memory lane

callahwj

callahwj

Joined
Dec 9, 2000
Messages
735
For the rest of the summer, I'll be staying in the town I grew up in. Today, went to a nearby tourist area, with dozens and dozens of trashy tourist shops. Except for me, one of those shops is special, cause it's where I got my first "tactial" knife. Back in highschool, before I was a knife-knut. It was a blue master cutlery hawksbill folder, with a liner lock, and blue aluminum handles. I lost that knife a year ago, but had it for a few years and it served me well, and although I'm tempted to dissmis it as a POS knockoff now that I "know knives," I have to admit, I have a 120 dollar knife with a liner lock that doesn't work as well as that 20 one. That knife was built like a tank. Of course, maybe nostalgia is clouding my sense of reallity :-)
I also went to a shop where I remembered seeing good knives, now I remembered them as good cause, heck, if something costs more than a hundred bucks, it had better be! Turns out they are selling this fury brand line of bowies for price between 100 and 130 depending on size. Wow. All in all I'm glad to have seen the light. So now that I've confessed my shamefull past, how many of you started out with knock-off blades?
 
I just found my old Taylor/Seto Cold Steel Tanto rip-off. I got it while I was still in high school at a gun show after seeing the CS version in a magazine and thinking it was about the coolest knife in the world. I think I paid $20 for it, which at the time seemed like a lot of money to spend on a knife. I recently sharpened it up on my sharpmaker, and it took a razor-sharp edge. Must be that "hand made" quality and "surgical" steel.
--Josh
 
A couple years ago, when money was tight, and I was just "getting into" knives, I bought several POS knives for very little $$ off E-bay. Well, one of those POSs is quite a bit less sh&%ty than the others. I think it is supposedly a Boker knockoff of one of their strong lockback folders. Today, most would probably guess a Chinook knockoff.

Anyhow, this knife is a big, solid clip point. Made by "MAXAM." Has a tiny bit of sideways blade play, but none up/down. No clip, but came with a surprisingly good quality nylon belt sheath that you can carry horizontally or vertically. I just tried sharpening it quickly for the hell of it, and quicly produced a quite satisfactory edge. I may someday give or throw away all the other POSs, but not this one. It is almost a good knife. For sure, it is OK.
 
Some of my first throwing knives were POS Chinese knockoffs of the Harald Moeller Viper throwers. Funny thing is that of all the POS throwing knives on the market, these are the <i>best</i> because they are the only ones with some decent weight, and thanks to Harald's design, they are balanced at the same point as the real ones!

Having gotten into throwing knives and learning to tell the good from the bad before I began buying real knives, I skipped the POS phase for real knives at least. Not that I don't have a few kicking around a drawer here and there anyway, but at least I knew they were POS when I got them.
 
Great Googly Moogly, we used to buy some cheap ass knives! Back in the early 70s, we used to buy anything that came close to having a blade. Most notable POS were those cheap, junky Sabre brand knives they used to sell in the drugstores. Made in Japan, but definitely not Seki City! Blades wobbled uncontrollably, cheesy looking plastic handles and "steel?" for the blade that would NOT get sharp no matter what you did. I know some people are going to disagree, but the knife I carried the most was, in my opinion, a POS also. I still have it; its a Queen Steel large 2 blade folding hunter. That sucker never would get sharp. I dont know what kind of steel is in it, but I only carried it because it was big and cool looking. Cheesy looking plastic stag handles. I just recently got it back from an old friend, whose Father had confiscated it from me about 25 years ago.
 
These posts are all support for the position I stated in the thread, "How Do They Even Stay In Business?"

We tend to lapse into something like high-end knife snobbery here, but the fact is there's no such thing as a bad knife (provided it's safe to use) -- only knives of varying degrees of functionality and durability.

Personally, I'd like to see some inexpensive, low-end maker start marketing a line of affordable, reasonably well-made rocker-bar locking folders under the name "POS."

biggrinshoot.gif
 
I started off with Case and Buck from Dad/Grandpa. They started me off with some nice blades for a young'un and many lessons on sharpening.

My first knife other than these was a cheap steel bali from the local flea market. I carried that thing for years, and got really good with it. Somehow when girls took the place of that, and I didn't pick up another one until recently when I got a BM 42 here at BF.C. It was almost like I never put it down.

I still go to that flea market now and then, and they still have that same bali that I got all those years ago.

Soon my kids will be old enough for one.

;)
 
Aaahhh, memory lane, does anyone go back to the mid 50's. I used to buy a barlow for $.99, I had a choice of black or red celluloid scales. They came with a 2.5 inck clip, and approx a 1.25 pen blade. No matter how rough I was, those knives would last at least 1 yr., took a great edge, and held it. I could do all of the things that I was learning from my Straight Arrow trading cards. $1.00 in 1955 is worth about $11.50 today. I would love to find a knife for that price that would hold up like those old ones did. Back then, I thought that "Barlow" was the name of the company. I've learned a little bit since those days, but not to much more.
 
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