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In the beginning...

My apologies for resurrecting this very old thread.

As a new member, I was browsing through some of the old postings, when I ran across this old gem. There a probably a large number of members that have joined during the seven months that have elapsed since the last update.

Many of you might want to add something here.
Let me know if your story is similar to mine.

Knives were always a basic if minor part of the activities I enjoyed as a kid. Then there was that one trip (I must have been about 16 at the time) when my friends and I decided try an extended (4 day) backpacking trip.

The location was a ridge in the Catskills that some of had been hunting on a few times before. The top elevation was about 3000' feet above ground level and accessible via a rough jeep trail. I had been up during the winter and had found the trail relatively easy going with very nice scenery and plenty of wildlife along the way. This time though, we were going up during early summer, and almost as an afterthough we stopped at our local army navy store to pick up a couple of cheap machetes to help us if we hit some underbrush (they might have been American Camper I'm not sure).

The first mile was relatively easy, but then we starting hitting some pretty heavy undergrowth - out came the machetes. It wasn't long before both machetes were out of service (bent beyond all recognition if I remember correctly). We had alot of fun, but we never did make it up that trail; and, I came back determined to buy the best machete/trail knife I could find.

That was about 200 knives ago and I am still looking for that perfect trail knife.

(expect delivery of my Busse Battle Mistress later this year - this could be it! - this could be it!)

 
My dad is a gun/hunting/knife user from way back. I was introduced to guns and knives at about age six. I really like guns too, but my interest in knives just took over. My dad even has 2 Lawndale, CA Loveless knives! But now he always asks my advice about knives, and thats pretty darn cool
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I'm not a genetic knife-knut like some of you
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I just always killed time in the little tourist town of Solvang, CA while my wife did her shopping and the only shops there that held any interest at all for me were the bookshop and knife shop (Nordic Knives).

Early this year, my SAK classic gave up the ghost and as cheap as they are, I hated to replace it with the same, since I found I used the knife blade a lot and hated 1) how quickly it dulled and 2) the way it'd close on me sometimes while cutting heavy material, and so the Nordic Knives folks gave me a rundown on the state of the art.

Bought just a simple off-shore serrated keychain liner-lock followed soon by a nicer plain edge Kershaw liner-lock (already found I didn't like serrated vs plain edge), and when I won the office lottery, I decided to reward myself with a Benchmade 330, and the G-10 scales, titanium liners and ATS-34 blade got me hooked into "tech" knives.

Now it's just 5 knives later (Spyderco, another Kershaw, 2 CRKTs and a BM...hey I'm just a babe in the woods compared to most of you) and waiting to get a BM 710 soon.
 
Thanks N2S for bringing this to the top. I got started when I PCSed here to my current duty station, and worked with civilians my first time in the USMC. These guys showed me a Buck Crosslock and how to open it real fast, and where to get one...
Needless to say that night I bought one and a Gerber EZ Out
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I've been hooked ever since then.
PR

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Civilian "Military" fans unite!!!


 
When I was about 4 or 5 my father gave me a pocket knife, single blade, black jigged bone or plastic look-a-like, and a bail. While home in the summer, he also let me carry his hunting knife around while playing--after a good safety lesson. My 19 year old son has that hunting knife now--a Western hunter dad carried during Korea. Later I worked with my father and grandfather cutting meat for the freezer and frozen food lockers. Dad also took me hunting and made sure I had a good hunting knife. I took that interest into the military, and now that I am retiring with 23 years of commissioned service in the Army, I may have more time to spend on this endeavor.

Bruce Woodbury
 
I got into knives probably from my dad. He was a policeman and he had a drawer of some old junk knives. I used to look at them alot, and when I was 15, I baught a SAK Climber. Carried that knife all thru high school, used a lot in electronics class. By the time I was done with it, one handle scale was cracked, the main blade was sharpened down to like 50% and the scissors were pretty much shot from cutting wire. I left that knife at the MEPS station in Detroit when I went to boot camp and purchased a SAK Ranger to replace it. After that, the madness just increased.

Does anyone else feel naked when they can't carry one of their favorite knives? Thank the Easter Bunny for the LM Micra on the keychain.
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Anybody seen the bactine, please?!?!?!?

 
Great thread...my dad was a Butcher by trade early in his life so he had an appreciation for a good knife and sharpening steel before I was born. Went hunting and fishing with Grandpa and he dressed whatever we got. When we went camping (the only vacation we could afford) my Dad had this big bowie style knife he bought in 1962 that said Soligen Germany on the blade and that was my first exposure to a knife. It was so big it scared me, I own that knife today. My first real knife I remember owning was an Uncle Henry Trapper. I broke one of the blades right in half using it for a screwdriver. Purchased a Buck next. Always liked having a decent pen knife to clean my fingernails with. A few years ago a friend of mine bought a Benchmade Tanto...first tactical knife of its kind I had ever seen. Made me green. Always wanted a good auto. Purchased an Ox Forge at the MO State Fair under the counter. Found out Benchmade made good autos. Internet made me aware of Microtechs about a year ago...big mistake...I am now a Microholic, with the Brend mirror versions being my favorite. Turned my buddy with the Benchmade Tanto on to Microtechs...he is showing the symptoms too. Wait till he sees my Brend SOCOM!!!
 
