What Started It For You?

JK Knives

JK Knives

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What started your collecting and using custom knives? For me, it was when I was in the old Venture department store in 1976. (Anybody remember those?) I came across this book, and I was hooked! All I ever heard about was Buck, Schrade, Gerber, and Case before that. A whole new world of knives opened up!

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In 1978 by friend, his wife, my ex-wife, and myself drove to Florida. We came across the Randall knife shop in Orlando, and stopped. Here were some of those knives I had read about, so after some considerable begging (and probably a little whining) I convinced my ex to let me order one. What I ordered was a Model 1, 6" ss blade, with a Model 2 handle, in leather and nickel. What did that set me back? $96.00, and only a 3 month wait! Try that nowadays. It`s long gone now, but what memories. What`s your story?
 
That's cool man. I guess what started getting me into handmade stuff versus production stuff was winning a Dave Farmer blade in a contest a while back. The edge was just fantastic, and the quality was great. After that I really started getting interested in 'what else was out there'.
 
I've been interested in knives as far back as I can remember. When the neighborhood boys and I would all play "war", they'd all have toy guns, and I'd be loaded up with toy Rambo knives.

My first custom knife was one Justin at Ranger knives did for me. I took his Shiv design, made about 8 or so changes, and had him make it up. I still have that knife (I'll never sell it).

Here's that knife when it was new. It doesn't at all look like this now, unfortunately. I can say it has been well used and well loved.
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Here's some pants I had Eric at Onscene make for it:
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Here's a badass glamour shot :)
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I saw a custom Nessie and couldn't find anything like it in production so I had one made and it caught on.:D

Blessing Knives.
 

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Asked a question about a gun show on here, Scott Gossman asked where I was, found out I was about a 5 minute drive from him. Met him at a gun show, I didn't have enough for one of his knives. Met him and bought a buff knife from him.

It kind of snowballed from there. I almost got an RJ Martin JD knife, but sadly and embarrassingly, I had to cancel it. Couldn't afford it, wish I had gotten it. Would like my first custom folder to be a slipjoint, or a Harner framelock.
 
Buck 110 and my Cub Scout pocketknife (the blue one). Ok I'm a reatrd and didn't put CUSTOM knife---hehehe. Ok my first custom was a ML knife I bought off ebay.
 
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My first custom knife was a fiddleback nessie I bought off the exchange.

My first dealing with a maker, and ordering from a maker was when I saw a small knife posted by Mtnfolkmike. He gave me the contact info for a man they call Stomper on the forums. I contacted him, and if I remember correctly, he was a part time maker then. I ordered me one of his hikers backups, and I was so impressed with the smooth deal, I have ordered a few more from him. Remember that John?

You are what made me take the leap into talking with all the makers I now call friends. Thank you!!

Oh.... I remember Venture!!!!! I didnt even know they werent around anymore. I can remember goin there the last time in the mid 90s....
 
i have been a knife junkie just about as long as i can remember... growing up with a LEO/military dad, knives were a staple for us... we did a lot of fishing, hunting and camping..

as for nice knives, i remember seeing/buying my first blade and TK magazine in the early 90's.. i continued to search for it and buy for a long time after that..
while in H.S. i traded a friend a rain jacket for a nice Benchmade AFCK mini....i EDC that thing for years, up until about 5 years ago, when i got my mini-griptillian...:o it's been all down hill ever since....:)
 
My first custom was received just last month, a Koster Bushcrafter (which is really a mid-tech knife, but anyway) but I've been in love with knives ever since my uncle took me to the local Mom and Pop hardware store when I was 10 to pick out any knife in the case. I chose a small Case two-blade slipjoint and still have it. That spent YEARS in my pocket and after college I started buying some nicer knives. Finding the W&SS forum here lead me to buy a bunch of Moras and eventually the Koster and now I'm scouring the forum, gaining information on the knives people here own and most importantly, actually use. I hope to get a Stomper sometime this year. WHich one, I don't know, but they look great. Can't wait until that Bushcraft comes around.
 
j williams said:
My first custom knife was a fiddleback nessie I bought off the exchange.

