How did your knife collecting start

K Williams

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Nov 17, 1998
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My first knife was a Sears stockman, but what really got me interested in knives(and Filipino Martial Arts) was the 1989 Combat Knives magazine(published by Guns & Ammo). I must have read that magazine 100 times back then. I still have it, even though it's yellow now and masking tape is holding the cover together. :) From that magazine, I learned of The Cutlery Shoppe. I ordered my first good combat fixed blade(KA-BAR #1217) and "tactical" folders(SOG AirSOG & Blackjack Lightweight Folding Mamba) from them.
 
My knife collecting started not too long ago. My best friend collects them, and we agreed I should get a good knife for myself. My girlfriend bought me a Kershaw KO Leek for Christmas; then it began. Next,"gee I like those benchmades"! Then I got one. Then, "wow I should try a Spyderco"! Then came my Delica. Then I got the SS Native, soooo awesome. Next, its either a Vapor or Chive....can't decide. After that, I'm done until the semester is over and I get a new job.
 
I suppose my knife collecting began when i was very young, about 8-10 years old, and living in NJ with my mother. She HATED knives and guns and wouldnt even let me have a tiny SAK pocketknife, nor a BB gun, so, naturally i went to great lengths to acquire as many of these things as i could, without her knowledge. In fact, i saw a really cool Cold Steel push dagger in a magazine and i ordered it, being a 10 year old, i didnt know you werent supposed to send cash, but it was the only way i could pay, so, the knife never came...or so i thought, i found out many years later that it HAD arrived and been intercepted by my mother and thrown away. When i was a little older and owned an Uzi, Street Sweeper, AR-15, AK etc., i took great delight in showing them to my Mom when she came over to my house, and she was suitably horrified, a perverse satisfaction for me to be sure, but it just had to be done, im sure you can understand. :) After all, im just trying to help her get over her irrational fears, its called aversion therapy i believe...:)
 
In the Philippines.., 1966 :)


"Hunters seek what the [WANT].., Seekers hunt what they [NEED]"
 
A friend of mine worked in a knife store. I was getting him and other friends into Filipino martial arts. He had access to purchasing knivea at a discount - I liked knives and wanted to buy some. It was a great mutual arrangement. :D
 
I'm more of an accumulator. I've been carrying knives since I was under 10 (can't really remember if it was 7 or 8). Pocketknives are an integral part of my existance. I guess I probably had only one knife at a time (some got lost or broken) until I was around 20. It was about then that I retired my venerable Buck 110 and bought a Puma 970 Game Warden (still have both). So at that point I had a knife in my pocket, and a couple in a drawer (the GF at the time (now ex/practice wife) had bought me a couple fixed blades). I guess that's sort of a mini collection. Then I got an Al Mar boot knife (Fang I believe), and then a Gerber Blackie Collins colaboration diving knife (was facinated by double edge knives at the time). So it began.

My knife obsession had been dormant for some time until 9/11. It was then that I determined that my Cold Steel medium Voyager needed replacing by something sturdier, just in case, if you know what I mean. The CS had been a good knife and was a good replacement for the blade on the SAK Mechanic I'd carried for the previous couple of years, although it wasn't until I added a Leatherman Micra that I truly filled all the roles played by the Mechanic.

So after 9/11 I got on the net and remembered a site that I had found a year or so earlier. www.bladeforums.com . This site has been my undoing, but my collection has certainly grown. So has my realization that not only do I see a knife as an invaluable tool, but that knives are actually my hobby.

Now I have knife magazines and get books about knives as gifts from friends. My best buddy of 20 years has also taken an interest and we get to go to knife shows and shops together. I've even met a couple virtual folks from the forums in real life.

Knives are great. They're the tool that seperates us from the apes, yet are an artform as well.

I'm glad we have these artifacts.

jmx
 
I've always had some type of knife in my pocket but it wasn't until I had an idea for a Bowie knife that I started looking for a knifemaker. While that knife was being made, I was asked if I ever checked out Blade Forums. Became a member at the end of 2001, started buying knife magazines, coming up with more knife ideas & the 'real' collecting started & I don't see it slowing down for 2003! Presently, waiting for 3 more custom knives ordered in 2002 and have already put in orders for 9 production models this year. Have a great year of collecting & using!:D
 
My Father collected knives. I can remember sneaking looks at his collection while he was at work. I would lay them all out on the bed in my room and feeling a certain fascination as I handled them. My Father died when I was twelve and my Mother said the knives were mine (except for a few that she gave to his friends as keepsakes). As I got older I continued to add to the collection although not on a consistent basis. I have picked up the pace over the last couple of years. I'm now 40 and I can't imagine a time when I won't be collecting knives.
 
