How did you come to be a knifenut?

coyote711

coyote711

Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
1,679
Just wondering how everyone got here. My earliest memories of any knife are back in the 1950's when my best friend and I got scout knives and later peeled off that thin veneer of "plastic" on the handles so we had a "steel" handled knife - we thought we were pretty cool!

Dad always carried a pocket knife around the farm, but it was just a tool for cutting twine on hay or straw bales, scraping crud where ever, etc. Looking back I'm pretty sure it was a Buck 301 Stockman. I had one myself later on.

WARNING: Do not read this paragraph if you have a weak stomach, or are otherwise sensitive to the horrors of life! There was a period in the middle of my life, when I became a "city boy" for 15 - 20 years, that I did not carry a knife. :eek: Started wearing fancy pants, the stockman felt too big, and besides there wasn't much twine to cut behind the desk. ;)

Later on I started carrying one of those little black handled Buck knives on my keyring - did that for probably 15 -20 years - never thought much of it - it was just there if I needed it. Anyway, about a year ago I decided I needed a bigger knife, started looking around the 'net, and found this site. That's it! :D

How'd you get here?
 
I've always loved knives since I first saw one at about age 5. I've collected them ever since, and with few exceptions, always carry one.
 
I always thought I was "normal" and everyone who either didn't like knives or was into all-that's-black-and-"tactical" were the "nuts." ;)
 
A combination of genes and luck I guess.

I grew up with a father who would use a little pocket knife for anything. He was never without his pocket knife and a few other little things like a key chain screw driver and a P-38 can opener. So being a typical kid, I imitated my dad growing up. It became second nature to always have a pocket knife on me, as well as a few little tools.

I had an Uncle Paul, who was a real over the top knife knut. He'd have a pocket knife in every pocket, and even a hold out stashed in his rollup tobacco pouch. To this day, I never figured out how many knives he'd have on him at any one time.

As far as Here goes, Just after I retired, Karen bought a computer. We'd never had one, and I used to out and out scorn them. "What, a computer, I don't need no stinkin computer!" Yep, that was me. Then with time on my hands, Karen showed me how to get online, and browse. I tried some gun forums, some motorcycle forums, some knife forums. One by one I stopped going there, because of ego driven people, urination contests, and general unpleasant people. Then I wandered in here and here I've stayed. Knife knuts with great knowledge, no urination contests, no name calling, just good well mannered people who exchange without ego's.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Carl.
 
The lure was always there for as far back as I can remember. I remember buying a rubber cowboy knife at a souvenier stand in North Dakota and thinking "this is the greatest toy I'll ever know".
Seeing good men in my life like my grandpa carry pocketknives only reinforced the draw of knives.
 
My Daddy and Momma bought me a stockman knife along about the time I was eight. I was the first kid in my tribe to have his own pocketknife. Some time later I decided I needed a longer sleeker bladed pocketknife and bought a CASE single blade bearheaded trapper to go with it. THEN......THEN !!!....my DAddy bought me a COLT 4 1/2" HUNTSMAN 22 pistol for my birthday and I am here to tell you there was nothing--NOTHING !!!--I could not handle in our area of Terra Firma after that. The two knives and the pistol went every where with me including to school where what they did not know caused 'em no problems whatsoever.
To the very moment I write these words well over 50 years later I still carry two knives and a pistol EVERYWHERE I go. Now it is a 45ACP pistol, a 4 1/4" EYE BRAND stockman, and a LEATHERMAN WAVE.
 
This is a "borrowed" picture of a knife my dad had when I was about 7 or 8. As you can probably see, it's an old Herters Sheath Knife. I was always fascinated with it -- probably because dad always took such good care of it. One day, while he was at work, I decided it would be a good idea to do a little whittling with it. Ended up "whittling" the end of my thumb clean off! Been hooked on sharp stuff ever since.

616-herters.jpg
 
Nowadays I am a knife nut, but that's only since a few years. I've always had a knife of some kind. My parents gave me a SAK and later a Friedrich Herder knife that I used on the farm, but it were tools to me. Later I bought a few knives, but again, as a tool to use during hiking and camping trips.

Only a few years ago there was a moment that I got more and more interested in knives. Discovering forums like BF on the internet was an accelerator. I also finished university not long before that moment and got my first job, so I also could spend some money on knives.

I tried several kinds of knives, but found out that traditional knives are what I like most and I also still love the Swiss army knives. Nevertheless I still try modern knives on a regular base.
 
Used to go to the country for the summer. Had to have a knife for chores around the farm and had to have a knife to do the chores -- cut feed sacks, etc.. Also had to have a knife to play mubley/mumbelty peg at school so it was just plain ole normal for a kid to have a knife in those days -- 1940s/1950s. Joined the U.S. Navy in 1965 and most sailors carried a knife most of the time.
 
I was 5 or 6 when they started airing brand new american TV show in here called MacGyver. I've been knife nut ever since. Especially slipjoints and victorinoxes are close to my heart.
 
We started trading old cheap knives in the 5th grade, and most all of us had our grail Case Barlow by the 6th grade. We really though we were in high cotton when we got those Barlows.
Several of us kept the hobby through high school, and a few like me never stoped.

I can't remember how I found this place, but its the only forum I go to.
 
When I was a young boy back in the early 60's growing up in the rural south it was a common practice for all male relatives including my father, grandfathers, uncles & cousins to carry a pocketknife.

