Why are you fascinated with knives?

jackknife said:
Killgar, you'r posts are almost exactly what both my father and our scout master told us as boys. That when you walk out the front door in the morning, you never know what will happen before you make it home again.

Like in January of 1991, I was driving with our 18 year old daughter Jessica, to the Toyota dealer in Frederick Maryland to pick up a couple year old corolla for her to use to go off to college with. An old Datsun B210 blew past us at a high rate of speed on RT 26 approaching the left hand curve under I15. VERY sharp 90 degree curve. She didn't make it. Spun three times, over turned and rolled and ended up against the guard rail. We pull over and go running and smoke is already coming from the engine compartment, and I look in and the battery has broken loose and is up agains the old greasy engine block shorting out. Black greasy smoke and lots of it.

Worst all is we hear a baby screaming, and I crawl in the upside down car, theres a infant in a car seat in the front passenger seat. Okay, push seat belt release and car seat with kid falls on me, and I push the whole thing out to Jess, and she gets the kid the other side of the guard rail a bit away. Driver is a whole other problem.

A very obese young lady is wildly thrashing around screaming hysterically, and while I am trying to push her seat belt release she actually backhands me in the nose a good one. I'm pushing with both thumbs, and its just not releasing. By this time the car is full of greasy choking smoke, an I dig out my pocket knife, an old well used Buck 301 stockman, and pull open the sheep foot blade. Sheepfoot blade because this lady is thrashing around so wildly I don't want anything pointy around her or me. Once the seat belt is cut she falls on her head and I get the hell out of there. By this time the fire department and police are arriving as this was all on the highway almost in downtown Frederick. We give a statement to the cops and leave. I go to a Roy Rogers for a coke to gargle with to get the oil taste out of my throat.

Moral of this; I didn't plan on playing rescue guy that morning. I was just driving to the Toyota dealer where we had wrangled a deal on a couple year old car for Jessica. But this happened right in front of us and there wasn't anyone else. It was early on a cold winter morning and there wasn't a lot of people lining up taking numbers for the job. Just me and Jess.

Everyone should be carrying something! Any little bit of sharp steel will do in a pinch as long as its sharp. Even a little SAK classic will cut a seat belt if need be. That old lady that choked to death in that Boston shopping mall didn't need to die like that. If just one person had a little knife, even the SAK classic, her scarf could have been cut loose from the escalator steps where she feel, to free her. Even a box cutter or a razor single edge razor blade in a wallet! But nobody had anything. That was a crime.

Carry SOMETHING! Even a Spyderco grasshopper or a Buck mini buck. And make sure its sharp.
Click to expand...

It's good that there were people there that day (you and your daughter) who had both the courage, and the will to act, and had the right tool for the job.:thumbsup:

I've seen stories on tv about people trapped in smoking or burning cars with people trying to help shouting "DOES ANYBODY HAVE A KNIFE?!". In one incident it was the first responders asking.

We had an incident here in San Diego recently where an active duty Marine used a knife to cut a baby from a car before it burst into flames. Technically, he used the strap cutter that was built into his folder to cut the kid out, but still a knife. Plenty of online news reports about it if anyone is interested.

Off topic- Your story reminds me of what I've heard from first responders about how dangerous, and even combative the people can be that they are trying to save. Whether it's shock/panic, brain injury, drugs/alcohol or a combination, it can be downright hazardous trying to save someone. It's living proof that "no good deed goes unpunished" when you're pulling someone from a burning car that's about to explode and the person is punching you in the face the whole time :D.
 
CuttnStuff said:
I have been fascinated with knives since I was 8 or 9 years old. As if it was built into my DNA. It started with poorly built "jack knives" that I could buy for cheap in the 1970s at the local dime store - plastic scales, bad steels, bad mechanics. Regardless of quality, I treasured them as pocket fodder.

Many if not most people can take them or leave them. They see them as tools and aren't interested until they need one. I'll bet people come to you because they are pretty sure you have one in your pocket.

Now in my late 50s, I still get great enjoyment from knives, though maybe in a more measured way. I have a sizable collection of very nice folders. I like the innovative designs, lock mechanisms, action, handle and blade materials, etc. But at the end of the day, I think I just like knives no matter how you frame it.

What about you? Why do you like knives so much?
Click to expand...
For a number of reasons I suppose. Next to sharpened sticks and hammers, knives are probably the oldest and simplest tools which is cool to ponder. They actually provide utility. They're timeless, with no shelf life, so they can be passed on. They're relatively inexpensive. They don't take much room to store. If you pick them up while traveling, they can gain great sentimental value. They make great commemorative gifts -- quietly buy one sometime to mark an important milestone in your own life.
 
