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

I've always liked knives. I've had knives since I was little, mostly cheap folding knives that kids can afford with the money they earn from doing odd-jobs.

As I got older I bought them for hunting and cleaning game, but also just because I liked the way the looked.

That said, I was never into it the way I am now.

I got into knives recently because I was interested in putting together a PSK. I visited quite a few forums and read, and of course noticed that knives and various sharp instruments are a major topic of those forums.

Browsing, browsing...

I found out how much things have advanced, and I have been learning like crazy over the last year or two.

For the past ten years my major avocation has been shooting related. Competition shooting and training others to be better shooters. But with a major geographical move in my near future, away from DFW, my shooting (competitive) will be much curtailed.

I've decided on a new hobby, which will hopefully be knifemaking. So, I'm bent on learning as much as possible.

I also have the belief that for me ( I came to this belief before reading this same ... thought process expressed elsewhere) knives are a primal symbol of our species.

They are quite likely the first shaped tool in our history, and without them, nothing else in our civilization would have been possible.

Andy
 
Andrew Colglazier said:
I got into knives recently because I was interested in putting together a PSK.

They are quite likely the first shaped tool in our history, and without them, nothing else in our civilization would have been possible.

Andy
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Andy you are exactly right. I have here on my desk in front of me a very, very, simple flaked flint knife that was discarded by some kids sifting debris out of a small shallow cave because they didn't have a clue as to what they were looking at.:( :rolleyes:
They were looking for the pretty symmetrical points that my people flaked hundreds of years ago.:( I once used it to cut some wet rawhide that we were cutting up to tie some small timbers we had cut for a TV stand and it performed wonderfully as the day it was freshly flaked off of a piece of flint.:thumbup: :cool: :D

What is a PSK as I don't have a clue.;) :confused: :)
 
H2OCutter said:
I believe it to be Personal Survival Kit, but I could be mistaken:D
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That is correct!

Yvsa, we find many, many sherds of flint all over our property in Brownwood. There are two full one pound coffee cans that the previous owners picked up over the years filled with very nice artifacts, quite good shape.

It's almost as if there was a small factory out there!

Andy
 
For me...maybe from a past life, I can't explain my interest in knives, flashlights (the smaller the better) and guns. When I was in grade school, I wanted/need flashlights - any kind. I love knives when I got into scouts...my Dad worn out my official Cub Scout Pocket Knife when I decide I couldn't use it when I graduated into Boy Scouts. Still have my Scout fixed blade knife - can't remember the brand right now. And I spent all my carnival money shooting instead of going on the rides...love the BB Machine Guns and the 22 short rifle games. Now any kind of knife, most recent the new virus...Khuks!!! Got to stop, must stop...no way!!

Wally
 
Andrew Colglazier said:
That is correct!

Yvsa, we find many, many sherds of flint all over our property in Brownwood. There are two full one pound coffee cans that the previous owners picked up over the years filled with very nice artifacts, quite good shape.

It's almost as if there was a small factory out there!

Andy
Click to expand...

PSK, Thanks guys, now I get it, didn't have my thinking cap on I guess.:o ;)

Andy many tools were lost by one means or another but you're right about a small factory. Even way back when people had specialized skills that they were better at than others and folks bartered for the things they needed.
A very simple knife could be made by just about anyone simply by flaking a small piece of material from a larger piece in a pinch as was necessary for survival but that didn't mean they were any good at making atlatl or arrow points, or even shaped knives and axe heads.
And since there were specialized folk they tended to work their craft in one dedicated area rather than any general area. The small shallow cave that the kids have been excavating for years, and years, is one of these dedicated areas.
Not only have some really nice artifacts been sifted but there are a multitude upon multitude of flint shards that are the result of several years of work in that one small place.:thumbup: :)
Strangely enough as much time as I've spent wandering the woods and fields here in Oklahoma I have only found one atlatl/spear point and it wasn't a prime example as it was broken.:(
I don't count the small knife as a "found", as in accidentally stumbling across it, as I was digging through the dirt and shards the kids had discarded at the cave actually and actively looking for something they may have missed.:D
I do have several points that friends have given to me from several parts of the country and although similar they are all different.:)

But back to the topic.... There is a beauty even in the most simple knife.
The steel or other material that makes up the blade, the way it is ground, the individuality of the handle material, the shape and fit and finish of the guard if there is one, so many things go into a knife that I find alluring and fascinating....:thumbup:
And with so many shapes and sizes even among certain knives like the Keris, Khukuri, and all the others a person can collect all their life and not have two exactly alike, that is unless it's production knives.:rolleyes: ;)
 
Well, it all started with my Dad, I can't ever seeing him without a knife in his pocket....

Add to that Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, commisioning in the Military and a life long interest in the martial arts, and there you have it! It was a natural progression
 
My Father and my Grandfather would give me pocket knives when I was very young. I remember them saying that a man should never be without a knife. I don't know how I would survive as a young man these days with "zero tolerance" for pocket knives.
 
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