What Made You Decide Knives Are Great?

The first time you pull a knife out of your pocket and actually use it for its intended purpose and people see how awesome you are. Thats the moment
 
I got a Boy Scout knife when I was a kid. It had a stag handle and contained a blade, spoon, fork, can opener, awl, screw driver and other useful tools. It was a combination of Hobo knife and Swiss Army knife. It had a shackle and I carried it on my belt loop. I learned how useful a tool it was outdoors.

I've always had a knife in my pocket since then.
 
Great thread.

When it really got going for me was when I first moved out and bought my first dog.

I love the outdoors, and the amount of time I spent hiking with my dog, and do to this day (second dog) made a knife indispensable in the environments we where in.

What began as a single purchase for a tool I needed, turned into a monster of a hobby for a lot of tools I respect and love.
 
The 2 hours from when I picked out a "Roy Rodgers" folder at a fishing lodge until I cut myself with it at the camp site and my dad chucked it into the depths of Lac La Croix. I've been fascinated since, although I wasn't allowed another until I started hunting a few years later. I carried a beat up, scratched old Case leather handled fixed blade, but lusted after my dad's Gerber and his hunting partner's Buck fixed blades.
 
When I was nine or ten I received a buck 118, an uncle henry Lb7, and a small old timer lockback for Christmas. They weren't my first knives but they definitely got me hooked....well maybe I already had the bug why else would I have gotten three knives for Christmas?
 
Because opening a package with your keys sucks

Whittling some fuzzsticks & wood shavings for a fire > cut open the hot dogs & buns > whittle down a stick for cooking the hot dogs > and for an encore use the same stick for marshmallows > enjoy.
 
What made me decide knives are great? More than anything else: this forum; but before that:
Step 1) Receiving a Swiss Army Knife as a child, with my name engraved on it.
Step 2) Getting my first "real" knife some 14 years ago: the Benchmade 940. That was the spark.

Then I joined BladeForums, learned about steel and materials and mechanisms and tolerances and ergonomics and aesthetics and 'value systems' and variety and many other things -- which, combined with the "spiritual" aspect of knives (e.g. ancestral recall), brought me to the simple conclusion that knives are great. :)
 
As a kid...always wanted a pocket knife and never got one. Forgot all about it, and then one day a while back thought "Hey, I'm a grown up! I can buy me a pocket knife!" At that point knives went from cool to awesome.
 
Quiet said:
Right before they wrestled a bear barehanded, then ate it raw and told you it was your turn, cupcake.
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Lot simpler with a blade, and you can use it to cut and share your cupcake with your bear wrestling friends too. Point being unless your some kind of urban hipster a cutting tool is an essential tool for most men, at least where I am from. But I guess there are those who don't need to carry one:rolleyes:


I grew up in a rural area in the 60's-70's and most every man in my part of the state hunted, fished, was an outdoorsman or worked with his hands so having knives on or near you at all times was essential and just something all men I grew up around used as an invaluable tool daily. So its something that's always been an important part of my life and still is even now. I met others in college that had never even touched a knife other than a kitchen knife and I found that very strange at the time. Even now in my fifties working as a engineering consultant I feel carrying a cutting tool is still an important part of my daily kit and never leave home without at least one.
 
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marcinek said:
As a kid...always wanted a pocket knife and never got one. Forgot all about it, and then one day a while back thought "Hey, I'm a grown up! I can buy me a pocket knife!" At that point knives went from cool to awesome.
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So many things in my life have come about due to this realization of being a grown up. Or at least, sort of one. ;)
 
For some reason with these stories I'm thinking of that old Simpsons episode where Bart joins the Scouts (not Boy Scouts but some kind of organization) and he really wants a pocket knife since all the other scouts have one, but first he needs to read the knife safety book.
 
For me it started as a pup, watching in fascination as my father sharpened his knives with a carborundum stone and spit. Then a 1" folder from the Alamo gift shop I saw in a display case at about age 6 or 7. My parents bought it for me. Once back home I immediately got into trouble with it and I wasn't allowed to have a knife for a while.

Next were my various Boy Scout knives (I never saw that safety book and only lasted a month or two in Scouts due to a penchant for, let's say, independence. I also had a father who frequently took me on much more adventurous outings that made scouting seem dull). During this period I learned sharpening and maintenance.

By Jr. high school I had discovered SAKs and traditional folders. By college I had automatics and carried them in violation. Lost a few of them to the law too.

When I received my first real-job paycheck I purchased a small Old Timer triple which I found to be very handy over years of service. Still have it.

After I'd been riding Harleys for a while I realized I had a "collection"--various boot knives, neckers and folders I'd purchased over decades of riding.

I bought Benchmade's first folder during this period ( '93 maybe? I think it was called a "Panther"; I'll probably be technically corrected on that). Still have it too--hell of a steel...great edge, profile, and not a rust spot on it to this day. Wish I knew what it was.​

Finally it hit me that I must enjoy having knives. I took the plunge and now have I don't know how many.

I'm still looking for a good re-hab program...
 