Knives&Lint said:
I blame Rambo

Seriously though, I can't say exactly why I'm fascinated (let's face it, obsessed) with knives. However the fact is that the edged tool, aside from perhaps fire, was one of the most significant breakthroughs in human history, even to the extent that it is widely believed to have shaped our evolution. With that being the case, it's no wonder why so many of us are fascinated by them. Hell, I find it more baffling that so many people don't carry knives these days, even more so when they have negative opinions of people who carry knives, when in reality the edged tool has been vital to our species up until the last blink of an eye in our existence.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, also got Rambo to blame for my attraction to big knives lol.

I think living in an era of convenience and “instant” made it so that most folks nowadays can get by without knives. There’s probably also the influence of entertainment media and the evening news where the bad guy is portrayed with a knife, contributing somewhat to the negative image of EDC knife usage (when in reality most of us here just wanna have fun with our tools without hurting anyone).

Personally, I don’t care about the misinformed opinions of non-knife folk. I don’t dislike them by any means, I’m just indifferent. I carry discreetly, and am far more interested in the two cents of other knife nuts here who have enough knives for ten generations.
 
I was in kindergaten in Boston when I got my first knife. I was in the playground and found a nice, beautiful red SAK. Ill never forget it. Found it, hid it in my pocket, and kept it there like a treausre. I couldnt help but to show it to the other children and sure enough a teacher took it away from me and threw it in the trash...
Many decades later I STILL hate that f****** b****
 
FerFAL said:
I was in kindergaten in Boston when I got my first knife. I was in the playground and found a nice, beautiful red SAK. Ill never forget it. Found it, hid it in my pocket, and kept it there like a treausre. I couldnt help but to show it to the other children and sure enough a teacher took it away from me and threw it in the trash...
Many decades later I STILL hate that f****** b****
Click to expand...
Long gone are the days of teachers approving of a pocket knife in school. In the mid 80s my shop teacher caught me using a Buck Cadet in class, and he quickly snatched it from me...I thought it was gone forever.
Instead he ran his thumb across the edge, grabbed an old stone out of his desk drawer, and touched it up for me. After the bell rang he handed it back to me and told me not to let my knife get that dull again.
RIP Mr. Butler, I wish the world had more teachers like you.
 
I can echo lots of above reasons!

-I’ve always had a knife, since before cub scouts.

-My dad was an outdoorsman. I was able to tag along from an early age, even though we only made it out a few weeks each year. (That’s the cost of running one’s own small business...and unfortunately being a ‘responsible’ adult.) I’m the same, though specifics of our outdoor interests have diverged a bit. Anyhow, gotta have a knife to be outdoors.

I find the elegance & precision of well executed simple machines fascinating. This is especially true with knives and firearms.

The high point of my knife enthusiasm (& acquisition) came when I lived in an anti-2nd Amendment location. Knives were kind of a surrogate outlet, and got me hooked!

The primordial extensions mentioned above? True.

Utility & preparedness? True.

Cheaper than hookers & blow? True.

Also, at risk of sounding shallow, having a nice knife in pocket (whether it’s a Delica or Sebenza) is a small tangible token of personal success. I guess one could say it’s an internal status symbol. A new knife is cheaper than a Mercedes Benz; longer lasting and less depreciation too.
 
They are one of the original tools. They may not beat a tool designed for a specific task, but they can be pressed into service for a huge number of tasks when I cannot have a tool especially designed to accomplish a given task.

Also, humans have been perfecting cutting tools since we made tools. It's probably in my DNA to like them.
 
to add, it makes me feel very good when I walk my shepherd in the dark in the woods with my olight high powered battle flashlights and living the dream of my nerd fantasy that it is a (metaphoric) post apocalyptic time and I will stick my <whatever knife I have on me that's semi tacticool> in the head of a zombie when it pops out from behind a tree.

There, I said it:)
 
Last edited:
BD_01 said:
I find the elegance & precision of well executed simple machines fascinating. This is especially true with knives and firearms.

The high point of my knife enthusiasm (& acquisition) came when I lived in an anti-2nd Amendment location. Knives were kind of a surrogate outlet, and got me hooked!

The primordial extensions mentioned above? True.
Click to expand...
I really appreciate your list, particularly the three points listed above. I've always been into knives, but firearms has been #1 ever since I was a kid. I've long kept a mental list of knives I wanted to own, buying them when I bumped into deals I just couldn't walk away from.

Nearly a year ago I decided to add a fixed blade EDC knife (along with other changes) to the other things I carry daily, driven largely by a perception for the need of additional security. My research turned into a formal lists of wants. Compared to firearms, knives are quite inexpensive, particularly if one shops around and easy to acquire. I've bought several knives since.