My dad, and granddad, basically got me started, they planted the seed, they gave me my first knives, I remember my Nagypapa,(hungarian for grandfather) used to make all kinds of neat stuff, willow whistle, and flutes, sling shots, cork popguns, and whillygigs.

I used to watch him at the end of the day, the last thing he'd do before takin' out his teeth was to give the blade a lick or two on the stone, hell the blade was worn down so far it looked like the seed pick on one of those old folding silver fruit knives,sucker was sharp though. :eek:

The real collectin'/accumulatin' started, in the early 80's when I was a mechanic at uniform rental place.

They have to go through the pockets of all the uniforms before they're washed, people leave the strangest stuff in their pocket, money/change, jewelry, tools, drugs:eek: , and knives.

90% of this stuff is never claimed, the guys that went through the pockets all had more knives than they could use so they started givin' to the new guy, ME :D. The first one was a Victorinox Executive, wasn't until years later that I found out that the little Guthook wasn't for openin' little critters, it was for peelin' oranges.

After that I became known as the knife knut/guy, anyone had a knife they didn't want or need, I'd wind up with them, I've got knives from friends that belonged to their dads, or granddads, they come from all over.

I have a decent size collection, with some nice pieces, a lot of old production slipjoints, a few custom pieces,(hopefully more soon), and a lot of modern production tacticals.

So far there's no pattern to my madness, I just get what I like, unfortunately I like everything.:(
 
My "knife collecting" started when my grandfather Ernie gave me a Camillus Official Boy Scout knife when I was about 11-12 years old (37 years ago!). He owned a couple antique/2nd hand stores, so sometimes when he got in a decent knife, it would end up in my pocket, or hanging off my belt. He also taught me to respect and care for my knives.
 
In 1971 in San Francisco, two Italian side-opening autos and a Svoboda dagger. The store owner would sell anything to minors, including copies of the pornographic "Candid Press". The same year I also bought a nahkampfmesser and three US knuckle knives.

Not long afterwards I discovered throwing "stars" (shaken) and other diabolical oriental weapons. Inspired by an illustration in one of Donn Draeger's books, I made my own kusarigama from a Japanese gardening sickle, 10 feet of toilet tank chain and a sash weight.
 
I have always carried some sort of pocket knife since I was a kid. My dad would not let me have a fixed blade. During college, my brother sent me a gerber LST which I carried and used hard for almost ten years.

Then one day in the bookstore I happened to see Daniel Winkler's knives made for the movie 'Last of the Mohicans' on the cover of BLADE magazine. I had seen that magazine before, but somehow associated it with crazy weapons oriented stuff, which held no interest for me. Anyway, I picked up the magazine, and discovered the world of custom knifemaking. It absolutely blew me away. I had no idea people were creating such beautiful functional art. I read blade monthly for several years without buying anything.

But eventually, I bought a handmade damascus hunter while on vacation in Yellowstone. That knife was supposed to be my last (that is what I told my wife to justify the cost). It was perfect, or so I thought at the time. It wasn't long before I discovered internet knife dealers, bought a few affordable pieces, and became a committed custom knife knut. I now own four wonderful Daniel Winkler/Karen Shook pieces, and about 30 other handmade knives. Most are hunters. I don't hunt, but I like that style because it is affordable, and allows one to collect some outstanding work without going bankrupt. Maybe the fact that my dad wouldn't let me have one is part of the story.

I never had a production knife collecting phase. I simply went directly for handmade (custom) knives. I collect other sorts of handmade art, but I think the knife bug is here for life. Besides, I can actually carry and use some of my collection. It is lots of fun to carry around art, instead of leaving it locked away at home, or hanging on the wall.

Para
 
It was past my 18th birthday, and I just felt like having a knife, so I bought one and the addiction begun.
It's rather odd for me to want one cause my dad is really afraid of knives.
 
Hannibal. The movie came out, so I went and read the book (still haven't seen the movie, and don't really plan on it). Harris mentioned Spyderco; I didn't know what they looked like, so I went and looked it up. Went EBaying for a Harpy; ended up with a Harpy, a Toad, and a Sharpmaker. It just went on from there.
 
I picked up knife collecting from my father. He worked in the diplomatic corps for over 30 years and always seemed to come home with a blade when he returned from assignments. He was also a big balisong fan and showed me how to do manipulations at an early age. He got me my first SAK and fixed blade when I was six (an SAK Spartan and a Puma Hunter's Pal). Still have both knives.

His tastes were quite eclectic and focused heavily into folk custom knives that were representative of the areas that he travelled in. Mine are more specific in the areas of small custom fixed blades and folders, but we still have a good time together collecting steel. Ironically I haven't embraced my Filipino heritage and gone down the balisong road myself. I figure that if I want to start flipping, I'll just ask and borrow one of Dad's.
 
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