What got you started ?

KenOnion

KenOnion

Joined
Apr 21, 1999
Messages
739
What got you started ,either collecting or knifemaking ?


Who inspired you ?

How long have you had the bug ?

How has your passion evolved ?

Aloha!!! Ken Onion
 
I've been intrigued my whole life. I would attribute it mostly to two things - first, a rebellion against my mother's over-cautiousness toward anything sharp, or hot, or heavy, or....; and second, my grandfather was one of the "manliest" men I've ever known, and he made it clear that men can pretty much be judged by the knife they carry and it's condition.

My passion evolved in one step - seeing a feature on custom tacticals in my first knife magazine. I saw some Darrel Ralph folders, and I suddenly realized that knives weren't just tools, but artworks as well.

After a while, after getting to know "knife people", I learned that my grandfather had, indeed, been right, and I no longer simply desire to own knives, but to be among those who make and carry the finest cutlery.
 
Grandpa always carried one.

Grandpa gave me my first few. (Which I always managed to lose track of somehow.)

Grandpa was my favorite person in the whole world.

The rest is history....

Blues

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Live Free or Die


 
I got started making knives when I was playing cowboy in my younger years. It was Christmas of 1982 or so and I woke up and found a neat little Ruana knife under the tree. It was the first handmade knife I had ever seen and I loved it. It was especially handy for horseback work as I could get to my knife without getting half undressed and take off my gloves to get a folder out when it was below zero. That calving season I was riding the calves and doctoring sick ones. I saw a calf that had a hay string wrapped around his leg and it was wearing through the hide, so I roped him and used the Ruana to cut the string off. I must not have gotten it back in the sheath good cause the next time I went to use it it was gone. I was crushed and couldnt afford a replacement at $12 a day wages! So I made my first knife out of a file thinking that I could make one as good as the Ruana. It turned out like crap so I made anoth, a bit better but still like crap. After a couple years I found folks wanting to buy them so I started selling them. Then one day my horse went down on the ice and me with him and I ended up with a bad leg and couldnt take the hard living anymore so went full time knifemaking for a couple years, dissapeared for a few years, and now I am full time again.

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www.simonichknives.com
 
I started deer hunting in the early 80's and needed a good knife. After going through some production stuff that really wasn't what I was looking for, a friend bought a GW Stone custom that just blew me away. I haven't been the same since.

Dave
 
My Grandfather gave me my first knife.
He also made a large bowie out of a saw blade that I still have.
I've had the bug since he gave me that first one.
Thirteen years ago, I tried making a knife and I am trying to go full time now.

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If a man can keep alert and imaginative, an error is a possibility, a chance at something new; to him, wandering and wondering are a part of the same process. He is most mistaken, most in error, whenever he quits exploring.

William Least Heat Moon
 
Well, what got me into knives? From as far back as I can remember, I have had a knife. As a young boy, I was a very good baseball pitcher and also loved to throw knives and myself and a couple friends would throw and create patterns with our throwing. Now I throw some using the Harald Moeller Viper II knives.

Why those? In 1980, as per usual, my wife and I attended the Canadian National Exhibition and our first stop was at the Arts & Crafts Building. The CNE is the largest and longest running national exhibition in North America in Toronto, Ont.

WOW!!! Walked in the door and from the corner entrance, saw a great knife display. Canadian Knife Collectors Club featuring Canadian Custom Knives. Learned later that CCN was actually a private dealer--see how a name can fool the public?

Lots of knives including Moeller's, Stockdale's and many others. Well, it was like a kid in a candy shop. Bought three knives--never had seen custom knives before and did not know anything. Rollie Robidoux was doing bright cut engraving and I had a Stockdale done. Rollie and Harald are close friends today.

Of course while at the booth, I met Bruce Edwards, the founder of the CKCC and we became friends and I spend many enjoyable hours with him discussing knives and have missed our great times since his early death from cancer.

An application to join the club was made and visits to the executive meetings resulted in my joining the board of directors and becoming the 2nd President of CKCC.

In 1981, Bruce and I drove to NY for the NY show. Harald had a booth and this was my first major show. None of the knives I purchased there nor at the CNE do I have anymore but over the years at CKCC shows, Guild shows, Classic show etc, I have accumulated via purchase or trade and selling some reasonably nice knives and have for the past 4 years had a great time participating in rec.knives n/g, the knife list, TKCL, forums and now the BladeForum Chat line.

To say I'm a knife nut is just the surface of it.



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I blame it all on my dad, the character of people involved and the friendships that have developed.
Dad will swear that his collection has taken quite a turn since I got interested in custom and hand made knives. From the point of view of someone who hates to shop with a passion - sure makes gifts for him easy. He literally lights up when holidays or his birthday come around showing off his new toys.
 
I was allowed to have knives as a kid years ago, grew up (sort of), hunted, hiked, bought knives but none of them were as good as I remembered the 'good, old' ones being.
I searched and recovered the 'old' knives and they really were better! Started with an interest in antique knives THEN discovered good friends and great custom knives even better than the 'good old knives'.
 