I still find it amazing to return home at the end of the day and there are actually parcels sitting under my front porch, containing knives. I suppose it was that way with firearms prior to 1968 in most places.
 
Last edited:
I see a knife as an indispensable personal item, always have. Pure utility. Something always needs to be cut. Fruit and vegetables, sandwiches. At work: plastic wrap, bags, boxes. All sorts of things here and there. Why waste time going to fetch a blade or scissors or simply be helpless when you have a knife right there in your pocket?

I grew up on a farm. On farms then, baling twine was the equivalent of duct tape. I coveted my father’s IXL barlow lambsfoot knives - plural because he kept losing them - but I was given a cheap scout/camping knife instead. It set a lifelong preference for multifunction knives. I only lost it a few years ago, then I got into SAKs. Wonderfully thought out pocket toolkits at the ready.

I have a few SAKs now although I feel I might be done with collecting them as I’ve really only done so to explore the various utilities of different models. Funny thing, my favourites have turned out to have tool patterns resembling that of my original knife.

Last year I found a rusty old wooden scaled lambsfoot at work and tidied it up. A beautiful thing, lovely to hold. It reminds me of Dad’s knives. But I’d rather carry an alox Soldier for its extra capabilities.

jackknife said:
Killgar, you'r posts are almost exactly what both my father and our scout master told us as boys. That when you walk out the front door in the morning, you never know what will happen before you make it home again.

Like in January of 1991, I was driving with our 18 year old daughter Jessica, to the Toyota dealer in Frederick Maryland to pick up a couple year old corolla for her to use to go off to college with. An old Datsun B210 blew past us at a high rate of speed on RT 26 approaching the left hand curve under I15. VERY sharp 90 degree curve. She didn't make it. Spun three times, over turned and rolled and ended up against the guard rail. We pull over and go running and smoke is already coming from the engine compartment, and I look in and the battery has broken loose and is up agains the old greasy engine block shorting out. Black greasy smoke and lots of it.

Worst all is we hear a baby screaming, and I crawl in the upside down car, theres a infant in a car seat in the front passenger seat. Okay, push seat belt release and car seat with kid falls on me, and I push the whole thing out to Jess, and she gets the kid the other side of the guard rail a bit away. Driver is a whole other problem.

A very obese young lady is wildly thrashing around screaming hysterically, and while I am trying to push her seat belt release she actually backhands me in the nose a good one. I'm pushing with both thumbs, and its just not releasing. By this time the car is full of greasy choking smoke, an I dig out my pocket knife, an old well used Buck 301 stockman, and pull open the sheep foot blade. Sheepfoot blade because this lady is thrashing around so wildly I don't want anything pointy around her or me. Once the seat belt is cut she falls on her head and I get the hell out of there. By this time the fire department and police are arriving as this was all on the highway almost in downtown Frederick. We give a statement to the cops and leave. I go to a Roy Rogers for a coke to gargle with to get the oil taste out of my throat.

Moral of this; I didn't plan on playing rescue guy that morning. I was just driving to the Toyota dealer where we had wrangled a deal on a couple year old car for Jessica. But this happened right in front of us and there wasn't anyone else. It was early on a cold winter morning and there wasn't a lot of people lining up taking numbers for the job. Just me and Jess.

Everyone should be carrying something! Any little bit of sharp steel will do in a pinch as long as its sharp. Even a little SAK classic will cut a seat belt if need be. That old lady that choked to death in that Boston shopping mall didn't need to die like that. If just one person had a little knife, even the SAK classic, her scarf could have been cut loose from the escalator steps where she feel, to free her. Even a box cutter or a razor single edge razor blade in a wallet! But nobody had anything. That was a crime.

Carry SOMETHING! Even a Spyderco grasshopper or a Buck mini buck. And make sure its sharp.
Click to expand...

Hats off to you for your swift actions!

The story of the lady caught in the escalator is tragic.

I’m a member of a British based forum with a rich off topic room. In the UK pocket knives - even SAKs - seem to be viewed largely as weapons. I’ve read stories of Vic Classics being confiscated even though they’re street legal.

One member carries a Vic Spartan. A totally responsible professional, yet can you believe it, his missus actually disapproves. Maybe that’s a forensic cop for you but apparently even the police there don’t carry knives. One wonders how they manage in such emergencies as the one you encountered.
 
