How old were you.......

I was around twenty and in the USMC. I was an airplane mechanic, so I was on a crew to go retrieve one of our birds that went down on a private ranch in the hills of northern Arizona close to Flagstaff. We were smugling booze during our daily chopper runs into town, and I had some Black Label in my coffee cup while sitting around the camp fire at night. We were issued bayonets, and I thought it would be a good idea to practice my quick draw after having a few drinks. I nearly severed off my left index finger while holding the sheath as I pulled out the bayonet. The XO brought it up during a meritorious promotion board, and they were all laughing and joking about it.:o
 
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Hindsight said:
I believe I heard that story at Knob Creek this year. Hope you can make it to the next show.
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LOL I'm sure you definitely heard that. I think it's my pops favorite story to tell. I still have the bad luck of cutting myself to this day lol. 3 knob creeks ago I was talking to josh picked up a scrapivore ran my finger over it looked down to see the blood lol. luckily I still have the same pain tolerance and didn't make a sound. wiped the blade and put it back lol. I think everyone still caught me though :( I made it to blade and knob creek last year but pops and the older brother were slackers. of coarse they go to the one I have to work at lol. hopefully I'll be at the next knob creek and blade and I look forward to meeting you!
 
Garth Reckner said:
Can you imagine if you tried that today? I can remember sitting in class and guys cleaning their nails with pocket knives and no one even thought to care. Times sure have changed. Now my kids would get sent home if they wore a t-shirt with a picture of a knife on it.

Garth
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...... I use to take my Sako 22/250 to school with some regularity. Leave it with a teacher during the day (not because I was not trusted but I was worried about it getting lost) and then go home to a mate's place on a different bus to spend the afternoon or weekend hunting. Back the next day and home on my bus that afternoon. Knives wer very common and most all the boys would have a folder in a pouch on their belt.
 
grunt soldier said:
I think I got my first knife when I was 8 and my pops took it outside stuck in a crack in the sidewalk and broke the tip off. then he ran the edge on the concrete until it was stupid dull lol. when I was like 10 he finally gave me a black jack mamba pocket knife and didn't make me dull it. that was my Christmas present. 10 minutes later opening another Christmas present I cut my finger down to the bone lol. I got up and walked off with out saying a word as to not lose my new blade. washed it off good in the bathroom and wrapped it all up. Pops immediately came in after me and said " you already cut yourself didn't you lol" we managed to hide that from mom though and I learned my lesson quickly
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.... LOL... one of my Godson's was visiting with his parents about a month ago and got well bitten by one of my ZT350s ... we had to keep him away from his mother for a bit while we got it patched up.... being the observant Sicilian she is she just made a little comment over lunch about the dressing on a finger.... ;)
 
Andy the Aussie said:
.... LOL... one of my Godson's was visiting with his parents about a month ago and got well bitten by one of my ZT350s ... we had to keep him away from his mother for a bit while we got it patched up.... being the observant Sicilian she is she just made a little comment over lunch about the dressing on a finger.... ;)
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Lol it happens :) it's good for you! it just made me respect the knives even more. my moms probably noticed too but never said anything to me lol. she probably figured I was already embarrassed enough :)
 
I got my first chinese 420js folder (with finger cutouts and all) when I was in the 5th grade, age 11-12. It was terrible, but I didn't know better. around 7th grade I got a leatherman folder, one of the simple originals, and have carried a leatherman of some sort ever since (15 years, and likely to my grave). I didn't get my first fixed blade until I was out of high school at 18/19, a benchmade nimravus. My first bussekin was a bandicoot (or was it a battle rat?) at somewhere in the 19/20 range, and then things quickly spiraled out of control.
 
I was 7 years old when my dad gave me a Buck 112. I still have and sometimes carry that knife still to this day. It is one of the knives I will never sell. Come to think of it all the knives I would never sell have been gifts anything I have got myself I could easily part with if the need came up.
 
I'm sure I had a pocket knife by the time I was five, but I didn't get my first Busse until I was in my mid 30s.

I don't think I ever paid more than about $30 for a knife until I read an article in American Survival Guide (July 1996) recommending the Benchmade ACFK and Busse Steel Heart II as the best folding and fixed blade knives, respectively. I got the Benchmade shortly after that, but still had to think about the Busse for a year or so, but finally ordered one after reading Ron Hood's ASG article about the Battle Mistress (March 1998). And then I had to wait another year after I ordered it until I finally got the knife.
 
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I started carrying my dads old knife years ago. When I was 7-8. I bought my first new knife a year ago at 14, and been addicted ever since
 
I started carrying a 3 bladed stockman when I was about 10 or 11, but in Texas this was completely typical back in the 1950's. It was also common to see me with a single barrel 20 guage shotgun across my handlebars pedaling down the road to go dove hunting when I was 12 or 13.

God help me if I had ever misbehaved with either one of them. .... and I cleaned all my own fish and small game with that cheap stockman.

Things have sure changed since those days. I live right next to a 2200 acre wooded park, and have never seen any of the neighborhood kids venture in their. Their "mommas" are afraid. You could not have kept my brothers and I out of there. The fact that there are coyotes, deer, bobcats and an occasional black bear would have only increased the allure. I think that modern kids are deprived.
 
