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

[singin50]

While I no longer have it, my first knife was an Imperial yellow fishing knife that my grandfather bought me at Gibson's Discount Center in Tyler, Tx. Somewhere in the mid 1960s.

 

[cityofthesouth]

The Old Timer in this picture.

edgetool_trio1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

 

[MrBitters]

The first would have been a yellow handled Camillus Cub Scout knife given to me in '79 or '80. It has been lost to time (and a number of moving days).

However, a couple of years after that ('82ish) I found a Buck 110 half buried in the dirt while riding motocross bikes in the Mojave. Still in a battered sheath and caked with silt-like soil, I took it back to camp to show my father. He helped me clean it up, oil it and get it functional once again. I still have this one.

 

[urza]

I was probably around 6 or 7, my grandfather gave me this one:

I haven't been able to find out anything about the history of the knife and my grandfather passed away ~15 years ago. I've ended up with ~10 knives from my grandfather and they're all important to me, definitely played a big part in my interest in knives.

 

[Dr. Scott]

Before I had a knife, I had a blue, 1971 vintage, Camillus manufactured, Boy Scout "Knife". It was a knife in name only, as it performed none of a knife's usual functions. It had cheap blue plastic handle covers that eventually came off the handles. It never opened correctly, even when new out of the box. It is the reason Camillus (deservedly) went out of business. It was responsible for turning off millions of kids from both traditional knives and scouting. It was the opposite of good quality craftsmanship. It was the nadir of western civilization. I kept hoping to develop some type of sentimental attachment to that knife-like-object, but finally threw it in the trash can. It would have been dishonest and cruel to have given it to some unsuspecting sucker.

Finally, when I was 12 or so, I got a Victorinox Camper.

(Stock photo from Victorinox)

Kept it for about 10 years, until, ironically, it was stolen by a bunch of Boy Scouts of America who cruised through my campsite on the Appalachian Trail taking everything that wasn't nailed down.

I had a couple of fixed blade knives for fishing, from a very early age, but the SAK was my first real folder.

I have continued the tradition of giving each of my kids a SAK, usually for a Christmas gift at age 8 or 9. I highly recommend the practice. I usually give a few Bandaids as part of the present.

Hope you get a smile from my story, and don't think I'm a cynical person or a nattering nabob of negativity. The SAK was the happy ending for my childhood knife story, and has led me to other traditional knives and to this forum.

 

[5K Qs]

...It was the nadir of western civilization….
Finally, when I was 12 or so, I got a Victorinox Camper.
...
Hope you get a smile from my story, and don't think I'm a cynical person or a nattering nabob of negativity. The SAK was the happy ending for my childhood knife story, and has led me to other traditional knives and to this forum.

Scott, on first reading your tale I was kind of saddened by your bad luck.
But I did get some smiles when I read your post a second time.
1) A photo of a Vic Camper almost always cheers me up.
2) Calling a knife "the nadir of western civilization" is an inspired turn of phrase that got more than a smile from me LOL
3) I also always smile when I see "nattering nabob of negativity". (On the other hand, I was saddened by the realization that I can no longer remember the original source of that splendid phrase - was it Agnew?)

- GT

 

[jc57]

"nattering nabobs of negativity" - William Safire wrote that phrase for a speech delivered by Spiro Agnew, according to Wikipedia. It was used to refer to the members of the press. So you decide on the source.

The first pocket knife that was actually mine was a red Swiss Army knife similar to the one Dr. Scott posted, though I think it may not have had the saw blade or awl. I no longer have that knife nor do I recall what happened to it, but I do have a permanent scar on my left palm to remind me of my first lesson about how sharp knives are and how to use them safely.

 

[ohdeeuhm]

My dad and his buddy engraved this little knife for me when I was 8 years old. It is a no name little slip joint but it means the world to me. I lost my dad in 2005 and he was my superhero. This knife was given to me 21 years ago and is worth more to me than anything I've ever owned.

 

[jc57]

My dad and his buddy engraved this little knife for me when I was 8 years old. It is a no name little slip joint but it means the world to me. I lost my dad in 2005 and he was my superhero. This knife was given to me 21 years ago and is worth more to me than anything I've ever owned.

I'm not sure why the image isn't showing up?

You left off the ".jpg" extension.

