What was the first pocket knife you bought?

I did not buy it so I did not count it, but I still have my blue Camillus Cub Scout Knife from 1963 or so.
 
A Kershaw Tone from Academy Sports about 3 years ago, give or take. I got a cheap Milwaukee Fastback for Christmas one year, and had been using it a lot, and I actually even bent the liners! Decided I needed a better knife, and knew the Kershaw name, and it had a cool Tanto blade!

Then came the cryo, Cryo 2, and spyderco tenacious... And Monday I'll have a 28th folder. I don't really need any more, but I like the variety!
 
I remember getting my first knife from a Fingerhut catalogue from the 88cent pages, along with a bag of marbles and a tiny "solar" keychain light. This was back in the early 80s. It was a Buck-style lockback. Cheap steel, but it awakened the knife need in me. Second was a "Rambo-style" survival knife with the hollow handle and stuff it came with. I spent a whole $12 for it and it truly was a good deal.
 
My first knife was a tiny Imperial slip joint (smaller than a peanut) that I paid $0.25 for when I was about 7 years old. As kids, we bought our own stuff with our own money. Dad did not provide knives, guns, or any of the stuff that kids liked at the time. BB gun? Saved up and bought one myself..... Fishing rod? Same deal.

I can relate. The only "tools" we ever got were the ones we bought. Christmas was for toys, clothes and our one pair of shoes for the year. I bought my first Daisy BB gun when I was twelve and my first car at 15. We mowed lawns, cleaned houses or chopped wood for our money.
 
I remember getting my first knife from a Fingerhut catalogue from the 88cent pages, along with a bag of marbles and a tiny "solar" keychain light. This was back in the early 80s. It was a Buck-style lockback. Cheap steel, but it awakened the knife need in me. Second was a "Rambo-style" survival knife with the hollow handle and stuff it came with. I spent a whole $12 for it and it truly was a good deal.
I'm sure you look back at the cheaper knives and smile now. Many folks here do a thumbs down to cheap knives. I might well have had to wait for years if I had to buy a good knife (good meaning costly for my financial situation) as a kid. There is a major place for inexpensive and cheap knives and there always will.

I'm glad I started with slip joints. Otherwise today, I might well dismiss them as old timey out dated designs. The Rambo style knife was a thing of that time after the Rambo movies came out. I really never thought about survival knives until the Rambo movies... sure I wanted to have my knife in a survival situation before that, but the Rambo movies introduced offensive and defensive use of knives into my thinking. I was older then and I my first "survival" knife was an Ek Comando bowie which I still have. Randall's came shortly after as I was attending gun shows regularly at that point, liked knives, had some money in my pocket, and whala.... Randall knives appeared in my knife accumulation as my "good" get out of town knives. That of course is a fantasy, but thinking along those lines is fun. I pretty much always carried a knife after about age 10. Before that... well, I was a kid...
 
An original Spyderco fully serrated Delica. It is all stainless steel and stamped “Hoffritz” which is the knife store that sold it. Blade marked Semi Japan and clip is built into the frame. When these knives first came out they were thought to be ugly and many ignored them due to the hole and serrations which were not found on folding knives back then. I bought this and a few others that are fully serrated as they represented a new type of blade in that time in history. Still sharp despite not sharpening it ever. View media item 6589
 
A Cub Scout knife. That was many years ago, and I have no idea what happened to it. But it sure did see a lot of use at the time.
 
My first was a Swiss Army as a Boy Scout. My first as an adult was this guy, still carry it once in a while:
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I can't remember my first knife ever, but I remember owning a bunch of SAK's as a kid and also a couple of Rambo knives. I remember my favorite knife I had as a kid was a Puma that I was given for doing some work for a family friend. I thought that thing was so cool.

As an adult, before I was heavily into knives I would just use a flat box cutter or whatever cheap Gerber peaked my interest at Target or WM.

The first "nice" knife I bought was the HK Benchmade Snody design. This is the knife that started the obsession and is still probably my favorite Benchmade to this day. This was early in the HK line, before they got the memo that the HK knives were supposed to be a less refined budget line. This thing is amongst the smoothest AXIS locks I have owned, is balanced so that the blade practically falls opened and closed when you depress the lock, with ergonomics similar to a Griptilian, but with the satisfying thwack of a steel frame. I no longer carry it but I keep one on my desk as a letter opener/fidget device, and it has become the standard by which I have judged all subsequent AXIS lock purchases (many of which have not lived up).

