Knives you wanted as a kid ?

When I was a young Hillbilly and the carnival came to town, the had the Draglines. These were the crank operated "cranes" like they have today in nearly every store you go in.
This was back in 65 to 67 and they cost a dime a turn. I remember dragging a Camillus fishing type knife over to the chute. I was in hog heaven. I'm sure I got a few, but where are they today?
I would love to have one of those knives from my childhood.
 
Jack_Burton said:
I've loved knives for basically as long as I can remember. Got bit by the knife bug at like age 5 and have had one of some kind or another since at least age 8. Being a child in the materialistic & decadent 1980s could put an adolescent's brain into dopamine overload. First time I saw 'First Blood' I KNEW I had to have the hollow-handled survival knife. Thru my childhood, my friends & I had several and as I recall, ALL were total junk that basically had no edge nor could it keep one. (not to mention the sheaths were a joke as I'm sure most of you know). I cared not tho, they had a survival kit inside and a FAIL plastic compass on the pommel and they aided in our fantasies when building forts and playing army guys to defend the neighborhood from Communists. That's all that mattered to me. :D

I also recall having quite the love affair w/ Randall (fawned over the magazine adverts and articles for hours) and early Cold Steel advertising. (when CS was still all US made, those were the days)

Always wanted switchblades too but, never could find them anywhere. closest I ever got to one was the cheesy switchblade comb that was sold in drugstores back then. :rolleyes:
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I think the Rambo movies had a really big impact on a lot of us who spend time in the woods and fantasize about being like that. Need a compound bow too with explosive arrow tips as well.... Funny how now I link many of my knife fantasies with movies, But I think that's what movies are all about. Red Dawn..... communists and taking over the US....

My brother in law showed me a couple Randall's in the mid-80's, I HAD to own a few!! Looking at old Gun Digest and Shooter's Bibles, you could see ads for Randall and Moran knives.

Hickory n steel said:
Hmm, that thing reminds me of a Parker Cutlery knife saw at an " antique " store recently.
Not sure if they were actually good knives, but I see lots of pictures on Google of 80's made in Japan Parker knives and a lot of them actually look like a well made knife.
The problem is that I've seen some frost knives of the same era that looks good as well, but I know from experience that they really weren't.
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The Parker and Parker Frosts aren't bad knives from today's perspective and made in Japan. Made in Japan is the important aspect. Jim Parker and Jim Frost association go back to their knife beginnings. They used to man tables at gun shows together in the old days. Have a Parker Eagle 110 clone that is a pretty nice, but chunky knife. That came from a pawn shop. Used to visit pawn shops looking for Schrade USA knives until I got that out of my system. Now I just leave it to fate.
 
Great thread, really enjoying the stories.

Like many young boys, I lusted after the venerable Bowie knife. When I was 16 or 17 I won a Western 49 and Browning 3 blade folding hunter selling magazines in school.

After my first trip camping with the big blade I decided it was too heavy for camping/hunting. Went back to my USMC and left the Bowie for landscape duties.
 
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22-rimfire said:
I think the Rambo movies had a really big impact on a lot of us who spend time in the woods and fantasize about being like that. Need a compound bow too with explosive arrow tips as well.... Funny how now I link many of my knife fantasies with movies, But I think that's what movies are all about. Red Dawn..... communists and taking over the US....

My brother in law showed me a couple Randall's in the mid-80's, I HAD to own a few!! Looking at old Gun Digest and Shooter's Bibles, you could see ads for Randall and Moran knives.


The Parker and Parker Frosts aren't bad knives from today's perspective and made in Japan. Made in Japan is the important aspect. Jim Parker and Jim Frost association go back to their knife beginnings. They used to man tables at gun shows together in the old days. Have a Parker Eagle 110 clone that is a pretty nice, but chunky knife. That came from a pawn shop. Used to visit pawn shops looking for Schrade USA knives until I got that out of my system. Now I just leave it to fate.
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I had few Parker Frost knives made by Schrade. Nice little folders. I kept one, gave the rest to my nephews.
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Red Dawn, what a great movie at the time.
 
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As a kid I really didn't have a want list. I was just fascinated by knives. Cheap, quality they all fascinated me. I didn't have much money and got more knives as gifts then purchases at that stage in life. Everyone knew that was the gift to give me.
 
GB940Rookie said:
Like many young boys, I lusted after the venerable Bowie knife. When I was 16 or 17 I won a Western 49 and Browning 3 blade folding hunter selling magazines in school.

