What was the knife that got you started?

My grandmother let me buy a Buck 119 back in the 1980's; with my allowance money. The fact that she trusted me with it, and stuck up for me when other people thought I shouldn't have it, really made it "Special" to me. (no pun intended. Okay, maybe a little . . . ) Anyway, until then I had no real interest in knives, and over the years I've considered that one to be the foundation of my collection.

thx - cpr
 
I was 5 and my friend from kindergarten had a red handle swiss army knife (maybe type, maybe real swiss army so to speak) I was to receive my first pocket knife two years later...still have it.
 
Schrade Old Timer 15OT fixed blade that I inherited from a relative that passed away - Ive used it for camping, hunting, fishing, and all kinds of outdoor activities. Still have it. - - All my interest in knives (more as a user than a collector for the most part) had started with that knife. Looking for various other types/models for various tasks & situations, thus I've built up my own little 'collection'. The search for the 'perfect' knife (for me) for each application continues on. - - And that's the fun & fascination, of course. :) - - -
 
When I was 14 I bought myself a 6 inch survival knife. It has serrations on the back of the blade and it had a hollow handle containing a survival kit (fishing line, wire saw, etc). the base of the handle was a liquid compass that was removable and doubled as a fishing bob. The sheath had a little pocket that held a sharpening stone. My friend bought the same one and we went camping running around the woods pretending to be Rambo. A couple years later I bought a SAK. These two knives got me started. I stopped carrying a knife for many years until just recently when my interest was renewed. I now EDC a small classic sebenza...but oh to be 14 again.
 
Victorinox camping model when I was 8-9. My brother got it for me as a birthday gift without my parents' knowledge. Throughout my early teens I bought, traded, sold lots of cheap chinese/paki stuff with classmates (I would've been locked up according to today's school standards). Grew out of that phase and got rid of most everything and during the process I lost track of that first SAK. Through college, I got by with a Gerber Magnum LST.

Several years after college (8 years ago) I was working on a project and needed a knife. A family friend took out his brand spanking new Benchmade 722 from his pocket and let me use it. It was so new (he still had the box in the car) that I was the first person to cut anything with it, and so he felt that the rightful owner should be me. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen and it was everything I had wanted in a knife back then: a tanto with a combo edge (mall-ninja stuff), and of course I was mesmorized by the axis lock. Since then, I've realized that that edge configuration is probably the most impractical of all, but I'll always keep that one. Just like everyone else, its been downhill from there.

Oh, and I recently found that SAK I lost about 15 years ago. I was helping move some old boxes around at my parents' with my brother (the one that got it for me) and I stumbled upon it. I almost cried. Unfortunately he doesn't remember getting it for me as it was such a trivial event for him (and he's not into knives), but such a moment for me.
 
My first real knife was a John Primble 4 blade Congress my dad let me pick out at the local hardware store when I turned 10 in 1968. I have carried a knife virtually every day since that time.

But really the knife that got me going was the knife I wanted but couldn't afford as a kid -- a Buck 120. I didn't get one until I was about 20.

Wanting the knife I don't have has been a continuing theme for me. :D
 
Practical Use said:
In the nursery a day or so after my birth the doctor was doing his rounds, and I noticed a clip on the edge of his pocket. I grabbed and pulled, and sure enough out came a folder. It was an early Benchmade prototype. He did not realize that I had it, and left. I could not get the hang of fliping it open. I was trying when one of the nurses caught me and took away the knife. Mean old hag - no sense of humor!

There began my interest in knives, and my separation anxiety.
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Now, if you had cut your own umbilical cord, I would have been impressed. :)

I'm over 50, so when I was born, doctors knives were the traditional slipjoint types with nail nicks and I really didn't have the thumb strength that early in my development.

My dad gave me my first pocket knife when I was a cub scout back in the 60's. It was a scout/utility, 4 blade type with a spear point, can opener, screwdriver and awl. It had black, jigged composite scales and even today, I still like that look. I carried a red SAK Pioneer as a young adult and still have it in a drawer although it's pretty worn.
 
I don't remember a time when I wasn't interested in knives, But my first serious user was a Buck 110 I got from the ship's store on USS White Plains in 1977.
 
My first knife was a swiss army 1 blade folding boy scout knife by victorinox.
Like the one here
vm_55871_sol_a02.jpg

http://www.swissarmy.com/MultiTools/Pages/Product.aspx?category=scouting&product=55871&
My dad bought it for me when I was maybe 6 or so? I wish I still had it.
~Corey
 
Vic Swiss Armys. I bought my first one after watching macguyver for a few weeks. I walked to the old time hardware store in town and bought it. I don't remember the model. I know it had damn near everything. I know I had it for a good 6 months and lost it. I bought another one. 6 months later I actually found the old one. I still have one of them.

the thing that irritated me, I wanted the EXACT one Mac had. I didn't realize one that had every tool he used didn't exist.... at least this side of the champ which isn't practical.
 
A sak classic is where it started for me, I think I was 8 or 9 when I got it.
 
A cheap chinese folder got me started. After collecting crapy knives for a while, I then realised eror of my ways.
 
A buck 110 my father's friend gave me when I was ten. It was duller than dirt, but it drove my mom bonkers knowing I had it. Heck, if it makes mom crazy, it has to be good, right?
 
My grandfather worked in a local slaughter house.i remember going to work with him and sitting on a stool and watching.He had a knife made from a broken sword.That was the start of my interest in knives.I am 53 now and still have his "knife box" and the broken sword.
 
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This was a knife my dad had. I used it for everything. Back about 1956 he gave it to me for my first deer hunting trip. There is no name on it anywhere. It might have been home made.
 
My first knife was given to me by my uncle when I was 13-14 (I'm 26 now) as a birthday present because I kept pestering family members to let me have a knife. It's a SAK climber, I still have it and I only put it out of commission after I lost the other half of the scissors, I replaced it with a Super Tinker and by that time I had a couple shrade senior stockman's like uncle always carries (just a pity their no longer USA made).
 
SOG Trident. After that, it was search for a better one, then a better one, then an even better one! The search is still on!
 
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