How long in the knife game?

Kootaga13 said:
I know many have prolly heard this before but, they'll be some lucky sucker out there that ends up getting my knives when I die and my wife sells them for what I told her I paid for them. :)
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I found this free inventory app for my IPhone that allows me to take pics and search for and download the Sort It apps the Knife ICollect and you can start an inventory that's easy to maintain and records enough info to help with insurance claims and selling if anything happens to me. It nclusde when I bought it, who I bought it from., what I paid, what I think it's worth and a section for notes to include who to sell it to. Any good app like Sort It is great for the hobbyist/enthusiast collector.
 
I was using knives starting at about 4. When I started 1st grade, my grandfather gave me a small peanut and said

"Now that you're starting school, you need to have your own knife. We can't have you borrowing them from anyone else."

I have carried a knife every day since with very few exceptions -
- 14 days in Japan on leave while stationed there,
- 7 days on a cruise that I got talked into going one
- 2 days in the hospital for an emergency appendectomy
- 5 days in the hospital for colon cancer surgery
- 28 days while in the hospital trying to die from the chemotherapy as it was determined that my body is missing the enzymes necessary to break the drugs down.

I even carried pocket knives the 12 1 month overseas assignments while in the Naval Reserves for 9 years, 2 in the Philippines, and the 4 in Singapore and 6 in South Korea.

I started acquiring knives shortly after I got my first one. Any time my father or grandfathers got a new work knife, I got their old ones. Some of those were lost, some fell apart with age and 2 were stolen. Found a few that some other poor souls lost.

Was given my first fixed blade (Western L46-5) at 10, bought my second fixed blade (Kabar 1232) at 15, bought my first lock back (Buck 110) at 17. The longest period without buying a knife - my 3rd deployment to the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean during the Iranian Hostage Crisis - went nearly 10 months without buying one, but then I was a little busy and didn't notice. :D

I've bought a lot of blades, and given away more than I've sold. Probably keep slowly accumulating more until after I die. I fully expect to have at least 1 or 2 arrive in the mail AFTER I die, whenever that is.:D:D
 
I'm 54 as well. Seems as if things were a little saner in the 70's, doesn't it?! I had knives as a kid, got my first one about 10 years old, an inexpensive Schrade fixed blade, about 5'', and usually had a knife of some sort after that, but didn't develop a true appreciation until about 20. I've had a wide variety of middle to upper level production fixed and folders, some handmades, a few true customs built to my specs. I still have the ones I will never sell. I use almost all of them for something now and then, except a couple of dedicated fighters, and I've even used those to slice up a roast or two for fajitas...
 
I was a little boy maybe 5 or 6 ... we lived in the country and across the road our closest neighbors were an older couple. The man used to stop by anytime dad was working in the yard and talk ... and of course I had to be out there "helping" dad ... probably not much help ... but the old neighbor started taking me along to check his crops or check on livestock.

And he would take me to the small town nearby and the old farmers would sit outdoors at the feed store and talk ... he would always get me one of those small glass bottles of soda and I would sit and listen to stories.

Well sometimes he and some of the other men would just wittle while they visited and I always wanted a knife to wittle too ... I guess the neighbor man saw me watching them big eyed and one day he took me to the feed store and sat down and pulled out an old case slip joint and told me it was for me ... and showed me how to use it and take care of it and I felt like Id won the lottery. I still have that knife to this day it sits in a nice wooden box atop my dresser with dads watch and a few other childhood things that bring back those good memories.

So if you're looking down ... thank you Clarence ... you started a life long hobby for a little country boy ... and I still cherish that knife and especially the memories.

I guess thats where it all started for me I think Ive had a knife in my pocket everyday since ... that would have been 45 or so years ago ... and I still get excited to get a knew knife ... but even more excited when I get the chance to pass one on to a young boy or girl and teach them how to use and care for it safely.
 
This is one of and could have been my very first knife. I don’t remember a thing about getting it. I must have been like six or there abouts.



Not this ! ! ! ! This I went and looked at in the shop window any time I went to town with my Dad. He had one and I wanted my own so bad ! He kept his in the trunk of his 1954 Desoto Fire Dome (V8 Hemi, white with sky blue top, white and blue leather seats) so I almost never saw it or could use it. Only when we went fishing and He was using it then. Night fishing, eating Vienna Sausages THIS is the ONLY way to go. “The Right Tool For The Job”. This thing will totally rust if you let it. When I finally got my own I took really good care of it. I was probably eight or so.
Here’s his and mine.


