Emotional Knife Purchases?

[MikeH]

Have you ever bought a knife strictly for sentimental, not practical, reasons?

As a kid I broke the tip off my old Boy Scout fixed-blade knife while throwing it. It was one of those with a pronounced clip point and a stacked leather washer handle. This was around 1959 or so. My dad, who could do anything, took it to the cotton mill and reground the blade. What resulted was a perfect semi-skinner shape, many years before I ever heard the term semi-skinner. It greatly improved the knife. Over my adolescence I dressed hundreds of squirrel and rabbit with that knife, as well as field-dressed and skinned my first deer. It has been gone for many years now, and I would trade any of my Busses just to have it back.

So I was scanning the Ruana web site when there before my eyes was my blade. Almost exact blade shape and very close to the same size. Ruana 95MP. Of course I had to have it. My plan is to field-dress and skin exactly one deer with it and then to retire it to keep until death do us part, because I have some Busses and a Dozier I must put to work also. If only it had a stacked leather washer handle and was hi-carbon steel like the original (so I could get the patina like my old knife had) it would be near perfect!

 

[amflud]

First off, congratulations on the Ruana purchase.

I guess I've had a couple sentimental knife purchases.

When I was a kid I had a Canadian Belt knife. I'm not sure if it was a copy or an original. I used it on many hunts and fishing trips. One day I had it in a tackle box in the back of my pickup, then the tackle box grew legs while I was at a gas station. I really missed that knife, and I've since bought two copies. A Herter's and an R. Murphy, they're both the same knife since they were both made by R. Murphy.

The other was this knife I bought for my son when he was born in 2009.

 

[taklamakan]

I bought a Starbenza with a born-on date of my youngest son (now 9 mos. old) which I'll pass on to him when he gets old enough if I've hopefully done my job right as a father.

 

[Garth Reckner]

When I was a kid my dad gave me his Kabar to use and while throwing it (just like in the movies) the tip broke off. I felt bad and I could tell he was not happy but he understood boys being boys. It was an old one. Couldnt tell you the exact date but it was an old one for sure. Fast forward 20 or so years, while at a gun show, I come across a guy who collects and sells old Kabars. He has one that looks exactly like dad's so I grabbed it and went right to my parents house and presented it to my dad. It sits on his mantle right next to the first knife I ever made and a few Busses that I have given him over the years.

Garth