Garth Reckner said:
Thinking it may be time to get my son a knife. I mean he has knives that I have put up for him but he is getting into the outdoors and I am thinking of giving him something to actually carry while we are out in the woods. So my question is ....

How old were you when you were first able to carry "your" knife?

Garth
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I got my first "real" knife at 11 (I had SAKs and fishing knives when I was younger.) I wasn't really allowed to have it, though. I had to hide it from my parents and when they found it, they were mad.

It's actually a cool story... My brother worked at a Harley Davidson shop as a manager/mechanic at the time and he took me to work with him one day. There was a mechanic there that had a mean looking pocket knife that he let me use when I asked. My brother taught me how to use it safely and I had tons of fun cutting stuff around the shop At the end of the day, he told me to look around the shop and pick out anything I wanted to take home as a gift. I went straight for the knife rack and picked out an awesome black Harley Davidson folding knife. My brother helped me loosen the pivot and taught me how to flick the blade out. I felt so cool with that thing clipped to my pocket.

Sadly, my parents took it away after I nicked myself a tiny bit. I didn't see the knife again and considered it gone forever.

Last year, I was going through some old stuff of mine at my brothers house, and I found the knife! I have it in a wood knife case with my other favorite folders. I'll have to take a picture when I get home.

When you do give him a proper knife, make it special. Let him pick it out, teach him how to use it and maybe take him out somewhere where he can have fun using it for a while.

Best of luck, and please post about the outcome!

ETA: here are a few pictures of my first real knife. Pretty bad #%^ first knife if you ask me.

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I was 7 or 8, as soon as i got my totemchip card from cub scouts. Official scout knife.
My third grade teacher, Mrs Greyson gave me flack for sharpening my pencil at my desk with it. I calmly whipped out the totemchip card and told her i'd clean up the shavings.:D

Questioning authority since 1978:thumbup:
 
I was around 7. I'm in my 20s now. My dad gave me a swiss army knife and told me to always carry it when I wasn't in school (school was and still is overly paranoid). This was around the time when stories of kids getting ropes and neck ties wrapped around their necks started popping up in the media (probably should have gotten me a quicker releasing folder or a fixed blade). If nothing else, kids should have knives to cut themselves free if they need to. I didn't end up picking out my own knife until I was 17 and I deeply wish I had started getting into knives earlier.
 
I was about 7. I used to sneak my dads Swiss Army knife into my pocket when I was 6 so technically 6. At a gun show 2 months or so after my 7th birthday, he bought a case for his sig p220 that he actually sold later that day, and the case came with a small folder that said friends of the NRA on it. He gave it to me and told me that as long as I'm responsible he would allow me to carry the knife. He also made the comment that he knew I'd been carrying his Swiss Army knife and that he didn't care and I could keep it. He wasn't to much of a knife guy himself. He Carries an osprey I got him for his 60th and that's all. Me and my brother gave him more than enough knives to look at. My brother's (he's 32) collection consists of about 250 blades including a joe kious and a blade gill hibben made custom for my dad and brother ( my dad knew him personally, pretty cool huh :). mine consists of about 70. Anyways. It wasn't until I was about 10 that I really got into blades. I had received a limited edition Winchester knife box from my gramps every year for Christmas, but never bought a good folder to carry. (When your that age, Legos are the center of the world and also the money eaters haha) I bought a kershaw something (can't remember what it was) and from there on I've been a blade guy. Now I have tons of great folders including a discontinued orange kershaw packrat, Strider Sng, 4 al mar blades, and a few other good Kershaws.
 
Ill never forget the exact day! When i was 7 my dad got me and my brother a SAK, A bow with arrows, a wrist rocket, and a daisey BB gun. It was the best Xmas ever! I cut myself deep on xmas morning opening up every blade and tool at the same time, despite my fathers warnings. It could have used stitches but i begged my dad to tape me up and let me play. I then learned to shoot my Bow left handed because of the cut. I kept that knife on me everywhere.

Its funny because these days at 7 i dont think i could trust giving my kids knives, BB guns, real bow and arrows and then telling them to go play lmao. Even though me and my brother broke every rule we could, we still were always very careful and pops knew that.

I dont think there is an age, I mean there is no assigned number. I think it depends on the child and how responsible they are.

My daughter is 7, just turned 7 last month, but she has her very own Rodent 3. It belongs to her, but i keep it locked up. she can use it when we are camping and im directly watching her but thats it. For now anyway, until she shows she is more responsible and generally less clumsy lmao. Both my kids have a small folder as well. son is 4. It is just a keychain sized buck folding knife but he loves using it by the fire.

I say start them on proper form and safety young and then wait until you feel they are ready on an individual level. IMHO anyway.
 
My father gave me a small pen knife at age 6 which I carried in the house or while riding in the truck, but official outdoors carry was at age 7 when my grandfather gave me a larger folder with a leather sheath to carry on my belt while camping off of Red Lake in Ontario (about 30miles into the bush by water-every year for 30+ years). My grandfather was a gunsmith/antique rifle dealer/Alaskan hunt guide, so he wanted to make sure his grandchildren had the tools necessary protect themselves and complete tasks in the wilderness, therefore the knife (same model for each grandchild) came at age 6-7 and the rifle (.22) came at age 9-10.
 
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