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I can't recall which came first, but one of these was the first folder that I bought on my own. I had been gifted a handful of Benchmades and a few Microtechs prior, but I what I really wanted was a stainless Police spyder-edge. After seeing how expensive they were (to my teen sensibilities) I was directed towards the Clipit models.

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My first was an all stainless steel "jaguar" brand knife I bought in Chinatown NYC when i was a kid. Cop took it when I was 16 when he pulled me over for no real reason to arrest my friend who had some warrants.

This was #2. Had wood inserts when I bought it, they've since fallen out. Carried this knife exclusively for a few years, even tried my hand at some filework at some point.
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Pretty sure it was some POS from a home improvement store. I think it came in a multi-pack of equally garbage knives. I had a modest but poor-quality collection when I was 13-15.

More accurately, though, the first knife I bought with my own money was an Ozark Trail knife whose rapid decline in physical integrity was a major contributing factor that lead me to look for better construction and thus more expensive knives. My first dip into quality knives was the ludicrously expensive $30 Cold Steel Counter-Point II, which made 22-year-old me feel like the most tactical of operators.
My first $30+ folder was a boker subcom. I remember thinking "how much more than $15 can be put in to a knife?" I remember it had AUS8, which along with 440 steel was the only good steel I knew about. I'd have judged the heck outta my future self for spending $100+.
 
my first knife purchase was a Spyderco tenacious, fully serrated.... looking back i should have never purchased it (had i followed my current knife interests...) but i have to say it was one of my favorites, and definitely the reason behind my knife addiction. i took it apart a couple years ago and lost the stop pin. might just have to replace it and give it some pocket time for old time sake...
 
I can't remember my first knife ever, but I remember owning a bunch of SAK's as a kid and also a couple of Rambo knives. I remember my favorite knife I had as a kid was a Puma that I was given for doing some work for a family friend. I thought that thing was so cool.

As an adult, before I was heavily into knives I would just use a flat box cutter or whatever cheap Gerber peaked my interest at Target or WM.

The first "nice" knife I bought was the HK Benchmade Snody design. This is the knife that started the obsession and is still probably my favorite Benchmade to this day. This was early in the HK line, before they got the memo that the HK knives were supposed to be a less refined budget line. This thing is amongst the smoothest AXIS locks I have owned, is balanced so that the blade practically falls opened and closed when you depress the lock, with ergonomics similar to a Griptilian, but with the satisfying thwack of a steel frame. I no longer carry it but I keep one on my desk as a letter opener/fidget device, and it has become the standard by which I have judged all subsequent AXIS lock purchases (many of which have not lived up).

Off topic: Nice watch. I've tried that one on more than once, just never pulled the trigger. One of my favorite handguns too.
 
Off topic: Nice watch. I've tried that one on more than once, just never pulled the trigger. One of my favorite handguns too.

Many thanks! I have since flipped that one when I picked up my Planet Ocean. It's a beautiful watch, but for some reason (not sure why) I just never bonded with it. And yes, that stainless USPc was also a bit of a milestone purchase for me and holds a special place. It was something I drooled over for many years and was one of my first big firearm purchases as an adult when I was finally able to afford such things.
 
It must have been a knife made in Spain. Back in these days, I believed that the bigger the knife, the better, so it must have been some soft inox gigante cuchillo catalàn, this style


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First knife I actually bought.
Middle school I believe.
Buck rush. Small blade model.
I got very good at sharpening that. But then again its relatively soft 420 series steel if I recall correctly. Not my first knife though.

Next knife I bought, the one that started me on the path of being a knife nut and eventually knife maker was the:
Benchmade Mini Dejavoo.
Bought it as a gift to myself for completing my eagle scout rank. Senior year of high school.
 
If only I never picked up that Kershaw Chive on the ground... blessing or curse?!

First knife I bought thereafter was Benchmade 943 nearly a decade ago now, which still makes it into my regular rotation.
Latest? Shiro Neon...
 
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