Ever lost a knife? I almost quit the hobby today.

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adluginb said:
I’m sure a fair share of you have on here.

Well this weekend almost ended my knife collection hobby.

On the 4th we were setting fireworks off in the subdivision and of course , rule #9. I’m HOA president so otherwise I would have just watched. Mine for the evening was a very nice action Hinderer xm18 3.5. To top it off I just received and installed a lot of the blue Ti hardware on Thursday.

Got home from the culdesac Friday night and could not find my knife anywhere. Made 3 trips back with a flashlight and never found it.

Saturday morning we had to get up early and go visit my wife’s dad. 5hr round trip so we stayed all night.

All this time I am just replaying the whole night. Can’t remember anything about the knife. Had it and was opening fireworks and after the last one put it in my pocket and came home.

So we get back home and we are in the back yard and about to get in the pool. Wife says hop on the cycle and drive back down there and look one more time. So I did. I had already given up and wrote it off. Wasn’t going to lose another minute thinking about it.

Sure enough I see it laying a foot off the road in the about 4” tall grass. Sun was just right and me going slow on cycle it just popped!

I picked it up but at the same time I was “mad” at the knife?!

Now here is the best part…

I was pretty upset and kind of pouted around Saturday.

Pretty sure I told my son I was too tired to play that much while we were at the farm. I’m also pretty sure I was short with my wife due to being upset about losing a knife.

Driving home I thought to myself, wow I missed out on time with my boy today just because I was upset about losing a material item. I could tell I hurt my wife’s feelings as well.

I’ll never let that happen again.

Just want to say, this is a great hobby but be very careful not to let it consume you and miss out being with your family or cherishing them. Enjoy every moment you have with them.

I hope everyone has a great end to your 4th of July weekend.🇺🇸🔪



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Glad to hear your story ended on a positive note. Your lesson is a great reminder to us all - thanks for sharing.
 
Back in the 1990s, I Tok my turn as an adult leader of a s=mall troop of Boy scouts. Small enough that all the male parents had been in one or another leadership role at one time or another.

One weekend, we were doing an in-town camp out with a group of new scouts. It was an enclosed 20 acres or so . . .controlled and with Moms and Dads a quick phone call away . . .some of these kids were 11 and had never been away from home. Stay what you want, that was the case and that is how we handled it.

So, there we were with our "older" Scouts mentoring these new b oysters in some camp craft skills. Fire building was one. One of our younger Scouts asked to borrow a kn life for some related task and without thinking, I handed him myEDC for camping SAK. Don't know the model, but it had the basic tools and blades. . . .nice but not anything special (other that being an SAK). My attention was indatantly required a few feet away and then something else . . .

A couple of hours later I asked for my knife. He looked for it in his pockets, then ina small pack and said it was in their tent. After supper, I sent him off to get it. You guessed it. It was not to be found. Now the kid's father got involved and began to tighten the parental screws on him. I knew the other, we all knew each other, and knew he could be pretty strict. After it became obvious that this 13 year old 7th grader had no idea where the knife was, I blew it off. Told the father not to worry over it and so on. Later on after the Scouts were all bedded down, I told the father that I viewed it sas my mistake in giving a personal knife in the unsupervised possession of a 13 year old. He seemed to. let it go.

Fast-forward and the "kid" is now a week or so away from eighteen . . .He had matured into a responsible young man on the cusp of adulthood. I am specifying at his Eagle Scoutceremony. I said nice things about him, told the story of the kn life, with me as the irresponsible idiot, and told of knives I had lost while a Boy Scout, and while working on an oil rig in a faraway desert. Then I gave him a gift. . . . a really nice largish SAK marked with the official BSA logo. The single blade had a liner lock . ..r .I present kit as a serious kn life for a man in the world.

But there was a catch. I assured the other parents and Scoutds there that he would never lose it. Not because he was a responsible adult, but because i had gotten the blade engraved with his n name along with the reason for the gift, dted and all. I pointed out that his mother would inevitably enshrine it in a shadow box ( I pretty much knew she would) and he would never get to take. it out into the woods for the rest of her life!
 
As a kid, I used to loose knives. Funnily enough, for every knife I lost, I found another one a little later. Like 5 times, or so. My very first EDC, an old SAK, I found on a Ski slope. My mom would never have allowed my dad buy me a knife back then, but since I found it, my dad convinced her that I could keep it.

Haven't lost a knife since I was 10. Many almosts though, for example having a knife pulled out of my pants by a rain jacket and finding it in the drive way later, etc.

Now, whether I'm able to quickly find a knife that I am looking for is another question ...

