What age did you give your child their first blade?

Yo Mama said:
I'd recommend some of the wood kits that are out there, like the Spyderco Dragonfly and CRKT kit. They are a great kit, and it teaches safety. When they can use them the right way, you can get the real thing.
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There is a thread with a 4 year old in the Spyderco Forums here. I am waiting to give my sone one (he will be 5) Spyderco also has a Delica trainer that is identical to the real thing but with a dulled blunted blade. I think these would be good to learn knife respect. It think possibly his "first" will be a Swiss Army variety. Not as sexy but amazing fun for a kid.
 
Opinel has a variant of the #7 for children,; with a round tip. The cutting edge is still sharp but you can't stab with it.

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Well knock on wood I don't have any children(that I know of :D ) but I would wait as long as my Dad did, so ten years old and they get a SAK.
 
I was around 4, though my dad held onto it until I was around 6... then it was all mine...

When I was 8 I cut myself with a knife my mother gave me after a trip she took, though I didn't tell anybody and just ran to the bathroom and ran cold water over it... was afraid I'd loose the knife if they saw I cut myself, though i didn't know at the time my mom had saw me but she also saw how I reacted and decided I was even more mature then she originally thought...

Since then It was a green light for anything I wanted as a child.. (within reason) hhaha...

Also, I started hunting when I was around 6 fired a 12 GA. at around age 7 so I started early.. though i think all children should (depending on their maturity and build of course)...

All in all, It depends on each child.. there is no magical age you can trust a child with something.... I know a 14 year old that I wouldn't trust with a knife for a day!! lol

Take it easy!
 
I was about 8 or 9. It was a small SAK my dad gave me. He showed me the basics of keeping my fingers away from the blade when closing it and such and I was on my way. He isn't actually a knife person and doesn't carry one on his person either, just a small cheap pocket knife and a nice SAK he took off a thug in his briefcase. He taught me how to sharpen my SAK on a lansky. It bit me once when I accidentally cut with the back of it, and having no lock it closed on me. I did have a nice cut from that. Those SAK's are sharp!

I don't have any kids yet but one day when I do, handing over a knife to them will be a truly special moment for me. I'll see how my kids grow and how mature they are. Maybe when they are also about 8, but I'll teach them knife safety at a much younger age. It will probably be a small SAK that I'll give them. Easy to open with small hands and not something that will give them a very serious cut if they do get bit. They'll need to earn that knife though. I need to see that they are responsible enough to handle a knife with care before giving them one. And ofcourse, don't take it to school (although I took my knives to school :D )
 
I got my first knife when I was 7 or 8. I got my son his first knife about 8 months ago after he turned 11. It was one of the inexpensive $12 Enlan framelocks with the music staff & notes on the scale that another BF member was selling here. I recently picked up a Victorinox SD Classic Techno Trash that I'll be giving him next and a little translucent pink SD Classic for my daughter when she turns 9.
 
I'm only 17, and i've been fiddling with knives since i was about 7 or 8 years old. I grew up in northern minneosta so from a very young age i was running around the woods exploring and fishing and hunting by myself (my dad taught me how to be safe with a gun and let me hunt grouse and squirrels by myself at age 9), so it didn't take long for me to get a knife. i can't remember what my first was, but it was probably some sort of folder, but i know i kept it sharp because i remember my grandfather showing me how to sharpen a knife. honestly i think the best way to give a kid a knife is to first ingrain in their minds what to do and not to do just like a gun, and then let them have at it. It certainly worked well enough for me. if you teach them good enough, they might become knife nuts later on, or knifemakers like myself :).
 
Don't have any kids yet! But I received my first knife when I was 3 I believe. I was to respect it or id have it taken from me, so that's what I did. Although if I did have it taken from me I might not have become such a fanatic for knives, not that its a bad thing lol.
 
By the age of two weeks, my boy had a couple of knives in his collection box. :D

This was the first he actually used, sometime around the age of 2 years:
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I took an old buck Cross Lock and ground the edge and point off and gave that to my 2 year old. He used to sit next to me while I was working on leather projects, and I would give him a scrap of leather, and stitching thread, and he would "cut" them with his very own pocket knife.

