couldn’t turn it up anywhere. So once again I called the dealer and while he was out of the UNXLDs he did have some Tidioutes in Pioneer micarta, so I ponies up and got one on the way.

It took roughly a week for tracking to show my new GEC at the local PO and I was excited as I went to Uncle’s office for coffee as the coffee break always culminates in our walking the three blocks down main street to check the mail. When I sat down on that same fateful couch I heard a curious clunk. Reaching wayyy back under the couch I could feel something solid in the inside of the thin material lining the underside of the couch. We leaned it back and cut a slit in the liner big enough for me to reach into and Viola!, there was my lost 23.

The Tidioute in micarta still resides in its tube in my closet, uncarried but next to my Camillus wedding knife. And the UNXLD still rides shotgun in my front pocket everywhere.

Now if I could locate the 72 Cody Scout my wife got me for my birthday the first year we were married. I skinned a big mule deer with it a couple years back and I know it made it into the house. It’ll turn up someday but for now it sure is hiding well….

 

[mac0731]

See post 35.....

I have an extremely heavy leather armchair in one corner, let's say it doesn't get moved much and has very low legs so the vacuum doesn't reach these regions.... Like to read in it as it has a suitable lamp and I can look out of the window from time to time. Many a long arctic winter night has been spent here, sometimes slumbering I'll confess.

This morning I wanted to put the humidifier in its box somewhere, where? OK behind that armchair might work....no stuck, so heaving this behemoth away from the wall, a thick plateau of dust is revealed .....aargh have to vacuum but what is THAT??? The 83 Stag I was convinced I'd lost at the country house- must have been dropped in the garden and by now a rotted corpse of a knife? No! There it was I'd searched the armchair many a time nearly skinning my fingers as the seat is tight, it must have fallen somehow and got into the dust cosmos under it Two years two months MIA.

Moral: never give up hope, the knife gods will respond, do a bit more furniture shifting now and then perhaps It looked a bit dry, dusty and parched after its desert sojourn but some furniture wax, oiling and sharpening worked a treat.

View attachment 2910618

Obviously, I was delighted as it was a user and a very fine piece of antler, however, it wasn't all sweetness & light...seems the knife was happy where it had lain ? After sharpening it turned on me Or was it scolding for being a shambolic owner....?? Well, our loved ones or pets can often give us a snappy surprise

For all those who have lost a fine knife, never give up hope - and using it always carries the risk of losing it but if it's hidden away untouched, it's as good as lost too .

View attachment 2910630

Blood for the knife gods. They demand payment.

Glad you found it though!

 

[Hickory n steel]

I lost this little 1960's Imperial Craftsman tie clip knife 4 years ago, and today while visiting my grandmother she gave it to me not having any clue where it came from but knowing it was something I would love to have.



my grandmother had stopped by my house the day I lost it ,and somehow it ended up coming unclipped from my flannel shirt to wind up at my grandmother's house where she randomly found it somewhere yesterday.


After loosing this one I eventually found another on Ebay that I keep clipped to the band on one of my hats.
Then about 2 months ago I decided I wanted a 2nd so I found another cheap , but it never made it's way into the USPS system and I was refunded.
Well yesterday I got a delivery notification on it that turned out to just be a case of a recycled tracking number and I was bummed again .
The day I thought I might actually get to have a 2nd one , my grandmother found my 1st one and now I do have two.

 

[GaiusJulius]

I posted on here awhile back about my son (newly two at the time, I think) making off with a big Case folding hunter, and hiding it somewhere very, very safe.

I didn’t mention it when I posted last year in this thread because to be honest, it completely slipped my mind. I didn’t really know the knife long enough to form any kind of connection with it. And really, it wasn’t exactly I, who lost that knife.

Still, I basically gave up on finding it. Every few months I’d ask the kids, nobody had seen it, the little one is now a 3 year old, and nods in agreement when his older brothers suggest he took it outside. I privately thought this was unlikely, but the thing was quite gone. Big knife to just disappear, too.

Fast forward to a few months ago, we had guests coming over and I decided that it was time to dust the bottom shelf of the TV hutch. You know, the dark one where all the cords live, and you just kind of ignore. Well, says I, if I’m down here beautifying the place, I probably won’t do it again for a long time, so I should look under the hutch and make sure there are no errant legos, DVDs, that sort of thing. I put my head on the ground and peer beneath, and lo and behold…. What lies on the carpet, far far underneath, but that missing Case hunter! Nothing else, just the long lost knife.

I was giddy for the rest of the day.

 

[lithicus]

Two stories. Both of which I think I've told here before.

Around the late 60s, my grandma got my grandpa a Case 5165. I asked her to describe it to me and she said it had really thick antlers for handles, a single blade, and a lanyard hole. Anyway, my grandpa was cleaning a deer in the garage with his buddy around the time I was born. Newspapers on the garage floor. Apparently the knife got set down on the newspaper, wrapped up, and thrown in the trash. Before Grandpa realized it, it was too late. He ended up buying an Uncle Henry 127UH that he used, and we used that same Uncle Henry once I started hunting with him. While I obviously never got the Case, the Schrade is now in my possession. So many memories with that Uncle Henry. I can't imagine the stories my grandpa's case hunter could tell!!

Story for me. My grandpa gave me my first ever pocket knife around 7 or 8 years old. A Case Peanut. It stayed in my underwear drawer my whole childhood and young adult life. In college, I worked at a warehouse and needed a new knife. My girlfriend's mother got me a buck 110 for Christmas. It wasn't quite what I was looking for at the warehouse, but I cherished that knife. It went right next to my Case Peanut. Anyway, I was showing it off to a friend. Months and months later when we moved out of that apartment, my peanut was there and the buck missing... Pretty sure my "friend" stole it as no one else knew it existed or where it was... Anyway, I asked my girlfriend (now wife) if her mom would get me another buck pocket knife. She got me a stockman without me ever telling her that is my favorite pattern. So, I guess we all hope it works out in the end.