Why Knives?

P

peli_kan

Joined
Jul 6, 2010
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12
How did your relationship with knives begin?

I bought my first knife to fight off bears and persistent Girl Scout cookie sellers.

Aside from those, I indulge myself in fantasies of self-reliance via bushcraft and field medicine.

At the core though, to me it's a tool, and I'll never own more than I use. I appreciate the craftmanship, care, and yes, even love, that goes into great knives, but I keep them in their place.

mk.ultra said:
Attempting to mock people?
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Only myself. I get caught up in the hobby, lightheaded with my own overblown ego, and it usually takes stepping back a bit for me to sober up. There are many reasons to love knives, both practical and misguided, and I sure harbor both types.
 
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My dad was in the army in WW 2. He brought some knives back with him (they've all long since disappeared) and he always had a knife or two on him or laying around.

My sister and I grew up around guns and knives and we've carried them ever since I can remember, at least 55 years now.
 
It's funny, I don't know when my obsession with knives began. I can remember going to the flea markets on Sat. morning with my grandmother and I would always spend all of my time looking at knives.

I think one of my very first knives (that was not a quality knife) was one of those Rambo survival knives with the compass on the butt and hollow handles packed full of all the goodies. Those knives would fall apart in no time, but that did not stop me from getting another one :D.

I must have been around 5 years old. I do not know where it came from as my father never really carried a knife, nor was he into them. My grandfather carried a Case copperhead and used an old hickory knife from the kitchen to clean his fish, so he was not a knife nut like me either.
 
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When I was 6 years old, we (my brother, my parents and me) were walking in the forest. We met a wild boar. So me & my brother got scared. Next day my father took us to a shop adn purchased 3 knives: a pretty decent german-made bowie (which he still has), and 2 small hunting knives (with fake-stag plastic handles), for me and my brother. So during our next walks, we weren't scared any more, because we had knives!

That's how it all started.

Kind regards,

Jos
 
For me it started at an early age. At age four I was allowed to play with a (very) blunt knife. The appeal probably was that if a very cool adventure would happen, a knife would be handy. My parents didn't get it, but I was a stubborn child.

I didn’t think of a knife as a weapon (although I believed knight and swords were really cool) but as a tool for the true adventurer.

Then I got my first SAK (I still love Swiss Army Knives) from a friend of the family and from there on it evolved. At age 12 I saved my pocket money and bought (without telling my parents) a decent folder with a lock.

A few years later I realized that even better knives were available and it really became a hobby.

Rafael
 
Started working at 17, realized I open A LOT of packages and then break them down. So it just made sense. Picked up a knife a week later been carrying one everyday since (obviously not the same one though :D)
 
I grew up in a time (early fifties) when all men carried knives, and all boys wanted one. My first was a beautiful Barlow that I got out of a junk bin at a little store down the street from our house. I say beautiful, but there was a reason that it was in the junk bin: one of the yellow scales was cracked, and the small blade was broken. I paid fifty cents of my own money for that knife, and thought it was the greatest thing on earth.

My mother saw it one day and told my dad ... uh-oh. He took one look at it and shook his head, and started laughing. He'd been a little boy, too, once upon a time, and I think he knew how important that piece of junk was to me. He gave me the lecture about safety, and let me keep it; I was really proud.

That Christmas there was a brand spanking new stockman (I think it was a Case, but I don't really remember) with three blades under the tree.

That was back around 1953 or so, and there's been a knife in my pocket ever since.
 
I have a collectors brain. If I find something I like, I tend to get really into it, and before you know it, I have a collection of them. I started with baseball cards, then Legos, then Bicycles, then headphones, then watches, then knives.

I got started with knives because needed a multitool for work, and found this site when I was looking. Now I have 2 multitools, and 6 knives. Thanks a lot you guys.
 
peli_kan said:
How did your relationship with knives begin?

I bought my first knife to fight off bears and persistent Girl Scout cookie sellers.

Aside from those, I indulge myself in fantasies of self-reliance via bushcraft and field medicine.
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Attempting to mock people?
 
I used to go with my father to Gun shows when I was a kid. I liked the guns, but I was always really drawn to the few knife dealers that were there. Even as a kid most of them didn't have a problem with me handling and checking out a knife. I started off buying some Kershaws and then bought a Gen. 1 Spyderco Delica that I still have. Eventually I bought my first knife over $100. I don't remember how old I was, but I had checked out a Benchmade/Emerson CQC-7 at one show and saved all the money I could before the next show. At the next show I bought the CQC-7 and still have it. The show after that I bought a SS Spyderco Police model. I was hooked and there was no turning back.
 
hah, i was about 5 years old.. and was over at my uncles house.. he just recived a boxful of knives and gave my dad a few.. then my dad gave me 1.. of course he taught me all the safety and stuff and took it from me and only let me use it under his close watch... but then when i was 7 he gave it to me to keep full-time... and he also gave me 4-5 swiss army knives with all the gadgets on them.... thats how my knife obsession started... now iam buying benchmades... spydercos... Zt's... and i have an emerson cqc-15 in the mail on its way to me ROFL
 
peli_kan said:
How did your relationship with knives begin?

I bought my first knife to fight off bears and persistent Girl Scout cookie sellers.

Aside from those, I indulge myself in fantasies of self-reliance via bushcraft and field medicine.

At the core though, to me it's a tool, and I'll never own more than I use. I appreciate the craftmanship, care, and yes, even love, that goes into great knives, but I keep them in their place.
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It beats collecting buttons, dead roaches or dust bunnies, has some intrinsic utility, demonstrates the skills of a master artisan and for me at least, connects us to our ancient past.

-E
 
erichsen said:
It beats collecting buttons, dead roaches or dust bunnies, has some intrinsic utility, demonstrates the skills of a master artisan and for me at least, connects us to our ancient past.

-E
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I don't know . . . I like my knives, but I have one of the worlds greatest collections of dust bunnies.:D
 
I saw the awesome movie Big Trouble in Little China when I was a kid. There is a prominent scene near the beginning where a Triad gangster is doing tricks with a butterfly knife. I was enamored and that's where it pretty much started.
 
SpacemanSpiff23 said:
I have a collectors brain. If I find something I like, I tend to get really into it, and before you know it, I have a collection of them. I started with baseball cards, then Legos, then Bicycles, then headphones, then watches, then knives
In my case it has been books, guns, minerals, cameras and lenses, now Knives. I still buy a lot of books and take a lot of pictures and have a house full of mineral specimens. I was into cameras and lens for 40 years and still love that business. Too expensive, though.

I got started with knives because needed a multitool for work, and found this site when I was looking. Now I have 2 multitools, and 6 knives. Thanks a lot you guys.
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Time to get serious I guess:-))
 
I've had knives as long as I can remember, but I really started getting into them last year when I started getting bored with guns. I tend to be obsessive with my hobbies. I have literally purchased over a hundred knives in less than a year. Mostly crap, but I am learning what I like in a knife now.
 
I'm with oxbld - I've had knives as long as I can remember. Can't imagine being without one for any length of time and I really don't understand people (like my dad, for instance) that don't need or carry them.

At Christmas, I was always the goto guy for dismantling tough wrapping jobs (though my son has stolen that mantle for me since he was a little squirt).
 
When my Great Grandfather passed, My Great Grandmother gave me his EDC Slipit Old Crafty and a Liberty Walking Coin that he also carried around as his good luck charm. I still have that knife and have gave it very good company with newer knives that I have bought sice.
 
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