Post a memory of a friend's knife

F

Foilist

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Dec 20, 2004
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Awhile back, I posted how Todd A gave me a Schrade 194OT, which was the same knife my best friend carried (and broke) during our youth. The knucklehead tried to pry with that long, skinny blade one time when we were woods loafing at our usual spot. I wanted the knife for the sake of nostalgia, but I plan to gift it to my friend this summer when I'm likely to see him again back in Michigan.

Now, you don't have to measure up to Jacknife's tales, but do any of you have memories of a friend's knife to share?
 
My father and I have had our ups and downs, we have fought, argued and said things to each other that , at least in my case, are shameful to remember. My late Mother probably thought we were much too alike to ever be able to get along together well...Pop and I are both stubborn, lean towards argumentative, neither of us willing to back down. Both of us would also lay down our lives for each other if it became necessary. We both believe in God and Country, Morals and freedom. More than once Mom said "like Father, like Son"...

This past Christmas was the first without Mom and it was tough on both of us and on the rest of the family as well. I was at a loss as far as what to get Pop for Christmas then I found the perfect knife for his present, It was a Fight'n Rooster Stockman with blue swirled celluloid scales. But it was the engraving on the main blade that made it "his" knife.....

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My mom would have just laughed....
 
The only other person I know who actually carries any type of knife on a regular basis is my grandfather. 84 and reliant on a motorized wheelchair, he carries a Buck 112 that he's had since lord knows when. I do know that he mentioned that he found it on a loading dock somewhere, while working as a general contractor. It's not the only knife he's ever used, as I do know that he gifted a Buck 119 that he had had to my Dad at one point (which occupies a sock drawer back at his house).

He broke the tip off the blade a couple years back, when he still hunted. He wasn't too worried about it. He sent it in to Buck, and had it back in his possession within a couple weeks. It's been a good knife to him.

EDIT:

Okay, so I'm just adding a little more. I remember him digging out splinters with the clip blade on our trips out to his cabin in the summer (Mongollan Rim in Arizona), cleaning fish, opening mail, all sorts of mundane tasks. He was still using it to open mail when I was out in Phoenix, two weeks ago. I guess he never really needed anything more than a 3" blade.
 
In the early 80's I worked for the Lockheed Skunk Works, Lockheed ADP as it was called then. I worked in a lab that, among other things, produced sheets of a special plastic material that was too difficult for the production crews to make, so they had the engineers make them instead. The last step in producing the material was to trim excess material off the edges. A couple of the guys used razor knives, but my boss and I used slipjoints. I used my Buck 303 and my boss used a small jackknife he had carried for years.

When he retired in ~1990, I wanted to give him a pocket knife. I found a Buck two blade pocket knife (a companion, I think) with stag scales. Smokey Mountain had it in their catalog. I bought it and gave it to him. I later found out from his family that he carried it daily for the rest of his life. He was the best boss I ever had. And a hell of a good engineer.
 
A buddie of mine in highschool carried a big grey bone handled folding hunter everywhere. I don't know what brand it was. It had the shape of the schrade 125ot. The blade had the grey patina of 1095 steel. He had this signature move for opening it where he would pinch the blade between his fingers and flick the knife over his head "In the throwing position" he would anounce. The poor blade look like it was sharpened with a course file.
 
knarfeng said:
In the early 80's I worked for the Lockheed Skunk Works, Lockheed ADP as it was called then. I worked in a lab that, among other things, produced sheets of a special plastic material that was too difficult for the production crews to make, so they had the engineers make them instead. The last step in producing the material was to trim excess material off the edges. A couple of the guys used razor knives, but my boss and I used slipjoints. I used my Buck 303 and my boss used a small jackknife he had carried for years.

When he retired in ~1990, I wanted to give him a pocket knife. I found a Buck two blade pocket knife (a companion, I think) with stag scales. Smokey Mountain had it in their catalog. I bought it and gave it to him. I later found out from his family that he carried it daily for the rest of his life. He was the best boss I ever had. And a hell of a good engineer.
Click to expand...

That's a sweet story. I've got a bunch of Rough Riders to give out to people. It's amazing how many people don't realize the importance of a pocket knife until they've carried one for some time. For $10, I wouldn't mind losing one here and there if it means embedding the knife genes into friends and family.
 
A while back I was given a beat up fixed blade boy scout knife by Arnold (BFC handle TobyRogers). He knew that I was involved in scouting, and just sent it to me out of the blue.

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I don't think it was a special knife to him or anything like that, but it was a nice gesture from a good man and fellow knife nut.

Even more special now that he is no longer with us. I am currently doing a rehab on it...

Glenn
 
My Dad always had several "cheap" pocket knives around, usually $1.99 Camillus or what ever. He used them to strip wire and clean his pipe, wore 'em out, full of pocket lint. Later in life he would talk about a T-29 and a pair of needle-nose pliers and the OSS. He did get another TL-29 before he died. They hadn't changed much. My Mom carried it around for years, just as a tool; She kept his old "tool box" which was really an old ammo can. I remember Dad talking about "Bowie knives.: He was raised in the '20's and probably had read Thorpe's book, but he always said that a Bowie knife weighed more than a short sword. ( Given the meaning of "short sword" to the18th century antiquarian, I am sure this is true.) If he had lived long enough, he would have been pleased with my knives I like to think., He was an odd man, full of hidden pain, disappointments and fears. I remember one summer, on the back porch, we (the kids I mean) were playing with a cheap "throwing" knife purchased from a comic book ad. Dad showed us how to throw the knife underhanded and stick our cardboard target. He would stand on the porch and throw us a rope and have us kids tie a bow line loop around our waist while the fire flies blinked.
 
I remember a lot of knifes I saw used in the past.

Like:

Göran, the experienced hunter and owner of successful hunting dogs that always started the hunts by showing a map over the huntingland, telling how he wanted to walk trough it and where he wanted hunters on post. He always pointed at the map with the point of his Martiini lappinleuku. This is a memory from 25 years ago but I reseed that very knife two years ago when he used it for a bear he shot when I was closeby. Man is that a day to remember.

My grandfather, sitting on his backyard making me a fishing rod with his old worn out mora. Less than half of the blade was still there but also most of his life has passed. I would have wanted that knife but he had five sons and somone of them kept that memorything.

Bosse
 
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