how did you get into knives in the first place?

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pedicabdriver

Joined
Nov 29, 2007
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(this question could be applied to a ton of other things. firearms come to mind, but i'm sure you can come up with your own example)

i grew up in a home where knives, firearms, basically anything that resembled or could be considered a weapon were taboo. so naturally i rebelled by reading about guns and knives and learning everything i could. being underage, i couldn't purchase firearms, so i spent what money i had on knives which i kept well hidden from my parents. i'm totally willing to admit that i started out as a mall ninja, but as time went by i stopped thinking of my knives as bad ass weapons and started thinking of them as handy tools.

what about you?
 
100% mall ninja to this day. My $2.99 folder with handy led blinding light is the true destroyer of worlds!!!

Or really, my uncle started by giving me a knife a year for Christmas when I was young. I had mostly smaller fixed blades, and a few Leathermans (Leathermen?). I now use them for camping, around the house, and destroying empires.
 
My grandfather always had a cigar box of pocketknives. It was a real treat when he'd pull out those knives to show us kids. Nothing fancy or expensive, most were Old Timers, barlows, or promotional advertising knives.

He gave me my first knife, an Old Timer 34OT, which I promptly lost then immediately bought an exact duplicate (that I still have today, almost 30 years later). So I became paranoid about losing knives, and kept every knife ever given to me as if it were an irreplaceable treasure. Soon I had a small accumulation that grew and grew, and is still growing.

Today I have almost 300 knives, nearly all of which are carefully stored in their original packaging and original condition.
 
I grew up never thinking of knives as evil weapons, rather as useful tools. I carried a folder from the age of 12yrs old and still do, 52yrs later. I still am collecting and using quality knives of all sizes and shapes, both folders and fixed blades.
 
I was raised in a family where guns and knives were an every day part of life. Was just natural. Got my first old timer some time as child.
 
My grandfather and I used a cold chisel to cut out a fillet knife out of a handsaw blade. I still have a knife I made at age 10 or 11 using the same methods. We used an old bench grinder to shape the blades and the handles.
He always carried an old timer pocket knife, but never a sheath knife. When we would deer hunt, he would take a butcher knife and whet stone out of the kitchen drawer and put it in our chuck box ( which was a cardboard box with canned goods)
 
i thought of them as weapons, which was the reason I liked them.

Then, I saw a crazy balisong vid on youtube, and got into balisongs, then folders, and now some fixed blades.
 
I grew up around guns & knives. My folks (and grandfather when he was alive) were always avid hunters and fishermen. Eventually I had a pretty decent collections of firearms and knives, some of them paramilitary style. Later I moved to a larger city and just didn't have much place to shoot...well, I sorta got 'citified'.:o But working as a chef I got pretty involved in kitchen knives. Eventually my love of blades in general is starting to come full circle, back to some of the knives I'd have used when I was in my 20's.

I'm still primarily interesting in kitchen knives, but in many ways a blade is a blade is a blade.
 
I was born with a penis.

But seriously, my dad took me camping since I was a baby, I got my first knife when I was 6, always just figured it was a guy thing.
 
Hi,

nice question Pedicabdriver.

I guess I've always had a subconscious interest in knives, especially folders. My grandfather used to carry one, which I admired a lot. When I was in Canada, back in the early 80's I would visit regularly the shop on the second floor of Toronto's Eatons Centre and drool over what appeared to me to be very nice folders. They weren't cheap (around $200 CDN) and since I didn't have much money back then I never bought one.

In the late 90's I was browsing at this antiques mall when I came across a nice looking near mint folder that came with a cranberry coloured leather pouch and only cost $10. It had an inscription "WM Germany Rostfrei". That folder I lost to the customs officers upon exiting Pearson Int. Airport as I was coming to Greece. The Customs officer asked me if I wanted to leave the folder behind with a relative. I didn't eventhough I could. I guess I didn't like that folder any longer. I kept the leather pouch... which I don't know where it is now (???!!!)

Then about two years ago I started browsing over the internet for folders... until about two weeks ago I decided that I should by my real first folder (BM943). There is a second in the mail, but I'll tell you about that when it gets here.

Best wishes,

Edalb
 
Lost my cheap $5 knife on small camping trip and realized how much I used it. So after, I wanted a replacement, but something better and here I am.
 
When I was a kid , a pocket knife was part of the rite of passage to manhood , learned to drive a 3 speed column shift manual at 6 yr old , got my first knife around the same time .

we grew up on a farm and killed out own meat Ive always been aware of the uses of knives , from woodcarving to butchering to throwing and showing off with , but never considered them to be primarily weapons , they are just part of life .

