Old Friends Friday

bigfish64 said:
Thank you! They must be old boyfriend/girlfriend knives.:) I’ll be looking for it.:thumbsup:
Todd
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Yes! From back in the days when a knife-muggle could go to a store in the mall and find a nice little gift knife to buy.
 
I'm pocketing two Old Friend today, in the form of my 2017 Guardians Lambsfoot SFO, and a slim Joseph Haywood Jack :thumbsup:

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This one was one of the first 5 knives I bought as a teenager. I think I bought this one at 13 or 14, probably for about $17 or so. Carried it outside of school because it didn't fit well in the dress slacks I had to wear in school.

I have a bit of a story behind this one about how you just can't have nice things around some people.

I was lifeguarding when I was 15 at a small family resort in the Poconos (northeast PA). The activities director, my boss, was a teacher in his 40s who frequently visited the pool area where he organized pool games for the kids.

One day he was walking around the pool, killing time between activities, when he stopped behind the diving board, and starting picking at something near the base of the board.

He turned, strolled over to my lifeguard stand and asked me if I had a knife.

I did, my Schrade Middleman, which I proudly handed it to him.

He took the knife and walked back to the diving board, where he proceeded to open the blade and work at something at the base of the board.

Curious, I walked over to him just as he finished digging a quarter from under the bracket holding the diving board in place. Someone had wedged a quarter under the bracket.

Grinning, he showed me the quarter, pocketed it and returned my Schrade. He had deeply scratched the bolster and Delrin cover against the coarse sandpaper surface of the diving board in his efforts to extract the quarter.

I was stunned that he gave no thought about damaging my knife for a 25 cent piece, but said nothing because he was my boss.

Ticked me off for years afterward every time I looked at the damage. Eventually, I learned how to refinish surfaces and removed the scratches.

The "KB" in the front scale? I did that with a magnifying glass after the knife was heavily scuffed up and I figured my initials couldn't make it worse. Guess I was wrong there.

The white marks on the scale are traces of waxy residue that seems to happen to Delrin as it ages. I tried to scrape it off with my fingernails, but missed a few bits.

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Buck 110 carried and used during a Naval military career.
Personalized in case of walk-off. Blade tip permanently discolored from use as a "branding iron".
Brass bolsters mangled, wood nicked when a situation with no other tools about, demanded expedient attention.
Somehow we made it through solid and whole, and only a bit worse for wear.
Hello old friend :)

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PointyThings said:
This one was one of the first 5 knives I bought as a teenager. I think I bought this one at 13 or 14, probably for about $17 or so. Carried it outside of school because it didn't fit well in the dress slacks I had to wear in school.

I have a bit of a story behind this one about how you just can't have nice things around some people.

I was lifeguarding when I was 15 at a small family resort in the Poconos (northeast PA). The activities director, my boss, was a teacher in his 40s who frequently visited the pool area where he organized pool games for the kids.

One day he was walking around the pool, killing time between activities, when he stopped behind the diving board, and starting picking at something near the base of the board.

He turned, strolled over to my lifeguard stand and asked me if I had a knife.

I did, my Schrade Middleman, which I proudly handed it to him.

He took the knife and walked back to the diving board, where he proceeded to open the blade and work at something at the base of the board.

Curious, I walked over to him just as he finished digging a quarter from under the bracket holding the diving board in place. Someone had wedged a quarter under the bracket.

Grinning, he showed me the quarter, pocketed it and returned my Schrade. He had deeply scratched the bolster and Delrin cover against the coarse sandpaper surface of the diving board in his efforts to extract the quarter.

I was stunned that he gave no thought about damaging my knife for a 25 cent piece, but said nothing because he was my boss.

Ticked me off for years afterward every time I looked at the damage. Eventually, I learned how to refinish surfaces and removed the scratches.

The "KB" in the front scale? I did that with a magnifying glass after the knife was heavily scuffed up and I figured my initials couldn't make it worse. Guess I was wrong there.

The white marks on the scale are traces of waxy residue that seems to happen to Delrin as it ages. I tried to scrape it off with my fingernails, but missed a few bits.

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That really is an Old Friend! :cool: Thanks for telling us the history, I think that experience would have ticked me off for a good few years too o_O :thumbsup:

Fodderwing said:
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That's a treasure Dwight :cool::thumbsup:
 
PointyThings said:
This one was one of the first 5 knives I bought as a teenager. I think I bought this one at 13 or 14, probably for about $17 or so. Carried it outside of school because it didn't fit well in the dress slacks I had to wear in school.

I have a bit of a story behind this one about how you just can't have nice things around some people.

I was lifeguarding when I was 15 at a small family resort in the Poconos (northeast PA). The activities director, my boss, was a teacher in his 40s who frequently visited the pool area where he organized pool games for the kids.

One day he was walking around the pool, killing time between activities, when he stopped behind the diving board, and starting picking at something near the base of the board.

He turned, strolled over to my lifeguard stand and asked me if I had a knife.

I did, my Schrade Middleman, which I proudly handed it to him.

He took the knife and walked back to the diving board, where he proceeded to open the blade and work at something at the base of the board.

Curious, I walked over to him just as he finished digging a quarter from under the bracket holding the diving board in place. Someone had wedged a quarter under the bracket.

Grinning, he showed me the quarter, pocketed it and returned my Schrade. He had deeply scratched the bolster and Delrin cover against the coarse sandpaper surface of the diving board in his efforts to extract the quarter.

I was stunned that he gave no thought about damaging my knife for a 25 cent piece, but said nothing because he was my boss.

Ticked me off for years afterward every time I looked at the damage. Eventually, I learned how to refinish surfaces and removed the scratches.

The "KB" in the front scale? I did that with a magnifying glass after the knife was heavily scuffed up and I figured my initials couldn't make it worse. Guess I was wrong there.

The white marks on the scale are traces of waxy residue that seems to happen to Delrin as it ages. I tried to scrape it off with my fingernails, but missed a few bits.

View attachment 1543082
Click to expand...

BrotherJim said:
Buck 110 carried and used during a Naval military career.
Personalized in case of walk-off. Blade tip permanently discolored from use as a "branding iron".
Brass bolsters mangled, wood nicked when a situation with no other tools about, demanded expedient attention.
Somehow we made it through solid and whole, and only a bit worse for wear.
Hello old friend :)

Hpgo0fU.jpg


uQxFRWz.jpg
Click to expand...

Its good to see knives that have a few stories and history. As a kid growing up working on a farm, and in the Marines later, you just used what was nearby for a multitude of tasks. And sometimes it was your knife.
 
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