Lee D said:
Long gone are the days of teachers approving of a pocket knife in school. In the mid 80s my shop teacher caught me using a Buck Cadet in class, and he quickly snatched it from me...I thought it was gone forever.
Instead he ran his thumb across the edge, grabbed an old stone out of his desk drawer, and touched it up for me. After the bell rang he handed it back to me and told me not to let my knife get that dull again.
RIP Mr. Butler, I wish the world had more teachers like you.
Click to expand...
Awesome story. I can say the same that most of the teachers in high school (and even now in the university) are “hyperallergic” to any cutting tool. I kid you not, something like a Delica or an Endura would be considered a “deadly weapon.”
 
I grew up working from a very young age, cattle, hay, farm, and electrical work. All of the males in my family were outdoorsman as well. All of these activities require a knife. I like tools, good tools, or anything that makes my job easier. I truly can’t say where my fascination for knives came from. I got by with one pocket knife for a long time. Knives are tools for me but it’s a little more than just that.
 
Sort of a lame reason maybe-my interest started with COVID antsy boredom but quickly became a passion. Always been mechanically inclined and advancing age prohibits continuing of being an avid motorcyclist and bicyclist. I miss working on bikes and appreciating the design, engineering, and quality of my BMW motos. And some knives with their Ti, CF, alloys, and beautiful finishing are sort of like a shrunken version of my Merlin Extralight racing bike. I don't really feel inclined to cut anything but love fondling and peering into the design and construction of my knives, especially my most recent acquisition-a used base model Olamic Wayfarer 247. Can't ride long and far anymore but I can flick knives like crazy and only risk a few cuts rather than broken bones and road rash!
 
I've carried a knife every day since I was a small boy, just like my Dad and Granddad did. It was a matter of course. Wallet, watch, keys, knife.

When I grew up and started to make more money, I decided to 'upgrade' my swag. I wanted a finer wallet, a nicer watch, and a better knife. I've decided that the best choice in all three categories is versatile items that can be both dressy or casual. It keeps things simple. :thumbsup:

I think I've already found my 'ultimate carry combo' as far as knives go: a CRK Sebenza 21 Insingo, an alox SAK, and a 58mm SAK on my keychain. It works for both suit & tie (rare for me) or jeans & t-shirt days.

But for some reason, I keep chasing new knives. I reckon everyone collects something or other. *shrug* God forbid I fall down the watch rabbit-hole as well... my 'versatile' wallet would weep... :eek:
 
GermanyChris said:
Cars are fascinating, bicycles are fascinating, knives are neat but not fascinating
Click to expand...

I disagree with this. Knives are every bit as fascinating as cars or bicycles. I love cars. Fast cars, slow cars, 4x4 tough vehicles. New or clasic.... I watch car shows, look at online auctions etc. I have great memories of learning to drive in an old 4x4 1974 Toyota La dcruiser FJ40. I dr9ve a 1973 Ford Gran Torino car, and a 1974 Plymouth Satelite....and a cool old 70's dodge van.

I grew up riding bikes and enjoying the freedom they brought. (Motorcycle and bicycle).


I enjoy them all......


but I also grew up owning and using knives. Fdimf knives. Fixed blade knives. Whittling sling shots, walking sticks... and other knick nacks...
Fished for crawdads with sticks cut off trees. .
Made shelters and camped and hiked, always accompanied by a folding knife and usually a fixed blade.

I'm an Eagle Scout and was a Scout Master for years.

More than just the utility...I learned to love the beauty of a finlely made knives.. I grew up looking at and enjoying custom made knives. The beauty of perfect grind lines. High polish. Stag and micarta and bone handles. I bought my first custom knife at the age of 12 or so. My uncle made customs, and I still have the one I bought as a child.

I spend significant time on knives. Looking at, sharpening, using, making....

I can spend hours looking st custom knives on the internet. Or in person. I've traveled and attended a custom knofe show as an occasion, spending days looking at the knives.

I talk to others about knives, have friends where that is our connection. I've met and talked to many cusrom knife makers.

Higher end knives lead me to make my own sheaths, learn to sharpen, reprofile, and make knives.


If say they are every bit as fascinating as csrs and bikes. I've never traveled to a bike show.... or a custom car show (though I do go in person to them occasionally when they are local).



Lee D said:
Long gone are the days of teachers approving of a pocket knife in school. In the mid 80s my shop teacher caught me using a Buck Cadet in class, and he quickly snatched it from me...I thought it was gone forever.
Instead he ran his thumb across the edge, grabbed an old stone out of his desk drawer, and touched it up for me. After the bell rang he handed it back to me and told me not to let my knife get that dull again.
RIP Mr. Butler, I wish the world had more teachers like you.
Click to expand...

I had multiple teachers like that. One was a lady who had traveled the world on adventures. She had lived in the amazon, and the middle east. She found out I had brought a large knife/machete on a 4th grade camping trip for school. She came and borrowed it, because she forgot to bring hers. Gave it right back when she was done!!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top