What knives did you use when growing up.

Mn Fats said:

My very first knife was a Swiss Army Knife. I still remember opening it on Christmas Eve. 7 or 8 years old. Probably took me a month or two to lose it.

Funny thing is I bought my 8 year old at the time the same exact knife. Showed him how to use it properly. Came with a little case for his belt. He lost it in the hay field about the same time I did mine.

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That brings back memories. I was about 6 or maybe 7 when I got my first official gifted knife/tool. This would have been '87-'88. I remember it vividly. It was Christmas. Our tree always had presents under it for our grandparents or from my mom to my dad or whatnot. My stuff was always there on Christmas Day after Santa stopped by, of course. However, I remember finding something under the tree to me from Dad. It was small and rectangular, but had weight. It was the first gift I ever received that was both small and heavy...something that I have learned generally means good stuff is inside in the time since. My dad, being torturous, decided it leave it under the tree probably 2 weeks before Christmas. I'd pick it up and shake it. What could it be? Finally on the big day, he let me open it. It was the first thing I went for, bypassing all the fluff and flash of stuff the Fat Man had dropped off. What was in that damn box!

Something like this, except it also had my name engraved with gold paint on the side. I loved it. Think of all the stuff I could do with that?
Of course, like many of you, I lost it out in the woods by the following spring. Such is life, but I will never forget how receiving it made me feel. I will never forget the, for lack of a better term, power I felt carrying it. Someone with rudimentary tools is at least in charge of his destiny somewhat. Better than tooth and claw. Better than needing something in a hurry and having it...back at the garage. In the years that followed I always carried a SAK. When Leatherman style tools hit it big, my first MT of the pliers variety was a Gerber that I bought at the local Walmart where I was going to college. Since that day, I can probably count on one hand the number of days that I have not had a multitool either on my person or more than 3' away from me. All thanks to that cheap little gift my dad got me that I promptly lost.

Other knives I had growing up were mostly cheap pieces of garbage that my grandma bought me from the junk stores. My mom hated that she did that, but Grandma always indulged me. She would also manage to pick up some beautiful old pocket knives at yard sales. She kept a little cabinet in her house where she would always stash a few things she picked up for me. When I came over, I made a straight shot to that cabinet to see what kind of treasures she found. Once again, nothing of heirloom quality, most of it from Pakistan. But 30+ years later I still remember it fondly.

The granddaddy of all knives I carried was a Buck 110. I have had and lost several, but the model always will remain dear to my heart. My dad has carried a 110 since forever. He was heavily into riding and biker culture, and of course the 110 became THE biker knife. On top of that, it made for a fantastic work knife. He was, and still is, a contractor. I remember how he used to come home soaked with sweat. His jeans covered in concrete and wet from perspiration. At the bottom of his front pocket was a worn white outline of his 110. It was always at an angle since he did so much of his work bent over finishing concrete. Now what I am calling a 110 was usually NOT a 110. It was a Craftsman model of the 110. My dad liked the fact that he could use his knife hard at work (and he did) and take it back to Sears if it broke (and it did). However, over the years I would buy him actual Buck 110s for birthdays and father's days. He usually kept one or two pristine as his "going to dinner" knife. As I got into leather work, I started making him various sheaths. Some built like brick outhouses for work, some more sleek and refined dyed black to match his Harley boots and belt. While I find the 110 just a tad too heavy and bulky for an EDC these days, I will always respect it. I bought one with my first paycheck when I joined the family business after college. Kept it for years and eventually passed it down to my little brother when he started working for the business. If I could redo our family crest, I'm sure I would work one of those old workhorse Bucks into it somehow

A Kabar stockman ,that got lost , always liked stockmans since then. Plus a " kamp knife" looks like a sak with black scales that i got from my grandfather. He also taught me that when you get a knife you give a penny

The sorriest Rambo/survival knife clones the fine flea market carried. Fishing line, bad compass and all.

