Knives you wanted as a kid ?

Hickory n steel

Hickory n steel

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What non junk knives did you want as a kid, and did you ever own them ?.
I'm sure many of us have had our love of knives since we were kids, and likely lusted after many knives.
Now especially if you grew up in the 80's or later where BUDK type catalogs allowed you exposure to this crap without having to go to the flea market, most of what you wanted and or owned was probably not good.
The junk knives were a dime a dozen, so I'm only interested in the better stuff that you wanted as a kid.

For me the 2 knives I wanted most were a Buck 110 and a KA-BAR mk2, I got my beloved Buck 110 as a highschool graduation gift from my mom, but the KA-BAR mk2 is just a bit too big for me to edc so I still haven't gotten one yet. ( it would have to be an ARMY marked version though )
I also knew I wanted a real Swiss army knife , and finally got myself a recruit last year and tinker very early this year.
 
I grew up in between two small towns in Wisconsin. There was only one store within travelling distance for a group of young boys. If we walked through our neighbor's yard into the woods, through the woods, and through two corn fields we would come out behind the first, and at that time only, Gander Mountain. About two miles past Gander Mountain was a dam that went across the Fox River that you could walk out onto and fish.

As kids we'd make this trek in the morning, stopping at Gander to fill our bait buckets and pick up any tackle we might need for the day(as well as some of the bulk candy that they sold). I remember pretty regularly spending copious amounts of time admiring the Buck knife display. They may have sold other brands, I don't remember. I do remember that as a young man nothing had the mystique of a Buck knife. In fact, every folding knife was held to the Buck knife standard as in "It's nice, but it ain't no Buck knife." Buck knives in my mind were either a 110 or stockman. I'm sure there were others in the display, but those were the ones that had us drooling.
 
Danke42 said:
I was a kid before brand obsession was a thing.

A knife was a knife and you were happy to have one.
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I have spoken to men that are well into their 80s that remember which brands of knives were most respected when they were kids and remember their fathers having brand loyalties that went back to their childhoods. I'm going to go ahead and congratulate you on your long lifespan. I'm guessing that you're somewhere north of 100 years old? Very impressive indeed.
 
When i was a kid i wanted a switchblade, and a good balisong. I ended up with an italian stiletto and a benchmade 45
 
Cory Hess said:
I have spoken to men that are well into their 80s that remember which brands of knives were most respected when they were kids and remember their fathers having brand loyalties that went back to their childhoods. I'm going to go ahead and congratulate you on your long lifespan. I'm guessing that you're somewhere north of 100 years old? Very impressive indeed.
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"Thanks" sonny.
 
As a kid, I really wanted one of those wood handled daggers made in Pakistan that they sold at the used furniture store.
They had all these wondrous, cheap knives in a box under the counter. All us kids went there to buy our knives...so I got a few of them.

It was great, because the price was listed at $12, but you'd go in there and say "Oh, all I have is 10 dollars", and they'd sell it to you.

They also had those decks of cards with pictures of naked women on them, which was really handy for us 12 and 13 year olds, as the internet had not yet been invented, and the convenience stores were too close to following the law to sell porno mags to kids.

But that used furniture store would sell us porno cards and knives, at very reasonable prices! :D
 
I always wanted a fallkniven s1 . To me at the time it was perfection. I still don't have one but I got a nl4 which in my opinion is the same but a little better
 
Victorinox is a name I trust because of my grandpa's love of the vic classic which he would use, abuse, and replace as needed.
Channellock is another name / manufacturer that I trust because of my grandpa, I've got his original CHAMPION DEARMENT channellocks from the 1930's which I used just yesterday to replace the float on our swamp cooler.

You may not have experienced much brand loyalty as a kid, but it has existed for a very long time.
 
When i was about 11 or so, my dad bought me a "buck knife." A cheap, pakistani knock off of a Buck 110.

From that point on, I really wanted a REAL 110. but the purchase could not be justified as I "already had a knife just like it." Booo....

