What got you started

J

Jesse D.L

Joined
Jul 31, 2009
Messages
475
I was browsing around on the forum like I do every day and started to wonder what got all of these great people started with their love of knives? I remember when I was about 5 or so and we were renting out a farm house about 20 minutes from where I am now. My Dad had a tool box downstairs that he didn't want me going in and so I did what any child would do..I dug around in it like there was no tomorrow. I ended up finding a small knife that for whatever reason just really excited me, it was around 2 inches closed and it had a yellow handle but thats about all I can remember from that long ago...I opened it up to look at the blade and of course I ended up slicing my hand open :rolleyes: But my fascination and love for knives grew every day since then and now I'm completely addicted ;) . Do you guys/gals remember what first peaked your interest in knives?
 
Dad and I were rabbit hunters. He cleaned rabbits with a pocket knife, Old Timer I believe. I wanted one , so he got me an el cheapo from the Phillips 66 station. I wad around10 . Been carrying one ever since.
 
I remember when I was a kid, my Dad gave me an Old Timer. Don't remember the model, but I loved that knife. then I watched my Grandad, who was a carpenter, pull out his pocket knife to carve a design on a mantle. I stood in awe. That started it for me and I have never looked back. I have a few knives that I consider "special" and the Ka-Bar trapper that my Grandad carried is at the top of that list.
My daughter is now ten years old and she carries a Case peanut that I got her and she loves knives as well. She is beginning to understand what makes a good knife and how to keep it in shape. Her eyes light up when it is time to touch up an edge. Can't keep her out of the knife drawer though.
 
I believe I got my 1st pocket knife from my Grand-Father, a U.S. made Imperial. He always carried a pocket knife. My Dad, oddly enough, didn't, although I eventually got him to with a I knife I gave to him.
 
Jesse D.L said:
Do you guys/gals remember what first peaked your interest in knives?
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Mumblety/Mumbley Peg. Started playing it when I was around 4-years old with other kids in the neighborhood and then more often when starting grade school. We'd play before school started and during recess. Beat the heck out of playing Dodge-Ball. All the boys had knives and most girls too. During recess, even the teachers would sometimes join in a round of Mumbley Peg.

I don't remember what my first couple of knives were but my first brand-spanking-new knife in the box was a small, Case, Jack Knife.
 
I guess I could say it was my grandfather and the other men in my family.

I never met my father untill I was like 5 or 6 years old. He'd been away for the war, and mom and me were left at his dad's place down on the old family home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Granddad was a working waterman, as were most of his cronies, and a bunch of rough old cobbs. It was a knife rich environment, with needing knives on the work boats, and thier favorite past time; quail hunting. It seemed like not very many minutes would go by untill somebody had a pocket knife out for some reason. I don't know why, but for some reason, when a knife did appear, it drew my attention more than any toy Mattel could come up with!

When dad came and got us after the war, I was a bit resentful at being taken away from grandad and the boat, but soon I saw that dad carried a knife. A little jewel of a knife, a Case peanut. Like granddad, dad was a Mr. Fixit, and used his little knife for all kinds of odd jobs. Making a waterproof gasket out of jute twine and vasoline, and that kind of thing. It seemed like if there were raw materials around, he could fix anything with his keychain screwdriver and a knife. I think growing up, I saw so many situations where a knife was an invaluable tool at that moment.

I was hooked at an early age.
 
When I was a young, every adult man carried a pocket knife; always razor sharp. A grown man would no sooner leave the house without a pocket knife than without pants on, (and the only people with tattoos were war veterans).

Then, in the Cub Scouts, we started to learn about how to use and carry a knife. I've liked pocket knives ever since.
 
My father got me a Daniel Boone pocketknife (a simple pen knife with Daniel Boone on the front), and that started my love affair. It was further solidified by my neighbor giving me a Schrade Cave Bear when I was a little older. I used the hell out of it, and unfortunately broke the tip off. Later, I went through the "Frost 100 knives for $100" phase, the tacticool phase, the slipjoint phase etc. I have come to realize I like old slipjoints that I can clean up, Chris Reeve folders and custom made wilderness themed blades.
 