After my first trip camping with the big blade I decided it was too heavy for camping/hunting. Went back to my USMC and left the Bowie for landscape duties.
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I also lusted for that big Bowie knife especially after seeing the John Wayne movie "The Alamo". As kids, we or I didn't have much money to just play around with, so bowie knives never appeared in my drawer. We each had a drawer in a chest for our "junk" or collections as kids. There were four boys.

As kids, Dad would take us to Northern PA camping, hiking, and fishing pretty much yearly after we got old enough. On one trip, we were camping inside an old picnic shelter out along a dirt forest road with about half the roof rotted away. But it made a great place to spread out our sleeping bags, cook, and stay out of the rain. When scraping back the huge amount of leaves that had accumulated inside, we found a bowie knife with stag handles. We called it "the buffalo skinner".... don't know who made it, but I suspect some young want a bee hunter probably lost it there years before. Dad used that knife for years chopping corn stocks from our rather large (read huge) garden.
 
The two that I wanted really badly when I was younger were the Blackjack Tartan Dagger and the original SOG Bowie (blued steel is just sexy as hell!) I actually bought a Tartan Dagger when I was stationed in Japan. As cool as the design is, pretty much defined "Mall Ninja."
 
Kootaga13 said:
When I was a young Hillbilly and the carnival came to town, the had the Draglines. These were the crank operated "cranes" like they have today in nearly every store you go in.
This was back in 65 to 67 and they cost a dime a turn. I remember dragging a Camillus fishing type knife over to the chute. I was in hog heaven. I'm sure I got a few, but where are they today?
I would love to have one of those knives from my childhood.
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I was just telling my wife a similar story the other day, but it was in the early 70's. Me and a bunch of my friends went to a carnival that set up in a local mall parking lot and they had claw machines with pocket knives as prizes. We won a bunch of them , most were plain, single bladed jack knives. But one of the knives I won, was a white pearl celluloid stockman. I wish I knew what happened to it.
 
JPD1998 said:
I was just telling my wife a similar story the other day, but it was in the early 70's. Me and a bunch of my friends went to a carnival that set up in a local mall parking lot and they had claw machines with pocket knives as prizes. We won a bunch of them , most were plain, single bladed jack knives. But one of the knives I won, was a white pearl celluloid stockman. I wish I knew what happened to it.
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I prolly ended up playing mumbly peg with mine and ruined it. Remember that game? It's a wonder nobody got stuck in the foot.
 
A Jody Samson Pacific Cutlery custom 5” weehawk tanto balisong.


I STILL want one.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Hmm, that thing reminds me of a Parker Cutlery knife saw at an " antique " store recently.
Not sure if they were actually good knives, but I see lots of pictures on Google of 80's made in Japan Parker knives and a lot of them actually look like a well made knife.
The problem is that I've seen some frost knives of the same era that looks good as well, but I know from experience that they really weren't.
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I have a few just because I picked them up cheap. They're ok at best and the best thing about them is the bone handles.
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I remember lusting for a Puma 'White Hunter' as a kid. I ended up collecting war surplus bayonets instead because they were dirt cheap in mil surp catalogues.
 
Back in our boy scout days.. My cousin and I spent many an hour scouring the US Cavalry magazine, placing checkmark next to items we wanted for whatever reasons.. camouflage uniforms, tents, sleeping bags, whatever.. but I always ended up looking at the KA-Bar Warthog. Short, stout, tough, and mean.

I yearned for that knife.

Never bought it :(
 
It's cool to hear lots of different blades people wanted when they were young.
Like many I started really just wanting any knife, but of course there were eventually specific knives that I wanted and luckily I'm currently watching the mail for #4 of the 5 specific knives I wanted most.
 
I always lusted after Italian stiletto when I was a kid. Auto of course. They still call to me. Still the epitome of cool, if not terribly useful.

I've really been eyeing the new Zero from AGA Campolin. Hoping for a run with wood or horn handles.
 
Matthew Gregory said:
I had one of their print catalogs and wore it out staring at them. You could even order them to suit. True ‘ custom’ knives. For a teenager, quite impossible to reach. Alas!
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Ah, I see.
Best I ever got were BudK catalogs, and of course I didn't know those were not worth my time. What I wanted most out of there was an E-Tool which I didn't know was actually junk until I actually got it.
 
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