What is your first knife memory?

Great thread!!

I was very young. Taking a guess, I was maybe 7 years old, maybe 8. I found a Chinese lockback knife in a buss. The owner of the buss (it was just an old buss on a family friend's property). The owner let me keep that knife. And only until recently I finally lost that knife. That knife followed me for all those years and across several states.

That knife started the addiction, haha
 
First time a knife made a powerful impression. A youth camping trip - We took the Amtrak to Saint Louis. We visited the Arch, the Budweiser brewery and saw a Cardinals game. We camped at the KOA. Tiger - that was his nickname - was showing off his knife. I remember it as a combat bowie with a leather handle and a black coated blade. We all told Tiger his knife was cool and then we went back to setting up camp, unpacking gear and putting up tents. Then we heard it.
“OOOOOWWWWWW!” Everyone turned. We saw Tiger standing with his knife in his hand, his face covered with blood. Tiger had used the pommel to pound in his tent stakes, only he took off the sheath to do it. He poked himself in the forehead with the tip! After the counselors cleaned him up, they gave us a brief knife safety lesson. I don’t remember if they let him keep his knife.
 
Not really sure how old I was, maybe 10-12 years old, when I received a knife for christmas from my older brother. Although I no longer have the knife I remember it clearly, a yellow 3 eye Carl Schlieper sodbuster. Long lost to the carelessness of youth but fondly remembered and dearly missed. Up to that point I hadn't paid knives much attention.
 
My first knife was my Official Cub Scout knife... My mother gave it to my cousin after we moved and I was no longer in Cub Scouts...

When I was in Jr High, my uncle let me buy a super fancy Wolf Knife (Pakistan) and I hid it from my mom for a couple months ... I kept it in my sock (I was a badass) and took it to school... One day, it slipped out of my sock and slid across the floor to my mom's foot... My cousin got another knife...
 
Without a doubt, my first memories of knives are the ones on the dining table and in the kitchen. (Well, you didn't say what kind of knife...)

My first memory of knives unrelated to food was my dad's pocket knife, and watching him use it for normal day-to-day cutting tasks. I got my first knife when I was pretty young, I don't remember the exact age. Seven? Eight? It was one of my dad's old pocket knives... a hand-me-down, so to speak. It wasn't a camp knife, because it had three blades and no tools, but if all you noticed was the scales, it was shaped like a camp knife.
 
First one that I think of, is a lil over 40 years ago, field dressing my 1st deer with the Buck 121 that my dad had just gave me for my B Day, still have the 121, along with the 52 year old Buck 119 that was my dads, whom has passed along.
 
My first knife memory goes to an Aitor Gran Capitan my dad had... and a Solingen fixed blade from one of my uncles (he is the one who gifted me my first fixed, Muela Cazorla, when I became 16).

My first very own folder was a cheapo SAK. Didn't last long and didn't cut much. My first decent SAK was a Victorinox Rucksack, great knife!

Mikel
 
jideta said:
Probably five or six.
In the comic books they had ads for really cheapo stuff.
Ordered an army knife that wouldn't open and a cheapo k55 knock off.
I think I sent cash (coins!) so that my mom wouldn't know!
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Ha ha! That reminds me, growing up, we had some imported American war comics with adverts in the back. You were supposed to sign up and sell stuff, earning credits, which could be redeemed against all manner of things. I distinctly remember there being Ontario 498 and 499 knives available.
I always wanted one of those 'USMC knives'!
(I now have an Ontario 498...)
 
byjiminy said:
First time a knife made a powerful impression. A youth camping trip - We took the Amtrak to Saint Louis. We visited the Arch, the Budweiser brewery and saw a Cardinals game. We camped at the KOA. Tiger - that was his nickname - was showing off his knife. I remember it as a combat bowie with a leather handle and a black coated blade. We all told Tiger his knife was cool and then we went back to setting up camp, unpacking gear and putting up tents. Then we heard it.
“OOOOOWWWWWW!” Everyone turned. We saw Tiger standing with his knife in his hand, his face covered with blood. Tiger had used the pommel to pound in his tent stakes, only he took off the sheath to do it. He poked himself in the forehead with the tip! After the counselors cleaned him up, they gave us a brief knife safety lesson. I don’t remember if they let him keep his knife.
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OUCH! He was lucky that he didnt poke his eye out... dayum!
 
My first "knife recollection" was when I was 6-7 y/o... dad gave me a pocket knife cuz he noticed that I was fascinated by his military-issue boy-scout style pocket knife (He had a lot of mil-issue stuff back then) in the 1950's... so he got me a cheap pocket knife (an old Imperial as I recall, still made in USA back then) that was like gold in my eyes.. Mom mentioned that she wasnt so sure about turning me loose with a REAL KNIFE- as opposed to the rubber knives I had a small collection of- and was concerned about me getting cut. Dad said "Well, Phyll, if he cuts himself once he won't cut himself again"... wise words, lol.. in the intervening 60+ years I have indeed cut myself on occasion but Ive always been careful handling knives- and remembered his words, and the lessons he taught me about sharp cutting objects like saws, knives, axes, swords, and the like! Still have his old Army pocket knife, prut-near wore out and stashed with a couple other old family-pocket knives....
 
