How did you first get into knives?

Got a two blade boy scout pocket pal in boy scouts when I was a wee little tot. Sliced my finger open and its been in my blood since.
 
My first knife was a two bladed jack-knife. Then, I moved onto a Case Sodbuster2138. And finally, A.G. Russell's Sting, got the ball rolling!
 
I had one and wished another one. I had the new and wondered what i had and what would be, if it were different. So i wished the next, different one..
 
I don't really know. I'm in my 50's now, and I remember "collecting" knives as long as I can remember -- definitely from the time I was around 8 years old, but I know I had and carried a pocketknife from the time I was 6. Over the years the focus of my collection has changed several times; when I think of some of the knives I've sold or traded in the name of "downsizing" I could just kick myself.
 
My granfather gave me a knife when I was 10 or so...
lockbackk_mikro_.jpg
 
found a Sears Craftsman 2-blade jack made by Schrade for Sears in 1991 in bad shape laying in a field, I took it to Sears and they replaced it free of charge, still got it, been hooked ever since. KB
 
I always had a knife on me, growing up in small town, TX. Some of my first knife memories are around 8-10yrs old, of borrowing my Pop's SAK to whittle with when camping. I used the saw to cut a nice length, and then whittled away... What did I form out of the wood? well... Usually I made a wooden knife! funny. Then, I loved the gadget, but I loved whittleing more. It wasn't until jr high that I noticed higher end knives... The Sog Tomcat... MAN I wanted one! I scrimped and saved to buy a leatherman in 7th grade.. that was 1991. Then came the Benchmade CQC7. And the rest, as they say... is history. In 2001 I discovered the Sebenza.
 
My grandpa gave me a knife when I was a kid. My dad usually had a SAK on him too.
 
My aunt was into knives when I was a kid. Gave me a big ole' swiss army knife for my 13th bday, still got it!
 
Knives were like bicycles with me.

I despised what was normally available. Ten-speed bikes were designed to jack one's butt up into the air and keep one's head down. The tires were too skinny for anything but asphalt. Then came mountain bikes and my life changed.

So it was with knives. People kept giving me slipjoint knives. They felt crummy in the hand, could bite, then stick into wood, causing the blades to close. When I was a teenager, I cut myself bad when my knife caught in some branch I was cutting and snapped shut while I was trying to extract it.

Never carried knives much as an adult until I bought a cheap Chinese locking knife in a dollar store. The 3-inch blade was perfect and I liked the fact that it locked. My second knife was a Winchester wood and aluminum folder that I quickly outgrew, then I got into Cold Steel, CRKT and eventually Spyderco, Benchmade, Buck and Kershaw. Since then, many of my favorite knives are made by Cold Steel. The 5-inch Gunsite is my flagship of folders.

It's the one I carry most.
 
Back
Top