What got me “into” knives was a motorcycle trip to Mexico in the early part of this century. Prior to that trip, I was in the habit of always carrying several knives in supplementation of my tool kit: an Opinel, a SAK, a small Anza, maybe a Wirkkaala puukko. After a while, I started carrying a basic Leatherman, maybe leaving the SAK at home. I had multiples of many of these, and kept them stashed on various bikes. Although I owned quite a few knives, I viewed them as tools, and did not consider myself as “into” knives.
On this particular trip, I had resolved to pack light, and tried to cut back my traveling kit to the barest minimum. The roads we would be traveling are steep, rough, and difficult. I left all my knives behind, figuring the blade on the Leatherman would get me by.
About two-thirds of the way through the trip, I managed to lose my carburetor’s drain plug coming up out of the canyon from Batopilas. This had never happened to me on any motorcycle, ever, in forty years and half a million miles of riding. Nobody had a screw with matching threads, so as a field expedient, I used the blade on my Leatherman to whittle a dessiccated twig from a dead mesquite bush and twisted it into the threads of the drain hole. It held for four days until I could get to a Suzuki dealer in Chihuahua. The Leatherman was up to the task, barely. It would not bite into the wood at all, so I just scraped shavings off until it fit.
Then, a couple of days later, after crossing back into Texas, I left my oil filler plug at a gas stop, only noticing it a few miles down the road by the oil mist that was now coating my pants leg. My buddy rode back to the gas station for oil while I set out to plug another hole. Once again, the only material at hand in that dry country was dead mesquite. Once again, the Leatherman merely skittered across the wood. I got an ugly chunk of branch to fit, but resolved right there never to venture out again without a decent knife.
I must have been talking about knives a lot after that, because the next Christmas, Conchita gave me a USMC Ka-Bar, and the next year a Griptilian. I started to read a bit, bought some Moras, and in due course found my way to BF.