Your FIRST POCKET KNIFE as a kid. Show'em if you still gott'em

[Maple Tree]

I've been enjoying this friendly, and interesting forum for a while now, and am finally getting around to my first thread attempt. Found no threads like this when I searched, so I thought I'd give this one a shot, while introducing myself.

In 1974 my Grandmother gave me my first pocket knife. I was ten. I carried it in my pocket everyday for years until my parents gave me my first SAK. It was then put in a time capsule, in the form of an old wooden tea canister that became the home of my little childhood treasures. As I left childhood it seems I considered the contents of this safe-keeper meaningful enough to be kept in a box, that has remained for the most part untouched for over 30 years.
Here we are in 2014, and the time capsule has been opened! I'm not particularly nostalgic, but wow, how interesting it is to even remember some of these things, never mind see them and hold them in my hands. Each triggering memories, that I can't imagine otherwise not being lost. So, my hand digs into the tea box and I pull from buried at the bottom, my old knife. The blade had rust on it, the bolsters also had rust, and it was very tight and rough to open. Happy to find it of course, but unhappy it was in this condition. (did you know about carbon steel when you were a kid?)

So, out with the Dremel. I remove the rust from blade and bolsters, oil it up good, and left it to sit. As you can see it cleaned up nicely, and opens quite smoothly now. Not much rust in the liners I guess, thankfully. I really like the patina that came over it. You'll notice some marking on the blade, mark side. I don't know what it is, but it's smooth to touch. I'm now going to sharpen it, and it will then have been fairly restored and put in it's right full place. In another box! A cigar box this time though, and with it's extended family.

Your frost bitten Canadian friend,

Brian





Northwoods Bullet jack for size reference.

 

[monstrum]

Welcome to bf. My first knife was a queen pen knife ss with bone scale's. Still have the little thing. Brings back memories of a different time. Btw your knife cleaned up well.

 

[link2derek]

Very cool little Richard's, Brian - I had one very similar many years ago:






But my first pocket knife was a Buck 305 - and, even as a kid, I couldn't have just one!!!

 

[dpowers311]

The Barlow was my first knife. I was 8yo and it was in my Easter basket. I put it in my pocket and took it to church that morning if I remember.

Dave

 

[Sonnemann]

I had a Wenger cadet w/ scissors and an awful half-serrated main blade. But guess what, it did everything I needed until I found out there were other knives out there, and probably still would! It is now retired along with my dad, graddad, and great-granddad's knives.

 

[rinos]

i found this Toledo in small antique shop,it is very similar to my first pocket knife which i got from my grandfather.

 

[Will Power]

Nice idea retrieving it from the time-capsule Maple Tree. A Beefeater outside the Tower of London, in keeping with its English origins.

Sadly, my early knives either got lost or cleared out, I came from a family where nobody else was in the least bit interested in knives... and some things never change :grumpy: I did have some very old broken knives to play with which belonged to my father or uncles, but they all vanished, save one.

rinos That's a very pretty looking knife:thumbup:

Regards, Will

 

[slide13]

Thankfully I do still have it. Can't remember how old I was, but it was pretty young. I do remember a family trip to the mall and my dad took me into the little gift shop that had a small Buck knife display and bought me this little lockback. I was so happy, had wanted a knife for a long time (at least for a little kid). Felt good to be considered old enough to get one.

 

[black mamba]

I still have my first, and still use it regularly. An Ulster scout, given to me on my 10th birthday.

 

[meako]

Hi Brian
look I don't like to disagree with you but I think you are a bit nostalgic:thumbup:
I know I am.
My dad gave me a knock off SAK similar to the Fisherman for Christmas 74 maybe 75 .I was 10 or 11.
I remember trying to sneakily work out what was in the wrapped up little box. I was sniffing at it ,shaking it ,hefting it for weight,listening if it made noise.
I just couldn't work it out. My best guess was a small model railway loco. Which I thought was cool despite not having a trainset.
I also bought myself an alox 2 bladed SAK for the cutting up lunchtime fruit in high school. Both are long gone.
I do still have the belt pouch which I got made for it by the local saddle maker -I had to replace the fastener last year.