 

[ohdeeuhm]

Thanks John! After I had issues getting the picture to show up I went and read up on the paid subscriptions. Long story short, I love this forum and it's high time I stop lurking so much and start participating. I'm going to go ahead and pitch in and get myself a subscription

 

[5K Qs]

"nattering nabobs of negativity" - William Safire wrote that phrase for a speech delivered by Spiro Agnew, according to Wikipedia. It was used to refer to the members of the press. So you decide on the source.

Thanks, John. Maybe my memory isn't in as much trouble as I feared.

- GT

 

[gredpe3]

Mine was a classic Barlow.I had it for about three days when it suffered it's fate of being debladed and crushed in the vise nine ways to Sunday.My dad gave it to me and took it away after I debarked a Mimosa Tree.He also destroyed it in front of me.I guess I was about five years old.Can remember it vividly,the arse whoppin also.

 

[Dr. Scott]

Thanks John! After I had issues getting the picture to show up I went and read up on the paid subscriptions. Long story short, I love this forum and it's high time I stop lurking so much and start participating. I'm going to go ahead and pitch in and get myself a subscription

Glad to hear from you ohdeeuhm! I was a lurker myself for a couple of months before I got a paid subscription. I get busy every now and then and disappear for weeks at a time, but I eventually find my way home... Welcome to the party!

 

[Maple Tree]

A smile indeed Scott, "It was the nadir of western civilization", funny stuff.

A lot of fantastic first knives so far, and good stories too.

 

[5K Qs]

I'm pretty sure my first knife was one of those tiny key chain things that came out of a gumball machine. But my first real knives were, I'm sorry to admit, I don't even know what they were. That's because they were very badly abused and tossed into a toolbox after scraping whatever grease or dirt was in my way when trying to keep my mini bike, dirt bike or bicycle going. And if I ever sharpened them, it was probably by using a brick or something. There, I said it and I promise to never treat a knife that way ever again! Because I wish I had some of those back now. Am I the only one here to do these terrible things?

I've been meaning to chime in to say that you're certainly not the only one here to do unwise stuff like that. The photo I posted earlier of my first knife, a Colonial Forest-Master scout knife, shows what seems to be a knife in reasonably good shape for one that's over 50 years old. But if I took a close-up of the backsprings, it would reveal that one of them is substantially bowed, probably the result of some stupid prying or nail-pulling or something that I did in my youthful enthusiasm for the wonderful powers of my "invincible" knife.

- GT

 

[combatjiujitsu]

Mine was a Buck 309. Still have a soft spot in my heart for that one. Not really sure what became of it though unfortunately

 

[B.F.U]

Really cool thread. It's a shorter time to when I was a kid than many of you here, but it looks like I had much less foresight than many of you. This thread brings back great memories though, as I'll always remember my dad giving me those little slipjoints in the shape of a gun, or mermaid, or plane, etc. etc. when he came home from trips.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my first knife was a Victorinox Classic. I've destroyed several of them.

 

[Dr. Scott]

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my first knife was a Victorinox Classic. I've destroyed several of them.

Proof of a well-spent childhood!

 

[jc57]

I will have to confess that pocket knives never held any special significance or allure for me at all until the ripe old age of 55. Nor was my father into pocket knives to my knowledge. I think there was an old Barlow rattling around in the fishing tackle box but I don't ever recall him pocket carrying anything. So I don't have a rich history of nostalgia to attach to them. It's all new to me. My first SAK didn't get much use. I think I got it when I was around 12 or so. Probably left in a desk drawer and eventually tossed out at some point in the transition from kid to teenager to college student. If I hadn't cut myself with it I probably wouldn't remember it now.

I had a Buck 110 that I bought in 1979 or so for use in my job back then, but other than being carried every day it didn't get much use (I was a cop and wanted something to cut seat belts at accident scenes-never needed it for that). It had been sitting in a tool box out in the carport storage room for about the past 20 years or so and I only recently rescued it from that fate during my new-found interest in pocket knives.

 

[clutchcarter]

Thank you so much for chiming in! I was beginning to think I was the only one! I was worried that I might be banned from the forum for life!

I've been meaning to chime in to say that you're certainly not the only one here to do unwise stuff like that. The photo I posted earlier of my first knife, a Colonial Forest-Master scout knife, shows what seems to be a knife in reasonably good shape for one that's over 50 years old. But if I took a close-up of the backsprings, it would reveal that one of them is substantially bowed, probably the result of some stupid prying or nail-pulling or something that I did in my useful enthusiasm for the wonderful powers of my "invincible" knife.

- GT