Back then my father and grandfathers knife of choice was a big cracked ice Boker premium stockman. Found out later they carried Bokers because my father could get a good deal on them from his employer. Later they changed to Case 6347 stockman knives because of the same reason. I've been hooked on knives since my grandfather gave me my first Boker barlow and taught me to whittle when I was 8.

By the way, I still have my father and grandfathers Bokers, they are over 50 years old, worn from use, but are still serviceable.
 
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You know it is funny, in this tread alone I count two people that have been to other forums only to leave them shortly after. They have found a home on bladeforums, where it is friendly. I myself have been to other knife, gun, ect. forums and I find myself only sticking with bladeforums.

As to my addiction of knives, I have been into knives every since I can remeber. When I was very young (maybe 4 or 5 years old) I would go to the flea market with my Grand mother. While there I would always find the knife pusher and stick around his table until time to leave. I always seem to have some forum of knife. Most of the time it was cheaper knives, but once I remember I was about 6 years old and my father gave me a Camilus military knife. This was one of the all metal handle scout type pocket knives.

I still carried and owned knives all the way through high school. It seems that most of the kids I grew up with were more into electronics than knives. I remember trading my beeper for a Benchmade knife when I was 15 years old.

John
 
Momma used to tell me "if you sleep with dogs, you'll wake up with fleas". That principle kind of states how I got to be the knife knut I am today. Growing up in rural north Louisiana, we always had a lot of exposure to pocket knives and I was gifted several knives (which I generally lost) while I was growing up. Now, I mean when I was in my late single digit and early teens. When I got old enough to have a decent job and buy my own stuff, I would occasionally buy a knife if I had the money and some of my earlier prize possessions were a couple of Puma fixed blade knives that I purchased during the summer of 1968 in Duncan Oklahoma. I had those knives until I built the house that I live in now in 1977 and they were stolen by some unscrupulous sort that was working here on the house after we moved in.

For the next 25 years, I generally had only one, maybe two good pocket knives, a good filet knife, and a decent fixed blade hunting knife. Things were pretty good until the internet was invented by Al Gore. At such time, I could look at knives (and other stuff; this ain't my only vice) online and even buy online. During this time I had a "best friend" and I mean this in the absolute best way possible that was an influence in what I did with my time away from work and we did a lot of shooting, hunting, fishing, and lying to each other over the years. So, I picked up a few knives along with other "stuff" that men need for outdoor activities.

In 2000, I got the best paying job I ever had and my knife knutitis became a chronic ailment and I bought lots of Gerber Silver Knights and Traditional slip joints. You guys have seen most of them. All of the knives I've given to others came from this time frame. During the mid 2000's, after leaving that high paying job, I did not do a lot with knives, but picked up a few new guns which did not leave much money for knives. Being an avid fan of Rimfire Central, I made the mistake (or had the good fortune, depending on point of view) of poking my nose in the "production knives" subforum there. There I was bitten by the "Gaboon Viper" thread "What's your daily carry knife?" But dang it, it's the pictures that cause irritation of the affliction.

Anyway, someone there mentioned Bladeforums and I am here now in this bottomless money pit of knife insanity. Having a great time!!!

Ed
 
I've carried a knife since I was 6 years old, sometimes responsibly, some times not so much. These were the $2 knives at the counter at bait shops, hardware stores and filling stations. As for collecting knives I didn't get into that until the late '70s early '80s.
 
Round about the age of 8 I had to start wearing glasses, a lifelong curse. But it had SOME advantages, I noticed how pretty bone handled pen-knives looked and felt I had to have one about me, just in case.....
 
I am sure that my lady thinks I was deprived of a little oxygen at birth...I sit there trying to explain the beauty of a knife,she ( and my daughters) just say " its just a knife" lol...but Sue ( my lady ) now carries in her purse a nice red bonned pocket knife..kindly sent here by a great forum member :thumbup:...she likes the scales on it...Im not pushing her too much,but encourage her to use it now and then to get the true satisfaction from it!!
Oh man...I am doomed, as I simply cannot afford this obsession ( sound famliar ? )
Great thread Keith...as Im sure there are lots of reasons.
 
think i was born loving knives--as soon as i was old enought to hold one i was hooked--been that way ever since--:D
 
I've been a hunter and fisherman for nearly my whole life, over 45 years of using knives in that capacity. My dad always said if I shot 'em or caught 'em I had to clean 'em! I still have my first Normark fillet knife in the tackle box, my dad's Imperial bowie on my garage workbench, and my old boyscout knife on my basement workbench. I usually carried a 3-1/4 to 3-1/2" lockback around town, and had a Schrade fixed blade skinner (the smaller one) for game processing.

Only recently have I become a full-fledged knife knut. I think it was the proliferation of "super steels" that got me really interested, and primarily the posts of Cliff Stamp found in this forum, stumbled upon through Google searches on the net.

In the last two years I have purchased about a hundred knives, mostly traditionals, but also including 1 sword, 1 fantasy knife, and about a half-dozen tacticals. I've also started hafting my own fixed blades. Yes, Doctor, I have the fever! (Although thankfully not as bad as some here. :D)
 
yiterp said:
think i was born loving knives--as soon as i was old enought to hold one i was hooked--been that way ever since--:D
Click to expand...

Same for me.....figured no point fighting it - might as well go with the flow (brought me here, so can't be all bad :D)
 
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