I spent summers with my mom and her parents. My grandpa always had a knife in his pocket: on days when he was doing projects, it was an Imperial Electrician pattern. (like a Barlow, but instead of having a small blade, it had a locking flat head screwdriver/wire scraper.)

On non-working days, it was usually some small Imperial two-bladed pen knife. Tiny ones. I still have one of them, with the large blade snapped off, so it only has the small blade now.

He gave me my first knife when I was 9. It was a small Imperial jack knife with two blades, the larger one being a clip point of about 2" and the smaller one being a spearpoint of about 1". You wouldn't BELIEVE how many sticks I whittled with that little knife. Learned how to sharpen on it too, with a Smiths Arkansas stone in a leather slip with a 30° angle guide ramp.

Here are those first two knives, which are treasures to me now. They bring back lots of memories of good times with my grandpa, and make me miss him, too.

As a result of this thread, I think I'll carry the white one today.

20201116_100226_HDR_copy_1044x711.jpg
 
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Wurger190 said:
As a kid (~5) I was taken with the idea of camping and really wanted a Swiss Army knife. My dad always had a knife in his pocket, as a carpenter and roofer he used them as tools.
For my 7th birthday I recieved a Victorinox Passenger. I still have that knife, it was the first of many.
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My grandpa's prized knife was a Victorinox Passenger, from a 1970s trip to Switzerland. He kept it in the nightstand by his easy chair and pulled it out all the time to take care of little things. I asked him one time why he didn't carry it when he's doing work around the house, and he said: "It's too nice; it seems like a waste."

That model is discontinued now, but I'm having someone build one for me soon, and I think I will carry it often, and think of my grandpa.
 
jideta said:
Probably five or six.
In the comic books they had ads for really cheapo stuff.
Ordered an army knife that wouldn't open and a cheapo k55 knock off.
I think I sent cash (coins!) so that my mom wouldn't know!
Click to expand...

That brings back memories.

It wasn't my first knife, but the first knife I bought with my own money was an imitation Swiss Army knife from a Westbury Sales Co. ad in a comic book (around the year 1980). Had to wait the usual "6 to 8 weeks for delivery", my dad wrote a check. Some of the longest weeks of my young life. And I was surprised and overjoyed when it actually showed up. I had previously tried to order another item from an old comic book and my request and check were sent back because the company had since gone out of business.

The knife was pretty decent, at least by 1980/10 yr old kid standards. I really loved that knife. It saw a lot of use camping with friends. Opened countless cans and whittled countless sticks with it (I remember the can opener in particular worked great, actually better than on my friends real Swiss Army knife). But the liners of the knife, and the nail file, were non-stainless steel and eventually rusted, and after a handle scale broke off I tossed it. It served me well for a few years.
 
Strangely enough I'm carrying my first knife today. My dad gave me this knife when I was about 8 years old. It has survived a house fire and been with me ever since.

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I don't know when it was made but I know it was in the 90s or earlier. I remember whittling, learning to sharpen, all the unsuccessful squirrel hunts, and all of the other adventures back in those days. Good times.
 
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1963 ... Spring, I think ... my Uncle Bob was home on leave, having just finished a tour in Viet Nam, and just before he had to report for duty in Germany.
He took his genuine U.S. Army issue Camillus "Demo" knife out of his pocket, and gave it, and his genuine U.S. Army issue "Jet Pilot Survival Knife" to me. (Why the Army issued him an Air Force knife I have no idea. He was a Army Grunt; not Special Forces, or a CIA "Advisor")

Sadly, both knives vanished in 1966 or 1967 when my mum divorced who I thought was, and considered my pop, and stole them. I believe she gave them to my then future step brother ... or then future step father ...
 
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I remember a little Imperial jack knife that I had as a young lad. I learned to sharpen knives with that little knife. I cut up a bunch of sticks and different things with that little knife. Haven't seen that knife for many years. But I have a nice collection now. Always been an admirer of sharp things. I remember asking my dad to sharpen my knife for me when I was a youngster and his words were" I will sharpen it for you this time but you watch how I do it, because from now on you will have to sharpen your own. If you are old enough to carry a knife then you are old enough to sharpen it." Been carrying my own and sharpening it as well as everyone else's since.
 
Hal said:
My mom owned an old Plymouth (1940something?). It had a backseat the size of Alaska.
I remember we were driving home from the Supermarket. I was hunkered down in the backseat with the new knife I had just gotten at the vending machine at the market.

They sold tiny little folding knives, made out of zink or some other garbage metal, for about a dime. I was sawing at the back of my hand with it trying to get it to cut.

I remember my mom yell at me not to cut myself - just at the exact same instant I managed to do just that.

I'm thinking I had to have been around 4 years old at the time. (1956)
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I had forgotten all about those! I had a couple of those in my very young days.
 
My first real knife memory was when my uncle gave me an old slip joint folder with about a 3.5 inch blade, big for a 7 year old. Then in keeping with the rest of this I remember vividly laying my thumb open with it. Hahahaha.
 
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