Knife Memories

[GatorMedic]

Post up your significant memories that involved using a knife. Can be either present day or long ago.

It can be a heroic odyssey with the knife as a main character (used my knife to break out of my downed plane and survive in the wilderness for two years before my eventual rescue...). Or a milestone in which your knife was used as part of the adventure (backcountry hunted for ten days before killing my first ever bull elk and used my knife to quarter it with three generations of the family together...). Picture of the specific knife is always encouraged. Only requirement is the knife was actually used. Forums like these tend to naturally focus on the shopping hobby, but my hope is this thread will be continually updated with cool stories of their actual use.

 

[DocT]

One knife I will always remember is a Buck 103 Skinner. I was in the Army and I needed a good knife to slit boots and other items my issue scissors found tough to do, and I needed a good rugged knife to build shelters and other such things. I found a Buck 103 Skinner. The blade was such that it would not pierce if I were cutting a pant leg or boot off. It had a thick spine. I took a stone and a lot of elbow grease and straightened the spine and dropped the point a hair. It was the perfect knife for my uses. I built no telling how many shelters on maneuvers and skinned animals, cut seat belts, and all sorts of things with that knife. It really got a workout. Good memories.

 

[jideta]

Way back when I was smaller, I ordered one of them cheap Swiss Army copies from the comic books. Action was so tight you could barely get the blades to deploy.
My uncle, who was in the reserves, gave me some C rations and I used that cheap knife to cut one open(no, I didn't use the can opener, was more manly to use the main blade). Unfortunately, the knife closed on my hand while I was cutting open the top.
Ooops.
The eggs and hash was ok, even with the blood.
Still have a phobia about that!
The getting cut part, not the eggs and hash.

 

[OttoVon]

One knife I will always remember is a Buck 103 Skinner. I was in the Army and I needed a good knife to slit boots and other items my issue scissors found tough to do, and I needed a good rugged knife to build shelters and other such things. I found a Buck 103 Skinner. The blade was such that it would not pierce if I were cutting a pant leg or boot off. It had a thick spine. I took a stone and a lot of elbow grease and straightened the spine and dropped the point a hair. It was the perfect knife for my uses. I built no telling how many shelters on maneuvers and skinned animals, cut seat belts, and all sorts of things with that knife. It really got a workout. Good memories.

That’s a killer story of a very capable blade

 

[sabre cat]

As I sit here, I am within two feet of a full-size Griptilian. It doesn’t look like anything special. Just another plain Griptilian.

At one point in time, I felt this knife was excess to my needs and got rid of it. After a short period of time, I realized that it was a symbol of good times from my past. I don't need to tell any of you that I paid dearly to get it back.

This folder is the knife I carried on a little drive from Northern California to the beautiful state of Idaho and back. My daughter had decided on a college away from home. Time for a road trip!

The same knife was later carried again for more travels. Paired with a Case Trapper, it traveled across three states for my daughter’s wedding.

Now that I have a granddaughter, I can picture this folder at my side for another trip when all of this virus stuff gets straightened out and down to a dull roar.

EDIT: I ended up leaving the Griptilian at the motel during the wedding and reception and I regret doing that. During the reception, one of the bridesmaids said something like, "Attention all Boy Scouts. We need a knife. Which one of you has a knife we can use?" I had the Case Trapper so it got used. I found out later that she told my daughter, "Leave it to your father to be the only one with a knife."

Little did she know, I was not the only person at the reception with a blade. I noticed later in the day my Ex-wife's third husband also had a folder tucked away in his suit. Nothing real fancy, just another plain Griptilian.

 

[Tyson A Wright]

I mentioned this thread to my wife (not a knife person, but part of our vows to each other included the phrase "...valuing the things that are important to you" and we both take that seriously). I like the idea of this thread a lot. And I do use my knives, pretty much daily (either that or they keep getting dull and I keep sharpening them for no particular reason). But it seems like a lot of my stories would be things like, "there I was, with a giant stack of cardboard...", or "squinting to improve my aim, I cut the dangly bit of string off my jacket", or "and then, without hesitation, I cut the stubborn bag of chips open!" I love the artistry and beauty and technology and utility of knives, and I don't own any safe queens, but I also couldn't think of any particular good stories featuring them.

So my wife suggested that I talk about my Craftsman Peanut. This is the first knife I owned - my dad bought two of them in 1977 (when I was six), and kept one for himself and gave me one. For the last thirty-five years, it's only been on very rare occasions that I carry it (it's not that well-made - the backsprings are pretty soft, it doesn't hold an edge for long, and a peanut is just a tad too small in both blade and handle to be useful to me).