Pirate63 said:
Lot simpler with a blade, and you can use it to cut and share your cupcake with your bear wrestling friends too. Point being unless your some kind of urban hipster a cutting tool is an essential tool for most men, at least where I am from. But I guess there are those who don't need to carry one:rolleyes:

Touche' ! Wonder how far up her urban hipsters that cupcake would fit... :triumphant:
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EChoil said:
Pirate63 said:
Lot simpler with a blade, and you can use it to cut and share your cupcake with your bear wrestling friends too. Point being unless your some kind of urban hipster a cutting tool is an essential tool for most men, at least where I am from. But I guess there are those who don't need to carry one:rolleyes:

Touche' ! Wonder how far up her urban hipsters that cupcake would fit... :triumphant:
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EChoil, your "Location"reminds me of a reference to a popular video game but, I'm sure that's not what you mean when you say The Sprawl. ;)
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Got my first SAK when I was like 7ish. My dad gave it to me because I had seen my grandfather always using his and I thought it was cool how you could use a knife all the time like he did. When I got it, I carried it everywhere and felt like a total badass. IDK, I think it was the feeling of specialness that got me. I felt like the only person in the world with this "super power" lol (of course I probably was. I lived in a very liberal area).
Then, when I was a bit older, my dad randomly got a POS Smith and Wesson $10 3" folder and I was marveling at how "cool" it was (I legitimately thought it was the highest quality knife you could get) , so when I got to about age 12ish, I was in Vegas with the family and we stumbled upon a tiny store that had one corner that sold crappy (BUT COOL LOOKING) knives. I bought one and started carrying it, mostly as a weapon, feeling that same sense of power come back as I dreamt up situations in which I would have to use it to stab bad guys who tried to rob me or something....Yeaaah. I played a lot of Assassin's Creed back then, BTW

A little while later I started really getting into the survival genre on TV, which led me to a cheap saw-backed, hollow handled Rambo-style bowie that my dad got at harbour freight because it was on sale and he thought it looked cool. Of course, it sucked big time and broke. So, I went in search of a nicer one that I could carry while camping and for emergencies, realizing that I had the folder category "covered", but had no fixed blade. I FULLY intended to just get in and get out, securing only one knife and using it for everything. I QUICKLY found out this was not the case and that the world of knives was not nearly that simple. I got my first SRK (and it was the bee's ACTUAL knees to me at the time) after a few months researching and still love it to this day. Suffice to say I was at that point completely hooked on knives. Just researching the SRK had brought me into the realm of steels, geometries, etc, and I could no longer be content with one knife or go back to mediocre gas station cutlery. I decided to upgrade my folder next. After again trying to keep from getting too immersed in the world of knives, this time the even more complex world of folders, I eventually gave up and let it happen. My first decent folder was the spydie tenacious in all black... OH MAN, It was all down hill from there.......;)

After this, I became so interested in knives that I decided to join this forum. The WORST mistake I could have ever made ;) Now Im not happy with anything that doesnt have either a butterfly or spyder on the blade.....:D But the most interesting shift is when i began to drop the "I carry a knife because Im a badass who can defend himself" and started carrying knives as tools. I remember at first hating spyderco designs because they werent tactical enough. But as i changed my view of knives, my tastes changed as well. And now? Well......Spydies forever baby:cool:
 
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Grew up around knives due to my brother being a lot older than me and already being into them, so I couldn't tell you when I decided I like knives because I liked knives as far back as I remember. Their great tools that make life a whole lot easier and I learned that at a young age, and plus building a lot of stuff with my first knife which was a Victorinox Recruit.
 
Pirate63 said:
Lot simpler with a blade, and you can use it to cut and share your cupcake with your bear wrestling friends too. Point being unless your some kind of urban hipster a cutting tool is an essential tool for most men, at least where I am from. But I guess there are those who don't need to carry one:rolleyes:
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Even urban hipsters need knives. How am I supposed to open that new bag of el Salvadorian I just got? god knows I'm not going to just rip that thing open and have muh beans go everywhere
 
Started with watching old Tarzan movies on Sunday morning, so I naturally bugged my dad for a knife, he got me a slim lock back with wooden handle, I believe it was a frontier by Imperial Schrade(?). I loved the sharpness of the blade and the smell of the leather sheath. After that I was hooked, my first real knife I loved was when I was older and purchased my first Kabar Marine corps knife with leather handle.still like big knives, but lately I have found the 3 - 4 inch fixed blades the most handy, fits in the pocket and is great for edc. Of course I almost always carry some form of SA.
 
I have always had the thinking what if I had nothing .. what do I need to live here .. or get back to civilization.. ever since I was a little kid
The answer usual comes back to Im gunna need a knife and or something to chop with .. I have had the fascination with making and improvising , and continually improving ( lotta trial and error ) knives ever since .Its why I experiment with knapping stone , improvising blades from tin can rip tops , neo tribal blade making .. and when Im home , taking it a bit further , messing with tool steels , hi speed steel etc making blades ..
 
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