How did you get into knives?

gadunz said:
Bear with me.
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Hmm.. Look, I understand how inappropriate that dog owner was, but in hindsight, I guess it's easier to see deescalation with firmness and not overt show of force was probably the answer. Your calling the cops on him instead might have been the wiser thing. But hindsight is sometimes not easy to come by, I concur.

Never point a gun at something you don't intend to destroy. Likewise, never draw a knife unless you absolutely ever have to. In my eyes, IMO anyways, drawing a knife in hostility is almost equivalent to drawing a gun. You could get shot and killed.
 
I've never had a cell phone, but the collie owner did & didn't use his. Other times I've escaped home & rung Animal Control.
Never point a pitbull/rottie/bullmastiff/killer breed at something you don't intend to destroy.
If only a neighbour had a weekend-pighunting Airedale I could walk during the week, alongside my JRT.
 
When I was tiny I was facinated watching my grandfather whittle. When I was three he was helping me whittle. By five I was whittling on my own. When I was seven I got my first Buck knife, a three blade stockman and soon after an old hickory. The rest is history. Carried one everywhere everyday since. Even got suspended and paddled in school a few times. Always have a knife, always will.
 
I've carried and used knives on a daily basis for close to 60 years. When and where I grew up, most men carried a pocket knife. It just kind of came with the territory.
 
Everybody had a knife when I was a kid. It's just the way it was. Different world back then I guess.

We had them in school, no biggie. If you got into a scrap with another kid, never at any time did the thought cross your mind to pull the knife in your pocket. It wasn't a weapon.

Parents and grandparents gave their kids knives, showed them how to sharpen them. Gave them bars of soap to whittle on the front steps.

Back in them days you didn't have to "get into" knives, they were a part of life. Not like today where you have to make up some excuse to folks as to why you have one in your pocket.
 
My dad gave me a Kershaw DWO as my first pocket knife when I was 10 years old (still have it). Within a few years it became too small for my hand. Thus, I embarked on this journey to find the "perfect" pocket knife. It took me several years to realize that such an object doesn't exist.

After I came to that realization, I really started branching out into different brands and styles. Since then, I've really became fascinated with the heritage and the design language of different knives, not just their qualities as an EDC tool.

Having a variety of knives with different capabilities and qualities is the most enjoyable part of this hobby IMHO.


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Like many, knives were just a part of life when I was growing up. As I helped to maintain property and house, I often had need for a knife.

I think what really sealed the deal was fishing: there is always a need for a knife while fishing. Cutting line, rope, etc - not to mention "cleaning" fish afterwards. It was filleting that got me into sharpening: I learned, at a young age, the value of a sharp knife for doing smooth, accurate fillet work on fish. I started using a cheap sillycar stone, used that for years. Always had a bench grinder handy so I could put a new grind on when needed. I bought my first Arkansas stones - a 3 stone set from Brookstone - when I was 12 or 13. I still use those stones today.
 
When I was 6 I received a pocket knife for my birthday,carried one ever since. In those days pretty much, all boys/men carried a knife as it really was a tool, living in a rural area
When I was 16 I was an apprentice meat cutter and was in the meat industry for 40 years. For me, it was always normal to carry a knife,a birthright so to speak.
 
I was gifted 3 SAKs during my childhood, those were carried along cheap gas station knives during early teens, then I discovered BF and 3 years later I finally bought my first Spyderco.
It's been SAKs, Spydercos and Cold Steels ever since, among other brands like Gerber, CRKT, SOG, Condor, Schrade, etc. to give'em a try

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So much fun, and the wallet so thin now! Don't wanna quit though, it's my first and greatest hobby now :thumbup:
 
Growing up on a farm you were never properly dressed and ready for the day unless you had at least one knife on your person. Flash forward 30 some years and it is the same routine, just do not feel completely dressed unless I have a knife (or 3) on my person.
 
I've always liked knives but as I grew up and my interests changed I came to realize that I have quite a few guns, multitools, and other edc gadgets but I didn't have any decent pocket knives. On a whim I went a picked up a Kershaw Emerson CQC 4XL. I really liked it and so I started doing some research into knives, blade steels, designers, and all that good stuff. Before you know it I was hooked and here I am a couple months later with 7 folders and 5 fixed blades. Almost as fun to collect as guns but easier on the wallet!
 
It was four years ago for me. As I have mentioned quite a few times, my country practices conscription, so every year we are called up for training to ensure that we still got what it takes to call ourselves soldiers.

So it was during one of those training periods I was using the standard issue SAK to cut some sealed supplies when I saw one of my buddies playing around with his folding knife. AS I had never seen a folding knife of that sort until then, I asked him what it was and how much it cost; turns out that it was a Benchmade Mini-Grip. And after hearing the price, I dismissed it as ridiculous; why would anybody pay so much for a simple knife?

Fast forward a few days later, where I somehow managed to lose the SAK and needed something to cut a length of manila rope so I asked to borrow the Mini-Grip. And as soon as I made the first cut, the rest, as they say, is history.
 
Having been born a redneck son of sharecroppers, a pocket knife was just another tool.
When I was about 10 or so, dad went to a surplus type store to get his hunting license. There was this stack of M8A1 sheaths on a table and an equally large stack of M5A1 bayonets behind the counter.
The rule was to keep my mouth shut, behave, and not ask for anything when in a store.
I must have managed to pull off the trifecta while staring wide eyed at all those bayonets. When dad was done, the guy asked him if there was anything else, dad picked up a sheath, handed it to the guy behind the counter and said "Stick him a bayonet in that."
That would have been circa 1970 to 71. The sheath was a dollar and the bayonet was $1.98.
That's what started it all for me.
Dad died in 1991.
I still have that bayonet, and I will until the day I die.
 