Until one Christmas when I got a Victorinox. From then it was camillus and Schrade usually

It wasnt a kamp knife it was a "scout knife" the fork looking blade is a can opener

so I was about to start first grade, we had moved to a "new" house in a dinky one light town, and I was trying to fit in with a new crowd, and Dad decided to give me a knife that would be generally useful.
Blade long enough to clean fish...check!
Scaler, hook remover, and cap lifter (no twist offs yet)… check!
Can Piercer (no pop tops yet) … check!

He gave me only three rules.
1. DO NOT THROW THE KNIFE!
2. do not cut anything that does not need cutting (especially self)
3. DO NOT THROW THE KNIFE!

Showed off knife to local kids who made appreciative noises. Carried it a week.
Buddy shows up one Saturday after noon and commences to throw his folder in the dirt and teaches me Mumbly Pegs as played then and there (later some kids called this version "splits" , to recover knife you have to touch it with a foot with out moving other until you either can not reach or fall down,and the version where you are not to move a foot "Chicken")

Needless to say it seemed obvious rules ONE and THREE obviously did not mean tossing at the soft sod,

I was pretty good at it.

Half an hour later we decided to see if Mom had made up and Iced any powdered fruity drink stuff.

On the way in buddy says "See that grey spot on that oak tree/" and tossed his pocket knife at it. He missed by a good four inches.

I commented on his lack of accuracy as kindly as any six year old can no doubt and he challenged "Think you can do better?"

Ha my blade was stuck less than an inch from the Grey spot....and the bladeless handle you see in the bottom of that picture was laying on the ground....and Dad's car pulled into the drive and stopped with the drivers side door right there at the tree...

Dad got out of the car. Pulled my blade from the tree. Told me "Pick up your knife, be sure you have it with you from now on to remember this lesson." So I spent months with a fish scaler that had a hook remover on it and bottle and can opener while buddies had all manner of folding knives and was much shamed.

I bought the upper knife with in the last ten years at a gun show.

Dad kept the blade in his jewelry box for decades. Mom says it is not there now....maybe he took it with him when he passed?

Mom's Dad gave me a Old Grand Dad for my seven Birthday in way of a repreieve. I carried either an Old Grand Dad or Old Timer from then until Nine and got a Official Cub Scout Knife. Not only did I carry my pocket knives to school but on Uniform Days for the Cub and Boy Scouts I wore my swivel hook belt slide and the Cub Scout Knife bounced about in public...the only issue I had was boys teasing me for not upgrading to a Boy Scout Knife when I went from Blue to Brown.

When I got out of Scouts and Started High School JROTC again Mom's Dad gave me a US Army Stainless Pocket knife ….which the LTC and All the Sargeants called a Demo Kit Knife and which when I attended Demo School at Velsek Germany in 1975 was called a Demo Kit knife so don't even start. Papa worked at Moody AFB out of Valdosta at the time as a Civilian contractor and they were cleaning out a building for re modeling and found a metal flange top six gallon bucket full of the knives and dutifully offered them to the USAF supervisor who said to throw them in the trash. Papa said there were several other guys also with bulging pockets at close of business that day. When cleaning his shop 20 years later after he passed there was one still wrapped in paper in a tool drawer.

Before going off to live with Uncle sugar I had three sheath knives for carrying in the field. The first was a "Souvinier of Florida" stamped thin blade with thin stamped riveted grips I bought with earnings from a summer job in Gatlinberg Tenn on family vacation. Right bought in Tenn and I am from Florida... piece of crap but it was an OK filet knife and "beat not having a sheath knife" for a few months.
My Papa's Fishing buddy saw it on a trip down to Crystal River to get the boat wet and frighten the fish and was appalled. When we took him home, he went in and came back out with an M5A1 bayonet which was my woods companion until Uncle Sugar gave me an M7 on loan.

