What do you guys/ladies do to try & get your kids to appreciate Traditional Knives??

I can't find any pictures of him with his knives, but did find a couple pictures of him shooting when he was about 8 years old.... All part of the learning process :D

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Actually, nothing. The wife cannot use a butter knife to cut a pad of butter without amputating a finger, and my daughters and grand daughters are all sissy Mary types, when it comes to knives, even though they're all into some kind of extreme sport, or practicing the martial arts. The one grandson I have is a modern day Urkel who I see one day becoming a part time Air Force Reserve drone bomber pilot,doing his once a month weekend drills from his cozy corner office at a Madison Avenue high tech firm.:o
 
Thanks to jkulysses for starting this thread and to all of you who responded with you own stories. Reading the tread with my first cup of coffee was a good start to the day. You all got me thinking of better ways to get my girls started. My oldest (3 yrs) will now start helping me choose my knife for the day. Thanks for the great idea.
 
I have them stand very still and ...:D



Just kidding, when my daughter was about one, she took a shine to this small Queen stockman, I was taking a picture after purchasing it for my flea market thread and she came over and coon fingered it, only knife she ever did that to so it will be hers.







She is now a little over two and wants to help me with my projects, so if I'm sawing something, I let her hold the wood, it helps her think she is involved and she watches with curiosity, she now can name a lot of my tools, but everything has the prefix " papa's " hammer, "papa's" speed square. She also has her own toy knife and wooden fruit, when I'm prepping dinner she will pretend she's helping me



Pete
 
Mtblair said:
Thanks to jkulysses for starting this thread and to all of you who responded with you own stories. Reading the tread with my first cup of coffee was a good start to the day. You all got me thinking of better ways to get my girls started. My oldest (3 yrs) will now start helping me choose my knife for the day. Thanks for the great idea.
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You're very welcome & I hope you & your little one enjoy it as much as my little man & I do. :)

Your daughter has great taste Stitch2442!
 
My 2 year old boy loves my pocket knives and swipes them off my nightstand every chance he gets. So much so that I had to lock them up before he got strong enough to open them. He is smart as a whip but still working on communicating verbally so I probably have another year before we can work on knife care and safety.

He loves everything outdoors so it wont be long before he has his own. Right after he was born I picked him up a case small humpback stockman with hexx bone (matches a case trapperlock my wife gave me) so whenever he is old enough he can start carrying it around under supervision.
 
I really did nothing with the thought in mind that I would make them knife lovers. I simply gave them knives at the appropriate time and taught them to use the knife. My son has several Case and BSA knives, my daughter at least one Swiss Buck (that I can remember), my wife has several small Buck and Victorinox knives - all gifted by me over the years. My kids are late 20's and early 30's now and live away in cities - don't know if they carry or not. OH
 
Out of our three kids, it's my youngest, Liam, who has just turned 4, who has expressed the most interest in my knives. A couple times a week in the evening he'll ask to look at my knives, so we go up to the bedroom and I take out drawers from the Gerstner chest and let him pick up and look at whatever likes. He can tell me the difference between some basic styles, like pen, jack, single blade, modern, and Swiss Army, as well as covers of ebony, cocobolo, and bone.

He was especially taken by a little basic red Vic Classic a couple months ago, mostly for the scissors that he likes to use on it, so I got one and blunted the main blade down so that it's like the nail file and gave it to him on his birthday a couple weeks ago. He used it to cut his birthday cake and now uses the blade to cut Play-Doh and other soft stuff, in addition to the scissors (all under my supervision, of course).

I think Evan might be interested in carving. If I can get some time with him this summer in between swimming and all of his other outdoor stuff, I might get an Opinel for him and some soft wood and see what we can make.

Emma, our oldest, has a little pink Classic in her room. I think she uses it for tags and such, but she always asks me to sharpen her pencils and stuff.
 
My grandkids always wanted to look at my knives esp. my grandson. Now, he's 13 and I get pics on my cell of his "collection"! A future Bladeforums member? :D

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My daughter has SAKs and I gifted her a new Copper Pioneer on her birthday.
 
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SAK Guy said:
My grandkids always wanted to look at my knives esp. my grandson. Now, he's 13 and I get pics on my cell of his "collection"! A future Bladeforums member? :D

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My daughter has SAKs and I gifted her a new Copper Pioneer on her birthday.
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This is so cool!
 
My youngest turns 6 on the 24th. I bought him a Jameson Woodworks JJ's Trapper knife kit so he can put together his own wood knife. I think he will love it. My oldest is 8 and he already has a cheap Mora with a blue plastic handle. He can only use it while supervised. I also let him wear it when we go hiking or camping. He really want's a SAK so that might be one of his birthday gifts this year.
 
Every year Santa Clause brings my boy a pocketknife. Most years it's been traditional, but not always. This year he received a small Trout model hunting knife from KaBar. The knife is left on a dining room cabinet where the boy can use it whenever he needs to cut something. :thumbup:
 
I never purposely tried to sway my daughter to appreciate a Traditional over a Modern folder. Wanted her to decide that on her own, and hopefully learn to appreciate both for what they are.
I did take her with me to many NKCA shows(mostly all Traditional), and never took her to the Blade Show(in ATL) since I was there all day.

She is about to turn 19 and hadn't mentioned knives in a few years. A couple of weeks ago she told me she wanted a couple of knives from the safe that we had bought together years ago.
I told her if she could tell me what brand, color, and what style of knife it was she could have them.
It had been almost ten years since she had seen those knives, but to my surprise she new exactly what they were.

It was two Case knives that she wanted. One was a Medium Toothpick with red bone, and the other was a Yellowhorse Toothpick with a wolf inlay.
I asked her how she remembered those so well, and she just said..."Dad, don't you remember me being with you when you bought those ?" I told her I remembered, but didn't think she would, and that I was vary glad that she did. She said she remembered them well, and said Case knives were her favorite since thats about all I bought at the NKCA shows.

I asked her if she liked any of my moderns, and she said no. She said they were all ugly:p
 
I gave all my children slip joint knives around their 5th birthdays, same time I started teaching them about firearms. Worked for me and it has worked for them! My daughters all carry slip joints but my son has gone to the dark side!
 
Show him the usage .Butcher/chef cutting up an animal. Making a guitar [traditional type ] or anything else where knives are used.
I butchered a young goat .A 5 y/o wanted to watch. I explained that it wasn't pleasant to see but he insisted. OK , so I demonstrated how to use a knife and also took the opportunity for an anatomy lesson ! Showed the heart , it pumps the blood , just like your heart ! etc.
 
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