That knife is still around and my younger boy does the same.

I bought a GEC made scout pattern for the older boy when he was 7 years old. He cannot open it, because of the strength of the pulls. I got an Opinel #7 for him. We had it on a shelf for about a year where he could reach it, and I never saw him take it down on his own.

He has been present when I really cut my self good, and we had to go to the ER. It severed a nerve, and sprayed blood all over the table. So he tends to very careful with real knives with an edge.
 
I don't have kids yet, but got my first knife at the age of 5, a Buck 110 and there was a SAK, too. I can't remember what the SAK was though. Wish I still had it.
 
5 yrs old dad gave me a sak, at 8 a jigged bone barlow, 12 a nice lockblade.

Was helping him skin and butcher and fillet from 7yrs old.
 
Thanks for all the input guys. I like the round tip Opinel.

Bob W. is that a toy (plastic blade and tools) SAK? If the blades and tools are steel, I like it. If they are plastic, I would be a little concerned with that concept. I don't want my kids thinking knives are toys and I think plastic blades and tools might confuse them. But I'm on the stricter side with my opinion of inappropriate toys. My kids do not have toy guns. I never want my kids for a second to view a gun as a toy. But if those blades and tools in the child SAK are dull metal, I will most likely pick them up one.
 
My boys got the small Victorinox SAK when they were about 5 and then I got them Buck 110's when they got their hunting licenses at 12. No strategy really, just worked out that way.
 
I gave my oldest daughter a SAK at age 15. I can remember when I was 6 years old (First grade) when I went to a Catholic School in 1976 (Pensacola, FL).+ We had a nun for a teacher and I carried at least 6 folding knives (Case, Barlow, etc.) to school in my pants pockets everyday. My parents knew and my teacher knew. Each morning I would take the knives out of my pocket at school and hand them to my teacher. She would place them in her desk. When the day was over she handed them all back to me and I would put them back in my pockets and go outside with all of the other children and wait for my mother to pick me up from school. Times have really changed!
 
I don't have kids but I got my first knife when I was in second grade, so around 8 years old. It was a Buck.
 
i had a multi tool when i was 13 but as far as anything else went the answer was no. so i asked if i could make one and the answer was yes so i went to homedepot and made my self a tanto out of a file (age 15).and that is how i got into knife making also.
 
Bimmer1 said:
I gave my oldest daughter a SAK at age 15. I can remember when I was 6 years old (First grade) when I went to a Catholic School in 1976 (Pensacola, FL).+ We had a nun for a teacher and I carried at least 6 folding knives (Case, Barlow, etc.) to school in my pants pockets everyday. My parents knew and my teacher knew. Each morning I would take the knives out of my pocket at school and hand them to my teacher. She would place them in her desk. When the day was over she handed them all back to me and I would put them back in my pockets and go outside with all of the other children and wait for my mother to pick me up from school. Times have really changed!
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Boy, times sure have changed. You get caught with a knife at school now, they call in the FBI and shut down the school.
 
cub scouts - age? i he is 22 now

i gave a cheap letherman copy when he was young too for fishing.

cheap fixed blades by 12 cause i figured he loose it. sleeps with it on his matress on the box spring. it is slide over. his sig 228 9mm is on the other side and 12 gauge on the wall - he got those recently at 20

same as me!
 
Got my first folder at 4 from my grandfather, if I was going to fish with him I needed a knife he said.
My son got his first fixedblade at 4, and same with my daughter. They sat on my lap holding the knife and stick, and I was holdingtheir hands doing all the work.
This way they feel how things move, how much force to use, and the basic motorics of whittling..
After a while I let them do more and more, until one day I said sit beside me and whittle like I do.....
Never dulled down a blade or tip for them, they are now 7 and 10, both handle knives without problem. Sheats the knife if they are moving around without me having to tell them....
This is the way I learnt, and thats the way I still teach kids knifehandling...Madeleine m kniven.jpgMy daughter (6 years old at the time) handling my BK9
 
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