What is the longest you have owned a specific knife?

My oldest that I still have is a Buck 110 my uncle gave me when I was 9 or 10. That was about 25 years ago. It wasn't my first knife, but it was my first "man's" knife and at that age it made me feel 10ft tall & bullet proof. :)
 
My Father bought me a few of the $3 Chinese knives that were always next to the registers at Kmart and Meijer when I was somewhere around 8 years old but those are long destroyed by the stupid deeds of youth.
The oldest in my collection is a Cattaraugus with the bottle opener and an awl that I asked my Great Grandmother for after my Great Grandfather passed away. It was the one that he had carried for many years. I was excited beyond measure when she let me have it and was equally as humbled by what it meant to me.
I used it often, even to shave the Christmas tree trunk until it fit the stand for many years as a kid. Though it's still just as precious to me now as it was then I never use it, it gets brought out and oiled periodically to preserve it and to help me remember a great Man after so many long years.
It'll eventually go to one of my Sons, hopefully they'll appreciate it as much as I have though it may not get as much love with so many blades going their way.
Another long time keeper is the KaBar that my Dad carried in Vietnam. As a kid it seemed like a sword to my small hands, he trusted me enough to met me mess around with it every so often and when my hands were big enough to get a good grip on it he finally said yes to letting me have it.
I have "better" knives but those are my BEST knives!




Thanks for the thread.
I hope it helps others to remember knives that are thought well of but not thought of enough.
 
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1AbominAble1 said:
My Father bought me a few of the $3 Chinese knives that were always next to the registers at Kmart and Meijer when I was somewhere around 8 years old but those are long destroyed by the stupid deeds of youth.
The oldest in my collection is a Cattaraugus with the bottle opener and an awl that I asked my Great Grandmother for after my Great Grandfather passed away. It was the one that he had carried for many years. I was excited beyond measure when she let me have it and was equally as humbled by what it meant to me.
I used it often, even to shave the Christmas tree trunk until it fit the stand for many years as a kid. Though it's still just as precious to me now as it was then I never use it, it gets brought out and oiled periodically to preserve it and to help me remember a great Man after so many long years.
It'll eventually go to one of my Sons, hopefully they'll appreciate it as much as I have though it may not get as much love with so many blades going their way.
Another long time keeper is the KaBar that my Dad carried in Vietnam. As a kid it seemed like a sword to my small hands, he trusted me enough to met me mess around with it every so often and when my hands were big enough to get a good grip on it he finally said yes to letting me have it.
I have "better" knives but those are my BEST knives!




Thanks for the thread.
I hope it helps others to remember knives that are thought well of but not thought of enough.
Click to expand...

That's a great story & great pictures!
In the end, that's what is right, a knife handed down from a brave man, to his deserving son...and so on...
Thanks again...
 
A old Barlow my grandfather gave me in 1968. Its sitting in my safe, i take it out and oil it ever so often.
 
I've owned my Ek SWAT Model 3 (I believe "3" is the right #) since I was fourteen so 25 years. I think that's the longest for me.
 
This the Swiss Army knife my grandfather gave me when I was about 8 years old. So I have almost had it 40 years now. He acquired it while in Germany. He was a Staff Sgt in the Infantry. Training Sgt here in the States (they did not have drill Sgt then) when the war started and then became a sniper with the 29th Infantry Division and made it through the war without even a scratch. He was in the second wave to come ashore and that might have saved him. Out of the 60 men he went over with I believe he said there was 8 of them left. I prize this higher than just about anything I own. I carried with me when I went over to Germany while serving in the US Army and visited the same places that he lived. I ended up being stationed on the same post he was on before he transitioned to the states. I visited the room he lived in, took pictures of everything to include the post so he could see it now and we had a nice conversation about it all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/29th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)

hS3ghK1.jpg
 
Great thread guys.
It really showes how times have changed. I have 1st &3rd grader, and can only imagine the trouble theyde get in if
They showed up to school with a folder, ahhh goood Old Days :)
 
Wow I love this thread. I still have my first knife that I bought when I was about 14. I am about to turn 36 so 22 years. I will try and get a pic of it tonight. It resides next to my work bench at home. I don't think I ever really used it other than to shave a few sticks into spears when I was a kid.
 
Well, the blade that I've owned the longest, is an old school SH-Ergo. I've owned it a bit ocer a year, and modded the handle considerably.

Ground off 90% of the useless butt end. Ground some of the top handle swell off. It looks very much like a full tang basic 8. Feels great to my mitts, and used it to shave last weekend. Hopefully my kids and their get some good use out of it.
 
In the late 80's, another "Cop's Kid" buddy of mine had a SOG Bowie that I thought was Freakin' Awesome and since I couldn't afford the Busse's I lusted after in the old Shomer-tec catalogs my Dad used to get, I started looking at the SOG brand. I picket up a few knife magazines and that's when I saw this picture in an ad for SOG's Midnight Tigershark...


Well marketing worked and I immediately ordered one from the Cutlery Shoppe...


This one was made in Seki Japan and had a blued carbon steel blade (a special run for the Cutlery Shoppe if I remember correctly). It's the knife I've retained the longest in my collection. It's been acid washed and convexed by Norcalblacktail. It's still one of my favorites and pairs well with my custom SA Operator...


:D
 
My first blade is this....



Bowie by Sheffield. I've had if for 40 years. Bought it when I was a wee lad with hard earned $$$. Broke the tip off when trying to learn to throw it..... Bad idea. Took a stone and a long time. Rounded off the tip, turned out just fine:D.

