- Joined
- Dec 18, 2002
- Messages
- 81
I just gave my son and daughter their second knives and it brought back some memories for me. I have always been around knives but I can specifically remember two instances that really stick out in my mind as events that shaped me into the knife nut I am.
When I was pretty young I had a lot of knives in my dresser at home but was not yet in the habit of carrying them. Back in those days it was not so uncommon for young boys to carry a knife and one didn't have to worry about being seen as being dangerous for having one in your pocket. The day I rememeber was at a family reunion when several of us boys went into the nearby woods to play. Soon several of my cousins began making whistles from willow branches and I wanted to get in on the fun. I asked to borrow someone's knife and they all stopped and stared at me. My older cousin, Tim, was the first to speak up, "You don't carry a knife?" I remeber going home at the end of that day and putting a knife in my pocket. One has been there since that day.
The nest event was years later when using one of my cheaper knives to skin a deer I had taken during muzzle loading season. Halfway through the job I found the knife was having a hard time cutting. Call me a fool but up to that point I thought, "Hey, steel is steel. Why break the bank to have a knife." I soon pulled out a high quality knife that I had received for my birthday and finished the job.
When I was done I could see that the edge of the knife was still keen. I began studying different steels that day and soon I rid myself of "cheap" knives and go with quality products now and am happier for it.
I know these sound like simplistic stories but to me these events stick out in my mind. There are a lot of knife owners out there who still rarely carry their knife, or carry a POS when they do. Hopefully they learn before they find out the hard way.
This whole thing begs the question...Does anyone else have similar experiences? When and where did you get the bug? Has any event changed your knife buying practices? I look forward to hearing from others.
When I was pretty young I had a lot of knives in my dresser at home but was not yet in the habit of carrying them. Back in those days it was not so uncommon for young boys to carry a knife and one didn't have to worry about being seen as being dangerous for having one in your pocket. The day I rememeber was at a family reunion when several of us boys went into the nearby woods to play. Soon several of my cousins began making whistles from willow branches and I wanted to get in on the fun. I asked to borrow someone's knife and they all stopped and stared at me. My older cousin, Tim, was the first to speak up, "You don't carry a knife?" I remeber going home at the end of that day and putting a knife in my pocket. One has been there since that day.
The nest event was years later when using one of my cheaper knives to skin a deer I had taken during muzzle loading season. Halfway through the job I found the knife was having a hard time cutting. Call me a fool but up to that point I thought, "Hey, steel is steel. Why break the bank to have a knife." I soon pulled out a high quality knife that I had received for my birthday and finished the job.
When I was done I could see that the edge of the knife was still keen. I began studying different steels that day and soon I rid myself of "cheap" knives and go with quality products now and am happier for it.
I know these sound like simplistic stories but to me these events stick out in my mind. There are a lot of knife owners out there who still rarely carry their knife, or carry a POS when they do. Hopefully they learn before they find out the hard way.
This whole thing begs the question...Does anyone else have similar experiences? When and where did you get the bug? Has any event changed your knife buying practices? I look forward to hearing from others.