I can't remember my first knife. I'll have to ask my dad. My grandfather made his own knives and chisels for carving native art (some of his work is in storage at the Smithsonian) and he made some for hunting. My father has had and used knives all his life for hunting and fishing. So you could say knives are genetic for me. My father has given me most of the knives in my collection so even though some members have called them pos knives I'm keeping them. They have served me well. He does have a Randall from the sixties though, there must be something sentimental because he won't give it up. I gave him a CS Laminated Tanto when it first came out and hoped it would loosen his grip on it but nope. Nada. He was into Japanese swords at the time, I had a Japanese friend in HS who displayed family swords, and the CS Tanto was all I could afford.

I was satisfied with what I have but after joining BladeForums I've been getting an itch for finely made but useful knives now.
 
Like the Senator,my knife interest was an outgrowth of gun interest.I shoot in a weekly pistol league and started spending a lot of weekends at gunshows.I bought a Spyderco Endura,just because it was the tactically cool thing to do among pistoleros.
The fire was lit! Knives are so much more interesting and less restricted.When I started out,they were a lot cheaper,too.
As my interest grew to customs and semi-customs, this is no longer true.I think this happens with a lot of knife people.They start off with an inexpensive piece and nature takes over.that is why I think we owe a debt of gratitude to the intro-level knife companys who keep the big machine fed
David

AKTI# A000150
 
I've always been interested in weapons, all kinds. From brass knuckles to fuel/air explosives and everything in between. Always an avid shooter, my first interest in blades was in my teens reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan and John Carter Warlord of Mars. First knife was a Buck 120 and I still have it. Since that time my interest has pretty much been on handguns, then I realized I better have something to start backing it up and started studying Ed Parker's Kempo Karate. This peeked my interest in cutlery. I bought one of Benchmades first CQC7's after reading one of Marcinko's Books and it's been downhill since then, buying, selling, and now an hour or two every day on BladeForums. Somebody stop me!

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"May you live in interesting times"

AKTI - A000389
 
I can remember my first knife. It was Christmas of 1949, when I was 7. My 11 year old brother had just gotten the first Swiss Army knife that I had ever seen and he gave me his Barlow knife. It started my love affair with knives, which was then heated up by seeing "The Iron Mistress". Ever since then, I have loved Bowie Knives. They and the Colt's revolver are to American culture what the "Samurai Sword" is to Japanese culture, a cultural icon.

Thinking aboput it, I do remember my dad always carried a small penknife. The main blade was ok sharp, but the small one was a scalpel. He was also an excellent carver and took great pride in his carving knives, all of which had an extensive family history.

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Walk in the Light,
Hugh


 
I was a Cub Scout when I got my first knife. Then Dad's best friend (USAF PJ) and rescuer, Tony slipped me a USAF rescue switch blade and later a USAF Survival Knife. Years later Dad gave me Tony's Randall and the ball was out of control...
 
My first knife was given to me by my dad, but then he took it back and dulled the crap out of it and gave ti back saying it was safer for me
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For some reason, ever since, knives are just TOO cool for me.

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"All of our knives open with one hand, in case you're busy with the other"
<OVAL OFFICE JOKE>
 
I honestly can't remember what got me going on knives, but i was begging for the first one I got at 7, so it didn't start after i got the knife. Now I have the money to buy my own and all hell is breaking loose. The knives for sale forum isn't helping either!

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Just because I talk to myself doesn't mean I'm crazy. What's wrong with getting a second opinion?
 
I seem to remember getting a knife for Christmas,one year, from my brother. But I don't know exactly when it was. I do remember when I was about 7 I was at a garage sale with my parents when I saw a bag of 5 pocket knives for a buck. The only knife I remember in detail was a 2" switch blade with white scales. I sold that knife to my brother at a markup of 150%. I am still a died-in-the-wool
capitalist pig too.

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Joshua
But doom'd and devoted by vassal and lord.
MacGregor has still both his heart and his sword!
-MacGregor's Gathering, Sir Walter Scott
 
Joshua:

Oh, the moon's on the lake
And the mist's on the brae
And the Clan has a name
That is nameless by day.
The signal for fight,
Which from monarchs we drew
Is heard but by night
In our vengeful "Halloo!"

If they rob us of name
And pursue us wi' beagles,
Gi' their roofs to the flame
And their flesh to the eagles
Ther gather, gather, gather
Gather, gather, gather,
While there's leaves in the forest
And foam on the river
MacGregor, despite them,
Shall flourish forever

From "MacGregors' Gathering", the Clan Gregor Song

Gregorach!
 
I've carried a pocket knife since I was 8 or 9 because dad did. I don't even remember my first knife. From about jr high it was an SAK untill I discoverd one hand opening blades. I definitely feel naked when I don't have one with me, which is only in a courthouse or at a music concert.
 
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