Your first "truly awesome" folder

I posted this picture before, but this was my first "good" knife. My mother an father bought me this Case knife sometime around 1976. It was a Christmas present, the photo is recent.

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First knife that was really worth it's salt was a Case Sod Buster. I still have it and it's one of the sharpest knives I own.

First modern day folder that was any good was my CRKT Mirage. It's the only CRKT knife that I've kept.

First super steel blade was a S30v Kershaw Blur.
 
My introduction to quality knives was a Spyderco Economy back around 1990. It doesn't see much use anymore, but I still have it.

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The first knife I ever had was a chinese imitation swiss-army knife, about an inch and a half long, with a blade, file and scissors. I came into it when I was five - almost eighteen years ago. Still have it.
I carried another chinese liner-lock folder (with maybe a three inch blade) during my fly-fishing days, and on my forays in Africa, but lost it during my first year at University.
I bought a stylish (or so I thought) forty dollar buck tactical folder to replace it, but quickly sold that to help me spring for a ninety-dollar Camillus Heat - the real deal, not the new Spanish version. Now THAT was about where I caught the bug. The quality, the sharpness, the edge retention, and especially the way it kicked out like a wild mustang, just blew me away. More importantly it got me thinking about the mechanics of knife construction, and has gotten me on my way to maybe making them someday. Sadly, that knife has since been lost as well, but it makes me smile to think back.

Of course, I've since moved on to bigger and better knives. I own some CRKs myself, and have been fantastically impressed by the design philosophy and craftsmanship. I know they're not for everyone, but they're definitely for me. That whole hornet's nest is a thoroughly personal journey, with every past experience contributing to future ones. I'm sure everyone has a story like this.
 
Half serrated Spyderco in 1990, nobody had even seen a knife like that in my group of friends.
just had bucks, barlows and opinels until then.
 
The knife that defined quality vs junk is a Byrd Raven. It was the first knife with quality blade steel and G10 scales.

The next step up between a budget quality and a true high quality is my Delica. "Wow" is exactly how I felt and really kicked off my knife habit. :D Everything else after that is variations and incremental improvements.
 
The first knife that kicked things off for me was the Endura 4 g10...im pretty new to the knife world but that one changed everything:D
 
I picked up a Gerber International ( Michael Walker design) at a gun knife show based on rock solid feel and simple strait lines. The ats34 blade has seen a ton of use in the last 10 years and the lock up is still solid as the day i bought it. Hard to find nowday.
 
Great stuff!

My $50 knife was a S&W SWAT combo edged tanto. By my current standards, this knife would never be purchased, but when I bought it I could not help but admire how awesome it was. Since then, I have grown more fond of this relatively cheap knife.

I carried it every day and used it without hesitation for any task that presented itself (though I never abused it).

Once I used it to cut thick zip ties that were securing framed artwork to presentation racks in an art gallery. In a totally DUMB-ASS manner I would hold the top rail of the framed art with my left hand and cut the zip tie with the knife in the other hand (cutting toward the hand holding the frame). I nearly cut my left middle finger off at the knuckle. I spent the next 6 hours of my life in the ER getting put back together. I learned not to cut toward myself I am happy to say.

A few years later I pulled the knife back out of the drawer and finally cleaned the blood from it. After a few weeks I finally decided to start carrying it again and realized what I had been missing by not carrying it.

Over the years I got other knives that went up the price/quality spectrum. As a result this knife was again placed in the drawer until recently. I have been developing a new passion for sharpening/polishing edges. I have taken some great factory edges and polished them to hair whittling. That is pretty neat and all, but I wanted to test my abilities by restoring a truly used/worn/damaged/chipped edge, so I pulled the S&W back out of the drawer and polished it to hair whittling!

I have other stories and firsts with this knife...these are just a few that contribute to why I call this thing awesome. No $1000 knife could ever push this one from my memories. I hope nothing ever happens to this knife because I like having it around to reminisce about these lessons learned.
 
Mine was Victorinox Soldier that got me hooked on knives... One real awesome was Kershaw Lahar, my first introduction to VG-10 (and the bit more higher end steels) and Flippers ^^
 
First wow I got came from a Benchmade 740 Dejavoo. It was just so darn smooth opening and closing. Next came the Spyderco Caly 3 in G-10 with VG-10 blade. There was a simple elegance to its functionality.

Even after these two, however, I got an even larger wow from the classic Opinel No.8. At first impression, when I saw it, I couldn't see anything special about it. After reading review after review about how it performs, as well as how inexpensive they are, I couldn't help but pick one up. So, after it arrived, I soaked the blade in vinegar, sharpened up the edge, and man, could that thing cut. That Opinel sent me on a traditional knife kick, and while I've picked up some one-handed openers and pseudo-tactical knives since then, I'm constantly coming back to slip joints and traditional pocket knives.
 
I grew up on a Wegner SAK and Mora, and a Cold Steel Voyager in my teen years. Even after getting a Kershaw Boa and Benchmade 710, nothing really floored me until the BG-42 Spyderco Military. The handle feels like it was made for me (large hands), the distal taper full flat grind blade out cuts anything you put beside it, and fit and finish on this sprint run was particularly good.
Ahh what a knife it is. Waiting for the Ti RIL Military is just painful.
 
Benchmade Crawford Leopard Cub in 1993. My first liner lock, first knife with a premium steel (ATS-34), and first pocket clip knife. I edc'ed the heck out of it!
 
I've had several decent slipjoints and locking folders over the years -( Buck 301, 110, Odyssey, Schrade OT, etc.) as well a few cheap knockoff knives, but the knife that turned the fires back on for me is the Benchmade 940. It reminded me of the sheer coolness of an excellent blade. It's been a downhill slide since that purchase.

I guess you could say that I "blame" the 940, but that would be just wrong.:rolleyes:
 
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