How it all started

Joined
Dec 18, 2002
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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.
 
Hello spudley, and welcome to the forums. Those sound like nice stories, the simplistic kinds that are always special to those who lived them. As for your question, I'm just the guy who has always had some type of knife with me. I got my first SAK when I was seven, then I got a Cub Scout knife not long after. I remember pretty clearly the knife sharpening class we got in Cub Scouts, then afterwards I would sharpen every knife I could get my hands on. Back then I basically just ground down the edge and never really made it much sharper, but eventually I got a Smith's Tri hone set, the one with three stones set on a triangular block of cedar. The new ones are mounted on plastic, but I still love the cedar one because it smells so nice. After that I practiced enough that I could at least make an edge sharper than it had been, if not as sharp as I do now.

One other thing that I remember clearly was buying my first knife. I was nine, and I had managed to lose both my Cub Scout knife and my SAK. I wanted a new SAK, but while I was looking at all of the Clam Shell packages at K-Mart, an Old Timer Stockman caught my eye, and it ended up going home with me. I carried that knife for at least five years, and I still have it now. I used it to cut apart hay bales, whittle walking staffs, opening letters and everything else. Eventually I discovered Bladeforums and one hand openers, but that old stockman did the job for a lot of years and I'll always keep it to remember that time.
 
Like Roadrunner, I have always carried some sort of knife. As a teenager I used to trap muskrat during the winter months - always carried a Schrade stockman to cut up apples for bait & snacks for me! Started to also carry a small fixed blade for larger jobs like cutting stakes to anchor my traps. Pulled it once when I ran into some wild dogs but opted for a nearby tree rather than try & fight them! Just the other day I found that fixed blade down in the basement. The Schrade stockman has always been in my pocket since I bought it back around 1963-64 & gets used nowadays to cut up cardboard boxes, string, & plastic strapping at work. It's been with me through my college years, Army time, & every job I've held during my life. I have some newer EDC's but that little Schrade always winds up in my pocket!:D
 
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