I stopped caring about knives for a few years. Wandered off into bicycles, guns, tools, etc... then came back to knives. One day i was carrying that Paki-110 in the woods, and used it to strip some twigs off a branch, and the back lock snapped on me. I promptly buried that knife in the woods, went out and bought my REAL 110.... and abut a half dozen in the couple of years since...
 
I loved SAKs as a kid and owned a bunch, thanks to having to replace them after they were lost. They had a great combination of being a useful cutting tool and being interesting mechanically. Though my interest in knives has changed since then, I still gravitate towards good cutters and unique mechanisms.
 
stabman said:
Oh hell yes!
Due to MacGyver, I wanted a genuine Swiss Army Knife really badly; my dad gave me a full sized one made by Victorinox when I was around...9 years old, I think it was.

That would probably be the first "Name Brand" knife I yearned for.
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I had a few vic's as a kid, a card light, my grandmas classic as well as my grandpa's last classic ( her pink one was unused so I put the yellow scales off my grandpa's on it and carry it often ), and a Gardner, but they weren't what I thought of as Swiss army knives.
In my mind the iconic Swiss army knife was something like the tinker.
I'm not sure why my grandpa loved the miniscule little classic so much, but what most people attached to their keys he carried in his pocket as his one cutting tool.
 
Hickory n steel said:
I had a few vic's as a kid, a card light, my grandmas classic as well as my grandpa's last classic, and a Gardner, but they weren't what I thought of as Swiss army knives.
In my mind the iconic Swiss army knife was something like the tinker.
I'm not sure why my grandpa loved the miniscule little classic so much, but what most people attached to their keys he carried in his pocket as his one cutting tool.
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Yeah, the little Classic, geeze, I don't even really consider them a knife.
I guess they technically are, but I have never counted them in the number of knives I own.
I still have a few somewhere around here.
 
I thought the Gerber daggers were the shiz when I was a kid. As an adult I've managed to scrounge together several vintage Guardians and a Mark I. I also picked up a Mark II not too long ago, but it's one of the new ones, as the prices of nice vintage ones have gone a bit crazy. I did find a repro original style leather sheath for it, though, to replace the "meh" sheath it came with. In my 20s I thought the original LMF was pretty cool, but I never picked one up for some reason. I recently scored a nice one on ebay with original sheath. :thumbsup:

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I thought those ridiculous Hibben-style fantasy knives, the ones with multiple blades and stuff, were the coolest thing ever when I was a kid. 12 year old me would've loved BudK.
 
I would say as far back as I can remember, a red SAK (of any variation, but particularly with magnifying glass), Buck 110, and "Rambo III" were the knives I lusted after. I was gifted said SAK (with magnifying glass, don't remember the model name, I'm sure most of you do though :D) with a broken blade tip in first grade, and took hold of dads Rambo knife shortly after.

There was also an old Kershaw around the house, not sure of the model, with gnarly serrations on the spine and a hollow handle with a "survival kit" inside it. I always liked that knife, the sheath had "survival stuff" in it too, if I remember correctly.
 
I just remembered that when I was born there was no Pakistan !!
I used my knives EDC and wood carving .Yes lots of kids carried pocket knives for what ever they were needed. Even in the city ! As I grew up it also became a food preparer
veggies, the roast chicken etc. By high school butchering and being able to plan, cook and serve a complete meal for dozen people As a sideline I became a fencer ! Then a metallurgist , so I knew blades from one end to another. It's been fun !
 
As a kid I wanted a Japanese sword of some type more than anything. These were largely the first bladed objects I fell in love with. Of course back then I didn't know much. I knew that the good swords were manufactured in a traditional sense and could be super expensive. At the same time while I knew that the cheap Katanas you found in souvenir shops were not Shogun worthy, I didn't really know all about different steels and heat treats and thought "a sharpened metal bar is a sharpened metal bar."

I lusted after my friend's Microtech auto when I was quite young too (I think it was a Socom) The father of a group of friends had a Spyderco I wanted too as he knew I was interested in knives and wanted to hear about it. He would always tell me how amazing Spydero knives were which made me want to very badly.

My first really good knife was a buck 110 I got for my Bar Mitzvah which my father promptly stole from me.
 
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