I got this arkansas stone set much later; must have been around 1974 to 1976. It sucked soooo bad but it was a start.



About then I got into SAKs and then a few years later bought a Buck 110 so I guess I can say there wasn't really a time I wasn't fascinated with knives; at least folders.

It took me becoming a hand tool wood worker late in life before I learned real sharpening though. Until then I was only half assed.
 
I'm now 60, guns and knives as long as I remember. Grew up on a large dairy farm in south Florida, always had a pocket knife and hunted small game from a early age. Been on BF since its inception.
 
My cousin turned me on to knives and knife sharpening in the mid '70's. We went through countless Shrade Old Timer, Uncle Henry, Buck, Case and a few others(all folders) in order to learn the ropes. This was when I was a Boy Scout, so those lessons have stuck around. Mostly sharpening skiils, but also maintenance and design considerations. Durability and steel were in play as well, but what we wanted was a shaving edge on our steel. Fun Times.
 
Had the knife bug pretty much all of my life, fascinated w/ all things sharp and pointy since I was old enough to walk. I think I was born w/ the knife bug.
 
Been collecting since I was 14, 37 now...went to the Knifemakers Guild show when I was 14 and was completely hooked.

~Chip
 
I remember riding my Raleigh Chopper bicycle down to the local homecoming where they had the carnival with the sideshows. One was the Draglines. I'm talking, the original, Draglines. I remember dragging a Camilus fish knife to the dump slot for 10 cents! I shore do wish I still had that knife. Do they still make them? It was a slipjoint model. I think it was a fish knife because as I recall, it had teeth for scraping the scales off the fish.
 
Jesse B. said:
Like you mentioned in the first sentence of this thread, people change. Their interests change. Some more than others, to be sure. I'm one of those who is more "promiscuous" with his hobbies. I take up a hobby as long as I enjoy engaging with it. Then, when my enjoyment fades, I disengage. "Disengage" does not mean "discard". It just gets pushed into the background, for the time being.

I've acquired far more knives than I could possibly use, even if I was a knife-wielding-octopus. I have a knife for just about any conceivable scenario or situation. Most of these will probably go unused, at least in the short-term. Many people would consider that wasteful. They're not wrong, but that's not the point. Falling in and out of love is part of being human, even when it comes to a knife collection.
For now, my immediate, tactile, utilitarian interest in knives is fading. I still love reading about them, ogling pictures, fantasizing about customs, and so on. But I may only buy one knife in the next 10 years... we'll see.
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That was a well-articulated, thoughtful observation. Smart people in the knife community.
 
I did detention in the 4th grade for showing off a SAK in class. So since I was around nine years old...
 
It all comes and goes in spurts. Thinning them out now. Gotta justify spending on other hobbies. Everything loses it's luster eventually.
 
1976. I was 15 years old. My dad carried a camillus electrician as long as I could remember, and I wanted a pocket knife bad. I became emancipated at 15, and the Longs drug store had several knife displays, all different, and typical, manufacturers of that time, but it was the 2-blade case hunter with the stag covers that was calling my name.

I carried it for years until I lost it one day. Carried a SAK after that for many, many years. I always owned and carried a pocket knife since then, but it was always just the one. Even though I had purchased a few others over the years, I always carried the same knife until something happened to it. Only 2-3 years ago did I start changing my knife more regular. I've been enjoying it.
 
As far as being interested in knives as a hobby, about 5 years. Owning and using knives, around 50 years.
 
Since my memory serves me, maybe longer? ;)
PS: I don't expect that to change any time soon.
 
I've been obsessed since I was a kid. So nearly 30 years of knife fondling. I started EDCing in college about 20 years ago.
Started making fixed blades as a hobbyist about 5 years ago. Nice extension of the hobby and I no longer buy fixed blades.
I'm always eager to check out new folder designs.
 
for as long as I can remember. First SAKs, most of my life, and some OHO Folders and fixed blades, thenI discovered BF some years ago and it skyrocketed
 
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