A couple of years later we were back in the mountains and made another trip through Gatlingberg and I bought what Was sold as a camp knife but was in fact a Hitler Youth knife or reproduction at least with out the gaudy HJ jewel mounting no idea at the time what the blade etching words meant (later on living with Uncle Sugar in Germany an old German told me the painted red and white diamond shape on the handle I described to him was how the knives were marked the last year or so of the war, giving up the closine pin being the least a 13 year old could do for the party) It was realatively flat and thin and quite concealable around town and was. I did not carry it Germany, but soon working with a German unit saw they 1970's German Army Battle Knife and acquired one immediately....same still "butter knife", thin, and forester type grip instead of bayonet grip of the HJ knife ...much the same and yet better than my old knife. Also a full tang which the HJ knife was not "My Honor is True" but my tang was not!

Now you know more than you ever wanted to know about my carry habits as a boy.

-kBob

Ah forgot one. A two bladed pocket knife (I want to say Quinn, but don't recall for sure) I found in the middle of US Hwy 90 near the east end of town out in front of other Grand Dad's service station. We minded the station for a week for him while he took Grandma on vacation someplace and the day they were due back my Grandmother had called the night before and said if there were two cigar boxes full of Dew Berries (black berries to folks not from around there) she would do a pair of Dew Berry Pies and break out the ice cream churn. Having found two such boxes and rounded up middle sister ( baby sister was to small and young to keep up) we began a sprint across the recently four laned Federal Highway that was the major East west artery from Jacksonville in the east to I believe San Diago on the west along the lower tier. Stuck almost flush with the Asphault was a pocket knife in the inner west bound lane. While Sis watched and screamed to warn of approaching tractor trailors I went back out into the road and pried the very warm knife (August after noons in North Florida are not for the weak) up and dashed on across.

One scale was shattered and only half there and floppy loose. After filling the cigar boxes with a minimum of Rattle snake sightings ( no seriously we never saw less than two in that little two acre plot in summer looking for berries) and returning to the station I began picking "tar" out of the knife and then cleaning up the edges that apparently been used to cut cured concrete. Cleaned up it was not bad looking....except there was the naked brass liner on one side with a rivet sticking out. I was trying to figure out what to do with the thing right at close of business and finishing off a promised and much anticipated Fudgesicle when it occurred to me the little knife was about as tall as a popsicle stick was wide and shorter than the length of the stick, and the thickest portion of the scale remaining was darned close to the thickness of the stick I was now furiously liking clean. By the next evening I had shaved the stick down to fit and to deal with the rivet had cut a small groove so the new panel slipped over it. Of course this meant only friction held it on. After about a week I was back helping Grand Dad at the station and he noticed the popsicle stick fall off. He mixed me a little two part epoxy and that popsicle stick stayed right there until I lost that knife a year later at a popular pay swimming hole with lousy security on the baskets in the changing room.

Oh and the Dew Berry pies were delicious and the Ice cream well worth my turn at the crank. really not a lot of ways better to spend a Sunday Afternoon when most of us did not even know where Vietnam was yet.....

-kBob

Swiss Army Tinker
Mil-K military pocket knife
Buck 110
Gerber Magnum
Assorted Buck Stockman knives.

When I was a kid, late 1960's, dad would take me, my little brother and mom back to my mothers homeplace to stay 2-3 weeks every summer in East Tennessee near Elizabethton. One of my moms sisters and 2 cousins would come at the same time. Our moms would help grandmother with her garden and with canning.

My oldest cousin and I (we were 10, and 12 ) had saved up a few dollars and decided we wanted a pocket knife. While our moms were in the garden we started the 4-5 mile walk to the nearest country store where we each bought a cheap 3 blade stockman style knife. I THINK the brand name was Sabre, but could be mistaken. That one is long gone.

About the same time my dads father who lived in Western Kentucky near Reelfoot lake gave me a couple of Case knives. A Peanut and a Barlow style. I carried those knives a LOT up until high school. My son has one, my daughter the other and I'm betting they are near, if not over 100 years old.

My 1st sheath knife was a 4" blade Case with stacked leather handles. Once again I hiked into town from my grandfathers farm in Kentucky when I was about 14 or so to buy it from a hardware store. My son has it.