I got into collecting as a result of accumulating knives for work while looking for the perfect knife for the job. Let me save you some time, the perfect knife doesn't exist. Not to say that there aren't knives out there that come close to perfection but I've got a couple of boxes of knives that I thought were close but I always found something I thought would be better.

Also it didn't start out as a hobby but more a necessary tool needed to do a job. I never liked the word hobby, it brings up images of people with too much time on their hands lookin' for something to occupy their time. I like the word enthusiast instead, enthusiast sounds more fanatical, more committed rather than a means to occupy my spare time and spare money.

So I never really had the luxury of gettin' into knives because without them I couldn't work. Now with that bein' said I don't need a knife for work anymore but I do use them as part of my everyday life, I pull a knife out for everything from splittin' medicine for the dog to cuttin' vines from around the PTO shaft on the mowerdeck. Still over the last 40 years of usin' knives daily, I've amassed just north of 300 or so, I guess I am into knives and realizin' this after all this time.

I can tell you the exact year I started gettin' into knives in earnest. That would be about '79 while workin' in a uniform rental place. Once a month they would have me take the dryers apart to clean the from the detritus that collected from the clothes and bein' the new guy there I got to keep what I found which was more often than not a pocket knife. In fact the employees along the way would give me the knives they found seein' as how all of them who worked there already had a pretty big collection so they just gave 'em to me. Know what the first knife in my collection wa? An SAK Victorinox Executive, I still have that knife too. ;)
 
Always liked them but when my dad said "I can lean a deer with my 1 1/2 swiss army knife and you don't need a blade longer that that..." really fricken ticked me off. Yeah it can be done but it takes a long long long long long time...and in the winter and breaking the breast bone? Forget it. Looking back at all the hunts I went on realized a big blade really really would of come in handy for a long time so I started getting some. Mostly for other things, my deer hunting knife for gutting is a 4" blade with a gut hook for gutting. First a few Bowie patterns well because I wanted them. OCK Marine Raider...really a very useful knife for general purpose big field tasks. A lookticool Cold Steel Maurder, I found its a great large end fishing knife! I so HATE them wiggly Rapala pieces of stamp metal like things. Got in the HYPE of D2 steel KA-BAR! Oi a good knife but really my practical side took over after that.

I went OKC crazy some what. Got the big blade SP-51s and 53s...my main wood work knives for trial clearing for the SP-53 and general purpose wood processing and camp needs for the SP-51, I like saber grinds for that work. But no Thumping and wumping hilts and ended up getting all the RD 4-9s... One RD-4 is now part of the hunting pack, RD6s...pair them with a SP-51/53 and good medium light to heavy use knife. Favorite stand alone blade RD7 it does every thing and an RD9 for a large flat grind. I got them for all round job types even if I dislike flat grinds for wood processing, what can I say they work. I even found the RD Tanto makes a great medium heavy weight chopper, I pair with an RD9. I got a pair of Chimeras plain edged and serrated well...because I wanted them and I find work for them, a bit over kill but better over kill than some thing slipping and slashing a hand open. I like OKC for their great quality and great warranty and affordable prices. I'd rather have several great blades for working with than just one uber expensive wall hanger/display boaster blade. I Found the RD TANTO makes a great mid sized heavy chopper.

I do use other knives, for light carry and light to medium duty the Gerber Armstrong knives seem to fit that bill. My larger blades carry a Gerber Gator or Buck 110 LOCK BACK knives for finer duties in their pouch. I GAVE UP on frame locks after one to many self destructed in my hands and the lock gave out.

My knife "Collection" is a collection of what turn out to be a set of tools I use for various tasks. Yes I use saws and axes and a hatchet or two, but now I have a good well rounded "collection" of tools for about all out doors and in doors needs. I'm a knife user and a abuser, its one thing to have some nice looking knives to look at and fiddle and fondle with, but actually using them for what they were meant for really gives them a extra feeling and meaning for them. And they get a lot things done easier with the right one for the right job. Like any good tool. But I do admit, I do like to look them over when maintaining them.
 
I was born this way. =) Seriously I have been interested for so long I don't recall what first piqued my interest but I am sure I would have been in grade school.
 
gadunz said:
I've never had a cell phone, but the collie owner did & didn't use his. Other times I've escaped home & rung Animal Control.
Never point a pitbull/rottie/bullmastiff/killer breed at something you don't intend to destroy.
If only a neighbour had a weekend-pighunting Airedale I could walk during the week, alongside my JRT.
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My pit bull has one eye and used to be a fighter; she's a rescue dog now with plenty of scars to show her provenance. In the 1 1/2 year I've had her she's been attacked three times by other off-leash dogs and she's never been the attacker. One of the attacks drew blood in two places, she still didn't fight, because I told her not to and she was on-leash. As a trained dog, she won't fight when I tell her not to, which I always do, since once a pit is engaged, they will finish it. She won't bite people either, since it's not in her nature or training.

DON"T BULLY MY BREED...it's always the owner not the breed.

I got into knives because I got one as an infant at my christening. It's a family tradition on the Irish side to give a small knife (1 1/2" slipjoint with chain), sterling silver covers and chain, engraved with your initials and birthdate. Although it's a tradition on the Irish side, the knife is Italian.

It didn't hurt my passion for knives that my uncle was a NYC policeman and gave me knives he took from miscreants :)
 
SAK when I was 12 then bought my first "serious" edc folder..a Cold Steel Voyager Tanto in the early 90's.
Hooked after that :)
 
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