Great Lost and Found stories

B

Belly

Gold Member
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May 21, 2000
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185
Have you ever lost one of your favorite blades and then found it miraculously? Tell your story:

I was using my Microtech Kestrel to cut rope that my buddy and I were using to tie down stuff on his deer rack. This rack is made of metal grating that fits into the hitch in the back. It's nothing more than a tray on the back of a truck.

I set the knife down on the rack, and I forget that it is there. We drive about 12 miles to a high school footbal game. And in the middle of the game, I reach for my knife and it's not there. Panic! Then I remember that I last used it to cut the rope. So run out to the parking lot, and rush to the truck, thinking there is no way that the knife is still just sitting on the rack. We traveled about 12 miles that included highways, side roads, and some dirt roads.

To my surprise, it was still there, just sitting loose on the side of the deer rack. Awesome!

Lucky me.
 
No good in the "lost" department, but while deer hunting in the mountains of Utah where I grew up, I sat down by the side of a rock to watch a particularly good looking hill side. I had sat there for a couple of hours, the sun had moved during my watch. Then, a reflective sunbeam from something near me caught my eye. I looked down and to the side and found the blade and tang of a Cattaragus 225Q with no handle. The blade had been sharpened a lot but I was able to rehandle it in applewood and have it today. Some poor soul, probably ten years ago, had sat in the same spot and walked away without his knife! ...or maybe he saw some deer and got excited enough to lose his knife.

Bruce
 
I lost a knife when I was just a kid , a Barlow type folder. I looked and looked but couldn't find it ,I'd hav e to do without. The following year walking in the woods,to my amazement I saw it !!
 
I recently got an A.G. Russell Ultimate pen knife, and love to carry that thing around. I lost it for a few days, and was hoping it would turn up. I checked all the couches and chairs in the house, nothing.

I had almost given up when it shows up in my knife drawer. No, it wasn't there all along. My wife put it there after finding it in the bottom of a trash can. Thing is, there was no liner in the trash can, or it would have gone out with the trash. She just happened to forget the liner, so happened to see the knife at the bottom when removing stuff. I never knew how close I was to losing it for good.

That's the closest call I've had in ten years. No knives lost since my freshman year in college in '92.

DD
 
I lost a case slip joint that I got after my grandpa died. I carried it for about two weeks, then it disappeared. I was sure I knew where I had left it, but it wasn't there. I was suspicious of my roommates boyfriend, who I hated, but no one believed me. I searched the whole house. Her boyfriend lived about 10 hours away, and the knife disappeared the weekend he was in town. She knew that I got the knife from my Grandpa and that it meant a lot to me. Three months later when he was back in town, the knife mysteriously turned up under my couch, where I had already looked several times. She found out he had taken it like I thought, and dumped him. :) :) :)
Kyle Fuglesten
 
I've told this story before and it always reminds me that there is hope for a knife MIA.

I had a BM Mini Relex Auto, I carried it all over, tucked into my vest pocket.

One fall afternoon about nine years ago I had been all over my property and in and out of my barn getting ready for winter. I used the knife to cut rope, trim branches, cut up boxes, and cut up some plastic to cover broken window panes.

At the end of the day I took off my vest and hung it up, about two weeks went by before it was cold enough to wear a vest again, so when I put it on I reached inside the pocket for the knife, and it was gone.

I looked everywhere, but since two weeks had gone by I was a little fuzzy on exactly where I had been that day two weeks earlier.

Hours of searching turned to days, then months, in the back of my head I never gave up hope.

Fast forward five years, the knife is still a thorn in my side, I can't walk the property without looking down,(even though I cut the grass a hundred times since I lost it, I still had to look down.

Every time I went into that barn I had to check the corners and shelves in hopes of finding it.

Eventually it became an after thought, till one day I was up in the loft cleaning out some old boxes when I came to a paticularly heavy box of books, dreading the thought of moving the box and realizing why it was in the middle of the floor in the first place,(cause that's where I dropped it), deciding to get a handtruck and move the box the smart way, as I tilted the box back onto the handtruck, and backed up,(insert joyous music here) I saw the the lanyard I tied out of leather all chewed up by mice, with the knife barely attached.

I dropped the box picked up the knife and it's been part of my EDC since, the box still sits in the middle of the barn with the handtruck still under it.
 
Just today I got my lost leatherman back. I've had it for many years and gotten a lot of good use out of it and I was kinda bummed about it. My boss happened to be working at a job site where I'd replaced a phone system's CPU card three weeks ago and saw it on a rack shelf. Right next to it was the retaining flange that's used to hold the cards in the system, so he knew it had to be mine! :D

Not a miraculous story, except that nobody at the job site (a telemarketing sweatshop) swiped it. Some of our customers will steal tools right out of your pouch if you leave it for 5 minutes.
 
Losing a treasured EDC and then finding it again is why I have 2 LM Waves and 2 SAK soldiers, having bought a replacement in the interim.

My favourite story is getting very drunk with a bunch of mates one night and doing a spot of midnight, full moon, bodysurfing and Cottesloe beach. My friend Tim screamed out that he had lost his watch, which was an early Omega SM that his father had given him. Normally if you drop something in a messy onshore beach break it is gone if it doesn't float. As I was swimming in to where he and a few others where milling around trying to fing the watch, I stood up and something bumped into my shin. I reached down and fished out his watch, nearly 30m from where they where looking.