 

[rdrogers]

 

[Slide150]

Unfortunately I don't have it anymore, but my first knife was a Buck 110 that I got when I was 8. I carried it up through high school when it was stolen from me from my locker when I was in football practice. By the way nice first time blades.

 

[so.fulton]

I can't believe I found it. But this it.

Close examination shows it's an Imperial. Not quite as fancy as some of you guys, but it was gold to me. As far as the age, I have no idea. I imagine my parents bought this for me when I was...... well .... a young boy, so that would make it about fifty years ago.

Stamp on the blade shows Imperial Prov. R.I. USA

 

[5K Qs]

I got this Colonial Forest-Master around 1960 when I was 8 or 9. I carried it every day on the dairy farm until I left for college in 1969. Used it to cut a LOT of baler twine from bales of hay and straw; whittled wiener sticks and apple slingers and little shims and "guns" and "knives" and cars and boats; carved initials and other important messages; opened bottles of pop, cans of paint, grease tubes for the grease gun, oil cans; drove screws and pulled nails; bored holes in belts and milking straps; just generally used (and occasionally abused) it almost every day, and I don't remember ever cutting myself, at least not badly!
(The bail in the picture is not the original; I lost that somewhere in life, and made the one that's pictured out of an S-hook I bought for toilet repair.

And then, although I always knew where that knife was (usually in my desk drawer), I rarely used a knife and never carried a knife again until last January! At that time, my wife happened to show me a knife (see below) she thought she probably got from her dad after he had carried it for years and then replaced it. I cleaned that old Imperial up and decided I was going to start carrying a knife again, and see if I could find some other old knives I could "rescue" and use. I soon ran across BladeForums, and now I say, "Hello, I'm GT, and I'm a knifeaholic!"

Thanks for starting an interesting thread, Brian! Your first knife is looking good after your TLC!!

- GT

 

[GlennH]

I know I still have it somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find it. I got it when I was about 7 or so. A Sabre (Japan) 3-blade, about the size of a Case Peanut. It had kinda orange stag lookalike scales and stainless blades. Kind of a cheapy, but I carried that thing everywhere. The first knife I bought new was a Craftsman Stockman 1927-1977 50th Anniversary Edition with white delrin scales. That was a good knife, but lost years ago in one of my military moves.

 

[arizonaranchman]

What a great thread Brian! And a cool story of your childhood pocket knife being preserved in the way it was.

My first was a cub scout knife that I got new in about 1973 or so. I remember it was just like the one in Post #11 above except it was blue scaled. I recall the tabs of the brass liner locks and the can n bottle opener, the bale, etc. I proudly wore it to school every day hanging by the bale from a metal clip on my belt. It was an awesome knife to me as a kid of 10 yrs old or so.

I havent seen that knife in many years, but I'm hoping it turns up in a box someday.

 

[Zidfeldts]

My first knife was a single blade jack made for the Canadian centennial in 1967. I got it for Christmas that yearso I would have just turned 8. I have been looking in antique stores and on theforums and ebay for years but I still haven't beenable to replace it. I am sure I will find one someday.

 

[Old Hunter]

Brian, this is my favorite type of thread - great stories. Although my first pocketknife, which I received from my parents in 1962 (a blue handled Official Cub Scout) is long gone, I still have two from my childhood. My folks gave me this fixed blade Western F66 for Christmas in 1968 and my Grandma gave me this Buck 301 for Christmas 1972 - both are still in very good condition and get a little use from time to time (I'm real careful about carrying them). I'm lucky to have some other family "hand-down" knives - but these are the earliest that were bought new for me. OH

 

[QJerry]

My first real pocketknife from 1985.

I bought it with money from my first job, stacking coffee at the local supermarket. I was 14 at the time.
It ate itself through the pocket lining of most of my jeans, because of the saw clip.

It opened a lot of beer and wine bottles in college. I only retired it when I got my Leatherman wave in 1996 or 1997.
I'm amazed it is still in such good shape as I never really took good care of it until recently.

 

[Corso]

My first few are long gone - MIA during my childhood adventures - struggling to recall what my first knife was but it was either a SAK copy or a sodbuster