My first dealing with a maker, and ordering from a maker was when I saw a small knife posted by Mtnfolkmike. He gave me the contact info for a man they call Stomper on the forums. I contacted him, and if I remember correctly, he was a part time maker then. I ordered me one of his hikers backups, and I was so impressed with the smooth deal, I have ordered a few more from him. Remember that John?

You are what made me take the leap into talking with all the makers I now call friends. Thank you!!

Oh.... I remember Venture!!!!! I didnt even know they werent around anymore. I can remember goin there the last time in the mid 90s....
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I remember, black micarta,and one of the few with a drop point. ;)
 
My dad is to blame he was really into hunting and he got me started on pocket knives when I was about 7 or 8 . When he bought a new hunting or skinning knife it was a big deal and he take me with him to get it . He always carried a pocket knife and he would pull out his sharping stones about once a week and hone all of his knives to razor sharpness . So I have always been into knives but it wasn't until my brother in law introduced me to customs in 2006 .That I got hooked Not long after a trip to blade in" 07" I bought a big Ted Fritzell. But my favorite so far in my JK because I spec it out and it was made special for me . Its a 4 inch wharcliff style , with two tone handle . I have more expensive knives but none I like better .
 
grindonyou said:
My dad is to blame he was really into hunting and he got me started on pocket knives when I was about 7 or 8 . When he bought a new hunting or skinning knife it was a big deal and he take me with him to get it . He always carried a pocket knife and he would pull out his sharping stones about once a week and hone all of his knives to razor sharpness . So I have always been into knives but it wasn't until my brother in law introduced me to customs in 2006 .That I got hooked Not long after a trip to blade in" 07" I bought a big Ted Fritzell. But my favorite so far in my JK because I spec it out and it was made special for me . Its a 4 inch wharcliff style , with two tone handle . I have more expensive knives but none I like better .
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And here it is....

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First I want to say that that is a really nice looking wharncliffe up above John. What would one run that size with maple burl handles?

I got into knives through cub scouts and then boy scouts. I normally had some sort of Buck or SAK on me while growing up. Once I joined the Army I got more and more into knives but stuck with production blades. I actually just bought my first custom about 2 months ago, a wharncliffe with camphor burl from Jack ONeil. Friday I bought my 2nd custom off the exchange which is actually a JK friction folder in black g10. I'll post some pics once I get it. I really like John's work though and already have a Knatchet and Scandi Bushcrafter on order and I plan on getting quite a few more.
 
That wharncliff is actually one of my old model Hikers with a wharncliff blade. In burl (with no bolsters) it would go for $140.
 
Customs.. when I first saw a few of them a couple of years back I thought about them, but couldn't afford them at the time. (Was only 16-17) Now that I can afford them from time to time, I love em.
 
I've had many production knives for over 40 years starting with a Puma Bowie which I still have. But as I'm into traditional archery, I found a gentleman who made cedar shaft arrows in Phoenix and bought a few boxes from him. His name is Dave Harper and he had some nice fixed blades in a display case. At the time, he was in the Knifemaker's Guild and I had him make this one for me. It's in D2 steel and one year I used it to skin and quarter one elk and two mule deer before I had to touch up the edge. I was hooked. Lately, I've began selling off all my production knives as most are made overseas, and replacing them with American made custom knives.
 

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Cool thread!

Being interested in the outdoors, I'd always had a soft spot in my heart for knives. When I was a kid it was Schrade, Buck, Gerber, or Case. When I was in college I stumbled onto blade forums and that was that. After drooling over the woodsy customs for 3 or 4 years in the WSS forum I had to have one. My first custom what the 1st anniversary knife in maple burl that John made for me last year.

Brandon
 
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