18 years later, whenever we catch up, first thing he does is show me the watch that he is still wearing and thank me.
 
Backpacking at a Scout reservation in New Mexico in 1989, I found a SAK in a campsite (Great year; also found two watches and 17 tent stakes). Don't know which model but LOTS of tools. I posted it on the bulletin board at base camp.

SIX YEARS later, I got a telephone call from a young man who could describe the knife to a "T," including initials and date on the knife (not disclosed in my note). The note was still on the board. He had returned to the reservation as an adult Scout leader, saw the note, and gave me a call.

He sends me a Christmas card every year since.
 
Think I've posted this story before but what they heck.

I was carrying a Spyderco Delica cliped to the right front pocket of my jeans. I had just finished riding one of my horses and was taking her back to the paddock so she could go out to the pasture and I decided to re-adjust her halter. She was pretty friendly and started trying to rub her head on my side like she always does after I ride her and then take the bridle off. I fumbled with the halter and got it adjusted as she continued trying to knock me over using me to scratch her face, and then let her go and she trotted out to the pasture. As I started to walk away I reached for my pocket out of habit to make sure my knife was still there and it wasn't. I turned around to look at the ground and it wasn't there, but I just happened to see something shine in my horses mane as she got to the pasture gate :eek:
I rushed out and caught her again, which wasn't too easy since she was more concerned with eating grass than taking a chance on me putting her to work again. But I caught her and sure enough, there was my knife clipped to her mane, she'd hooked it and lifted it right out of my pocket.Dang theif ;)
 
Originally posted by Thomas Linton
Backpacking at a Scout reservation in New Mexico in 1989, I found a SAK in a campsite (Great year; also found two watches and 17 tent stakes). Don't know which model but LOTS of tools. I posted it on the bulletin board at base camp.

SIX YEARS later, I got a telephone call from a young man who could describe the knife to a "T," including initials and date on the knife (not disclosed in my note). The note was still on the board. He had returned to the reservation as an adult Scout leader, saw the note, and gave me a call.

He sends me a Christmas card every year since.
Click to expand...

this story really moves me. I am proud to be a scout. Once a scout, always a scout.
 
I lost a Scout jacknife while mowing the neighbors' lawn next door when I was a kid... totally forgot about it until my sister and her husband bought that house 20+ years later... and found the knife in a ground level flower box. It was all rusted but recognizable...
 
I was climbing a mountain in Utah in the winter, in deep snow, and I had my Gerber Mark I clipped on my daypack shoulder strap. Somewhere halfway up the mountain it fell off. This was nowhere near anything that could be called an established trail. The next summer, after I had moved to Kalifornia, my brother was up on the same mountain and found the knife. The statistical probability of him crossing the same spot on that mountain is infinitesmally slim. The blade is nicely pitted, but the sheath is still in good condition.
 
A friend of mine was fishing on Lake Martin in Alabama when he hooked a nice bass. As he was attempting to land it his wedding band slipped off his left hand and overboard, just as the bass threw the hook.

About a year later he caught a big bass in just about the same spot.
He kept the bass, and at home as he was filleting it, he felt his knife slice into something hard.

It was his finger. Cut it to the bone, and it bled like crazy!
 
Originally posted by MikeH
A friend of mine was fishing on Lake Martin in Alabama when he hooked a nice bass. As he was attempting to land it his wedding band slipped off his left hand and overboard, just as the bass threw the hook.

About a year later he caught a big bass in just about the same spot.
He kept the bass, and at home as he was filleting it, he felt his knife slice into something hard.

It was his finger. Cut it to the bone, and it bled like crazy!
Click to expand...


I almost swallowed that one..................
















































................hook line & sinker.;)
 
The first quality knife I bought for myself was a 1997 Spyderco Delica. I have lost and found that Delica dozens of times since I've owned it. I still own the Delica and although the tip is missing, the clip is scratched to hell, the handle is dirty, and the blade has some wobble in it, I still put it to good use every once in a while.
 
I lost a Chive in my house 2 years ago. I have yet to find it. :grumpy:
 
While mowing a ten acre parcel, I was about half done when I reached down and found my benchmade ascent missing. It was clipped to my RF pocket. I quit mowing because I knew I'd find the knife with the mower. I walked the whole parcel for an hour and a half----nothing. I was mad but I knew it was no real great loss. I gave up hope. While walking back to the mower to finish, I happened to walk past a line of trees. for some reason I looked at one tree about waist level and there was the ascent hanging from a tree branch. I must have brushed the tree while mowing. The clip was spread open pretty bad but eaisly repairable.
 
I used to carry a small Uncle Henry Stockman (the Jr I think). I loved it because it was so small, I never even noticed I had it until I needed it and I always had my whittling tool with me when I needed. Anyway, one day I check my pockets and it's gone. I do the usual, couch, car, laundry and nothing. Six months later, a friend of mine comes up and says, "hey, look what I found in my driveway." and sure enough, it's my little knife, with only a little pitting on the backsprings. I recently lost and found the very same knife again in my house. Now I just carry a slightly larger Buck Cadet and keep my little UH in my drawer.

Rob
 
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