My maternal grandfather, a Sicilian immigrant and master machinist at the Brooklyn Navy Yard gave me my first few small slipjoints in the late 50's. I've been hooked ever since. :cool:
 
My Mother gave me a pocket knife that My Grandfather had helped her pick out for me. I was like 8. It was a Schrade 93 OT and I still have it in my collection.
 
Hi,

Pocket knives have always pretty much been nothing more than an unremarkable tool for me for most of my life.

It wasn't until I stumbled in here looking of info on Finn puukkos that I realized that they could be something a bit more. So I'm blaming all you guys.:D:D

dalee
 
dalee100 said:
Hi,

Pocket knives have always pretty much been nothing more than an unremarkable tool for me for most of my life.

It wasn't until I stumbled in here looking of info on Finn puukkos that I realized that they could be something a bit more. So I'm blaming all you guys.:D:D

dalee
Click to expand...

I'm glad we could enlighten you!:D
 
Growing up on Papaw's farm, we were always working outside and he always had his knife, an Old Timer 8OT. I can remember relishing the winter time when we had to put out hay for the cows. Pop would get us in the truck, a minty green 1971 Ford long wheel base with a white topped cab, and we'd throw about 15 square bales in the back. We'd leave two of them half hanging off the tailgate on the passenger side, and I'd sit on the tailgate on the driver's side so he could see me in the mirror. We'd get in the pasture and he'd open up his knife and cut the strings, then he'd stab it into the next uncut bale so that once the first was fed out it was ready standing ready to cut the next one. We'd bum around the pasture in circles as I dropped off squares of hay until it was all gone. It wasn't long afterwards I had my own knife, and have had one ever since.

Chuck
 
When I was growing up in the 50's and 60's men carried pocket knives. They just did.
My first one I adopted out of the tool drawer when I was around 6 or 8. I asked my dad's permission. As I recall, he didn't think it was a big thing, but just said yes. Mother had no problem with it either. I've been carrying a pocket knife pretty much ever since.
 
These threads are always fun to read. I've always been interested in knives ever since I was little. I remember going to the Shepherd Hills store in Lebanon, MO as a kid and being in awe of all the knives there. I found this forum looking for info on sharpening, and learning how to sharpen well has made me as excited about knives as I was back then.
 
My tale is different: My father or uncles never carried pocket-knives a far as I can remember, nor my brothers they just weren't interested. My grandfather had done and there was an old 2 blade pen-knife with cracked Tortoise scales and a bar shield knocking about the house. Blades worn down with sharpening etc. He had used this in the garden and for pipe smoking all his life but died before I was born. The thing just fascinated me despite being worn out. There were other rusty hulks in drawers or I sometimes unearthed one in the garden totally beyond repair but it was like some archaelogical treasure to me. As I said, nobody else seemed interested in them but I was hooked ever since! Grand's knife just vanished in one of those moves, pity,but the magic hasn't.
 
MacGyver!! He inspired me! I saw first MacGyver episode when i was 5. I got my first knife when I was 6, I lost it when I was 7 then I got my first SAK, Victorinox Spartan.
 
Here's a spin on the question. What have you done to inspire someone else's interest in knives. For instance, I have a 9 year old nephew. Dad is there, but doesn't take an extreme amount of interest in the boy and doesn't do anything that I can tell to teach him how to be a man. Thank God his dad isn't one of my brothers or I'd have to whoop his ass, but that's another subject.

In any case my wife and I had the nephews and nieces at the house earlier this week and the 9 year old was due for his breathing treatment. He has extreme asthma. I took him into the garage and took out my 8OT and asked if he had handled a knife before. Of course he hadn't because dad won't let him or take the time to teach him. For the next hour he and I sat there whittling sticks, sharpening pencils and at the end touching up the blades. For that one hour I knew he felt like more than a boy and that brief hour changed me as a man.

Chuck
 
I remember finding a Buck 110 in one of my fathers drawers. I don't remember what age I was, but I must've been really young, because the thing I remember most is the fact that I couldn't figure out how to close it after I opened it. And I was terrified that my dad would find out I'd been going through his stuff, so scared as I was I put the knife back in the drawer opened! Ofcourse after a couple days my dad figured out why his pocket knife was opened inside his drawer and ,not at all angry, he showed me how to close a backlock. After that, I never got over my fascination with knives.:D
 
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