Okay, What got you into knives & Why do you collect them?

Yvsa

Yvsa

Joined
May 18, 1999
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As the title says, "What got you into knives & Why do you collect them?"
A simple enough couple of questions but maybe not.;) :eek: I've been interested in knives for as long as I can remember and when I was a kid I made all sorts of knives from all sorts of materials including wood, bone, and stone and when I was older out of steel.:thumbup: :cool: :D
You'd be surprised at what a couple of kids can do with a single wheeled hand grinder and a couple of keyhole saw blades and a piece of Pecan!:thumbup: :cool:
My collection has always been eclectic and no doubt always will be. My favorite knives are ethnic knives from all over the world, which is what lead me to khukuris and HI in particular.

I collect knives because of my deep interest in all things sharp and because of the differences and yet the similarity between different ethnic knives.
Basically all knives are made to cut and it's not surprising that some particular designs are found all around our world but the ones with a specif purpose are unique to their homeland and makers.
I'm somewhat doubtful that anyone can collect a sample of every knife in the world because of mind of men that come up with the specialized knives that don't have any apparent use to an outsider but it becomes clear when you learn about the culture that spawned it.:foot:

What say y'all? ;) :D
 
Lived in the woods, hunted and fished all my life.

Even helped neighbors do some butchering when l was a kid.


0btained my first (indian) kukri from a well-known catalog about 20 years ago, and l enjoyed it very much... and this was a cheap crappy $20 one. I shattered the handle on it a few years ago and started searching the web for something better, which I found... Himalayan Imports. :thumbup:

Then not long ago l was window shopping for a longer khukuri and joined the forum to read some reviews.

And I decided to stick around here.
 
My dad and grandad both love knives, and just passed that on to me. Plus, we lived in the country, so I spent my youth rutting around in the woods.
 
I started collecting knives in order to rebel against my mother:) okay it sounded good. Honestly i come from a family of blanchard grinders. when I was a kid, I would hang arond the shop oiling parts, stacking parts, or cleaning out the machines. In my free time I would grab a piece of scrap steel and start to grind on it. Eventually that would lead to me making a knife like object that I would destroy throwing at pallets, boxes or trees. But honestly it's all my fault I've always been intrigued by old tools and to me the knife is one of the oldest tools man has used.
 
First was a Cub Scout knife... I remember the responsibility (for a 10 year old) that went with it.

Victorinox Swiss Army knives always, in teens and 20's. Knives were always tools, never considered as weapons. Just simply always had one.

Discovered the Ka-Bar, which I once thought was the highest evolution of the blade, and always had a KB with me in the Everglades- spent almost 20 years down there. The KB really is a great blade still. :thumbup:

Saw the genius in the khukuri about 5 years ago... got a few cheap ones... found HI and swore off cheap knives.

Users today are Swamp Rat/Junkyard and my pretty-and-sharp Sarge-made knives. ;)

Throw away the Bud K catalog and the AC one too. Life's too short to use cheap, soul-less tools. :p

oh. But if you need cheap, soul-less knives, (maybe for use in a situation where you can lose one) get your Moras from Ragnar.


Mike
 
KaBar is one of my all time favorites too.

The one l have a Camillus in black. Had it since 1990 and it's been a good knife.

l'm fond of Becker Knife and Tool too, and some but not all Cold Steels.

When l'm not toting my 20" AK in the woods, l usually carry an ATC Rogers' Rangers spike tomahawk with either my old kabar, a BK&T Hog Hunter bowie or an 0ntario RAT-7.


l should have taken pics last year of how my AK's karda was a great skinning and caping knife on a 12 point 0hio buck.:D
 
My Grandfather brought a few knives back from WWII and passed them to my father. My father brought back a few knives from Vietnam and added them to his dad's, and passed them all on to me. I have kept up the tradition by adding some of my own. My collection means a lot to me, and hopefully someday it will mean a lot to the next generation.
 
l'm also a flintknapper.

HPIM0214.jpg
 
I've loved knives since I was a kid. At 6 I got my first SAK, at 8 an automatic and a 8 ft bullwhip. At 12 I was making trips to the knife store in Downtown LA to add to my collection of pen knives. The fascinate me.
 