But I do have some stories for this knife. When I was a kid, I had a crappy wooden desk in my bedroom. It was very used - I believe that there were at least five or six layers of paint under the medium brown paint it wore when I owned it, and it had many nicks and dings (which is why I knew about the previous paint jobs). So I added a careful collection of my own nicks to it - on right side of the front edge, every knife I owned was used to cut a slot. So there was a series of slots of varying widths along the edge of the desk - this was how I tested a new knife. (For those wondering about it - you used to be able to go into a sporting goods store, and there'd be a bowl of Pakistani lockbacks, 2 for $5, on the checkout counter. Or someone would give you a slipjoint they saw at the thrift store for a dollar, etc.) The Craftsman Peanut was the first knife I used on that desktop. And probably the two tiniest slots in the desktop (one for each of its blades), but I must confess that I didn't keep careful notes about my experiments.

The most recent meaningful use of the peanut: it was the knife I carried on my wedding day. I liked the history of it, and it is very small, which is valuable in a pair of tuxedo pants. That was 10 years and about 3 weeks ago.

GatorMedic - thanks for starting this thread. I really like the idea of valuing use, not just acquisition, on the forums. I hope to see more stories on this thread.

Here's the peanut with a flask I gave my bride for that day (filled with Knappogue Castle):

And here it is with the Mini Grip I carry most of the time, for size comparison:

 

[MolokaiRider]

Myself and a bunch of friends were butchering a 300lb. hog to put into an Hawaiian Imu. After dispatching the animal, we need to remove and clean the cavity.

My buddy was struggling as his knife was dull, and everyone was standing around with their own knives waiting for a chance to jump in. After he tried a few of their knives, everyone turned to me (they know I’m a “knife guy”).

I handed him a Griptillian, and he went back into the cavity and promptly speared through the guts, which sprayed his entire body with pig crap.

We were all rolling on the ground laughing and he said “Damn this thing is too sharp”!

After cleaning the mess up, we boil a large 55 gallon drum of water, to pour over the hide after shaving it with disposable razors. The hot water makes it way easier to scrape the outer skin off.

Again, they were struggling with the scraping using an assortment of different knives. I pulled out a big ole Ontario Woodsman in 5160 and used the sharp spine to blow through the task.

I’m not sure why this story popped into my head after seeing this thread. I suppose I was just proud to put a few good tools to work, and show my buds that my obsessive nature of these tools can be justified.

 

[cbach8tw]

Great stories. And MolokaiRider definitely uses his knives daily!!!!

 

[Stelth]

When I was 5, I was able to coax my grandfather into letting me keep a scout knife that I found in his basement workshop. I carried that knife wherever I went...including my neighbor's house. That summer, my siblings and I were invited to go swimming in their built-in-pool (a big deal in early 1970s New Jersey). I had no pockets because I was wearing a bathing suit so I had my knife in one hand and a towel in the other hand. Our neighbor's property was very unique. They had a creek which split their lot into two parts and their pool was on the other side of the creek. They had built a narrow bridge to get from one side to the other. The sides of the creek were enclosed in wooden forms for the entire length of the property in hopes that the city would cover the creek in a concrete pipe which could then be covered with soil making the bisected property whole. As I was about to cross the bridge I tripped. My knife flew out of my hand and bounced between the slats of the railing that bordered the bridge. I immediately thought my knife was gone forever! I thought I'd never see it again but looked through the slats of the railing in the vain hope I'd see it. After a few moments, I saw my knife somehow was hanging by its bail on a single nail that was sticking out of the plywood form! It was only a foot or so below the edge. I stuck my arm through the slats and was able to retrieve it. I'll never forget that feeling of euphoria of reaching through those splintery boards and pulling up my treasured knife.

 

[jux t]

When I was 6 or 7, my grandfather gave me a display case of frost cutlery knives from his small store that went out of business. I began carrying a knife from then on, and would often sit and sift through my collection of about 30 cheap frosts.

One day, my father asks for my knife to cut something while we were repairing the front porch. Whatever was needing to be cut was apparently too much for the 3 inch fully serrated frost I had, and he handed it back, saying “this piece of $h@! won’t do, get something else”.

For some reason, that both embarrassed and insulted me a little. I remember wanting for a better knife after that, and still look for quality knives to this day.

 

[sabre cat]

Post up your significant memories that involved using a knife. Can be either present day or long ago.

It can be a heroic odyssey with the knife as a main character (used my knife to break out of my downed plane and survive in the wilderness for two years before my eventual rescue...). Or a milestone in which your knife was used as part of the adventure (backcountry hunted for ten days before killing my first ever bull elk and used my knife to quarter it with three generations of the family together...). Picture of the specific knife is always encouraged. Only requirement is the knife was actually used. Forums like these tend to naturally focus on the shopping hobby, but my hope is this thread will be continually updated with cool stories of their actual use.

GatorMedic , What about you? What are some of your memories with a knife? I know you have some.

 

[elcy7785]

I guess I could say every single time I have used my Dad’s old, old timer 80T are my fondest memories of using a knife… He passed when I was 15. I remember seeing the 80t in his toolbox when I was around 6 or 7, and at the time I also vividly remember being refused when I asked him if I could use it. He did however give me SAK and buck 110 copies at this age. I’m very glad to have inherited this knife and to have used it for so many years (I am now 40). It has been great for woodwork and hunting/camping. It is now retired, as I will be passing it on to my nephew when he turns 18.

