Knives that influenced YOU

[Pickergrinner]

Some really cool knives and stories here. Thank you for sharing.

Here's one more from me. This is the first knife I really lusted for. I had seen it at the local surplus store and wanted it bad. My parents actually gave it to me for my 12th birthday. A lot of clip point blade for a 12 year old, but my dad was good about teaching safety and responsibility.

This blade was no doubt influenced by a movie at the time that had this ex special forces dude using only his wits and a large hollow handle knife to battle a mean-spirited small town sherrif
It was also influence by a book called My Side of the Mountain...I bet many of you have read it.

The blade represented all kinds of possibilities although I mostly just whittled wood and mucked up the edge on that 1/2 Norton stone that my dad somehow liberated from his work.

 

[waverave]

1970-ish Case two blade peanut...wish I still had that one.

 

[Tommy-Chi]

I was in Cub Scouts and had a pocket knife but it did not influence my interests today.

Starting in HS I began to read a lot. I read a lot of Soldier of Fortune and gun related magazines. It is this 20yr span that caused me to get back in to knives to purchase a Randall Model 14 around '93. I did not start to collect knives until 2017, but all of the interest lay at the foundations of what it is to be an infantryman and bushcrafter.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

BM 970sts

They’ve all influenced me. Every knife for the most part has influenced the next knife I bought to one extent or another.

The first knife I ever spent my own money on was a Schade Old Timer 51OT. It was the first knife I learned to open one handed when one handed knives weren’t even a thing yet. This influenced my buying habits for the next 40 years. It was after the 51OT that I realized I’d always have st least 1 one hand opener in my pocket at all times.

This led to the search for the best one hand opener I could afford on a modest mechanic’s hourly rate. Eventually I found an article about Chris Carracci in one of the knife magazines starting to pop up. I think it was Steven Dick’s magazine Tactical Knives. I read the article which had his style of knife fighting being discussed in all the BB sites on knives found Chris’ forum here which is now in the archives.

The knife that influenced me was the Caricci/Benchmade AFCK (Avanced Folding Combat Knife).

My original gen AFCK, even a little beat up it's still beautiful.

This was and is still to this day one of the best SD knives ever made. This influenced me the most till my first custom fixed blade, custom folder, then my first Sebenza and so on and so on.

 

[Halfneck]

Back in the late 70s, early 80s it was my Dad's Buck 110. All I owned were a few Case & Schrade slipjoints. The Buck 110 seemed like something magical to me.

Then as a High School kid in the 80s I saw my first Butterfly knife at a local knife store. Scrimped/Scrounged/Stole the money to get that Pacific Cutlery butterfly knife. Then ended up getting it confiscated by the cops the next year...

Late 80s I was in a tobacco store and they had a unique knife I'd never seen. It had a pocketclip, opening hole, and a serrated hawkbill blade. It was so weird to me it sat in a box for a while. My love affair with Spyderco began.

Mid 90s I'm on my own and I'd been reading Fighting Knives magazine and the book Rogue Warrior. Spent the most money yet and ordered both the Benchmade 970 and AFCK. Sadly I sold the AFCK, but the BM 970 went with me into the Army. Ended up stripping the clip out after the Army and sent it to Benchmade. They replaced the scales and sharpened it. Still have that knife.

Since then my tastes have changed, but the above knives made a formative impression on me. I've since come to appreciate less expensive knives like the Opinel & various Moras. Tactical stuff is nice, but no longer really necessary. BUT I almost always have a Spyderco or Benchmade pocket knife on me, with an occasional Kershaw thrown in to round things out.

 

[Guitarly]

The first one to make an impression on me was a SAK, not sure of the model, that my uncle posted back to me when I was probably 8 or 9 from the first Gulf War. I’ve carried that knife pretty regularly since then.

After that knife I had lots of pretty low grade knives with a couple of budget Gerber, Schrade, etc... mixed in. It wasn’t until about a year ago that I really got the bug and bought myself a Benchmade Bushcrafter. The S30V was a real learning curve with sharpening. It wasn’t until a I got a wicked edge with diamond stones that I was able to sharpen it.

Next up was a Benchmade Bugout. It’s my new go to knife and I think it’s about perfect for EDC.

 

[SeppukuSamurai]

First knife was a souvenir from Yellowstone when I was 8 or 9 around 1979. Piece of crap straight out of Germany!

Second knife is a small Western fixed blade my dad gave me within the next year as we got more into trout fishing. Great knife...

Anybody else still hanging on to their formative knives?

Jeez, I don't even know where to begin.

I can't think of a single knife that "started it all," but I can remember going to the local flea markets with my friends and family and instantaneously being drawn to the knife/sword stall, featuring 4,000 knives made from paperclips in India. I was absolutely enchanted by the blades. They immediately invoked images of warriors of old, blacksmiths, the works. I was hooked. I still have many of my first China/India flea market blades hanging in my home gym. They bring back really fond memories.

I think that some of us possess a, modernly antiquated, warriors spirit. I have always been viscerally drawn to blades, guns, weapons. I love them. They love me.

 

[gazz98]

1. My Grandpas Barlow. My first knife.
2. Rambo: First Blood bowie. It came out when I was 12. I thought the knife was awesome (actually, still is). I had one of the cheesy, hollow handle POS but I remember going out in the wilderness (ie. backyard) and surviving. Surprisingly, I always made it home in time for dinner.
3. Dungeons and Dragons. The good, old, pen and paper game. Again, early 80s. Looking at the handbooks and pretending to wield knives, daggers, and swords while killing monsters and saving big, boobed maidens probably had some influence on me. To this day, I still like bladed weapons and boobs.

 

[RBid]

Grandpa’s Buck 110 was the big one. He always had it on hand, and it was natural that he took it everywhere. He was very influential to me. When I asked him about his knife, he gave me a gentle smile and said having one was just part of growing up and being a man. It was very matter of fact, and it just seemed to make sense, since he used it so much.

That lead to me proudly getting my first SAK in the Scouts.

Later in life, I lost my SAK and picked up a Kershaw Clash. Half serrated. God, I learned a LOT about what I don’t like in knives from that thing.