What was your "gateway" knife?

I was inexperienced and ignorant, but I do believe I was wise.

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Very wise indeed.
 
Not my very first, that was a Buck 110 but the one that got me started really accumulating and using and appreciating knives was a Kershaw Blackout. Still a good knife but I've sure come a long ways since then.
 
i cant really say.....it was much more of a slow progression. Plus i went it, then went out again.

Carried a knife since i was 17 or so. always cheap. Never really owned more than one or two. Made incremental steps up over years. First decent knife i bought when i was about 21, a griptilian. Only knife i had for about 3 or 4 years. Then i tried a few spydercos, another benchmade, a sog. Sold off most of them, didnt buy any for a while, then started buying again. First one over 100 bucks was probably a sage 1 i think. Tried a couple more spidies, then a ZT0550......i think the biggest shift happened when i had got my hands on a small sebenza. Caused me to sell off the rest of my cheap knives, drove my standards up. Sold the small for a large, tried a couple of striders, sold them both, tried a couple of microtechs.......

i really cant point to one that started it all, just the first decent one (griptilian) and the one that drove the biggest change in my taste in knives (sebenza).
 
My gateway knife was a Buck Vantage Pro.

I had always carried a knife, but when my trusty slipjoint fell out of my pocket, I began to research knives and blade steels and the rest just snowballed from there. lol
 
In the early 1980's, I saved up all my lawn mowing money so I could visit an old couple who ran a Case knife booth at a fleamarket in Richwood, KY. I had to beg my mother and the couple would not sell the knife to me unless they spoke with her first. Many smaller Case and Parker Cutlery pocket knives followed during the next few years, all from that couple. I was maybe 13. I never used the knife much, but that was the "gateway"!
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My early knives were a Western sheath knife, a scout jackknife, a Swedish barrel knife, a Military surplus Pal, a Camillus 23 Watermelon Jack, and a Waltco butteryfly SAF-T-SHEATH. It was so long ago that I can't remember which one I got first.
 
The GEC courthouse whittler, came after my case SBJ. I was looking for the "ultimate whittler"...I found it might have been but I didn't stop there and been appreciating the differences in all my knife and those yet to be mine.
 
My first knife was a Buck 110 that was absolute garbage back in 1995 or so. I bought a few cheapies after that, and they faired just a little better than the Buck. Then I got a Spyderco Endura which was supposed to be the best folding knife made. It too, was a severe let down and I ended up junking it and giving up on folding knives as I deemed them unrekiable.

Then I was gifted a Cold Steel Ti-Lite which was my first liner lock. I was amazed to find out that wiggling blades were not normal. So I consider it my gateway knife, as if it were not for that I would have thought all folding knives were loose rattling pieces of junk like all of my faulty lockbacks. It wasn't until I bought a CRKT M16 that I accepted the fact some knives just aren't good. Ever since then it's been the never ending quest to find the perfect EDC. I don't even want to think of all the money spent.
 
o4tg said:
My first knife was a Buck 110 that was absolute garbage back in 1995 or so. I bought a few cheapies after that, and they faired just a little better than the Buck. Then I got a Spyderco Endura which was supposed to be the best folding knife made. It too, was a severe let down and I ended up junking it and giving up on folding knives as I deemed them unrekiable.

Then I was gifted a Cold Steel Ti-Lite which was my first liner lock. I was amazed to find out that wiggling blades were not normal. So I consider it my gateway knife, as if it were not for that I would have thought all folding knives were loose rattling pieces of junk like all of my faulty lockbacks. It wasn't until I bought a CRKT M16 that I accepted the fact some knives just aren't good. Ever since then it's been the never ending quest to find the perfect EDC. I don't even want to think of all the money spent.
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Sorry your experience with the Endura wasn't so good. I've experienced quite the opposite. In fact it was one of my gateway knives.
 
My first was a Craftsman American Eagle 165 that I picked up in an antique shop. Love this obsession, I mean hobby.
 
My knife that started it all was a grey Spyderco Endura 4 FFG. I didnt know anything at all about steels, or brands, but a few YouTube videos convinced me that the Endura 4 FFG was "the perfect edc knife". When I got it, it was the sharpest knife I owned, and I carried and used the heck out of it. It was also my gateway knife to learn about steels and grinds. Not too long after, I staerted buying Benchmades and Spydercos. But yeah, that was my gateway knife, an Endura 4 FFG. It was big, it was sharp, it was carried, and it was mine.
 
I have carried various knives on and off for years, but the knife that really got me interested was a CRKT M21. After misplacing it for a while, I purchased a kershaw shallot, then a scallion, then a benchmade pika ti, then a kershaw injection, then last week a benchmade Snody, Ontario abaniko 7, and a delica FFG, not to mention what else is on the way
 
I do believe it was a spyderco superleaf I handles at a gun show. After much research and contemplation I decided to get a Sage 1, from there on it was all down hill.
 
My boss gave me a Kershaw Whirlwind 10 years ago. And I was hooked. I went on the wagon. I recently bought a Cold Steel American Lawman and fell off the wagon .
 
Badhammer said:
Not my very first, that was a Buck 110 but the one that got me started really accumulating and using and appreciating knives was a Kershaw Blackout. Still a good knife but I've sure come a long ways since then.
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This^^^ exactly. Where the monetary drain really started was with an Emerson A-100.
 
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