What Knife started you collecting?

rpttrsn

rpttrsn

Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
1,345
I was going through some of my knives (70+) today and realized what knives got me on the path of poverty. It has been quite a few years ago that pushed me over the edge, no pun intended, to buy more then my wife and family say I need. I had a few early on but never had that urge for more. Do you remember which one or two made you feel that you had to have more?
The first one was purchased in 1988 in Virginia at a gun show. I was returning home from visiting a collage for my son.
The Maker is Edmund Davidson. It was his Bird and Trout model. 2 3/4" blade was heat treated by Paul Bos in Elgin, CA.
ATS-34 @ 60 RC. Red& Black Linin Micarta handle. 6 3/4 OAL I think I paid $80.
P1030009-vi.jpg

This lockback folder was made by Jim Turecek. The stag has a nice tight grain. 3" blade of D-2 steel @ 57-59 RC
The bolsters and liners are nickle silver with a closed length of 3 7/8" Belt pouch is buckskin. I think the price of this one was $250. This one was the most I had spent on a knife back then. It was purchased at the NY Knife Show.
P1030004-vi.jpg
 
For me it was an ESEE 3 that got me addicted. I ended up buying about a dozen before my wife cut me off and told me the next knife I got had to be one I made.
 
Mine started a couple years ago when I was looking at which hunting knife to buy my dad for Christmas and was interested in the many designs etc.- I was then given a Kershaw Blur as a gift as my first knife and I am now addicted
 
Kershaw R.A.M. It was my first fathers day gift from my little angel.
 
Boker Plus KeyCom I think. Or a Kershaw Scallion. Those were a couple of my first forays into it, and were carried quite a bit when first acquired. But those were more "knives to use" rather than anything to do with collecting. My downfall was when I wandered out of the old Kershaw forum here and stumbled over into the Traditional sub-forum.

So what really triggered me moving from "someone who owned a few pocket knives to carry and use" to "a knife collector" was a trio of knives in a single order - Case Peanut, Case Small Texas Jack, and a Case Sway Back Jack. That's what got me hooked. I've added many other Case knives and expanded into Buck, Great Eastern Cutlery, Queen, Canal Street, and Victorinox from there.

I still have a few modern knives and occasionally add to them, but the slipjoints is where I fall into the collector realm.
 
Funny story, I did quite a bit of on-line research on my first folder purchase and decided on the Kershaw Clash. I ordered from a reputable site and was like a kid waiting for Christmas day on that first knife. Two to three days later there it was, I ripped in to that thing like nobody's business and to my dismay they sent the wrong knife, it was a Kershaw Leek half serrated! I was so disappointed and really not sure what I was going to do. Well, I sat there and looked that SS Leek over stem to stern, played with it and I must say I wouldn't trade it for any clash, so glad those guys messed up my first real knife purchase in over 35 years and I've got a great story to go with it!
 
My dad got me a zt 0350 for me since I wanted a better pocket knife. Well after getting that I was hooked and wanted more. I soon found out about automatic knives and how they are heavily restricted and I always figured I would never own one. One day I found a knife shop and to my surprise and excitement they had Microtech OTFs in stock. Well from that day I saved up money as fast as I could, got back to the store as fast as possible and bought my first Ultratech. The Ultratech was what started the real addiction but the 0350 will always have a special place in my collection.
 
Nice blades rptt! The first quality knife that I owned was a caly 3 zdp-189. I bought it second hand locally.

I was searching the used hand tools classifieds online and ended up seeing a boker karambit for 35 bucks. Upon going to see said boker, the guy showed me the caly and I wanted it the second I laid eyes on it. The price was a bit of a surprise (165 cad I think) that was an lot to spend in my opinion back then.

I picked up the boker first for 35.00 and told him I would think about the caly. I ended up doing a ton of research on it and read a bunch of reviews. I watched youtube video reviews as well. I couldn't believe how many people were into knives! All the great reviews on the knife made it fairly easy to pull the trigger.

He was surprised I had never heard of Spyderco before. He told me with a laugh "you're going to get hooked!" I didn't believe him but I sure did. The spider bites! Although the boker could be considered the one that got me hooked it was definitely the spidie that did the deed!

It's a great knife. I still have it and I still use it. Nice and smooth opening and closing, centered with good lockup and sharp!!! I carried it for about a year exclusively before the spidie venom took over. I have bought and sold many knives since then. Still going strong with the blade addiction!
 
Last edited:
That Davidson fixed is absolutely gorgeous rptt!!!
It definitely looks like that first taste of crack!!

Mine was a BM 940.....I always thought the blades the Snap On guy had on his truck were great.....till one of them broke and took a good chunk out of my finger this summer.
I now have 10 Benchmades, bunch of Spydies and just got my first taste of ZT.....uh oh!!
Joe
 
Lost my SOG Vulcan which I had purchased for work. Wanted something better so I went researching. In my research I became much more educated about cutlery, and as an added bonus I became quite addicted to said subject matter.

Wound up buying the Benchmade 940. I give more credit to that knife than the SOG for getting me started, because it made me understand what a real quality knife could do.
 
The first knife that started the addiction for me was the 007 folder my grandfather gave me when I was a kid (anyone remember them!) Ever since then they just seemed to progressively get better quality and more expensive! Lol!
 
I walked into AG Russell's to look at a Marble's Ideal and a Canal Street 1873 Bowie. When the girl behind the counter realized I wanted a bigger knife but could not afford what I was looking at that day she pulled out a new to KA-BAR Becker BK9 for I believe $79 or $81. I bought it and was hooked. Next I bought a couple of KA-BAR USMC's, a Ontario Marine Raider and a few others.

I would not say I am a collector but more of an enthusiast.
 
Bought a crappy folder at a bait shop in the outer banks,,,, after that a Spyderco Tenacious. Unfortunately lost it to TSA,, still think it was such a great knife.
 
Swiss army knives started it all. Then a Coast cutlery folder. Was a buck 110 imitation. Then gerber air ranger then gerber harsey hunter fixed blade. After that.. Buck more saks more gerbers zt keshaw spyderco.....
 
I
palonej said:
That Davidson fixed is absolutely gorgeous rptt!!!
It definitely looks like that first taste of crack!!

Mine was a BM 940.....I always thought the blades the Snap On guy had on his truck were great.....till one of them broke and took a good chunk out of my finger this summer.
I now have 10 Benchmades, bunch of Spydies and just got my first taste of ZT.....uh oh!!
Joe
Click to expand...

I would not have the Davidson but my son insisted I go back to the show in Virginia after we left. We had to be about 40 miles away. He new I wanted it. Money was tighter then as he was my first starting collage. I guess I can blame him for some of my addiction. LOL
These stories about how you all got into knives are great. I guess one of my better knives when I was younger was a spyderco standard. How many remember that one. All SS lock back with the spyderco serrated edge.
 
Which knife started me collecting? My first SAK. I think it was a Camper. After that I started picking up more knives. Because the next knife would be the perfect knife. And then the next knife would be good for a specific task. And then I needed another one...to be well rounded. And I'm not a collector; I just need another knife, in the kitchen or on the trail. I don't collect knives; I just need one more.

I'm not a knife collector. I'm a steel junkie.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top