Knives as gifts and memorials

[Stiletto Raggio]

chrisaloia's post regarding willing out your knives in the case of your death got me thinking about knives that are given to mark a freindship or significant event while you are still alive.

For example, I intend to give Cadet Sabres to my parents, uncle, and grandfather as a show of appreciation for their support. I'm getting a Randall for my friend at Air Force when we graduate. I got nice SAKs for my friends who enlisted and had them engraved.

I see knives as a great gift to mark friendship or important occasions. I have thoguht about it, and it is because a knife is such a personal item and it never gets out of date. Watches and jewelry are in a sililar category, as well as fine firearms, but knives just seem to be more intimate gifts. My buddies in the Navy say they carry their SAKs everywhere, and the thought that my gift is doing service rather than sitting on a desk or in a trunk somewhere gives me a sense of pride.

Knives I have received also mean a lot to me. The Boy Scout SAK I got as a Webelo, the Buck 119 Special that I got for earning Life Scout and the Randall Mod 14 that my parents gave me for high school graduation will always be special to me.

Any experiences along these lines? Significant people or events that have been marked, either by you or another person, with the gift of a knife?

 

[Ed T]

I started a thread in the Chris Reeve Forum about something similar. I lost my father, Ed Thornbrugh Jr., on August 24th, 2001 and my grandpa, Ed Thornbrugh Sr., on August 12th, 2002. I have purchased a large sebenza that I will set an item that I associate with my Dad and Granddad to carry everyday. When my turn comes, my son will receive it.

Before he died, my father gave me a hunting knife that he had had made. There are pictures of it in the shoptalk thread North Idaho Knifemakers, need help.

I am very blessed in that I have a stepfather, Dennis Brown, that has raised me as his own son. He is still alive and very well. In fact we are eagerly awaiting this hunting season.

I also am having a knife set made for my dad and I. Michael Cooper is doing a great job, I am sure. If something should happen to one of us, one of those will go to my son as well.

These knives will have a history that will pass down verbally with the knives.

Perhaps I am rambling now.....