What was your first "big boy" knife?

If memory serves, I received my first "big boy" knives from an uncle, when he returned from Viet Nam around 1962 or 1963.
He gave me his issue Camillus "Demo" knife, and his issue Ontario 488 "Jet Pilot Survival Knife".
(Why the Army issued him an Air Force knife, I have no idea.)

That uncle and both knives are long gone.:(
 
afishhunter said:
If memory serves, I received my first "big boy" knives from an uncle, when he returned from Viet Nam around 1962 or 1963.
He gave me his issue Camillus "Demo" knife, and his issue Ontario 488 "Jet Pilot Survival Knife".
(Why the Army issued him an Air Force knife, I have no idea.)

That uncle and both knives are long gone.:(
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Was he one of the "advisers" back then that tried to train the South's forces? We had them in there long before ground troops hit the ground in 1965. Maybe it was 72 or 73? Just curious, forgive me if I have it wrong.
 
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A “Big Boy” knife is one that doesn’t have Red Ryder or Hopalong Cassidy on the handle. I had a Camillus demo knife as a kid, and considered that a big boy knife.

There was a gap from age 13 to age 22 when I didn’t have a knife at all. The first knife I bought as an adult was this Loewen Messer Hippekniep I bought in Amsterdam in 1971. The carbon steel is probably some flavor of 1095, so that is what big boy steel means to me.

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To me, "big boy" simply implies something more than a gas station knife. Ive owned knoves all my life, but most where cheap 440 knives. Most, when i actually bought them (found and was given many as well) cost sub 20 dollars.

It wasnt until i was in my 20's that i looked into the different steel being used and made a consious effort to have a knife suited to specific use. Now in my mid 30's im finally making the jump to steels i have coveted for a while. A lot of stuff i had until now has been aus-8, d2, 1095, etc. I enjoy them still, and will still use them, but i am looking forward to the m390 and s110v i just bought. All my frie ds tell me i wont go back from those 2 specific grades
 
Long ago I bought the Spyderco Tenacious and Manix 2 in the same purchase. They were my first official Spydercos, before that I had a Byrd Meadowlark 2 and other assorted cheap knives. I consider the Manix moreso my first big boy, the ergos fill the hand so nicely and it's a real workhorse. I no longer own either of those knives but I daily carry my Manix in M4.

I am also set on buying the PM2 in K390 in the near future.
 
cbach8tw said:
Was he one of the "advisers" back then that tried to train the South's forces? We had them in there long before ground troops hit the ground in 1965. Maybe it was 72 or 73? Just curious, forgive me if I have it wrong.
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cbach8tw cbach8tw Nope. He was a Army Grunt.
I think the "Advisors" were all CIA or something.
We had ground forces there as early as 1959 or 1960. Long before 1965, anyway.
We went in during the Eisenhower Administration. Not the Kennedy or Johnson Administration.
We got out in 1973, during Nixon's second term.

Remember, Nixon was Eisenhower's VP, and lost the Presidential Election to JFK in 1960. Nixon won his first term as President in 1968, was re-elected in 1972, and forced to resign in late 1973 over "Watergate", giving us President Ford.
Ford was appointed VP, 2 or 3 days before Nixon resigned and 2 or 3 days after Spiro Agnew was forced to resign as VP, over charges of accepting bribes in connection with his construction(?) business.
As my (now late) dad said: "Nixon didn't do anything any of the other President's haven't done. He just got caught."

(Ford's first act as President was to pardon Nixon, which IMHO, guaranteed The Democrats would win the election in 1976, no matter who they ran against Ford.) (The Democrats won with Jimmy Carter.)
 
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afishhunter said:
cbach8tw cbach8tw Nope. He was a Army Grunt.
I think the "Advisors" were all CIA or something.
We had ground forces there as early as 1959 or 1960. Long before 1965, anyway.
We went in during the Eisenhower Administration. Not the Kennedy or Johnson Administration.
We got out in 1973, during Nixon's second term.

Remember, Nixon was Eisenhower's VP, and lost the Presidential Election to JFK in 1960. Nixon won his first term as President in 1968, was re-elected in 1972, and forced to resign in late 1973 over "Watergate", giving us President Ford.
Ford was appointed VP, 2 or 3 days before Nixon resigned and 2 or 3 days after Spiro Agnew was forced to resign as VP, over charges of accepting bribes in connection with his construction(?) business.
As my (now late) dad said: "Nixon didn't do anything any of the other President's haven't done. He just got caught."

(Ford's first act as President was to pardon Nixon, which IMHO, guaranteed The Democrats would win the election in 1976, no matter who they ran against Ford.) (The Democrats won with Jimmy Carter.)
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Thanks, appreciate it. Interesting time. I was born in 67, and I only briefly knew a little bit about it, it was never really talked bout much as I grew up in the 70s, learned more as I went to high school in 81-85, ( a lot more references to it on tv shows like Magnum PI, etc... Hollywood's version) and finally in depth at college. I was a PoliSci and language and culture major so I took a lot of history and political science classes. If only you could have held onto those big boy knives...can you imagine the stories they could tell? Thanks for the information. Love history too...I have friends who are Civil War reenactors who inspired me to learn more about that time too. That is important as I live in Central Va and we have four major battlefields in the area.
 
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Buck 112 with one of those speed dialer sheaths they used to sell at Biker shows. Still rockin'!
 
This Buck 110 was my first real big knife, I cherish it lovingly,,however this Spyderco Domino led me into the hobby and down the so called knives’ rabbit hole,,,:):)
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My grandfather owned a laundromat way back before washer/dryers were in almost everyones house. This was back in the day when most men carried a pocketknife of some type. He always had a big bucket of pocketknives that were left over after they cleaned the machines out. He always tried to reunite them with their owner, but for the most part it ended up in a bucket in the back of the store. I used to be able to go through the bucket when I was a kid.

Most of the knives were the old sodbusters and stockman and trappers. This was long before flippers and pocket clips and more one handed type knives. Most have disappeared over the decades since, but I still have a few.

I open my mail using an old case trapper that he gave me when I was 8. I remember the day he gave it to me and I can still remember the smell of the Naptha that they used to use in the old laundromats and how it was like an irritating burning type of smell.

My first "This is mine from new" knife was my Boy Scout knife. I consider that my first "big boy" knife, but the knife bucket was the coolest thing ever as a kid and is probably why I'm into knives today.
 
Went from a polymer Buck Bantam, to a Buck Vantage, to a Delica and then my obsession took over and the next knife I bought after was a gold class M4 Griptilian. That was a little over 9 years ago
 
My first "real" knife was an late 80's/early 90's Gerber Gator (back when Gerber still made a lot of their knives here) that my parents have me during my Scouting days. I still have it, and have since added a couple more. I think I've got all three steels they came in now.
 
Spyderco Endura in ATS-55 IIRC.

Around $50 back then.
 
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