Glad it ended well, adluginb adluginb ! Also glad you didn't have to sleep in the dog house :)
 
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I once lost a benchmade Nakamura. At the time it was my most expensive knife and had just recently been discontinued. I had it with me at a Halloween party that I was grilling and smoking a whole hog so I was using it pretty often. I was also getting pretty inebriated. Had an excellent time but when I woke up in the morning the knife was no where to be found. I was pretty upset but also learned a great lesson. Now whenever I go out drinking or any other activity that would be high risk in losing a knife I always carry my benchmade griptillian because it’s not overly expensive and easy to replace.

The other rules I follow are all of my knives have a certain place to be put up and go directly from my pocket to where they belong. And I never pull out another knife without putting back the previous one.
 
I have lost a few knives over the years i can’t recall how many. My first knife I bought with my own earned money back in 1971 was the first time I lost a knife and it taught me then that it is only a knife and not the end of things. I went to work and a few months later bought another one. There were a few that I sure hated losing and wish i could have found them but I have more to fill the gap. Some I found and was relieved and glad that I still have them . I haven’t lost any real expensive knives or ones that are sentimental, I usually keep close tabs on them or leave them in my knife chest.
 
Picked up a six pack once and my knife got transferred onto the cardboard presumably from brushing the case up against my leg as I put it in my cart.

Reached down and had that sinking feeling when you realize something bad happened once I noticed an empty pocket.

Panicked and retraced my steps all over the store. Figured someone stole it instantly, so had to write it off as a loss.

Continued shopping, put something in my cart and noticed the knife just causally clipped there on the beer carton…. I was both humored and pissed at the same time 🤣
 
I've gotten close to losing a few that would've hurt over the years, but I think I've only lost cheaper ones. Most recently a small tops fixed blade and probably the one that sucked the most was my first tactile turn bolt.
 
I lost pen and pocketknives gifted to me by my grandfather as a kid. (He died before I was 10). I lost every one of them through holes in the pocket, playing stickball, football, ringolevio, whatever. I know he'd understand, though it hurts. On the bright side, I have his pocket watch, mandolin and some of his hand tools. (He was a machinist.)

In the end they're things...but still...
 
Luckily for me, when I assume a knife is lost ... it's due to my bad case of the dreaded of CRS (Can't Remember Sh1t) Syndrome kicking in. I once thought my silver stash was stolen. Luckily, my wife reminded me where I "hid it from others". :confused: I guess I did a great job hiding it.
 
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3 stories, I had a SOG Spec Elite that I really liked, it was my EDC for a few years. I had an issue with my truck and in the course of the repair, I left my knife on the bumper step on my truck and drove about an hour. It never fell off!! I was so happy! A few days later it was lost forever.
The second is like the reverse of OP's stories. I had a Randall bird and trout old style stolen from my truck. Real dumb of me to leave it in there I know. I generally just kept and Old Timer fixed blade, but I was camping and wanted my good knife. I bought that knife directly from Randall during a factory visit. Anyway the search for a replacement led me down a rabbit hole that has provided me with a couple of dozen knives at least, heck I sold a few Randalls to fuel the habit.
3rd, very recently my small Sebenza almost fell out of my pocket, for the second time. I not real pleased with the clip. I often wear Wrangler Technician pants they have a reinforced leather pocket edge presumably for carrying tools with clips. Well the thing is the Sebenza clip seems to back out of that pocket, a Spyderco Manix 2 did the same thing but its heavier and was noticeable right away.
 
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Losing a knife is what got me into it. When I was 15 y.o. I was a member of Edge Co. A catalog company that sold switchblades, which were illegal at the time (1989). They shipped them disassembled, I assume a loophole in the law. I saved up the 30.00 and sent it in. Checking for my package after a week or so. At the time we abruptley moved (common for us). Came back to check mail and some neighborhood kids who knew our situation robbed our house, walked in to the package ripped open with tiny springs and screws and everything else in the home strewn all over… heartbreaking loss! Flash forward 35 years and, out of the blue, wanted a switchblade. A “good” switchblade. The search began and bought a Beltrane. Oooh, how nice it was. Figured I’d pick up 1 or 2 more knives that intrigued me. Now, a few years in and too much spending (nah, screw it) and WOW! I’m so glad (as much as it hurt) that blade was “taken” from me because of finding this community and all the GREAT members I’ve met and talked with and read about (living and some not). It just blows my mind! Something that seems to to be becoming a thing of the past (kindness and trust), for the most part. There’ll always be thieves and looters but it’s pretty tight in here.
Glad you found your Hinderer and brought to light what is most important❤️. It’s a looker too!
 
I lost my Buck 301.

Bought it when I was 10. [Along with a Buck 121.]

I lost it awhile back. Had it for several decades. Not married. Have no children. Just a bank account.

I bought more knives!

Glad you found your knife and held yourself accountable with your family!
 
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