About 45 years ago I got my first khukri....lousy quality & a bad experience IIRC thru a military surplus store. Sitting there with a used khuk, with some hunks of metal now missing out of the edge, I remember thinking that the concept was good but the materials were somehow lacking.....fast forward forty years....I discovered HI, got an 18" AK which I used hard and it came up smiling. I'm probably not a true collector, but a user....and I have given to friends as many as I have kept. An 18" villager WWII is my constant companion in my pickup, but nothing under 16 1/2 seems to fit........jn
 
I wanted a pocket knife, a good one, so I started browsing the web and came upon 1sKs, The guy there was really on the ball, understood what I wanted and suggested the Camillus CUDA 154CM EDC, as well as the Emerson CQC7B and a Benchmade Elishewitz design 690 in BC1.
It was a tough decision but I finally decided and bought all three, they were great prices back then, not so long ago.
Since then I have bought many more but not so many as others from what I've seen.
 
My older brother got me an SAK when I was 13 or so, and I've carried a knife of some kind everywhere ever since. They're just wonderfully useful things to have around. As a geek I appreciate function, workmanship, and good design. My tastes have changed somewhat over the years, but I've always been "that one with all the knives". :)
 
My dad gave me my first knife, actually a bayonette, when I was ten. My mom wouldn't let me touch it until I was 14, so of course it was a thing of mystery and desire that never went away. Wasn't until I joined the service that I started using them on a (nearly) daily basis for a while. I love all the different styles and designs of knives. The thing that got me into khuks though were a few of our fellow forumites and Blade Show '05.
 
Mine is written up on my website.

The most recent turn onto custom knives was when I went looking for a Kit Rae fantasy knife for a buddy of mine who was really into the stuff...I was going to surprise him with it. Well, I had some questions/concerns about it. So I went looking online to see if I could find out more...found bladeforums...got hooked on kukris...rest is history....here in the archives, actually.



Check it out:

My first post on bladeforums:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1417031&postcount=1


My first post on the Himalayan Imports forum:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1630723&postcount=13

part of this thread:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198311
(kinda emblematic of what Bill brought to the forum)
 
Have you ever seen a painting of the American Revolution?
Or the Battle of Hastings?
Or The Alamo?
Somehow knives let me really know what those days felt like. (if onyl a tiny part)
I love budo (martial arts) but one of the reasons is this idea of a physical time travel.
Communion with ancient man.
(Im a flint knapper too. I once knapped a khukuri. Yvsa may still have it, if it didnt break...)
 
I "won" my first knife, back at around age six at Coney Island, and had many more after that; but, always as tools. It took a few more years and a growing appreciation for history, culture, and technology, before I started developing an interest in knives as collectibles.

n2s
 
due to a long interest in the historical aspects of swords, mostly 12th-14th century European. I branched out from my core interest into other periods and types.

The falcata really captured my interest. Eventually, I found out about khukuries and that lead to me to the H.I website.

I had always used knives for camping but I mainly used a folding knife and a belt axe. I have always been fond of axes.

now I have replaced my belt axe for a khukuri and never looked back.
 
It was all my uncle and my dad. I was about 5 years old and younger. My dad had an old Victorinox SAK which he would let me mess around with. He also had the "off limits" USMC Kabar and Buck 110. These only intensified my interest.

My uncle on the other hand, made knives for a hobby and I loved them. I would sit up on his bunk bead and messed around with his knives for HOURS. He actually told me that he had to dull them out just so I didn't mess myself up.

But ya, my uncle and my dad, all their fault.
 
It was one of those "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" things. I started reading all the threads about the kami's and families and finding out about the people. I started buying the knives to help the families of the kami's. I actually bought 2 dolls from Uncle Bill before I got any knives.

I love my collection and love showing it off. But I have to tell you that if you tell a guy you collect knives..............it's definitely the last date:rolleyes: They think I'm some kind of freak or something..................:eek: :rolleyes:

My quick story of the week...........last week I had a committee meeting at my house and our pastor came in and started looking all over and wondered where all my knives were. hehehe So Karen went and got all the swords and he starts swinging them around my living room which had an entire band set up in it. It was hilarious. The rest of the gang was backing off, laughing and I got to show off several of our more unique ones. Great time............of course it happened to be the night the only single guy in the band DIDN'T show up:rolleyes: Maybe that's a good thing............LOL
 
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