One of my first knives - An Imperial Set

[zman308]

One of my first knife purchases back in the 50's was one of those Imperial flat hatchet, knife, pocket knife sets. The tan leather hatchet sheath attached to your belt and the bowie style knife attached to the axe sheath. The leather knife sheath had a pocket on it for the 4 blade pocket knife. They all had black plastic handles with the standard Imperial pocket knife having black plastic scales. Now the way I acquired this set is the real story. The grocery store where my mother shopped and the local gas station gave you something called S&H Green stamps. You got one stamp for every 10 cents you spent. You then put these stamps in a booklet. When you filled up the booklet you could redeem it at a redemption center for prizes. There was a catalog with prize items in all categories. My eye was always on the outdoor items (pup tents, sleeping bags and so on) and number one was the Imperial Hatchet set for two books of stamps. My mother, father, aunts and uncles all pitched in with their stamps. Now remember back then gasoline was about 25 cents a gallon and bread was about the same per loaf. So this took some time. I patiently collected and pasted stamps all summer. I must have looked at that set in the catalog every day. The day came when I had two books filled. I had to go into the city by bus and transfer to another bus to make it to the redemption center. Bus rides for juveniles then were just a nickle, transfers 1 cent. I can remember the excitement when I presented the filled stamp books to the clerk and gave him the item number of what I wanted. I probably was only 12 or 13 at the time and there was no problem acquiring this the set. I paid the sales tax and walked out with my prize. The bus ride seemed like hours till I could get home and show off my prize. When I returned home I strapped on the set and headed out to the neighbors bean field to try out my hatchet on the wind row brush.
I know realize that the hatchet was not very effective, too light, but at that time I was the invincible "king of the woods". I could fell trees, fight a bear, survive in the wilderness, well at least in my imagination. I still have that set. It is in the attic in a storage box with some of my scout items. The hatchet is scratched up, probably from my poor sharpening technique, the knife has a chip of plastic off the pommel from throwing it and the pocket knife is tarnished. A lot of memories go with that set. Obtaining my first Randall or Busse Crash ax has not provide more excitement or anticipation than that set. I will pass it off to my son, maybe some day I will pull it out and tell him this story.

 

[cbach8tw]

Just wanted to say I enjoyed the story and I think now is the time to share it with your son if he is old enough to appreciate it. In one way, when you tell him, you are telling him how you experienced life as a boy, something he can relate to and hopefully, your spending that quality time sharing with him will become soemthing he will remember as an adult. I think I also picked up one of those sets from my wife's grandfather.