Full tang, wood scales, brass guard. Rust damaged it but I manage to bring it back. It's retired now (well deserved). It rests in my office drawer, near my computer. Love that darn knife!

Andy's post made me realize that the other blade that I've had for a long time, is a G96. It was given to me by my brother in '88 or '89.
 
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Thank you.

He was brave indeed, as well as tough, stubborn, and confident.

He enlisted in the Marine Corpse when he was seventeen (needed a signature from his Mom to do so) and saw his fair share of combat while in Vietnam. Those traits served him well there and the rest of his life, I'd like to think I learned enough of it to inspire my kids, time will tell. I'm just thankful he lived long enough to meet all of his grandchildren before the cancer he developed from his exposure to agent orange took him.
Although most of what he left me lives in the lessons he taught me and that I'll teach my kids, that KaBar will be in a place of honor next to his Flag until long after I'm hunting with him again.
 
I got my first knife on my 8th birthday. Actually it was a knife and hatchet set from Sears. (In hindsight---what was my dad thinking)

This was in 1961 growing up in central Florida. We lived in a neighborhood that backed up to the Orlando Air Force Base (later converted to the Naval Training Center Orlando).
This was a neighborhood full of rambunctious little boys and we used to sneek through the fence and build forts in the woods on the base. That knife and hatchet saw alot of action; each carried in a leather sheath on a canvas belt around my waist.

Well -- one afternoon, around a small campfire we had built, one of my buddies spots a small plane flying overhead. We decided to send up smoke signals by pulling some spanish moss off a tree and placing it on the fire. Unfortunately, the moss was a long strand and was still attached to the low hanging branch of this dryed out dead tree. WOW......that tree went up in flames quick. All my buddies scattered and ran for home.
Me? My hatchet was still under that tree..................and I wasn't going to lose it. Well......I hear the sirens coming from the base and within a couple minute the airbase fire department shows up. There is a huge crowd on the other side of the fence watching.......including my Mom. After filling out a report they turn me over to my horrified and embarrassed Mother. She drags me home by the shirt collar and tells me "Wait til your father gets home". Dad got home, I got the belt and my knife was confiscated (never did find the hatchet).
I never saw that knife again until I was helping my Dad clean out his work shop. I was in my late 20s and it was still in the leather sheath up on a high shelf. We had a laugh about old times and he handed it back and said maybe someday I'll give it to my son. The Florida humidity and being in that leather sheath really rusted it up. I've cleaned it as best I could...it is still pitted pretty bad. I still have it....had two daughters (no sons) and now have three grandsons between the ages of 3 and 5. I think I'll wait a while...........this was an awfully wicked knife for an eight year old to be roaming the neighborhood with.

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Georgecatl said:
I got my first knife on my 8th birthday. Actually it was a knife and hatchet set from Sears. (In hindsight---what was my dad thinking)

This was in 1961 growing up in central Florida. We lived in a neighborhood that backed up to the Orlando Air Force Base (later converted to the Naval Training Center Orlando).
This was a neighborhood full of rambunctious little boys and we used to sneek through the fence and build forts in the woods on the base. That knife and hatchet saw alot of action; each carried in a leather sheath on a canvas belt around my waist.

Well -- one afternoon, around a small campfire we had built, one of my buddies spots a small plane flying overhead. We decided to send up smoke signals by pulling some spanish moss off a tree and placing it on the fire. Unfortunately, the moss was a long strand and was still attached to the low hanging branch of this dryed out dead tree. WOW......that tree went up in flames quick. All my buddies scattered and ran for home.
Me? My hatchet was still under that tree..................and I wasn't going to lose it. Well......I hear the sirens coming from the base and within a couple minute the airbase fire department shows up. There is a huge crowd on the other side of the fence watching.......including my Mom. After filling out a report they turn me over to my horrified and embarrassed Mother. She drags me home by the shirt collar and tells me "Wait til your father gets home". Dad got home, I got the belt and my knife was confiscated (never did find the hatchet).
I never saw that knife again until I was helping my Dad clean out his work shop. I was in my late 20s and it was still in the leather sheath up on a high shelf. We had a laugh about old times and he handed it back and said maybe someday I'll give it to my son. The Florida humidity and being in that leather sheath really rusted it up. I've cleaned it as best I could...it is still pitted pretty bad. I still have it....had two daughters (no sons) and now have three grandsons between the ages of 3 and 5. I think I'll wait a while...........this was an awfully wicked knife for an eight year old to be roaming the neighborhood with.

002.jpg
Click to expand...

....Good story:thumbup:. I can, most certainly, identify with it. And yes, that was a wicked blade for an 8 years old.....weren't those days grand. How we used to feel free. So many less rules too. I used to hunt birds, frogs, and groundhogs with my Bowie and my air rifle:D
 
Cobalt said:
I have a case folding knife my dad gave me when I was a kid. He owned it for a long while before giving it to me. The knife has a 1966 on it.
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Granddad gave me an old Case with fairly worn down blade from all that sharpening.

A little over 58 years ago.

Still got it.
 
Not totally sure, but about 20 years (I'm 27) Still have my first knife I ever got (iirc). Got it as a kid when I went on a little camping trip with my dad. It just happened to be the one knife from my childhood to survive this long, and it was my first knife ever, so when I got older I put it away to keep as something with sentimental value.

There was a thread I mentioned it in about "your first knife ever" HERE

 
I think the two oldest I own are a couple of traditional small faux ivory handled blades that my grandfather got out of a baking soda box in the 60's. My Dad gave them to me. Cool, but not much value other than sentimental.
 
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