What Got You Into Knives?

I was raised into knife use, care, maintenance and culture (as part of hunting, fishing, camping, hiking and Boy Scouts) as a kid. I didn’t carry a knife during HS, college days or my white collar office worker career but after I retired--out of the blue--I decided to start carrying. I think it was one of those “I can so, why not?” things. That’s the story regarding working class, EDC level knives.

How I got into show specials, LE’s and collector quality knives is story #2. I went to the NYCKS last year just to see what kind of stuff they have on the tables at a high end show and I was bowled over by the works of knife-making art that I saw there. Seeing a table filled with Thorburns (not to mention all the others that were there) is something that needs to be experienced. It was like finding myself in a convention of Victorias Secret models after having seen only plain Jane girl next door types in school before.
 
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The need to cut things I guess.

Started carrying a traditional Case in my 20s and then stumbled across Spyderco. I had always kind of thought of them as gas station knives until I handled one. From there, I moved onto modern knives and while I've tried many, many brands, I more or less settled on Spyderco, CRK and Hinderer offerings.
 
I was born a male.

It started (I think) with a SAK when I was probably 8 years old. It had about 30 tools but I only used the big blade. I thought it was so cool being prepared for anything while carrying that knife, even though it weighed my pants down like a pocket anchor.

I also started carrying whatever hand me down slip joint or other pocket knife I could carry. To this day, I still hold a childlike fascination with knives, and always have at least two on me- including a brick SAK (SwissChamp).

Right now I'm particularly into fixed blades for EDC. Whatever edged tool I carry, it's always a complement to my EDC firearm.
 
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Rykjeklut said:
Somewhere around 40 all in all. Not as bad as some, but way more than I need, that's for sure.
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I see nothing wrong with that man. I've told my wife that I want to have as many knives as she has shoes. I'd guess she has about 90 pairs, so I got a long way to go!
 
I think i fell in love with knives the day i was born. Laying on the table minutes into my new life and watching the doctor cut my umbilical cord with his knife.
Can't be certain but i think it was a Buck 110?? :D:p
 
I've had one or two knives at a time ever since I was a kid. Around five years ago, I was having a bad day. I told myself that if I bought something nice, it would make my day better. I stopped at a hardware store on my way to work and bought a Buck Trapper. I started looking up knives online and watching YouTube reviews. I accumulated a collection shortly after that.
 
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What Got you into knives?

Take your pick:

- A fork, spoon and chopsticks just didn't cut it.
- I wanted to be like Tarzan.
- Guns are hard to clean and noisy.

What really got me accumulating a lot was spending 3 years in Thailand and visiting a few times in subsequent years. I was getting hand-forged spring steel knives/machetes from about 6 - 14 inches long for anywhere from $1 to $4. each. Each area of the country and each blacksmith would have slightly different patterns, so I had to have them. Like people collect spoons or shot glasses when they visit different places.
 
My great uncle gave me a Wenger nomad for my 7th birthday.

My dad bought me a Case 6104L I believe for my 12th.

Then his long lost friend came in to town, bought me whole bunch of stuff at a little shop at North Pier mall, and I was hooked. 3 mini throwing knives with a wrist mount shests, 2 big throwing knives, a mini dagger, and rubber nunchaku.
 
Interesting how so many people had dads that carried, so they did. When I was a kid my dad would confiscate any toy that even resembled a gun or knife. Rubber band gun I bought from the faire, plastic sword from Excalibur in Las Vegas, Nerf guns. He took them all. It was a miracle he let us keep the Duck Hunt gun for our NES. No history I know of for the paranoia, but he always said he didn't want us (me and my brother) to get used to having weapons. But one day I found his Boy Scouts multitool in the garage. He said he used it for the eating utensils, a spoon over one scale and a fork on the other. But the knife was decidedly NOT just for cutting food. That was my carte blanche to get into Swiss Army knives and multitools. Once I made my own income my dad never tried to restrict what I did with my money.
 
Pocket knives were considered essential growing up in the country. The funny thing is that I don't remember what my brothers did with regard to knives. It generally was not a topic of discussion when we were young.
 
Had knives of various sorts since grade school age but obsession began in 1968 where, as a TDY enlisted Air Force technician at Saigon Tan Son Nhut Airbase I went through the first few days of the Tet offensive armed with nothing but a rough dagger I had picked up at my PCS base in the Philippines. It didn't get blooded then but it was some comfort and I've gone nowhere without a blade of some sort (other than blade free zones) since then.
 
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