 

[GatorMedic]

GatorMedic , What about you? What are some of your memories with a knife? I know you have some.

Off the top of my head I can't think of any truly memorable uses of my knife that stick out. Of course in my prior work in EMS/Fire I used my knife a lot, but it was typically mundane stuff--cutting a splint down to size, cutting a motorcycle jacket off a guy with a broken arm after my cheap trauma shears bit the dust, etc. Probably my favorite knife memory is actually gifting a custom Benchmade Mini Grip I had gotten made specifically for that person's birthday present with a sloth on the blade and bright pink handles because that's her favorite animal and color. At the time she didn't carry a knife, but she had shown interest in my knives. She was truly overjoyed with the knife and has carried it every day since in the past two years. Every so often she tells me stories about what she used her knife for on that day or how she showed it off to her friends/coworkers or how someone made a comment about how cool her knife is, etc. That is probably my favorite knife memory

 

[Smiling]

My favourite memories from construction site is the fact I could slice a large hamburgers in half before eating them like a gentleman.

We would order our food, and by the time it would arrive and we had break - food would be cold and low quality plastic utensils would be disfigured as they'd melt while food was still hot.
We all used our knives to eat with them, some used boxcutters. I used my SK5 Recon Tanto. I still remember washing it under water hose before meals. Favourite thing about it was the size, so I could cut large pieces in single move. After wiping it there'd still be some grease left on the blade which would prevent corrosion by the time I got home.

It was kinda dark period of my life, and this knife made my life easier back then. It sometimes made my job easier too. Usually cutting very thin plastic tubes that are used to lead wires. They'd sometimes be very large in diameter and you'd either circle them with boxcutter or risk it break if you're doing it in one move, so having a large thicker knife was handy. I also used it to scrape, cut adhesive or pry... almost everyone suffered a broken tip sooner or later while even coating never really got damaged on mine.

 

[Rich S]

My best knife memory is the day my grandfather gave me my first knife - Queen barlow.
That was nearly 70 years go and started me on this long, wonderful world of sharp, pointy things.
Rich

 

[sabre cat]

I remember having a new Buck 112 Ranger as a youngster and trying to cut a hard oatmeal cookie in two. The cookie crumbled and I sliced off the tip of my finger. That was over forty years ago. LOL. Memories. That Buck Ranger is the only one I have ever seen with black micarta scales.

That same knife I carried when hunting with my father. My father passed years ago and the knife was later stolen out of my car.
Out of all the knives I have owned, that Ranger is the only one that I truly would like to get back. I replaced it very quickly but, every time I look at the replacement my mind jumps to the fact the original was pinched by a piece of slime.

I wonder if Buck can re-blade my knife and install different scales.

 

[sabre cat]

Off the top of my head I can't think of any truly memorable uses of my knife that stick out. Of course in my prior work in EMS/Fire I used my knife a lot, but it was typically mundane stuff--cutting a splint down to size, cutting a motorcycle jacket off a guy with a broken arm after my cheap trauma shears bit the dust, etc...

Most of the members here (most knife owners, actually) would not consider that mundane.

 

[GB940Rookie]

The best knife memory I can think of would be my USMC, bought when I was fifteen in 1980. It was my only fixed blade for 25yrs. I skinned possums, rabbits, squirrels, coyotes, raccoons, hogs, deer, beaver, snakes and helped butcher a cow with it. Opened paint cans the first time I painted a house when I was 13. Dug holes, built shelters, cleaned fish and lord knows what else.

It was my first truck knife. Something that’s always been important to me.

Gifted it to my nephew after my wife bought me a RAT Cutlery RC6 for our tenth anniversary. He looked at me like I was handing him Excalibur. He knew how much it meant to me.

Thanks for the thread. Brings back great memories.

 

[MolokaiRider]

The best knife memory I can think of would be my USMC, bought when I was fifteen in 1980. It was my only fixed blade for 25yrs. I skinned possums, rabbits, squirrels, coyotes, raccoons, hogs, deer, beaver, snakes and helped butcher a cow with it. Opened paint cans the first time I painted a house when I was 13. Dug holes, built shelters, cleaned fish and lord knows what else.

It was my first truck knife. Something that’s always been important to me.

Gifted it to my nephew after my wife bought me a RAT Cutlery RC6 for our tenth anniversary. He looked at me like I was handing him Excalibur. He knew how much it meant to me.

Thanks for the thread. Brings back great memories.

Testament on how well designed those old KaBar knives are too!

 

[willard0341]

After receiving what I believe was a buck 102 from dad in the late 70s I got dropped off at grandmas house. I was wondering around outside with my flapped sheath fixed blade when the neighbor lady asked to see it, then asked if I wanted her to “sharpen” it.
She put it on a bench grinder and absolutely ruined the knife. I don’t think she was qualified to sharpen a lawn mower blade.
I am laughing now thinking about how angry my father was when he saw it. He didn’t take it out on me though. I can’t remember the ladies name but her horse was named “Rainey”. Not exactly a SERE school story