My father collected guns and some knives, too. So the specialized press was around our house as long as i could remember. Personally, i was always more impressed by the knives. I read the first article about damascus steel from Manfred Sachse at the age of seven, in 1968. I was hooked. I live in Aachen not far from the belgium border and in my childhood we visited Liège with its marvellous arms museum frequently. There are lots of old arms, especially firearms with damascus barrels, which were a specialty of Liège, on display.
I began collecting knives at the age of 12, mostly good production knives of european brands as Puma, Laguiole, Martinii and others. But i had to realize that it would never be possible for me to get a lot of the blades of my dreams, customs knives. So, five years ago, having the possibility to use the forge of a friend, i started to make them myself.

Achim
 
I started of at age 15 (I´m 26 now).
My dad gave me a big box of old issues of Popular mecanics (Date 49-52). In one of the issues there were a "how to make your own hunting knife" Later I found out that it was Randall who made that article (did´nt say)
From then on I was hooked

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Jens Anso, ansoknives@hotmail.com
(check out my homepage)
home6.inet.tele.dk/ansoe/ansoknives


 
I have had the bug since I can remember. We laugh about it now but when I was 8 years old I sent off to get 2 italian style little pocket knives from the back of a magazine. They cost about 2 dollars for the both of them. I still have 1 of them the other is MIA. Then when I was like 16 I bought a Buck 110 and still have it in my tackle box. Best 20 dollar investment I made!

Since that the collection grew to about 70 knives a few years ago but I have sold off a bunch and only have about 20 or so left now.

I purchased my first computor in 1996 and soon after that realized the world has gotten a little smaller. I hooked up on Knifeforums and now Bladeforums and have meet a whole bunch of new friends. I went into the chat room when Mike Turber and Spark first set this up on this forum and ran into a knife maker by the name of Kit Carson. We spent hours talking on line and he was kind enough to answer all my knife building questions. After months of chat he had a friend (Rob Cude) coming to stay with him for the weekend and he invited me to come along. The rest is history! That was last December and I now have a small machine shop in the basement and have made about 2 dozen folders since. Each one is getting better and the bug has gotten worse! Life will never be the same again.
smile.gif


 
The doctors told me I was born with it.

I grew up in the mountains of N. Ga and everybody had a knife. If you could have polled all my male relatives, even the ones in a foreign land (the next county), they would all most likely had a Boker or a Case, or maybe a Camillius in their pocket.

 
I've been fascinated by knives since I was a kid. I bought my first one at around age ten; a small bone handled Case folder from the local hardware store. I had to buy it myself as no one in my family gave a rat's ass about knives. I started collecting antique pocketknives about twenty years ago, perhaps to recapture a bit of the feeling that that original Case gave me. I became hooked on Mint Remingtons and New York Knife Co.'s (those old blade etches are beautiful). Around twelve years ago, I went to a knife show looking for more antiques, and saw my first customs. That's all she wrote. I've had it bad ever since. I've been obsessed with handmade autos for a few years now, especially those by Jeff Harkins.
 
I had tried my hand at making knives since I was about 17 or 18. I had made my mother a paring knife from some banding material. In 1988, I got a divorce, became a broke single parent, and with christmas coming soon. I thought that making knives again would be the right thing. One of my students had a book (by David Boye) about making knives, I borrowed it and and I'm still learning and trying to get better. It doesn't seem like it has been that many mistakes ago since I started. Ray Kirk
 
Many moons ago at the Dallas Convention Center military oriented gun shows a custom knife dealer from Houston used to have a table. At one of these shows money was burning a hole in my pocket and my essense was drawn to three knives on the dealer's table - a mirror Brend/WW, a Rainy Vallotton 4" mirror spear point with ivory Micarta scales and blued liners, and a beautiful black horn scale release with engraved German silver bolsters and a 3.5" satin drop point blade. I bought the Brend and Vallotton, which probably explains why I don't remember the other knife's creator. I resisted the urge to buy more high grade autos until about 8 months ago when a friend told me about the cutlery forums.

I plan on attending the upcoming Las Vegas show and finding that scale release or a worthy substitute.
 
Like most of you, I've loved, carried and used a knife most of my life. I only discovered that there were others that shared the same interest that I did about 18 months ago, when I saw my first knife magazine. Now I wonder why so many of the people I know don't share this same feelings about knives.

I wrote a letter to Blade magazine in Jan. part of it said that if Jeopardy had a question, "What profession do Moran, Loveless, Lake, and Horn all share?" what are the odds that anyone would get it right?

I could never get excited about a coin or stamp collection, but is there anything more fun than the simple handeling of a well made knife? I don't care if it's custom or production, tactical or traditional, fixed or folder, what other group has the choices we do?
 
My father was a hunter and knives are needed for that activity.Smallish knives for skinning deer,wild boar and upland game.My first knife was a Navy pilots knife.Used it for years.Went in the Marines and my father gave me a Randall which I carried for 4 years
[1 year in Viet Nam}Bought a Schrade Old Timer and carried it also in "the nam"Was in Helocopters and got issued a auto Shrade.
Bought Randalls for years and in 1970 discovered a maker named Mel Pardue The rest is history.Been collecting autos for a bit,and just love the customs.Am a complete knife-aholic.Tom Mayo said it well

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have a"knife"day
 
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