How did you get into knives?

VS_Power

VS_Power

Joined
Jan 24, 2017
Messages
138
Years ago I would have never expected to enjoy knives as a hobby. I work in a desk job and don't often go camping / hiking / fishing / etc.

I got into knives because I bought one for my father for Christmas. He's a bit of a redneck and has always been into knives (he EDCs a zt450cf). Last Christmas, I decided to get him a Sebenza 21 small.

While researching the "best" EDC knife for my dad, I got interested in them myself. And now here I am, 4 knife purchases later!

How did you get into knives?
 
When I was 3 I found a Victorinox classic on the ground at Marriott's great America, and my mom insisted on putting it away.
I figured if my mom wouldn't let me have a knife then they must be something awesome and have been interested in them ever since
 
My parents caught me whittling the edges off the window molding when I was 7 or 8. Needless to say that did NOT go over well but it did cement my love for all things sharp.
 
If always been into them I used to "steal" my dads knives when I was a really young kid. Since than I've been hooked started buying better and better knives and even started trying to make my own.
 
Just always have used them ever since I can remember. Fishing hunting using them while building tree forts etc...
 
Grew up with em, I would use my father's when we would be hunting or fishing or just out in the desert shooting stuff. Really wasn't into them that much. One day as an adult I wanted to look to mod my Maglite and saw a post on another forum that mentioned Bladeforums. Been here ever since.....and my wallet has never recovered. :D :thumbup:
 
My grandfather and father started showing me how to whittle at around 4 y.o., Then they started showing me, simply by doing, what useful tools they were for daily tasks around the farms and the feed stores. Then I was given a small peanut when I started first grade with the admonition that now that I was going to school, I needed my own knife so I wouldn't have to borrow anyone's knife at school.

Later, at age 10 I was given my first fixed blade, the story of which I have written about elsewhere. Accumulated a few more over time, until my senior year in college. Based on reading Navy manuals, I figured I needed a USN MK1 or USN MK2 before I received my commission and started active duty. Went to an Army Surplus store in College Station, TX to see if I could find either one. They had a couple of 30 gallon barrels, 1 full of MK1s and the other full of MK2s. Ended up with one of each, as well as an 1869 Chassepot bayonet and scabbard with matching serial numbers.

41 years and 3700+ fixed blades later, I still have the itch to collect fixed blades.
 
At age 12 I joined the Boy Scouts, and reasoned that because I was a Scout, I needed all the stuff, which included a 4 bladed scout knife. I didn't buy the official one because, according to Scout Law #9, a Boy Scout is Thrifty, and the Kamp King was virtually the same thing, except $1.50 cheaper. That was my one pocket knife which I used and mostly abused for the next 15 years until I gave it to a girl friend who promptly lost it.

By this time I had learned of Swiss Army Knives, and replaced the KK with one, a Wenger model. It was far superior, I thought, but somehow managed to destroy it. By then I had got the fever. It wasn't long before I got a Swisschamp, and figured I had it all. Then I learned of Leatherman. Wow, a pocket tool with real pliers! So it was not long before I had one of each, and around that time discovered the internet, and right away signed up with this site so I could learn more about multi-tools. At that time, it made no sense to me to carry a dedicated knife when for the same pocket space you could carry a variety of useful tools. But it didn't take long before I was looking at them, too. My first was a Spyderco Delica 2 or 3, I don't remember which, except the serrated blade was ATS-55. I loved that knife. That was the bait, and I was hooked. Now I own a variery of multi-tools, folders and a few fixed blades. So I guess I owe my interest to Bladeforums.
 
Growing up, I was reasonably outdoorsy, so it was more or less just trying to hunt down the perfect one or two outdoor knives for a few years. Then as I tried more and more patterns, I became more interested in the history of knives, and how certain things influenced their design. And then it just grew from from there. I'm always amazed at how a a simple pondering about some knife related thing can branch off into so many interesting directions if you let it.
 
I'm now 44 and have been collecting(buying regularly)
((Not many people outside of the forums would use the word regular!🤣)) for a little over a year now. It started when I went with a buddy of mine, who buys stuff from different online auctions, to a small auction pick up storefront. It looked like a thrift shop to me. It was full of random whatnots so I started to look around. What I found and picked up was a Leatherman, what I would find out later to be a really old one. It intrigued me so I took it to the shop owner and offered him 5 bucks for it (it was old and grimy)he said 10 we settled on 7. From that moment on I was a multi-enthusiast leaning ever closer to a new found love of blades. That all started with a need/want of an EDC blade w/o the multi. That first knife purchase was a Kershaw Cryo! From the first pull of the flipper, at 43 yo both the flipper and assisted opening were previously unknown to me, I was headlong down the rabbit hole!! 50+ knives later my love/passion/lust, hobby/collection/addiction doesn't seem to be slowing down![emoji23] so to help with all that I found a support group. HI MY NAME IS BRETT AND I'M A KNIFEHOLIC..........