I dont consider my car keys to be weapons primarily either , nor my steel toe boots , but they can all be called on if its needed :)
 
Dad was a camper/fisherman/hunter. I grew up with all kinds of knives, axes, and guns, and it was never considered any big deal! I just continued on with outdoor activities, and the tools. I'm raising my kids the same way.....

I do have to say that I am more into self defense than dad is (handguns, combat shotguns, "black" rifles, and "tactical" knives), but maybe that is more a reflection of the times.....
 
Many in my family hunt , fish , etc. Oe Grandpa was a lumberjack/farmer the other was an engineer , I recall both of them always carrying some sort of pocketknife.
Same goes for my Pop and uncles and cousins. I was a Cub and Boy Scout , got my first knife I believe when I was a Cub Scout , long gone though , God only knows where it is now.
Sadly , I have either lost or had stolen my older knives that were gifts from Grandads and my Pop , although I still have a very old and used Slippie' from my Grandpa Reynolds and a SAK from my Dad.
 
I was a kid with a pocket knife then a young adult with a chef knife in my hand. But the fever started with the purchase of an A G Russell Sting, back in 1977.
Lycosa
 
About a year or so ago I was looking for a new hobby, and decided to take up throwing knives--initial interest coming from various sources (books, movies, etc). I couldn't very well stick to just throwing knives, could I? :D

Prior to that, I usually avoided knives, after a bad experience with some extra-credit homework and a broken SAK to the toe (first stitches :P)! Though come to think of it, I have always had a little leatherman-like tool nearby. I was always taking stuff apart as a kid.
 
I liked knives from an early age, don't really know how it developed. I had a knife from an early age, and had friends who liked and carried knives. Dad was an avid outdoorsman, and fished alot, by the time I was 8 I learned how to clean and fillet fish, and clean ducks.

In my 20's I needed a hobby, and my interest in knives grew to the point that I was looking for quality knives. After reading about knifemaking, it got me into building the shop I that I still use today. Back then most of my friends had common hobbies like carpentry and auto, so I wanted to do something different and unique- knifemaking fits the bill. Now that I am older I like knifemaking alot, it doesn't require the constant heavy lifting and crouching that carpentry or auto hobbies require.
 
pedicabdriver said:
(this question could be applied to a ton of other things. firearms come to mind, but i'm sure you can come up with your own example)

i grew up in a home where knives, firearms, basically anything that resembled or could be considered a weapon were taboo. so naturally i rebelled by reading about guns and knives and learning everything i could. being underage, i couldn't purchase firearms, so i spent what money i had on knives which i kept well hidden from my parents. i'm totally willing to admit that i started out as a mall ninja, but as time went by i stopped thinking of my knives as bad ass weapons and started thinking of them as handy tools.

what about you?
Click to expand...

I grew up in a home where firearms and knives were just always around. My Dad retired from working for the government and worked testing ammunition and big guns for the military. The entire family shoots for sport as well as hunts. Dad works on guns for a hobby as well as tinkers with making knives. We never was taught that an item is wrong or evil, just because of potential for misuse. Instead we was taught that firearms, as well as knives are to be respected and cared for. Guess I'm just lucky to have sensible parents.
 
My father and older brother always had knives when I was very young, and naturally they fascinated me. I used to stand and stare that the display case of pocket knives at the lumber yard on the rare occasions my father would take me with him. On one such trip, I spotted a cheap folder with a long clip blade and a fish scaler/hook disgorger. It was on one of those tables where everything was less than a dollar. I had some coins (which was a lot of money for me back then!), so I surreptitiously bought it.

Over the next few years, it was discovered in my possession and confiscated, as the mere concept of me having a pocket knife was not discussed, much less allowed. I would subsequently find it in the house and reappropriate it. That cycle repeated several times during grade school.

On my 13th birthday, my parents got me a Wenger Motorist SAK. I believe it was on clearance somewhere (perhaps when the local JC Penney was divesting of all tools and similar items). I distinctly remember my mother tell me that I could add it to my "collection." My response was that I didn't have a collection because she and my father did not allow me to have knives!

So ... my collection started with that Wenger.
 
I grew up with knives being part of the normal tools available for whatever needed cutting. I wasn't particularly interested, but normally had a pocketknife on me.

In 1967 and 68 I spent several two month temporary duty stays at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airbase. Being Air Force and temporary duty and Saigon being considered "safe", I was not issued protective gear or weapons. After my first trip in-country I picked up a dagger in the Philippines and carried it on my belt on my later trips. It was the only weapon I had available during the Tet Offensive of 1968. I came very close to having to use it a couple of times and it provided at least some security in a very tense situation. Since then I've been obsessive about having a reasonable knife on my person at all possible times.
 
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