After I got in high school I decided the Case knives my grandfather had given me had too much sentimental value to actually carry and I went through a series of knives. Mostly stockman style made by either Buck or Case. I also added a Buck 112.

troy fairweather said:

I'll have to see about getting a k55 $30 is not bad for a solingen knife. I like the old imperial knifes I still carry a 2 blade now and then.

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It does not have the quality of a Leek. The handle is folded sheet metal. It was good for $3, probably not so much for $30.

I would recommend you look at one before you buy.

when I was a kid a Buck knife was all the rage. as a young adult it was a Case lock blade of sorts (I liked the Sidewinder). now its a myriad of choices, from fixed blades to... yeah pretty much just fixed blades now.

Cub Scout knife, followed by a Boy Scout knife, in my pocket all the time, both at home and at school. Dad bought me a Sears Roebuck sheath knife that I carried camping. In High School, a Buck 110 in a belt sheath, everyday except when in ROTC uniform when it went into the pocket.

Pretty much every boy of my age carried a knife on them all the time.

rust collector said:

Amazing how many stabbings we didn't have at school back in those days, isn't it?

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It's not the tool, but rather the "tools".

As a kid, I always had a Case pocket folder with me. It was well used when I got it and I beat hell out of it. When I left for the military in 1979 I got a Buck 110 that I carried every day during my enlistment and then while I worked in the shipyard after that. I absolutely loved that knife and cant remember a day when I didn't pull it out it for something. I got married and it stayed in my tool box till my boys got old enough to start hauling my stuff out of the house and that was the last time anyone had seen it. I got another a few years later and still carry it often although I have some Benchmade's, Kershaw's and Spiderco's that rotate through the lineup.

First pocket knife was a Barlow, given to me by my uncle. I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. I could only open it in his presence, and he was a stickler for safety. A year or two later it was placed on the dashboard of the car and ended up sliding down into the defroster opening. Lost, even though we knew where it was. Other knives were acquired over the years. Years later my dad presented me with a duplicate Barlow knife to the one I lost.

Cub Scout knife.

Pops got me a CRKT "mustang" when I was 7.

It was a big deal at 7 to be trusted with your own knife.

He told me not to lose it and 24 years later it isn't lost.

I used this knife for years and years. Later, Pops gifted me a Smith and Wesson SWAT later. I used it for 5 or 6 years but lost it snowmobiling.

Then I bought the benchmade 710 that I carry today.

CRKT mustang (This is their updated model, mine has a flat grind):


S&W SWAT (which was apparently a rebranded Schrade):

The first recollection of my own knife was a smallish home made bone handled bowie, made by a local craftsman. It was pretty primitive, but it had riveted bone scales, carbon steel blade and a steel gaurd. It also had it's own leather belt sheath. I think it had been my dad's, or maybe even my granddad's.
One day I was playing in an armpit tall wheat field with a young bird dog pup, when I discovered the knife was missing. Before it was over I had the entire family involved in the search for that knife. We never did find it.
I have tilled that field up every year for probably 40 years now....and never saw that knife again.
I was gifted a smallish Queen steel skinner with winterbottom bone scales to replace the Bowie. It is still around here somewhere. I quit carrying it when the sheath wore through at the point.

A yellow handle folding fish knife made in Japan. Can’t Remember the maker. They had a main blade then a fish scaler as the second blade. Cost 79 cents. I do remember that. Then at 11 my grandfather gave me a Boker Tree Brand pen knife. Still have it. Now I use a Case trapper folder and Randall Made knives.
Since I grew up in the woods a knife meant independence and self reliance.

Highwawk,

sounds like my knife pictured up in post #32. take a look!

-kBob

Scout knives - cub scout and boy scout were first. Then I got into schrades and case knives. Peanuts, 3 blade stockman small or large, usually jigged bone handles. Had and lost a lot of them. Don't think there have been many days since - with the exception of USMC boot camp - when there was not a knife of one sort or another on me. When I got a little older, I was totally into Buck pocket knives. Wish I had even half of them back.

I forgot still have Imperial slide lock Mystery knife found walking home from school