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Knives have been apart of my family. My dad was collecting knives before I was even born. He had magazines and books and enough knives to constitute a collection as I grew up.
 
I've always been drawn to them. One of my earliest memories is getting into trouble when I was 3 for making off with one of my grandfather's knives and getting caught.

He's since passed, but I have that very knife. Eventually my son will have it along with a great many others I suspect.
 
I grew up in a time that most men carried knives. At least most of the men I came in contact with carried. Under those conditions, it was just natural for a young boy like myself to carry a knife when I got the parental green light.

If I have to blame someone, it would be my father. He spent a large chunk of his life as a rancher and always had a knife. It is his fault that I have spent all this money through the years.:)
 
When I grew up all men carried knives. I started carrying one at about 12 years old. Mom gave me a bar of soap to try my hand at whillin'. My dad showed me how to sharpen free hand not long after that. As a teen we'd often have the female teachers ask to borrow a pocket knife. Never had a male teacher ask because they didn't need to. They had their own. My uncle had walls of knives and boxes of knives. Watches too. He was a collector.
 
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I have carried a knife with me a good chunk of my life. Like many people, I grew up gawking at my father's knives and received my first from him. Especially dear to me was my first SAK. In my late teens to early twenties, I found myself carrying a knife for purely defensive purposes, having to deal with dangerous people on a daily basis. Carried a cheap stainless steel no name lockback that was easily replaceable everytime the cops took it away. In the 10-12 years after that phase in my life, I cleaned up and one day in 2012, a friend of mine showed me a CRKT. I liked what I saw. Together, we started carrying again and got deeper into the hobby with a whole new outlook of what a knife is. Carrying a knife as a tool. And here I am today.
 
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I lost my only knife about 6 years ago. Never thought about knives before but I have arthritic hands-retired tradesman- and found using a knife instead of my hands to open packages, break down boxes etc. was less painful.
Went on Amazon, searched "pocket knives". Top of the page was a green Spyderco Delica. Ordered it.
One hand opening, pocket clip, and sharp. Cool.
I now have 27 Spydercos and a dozen or so others.
I gave up asking why I have all these knives.
Simple pleasures? Yeah, that'll do.
 
To defend my Jack Russel against Pit Bull attacks. Got in trouble with the cops, so now I carry secateurs(hand pruners), & a dried pigs ear I buy from petsvets for $3.
 
znapschatz said:
At age 12 I joined the Boy Scouts, and reasoned that because I was a Scout, I needed all the stuff, which included a 4 bladed scout knife. I didn't buy the official one because, according to Scout Law #9, a Boy Scout is Thrifty, and the Kamp King was virtually the same thing, except $1.50 cheaper. That was my one pocket knife which I used and mostly abused for the next 15 years until I gave it to a girl friend who promptly lost it.

By this time I had learned of Swiss Army Knives, and replaced the KK with one, a Wenger model. It was far superior, I thought, but somehow managed to destroy it. By then I had got the fever. It wasn't long before I got a Swisschamp, and figured I had it all. Then I learned of Leatherman. Wow, a pocket tool with real pliers! So it was not long before I had one of each, and around that time discovered the internet, and right away signed up with this site so I could learn more about multi-tools. At that time, it made no sense to me to carry a dedicated knife when for the same pocket space you could carry a variety of useful tools. But it didn't take long before I was looking at them, too. My first was a Spyderco Delica 2 or 3, I don't remember which, except the serrated blade was ATS-55. I loved that knife. That was the bait, and I was hooked. Now I own a variery of multi-tools, folders and a few fixed blades. So I guess I owe my interest to Bladeforums.
Click to expand...

My story pretty much, carried my Wenger for years.

Folders and this forum are a new thing for me; I only have 3 folders, yep. Just three. 2 Emerson Kershaw jobs (6k and 4kXL, cheap, heavy but very comfy).

Prefer my fixed blades ;) last year it was tantos, this year it seems to be bowies, lol.

I don't think I'll be getting more folders.

I'll look back at this post 6 months from now and see, hahahaha.
 
gadunz said:
To defend my Jack Russel against Pit Bull attacks. Got in trouble with the cops, so now I carry secateurs(hand pruners), & a dried pigs ear I buy from petsvets for $3.
Click to expand...

Range is your friend, I like the pigs ear idea but you could carry a very stiff walking stick or staff.

I don't advise violence at all, but I hear smacking a dog in its nose really hard is like kicking it in the nads. I cannot tell you if that works, because I am a dog person myself... dogs... just come up and lick me all over. Never had any trouble with them. Can't explain it, big dogs, little dogs. No rabies in Australia, so I can't say I've met any really crazy dogs...
 
The only way to stop some pitbulls, apparently, is to kill them.
The pigs ear is to justify me carrying the secateurs; for cutting into smaller pieces for the JRT.
 
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