What is your most prized knife

Well I agree, it does seem to be the best necker ever , in my experience. But most highly regarded would have to be this masterpiece of work Stephan Fowler did for me




I have 6 os his blades, here are three
the big double edged dagger is 5160 steel forged with damasus fittings teh blade is 13" long and the handle is pinless Amboyna Burl

The Spyderco Yojimbo 2 I bought myself as a wedding gift about 5 years ago. Been my EDC ever since.

I bought it from a THR member even.

My most prized knife is a tie between a custom made Randall No. 1 and my Dad's Marble's No. 45:

My Grandpa's cheap Old Timer Crongress.

As much as I love knives, I have never really spent the money for a really good one.
Here is a Buck Vangaurd that is probably my best fixed blade.

My most prized is my granddad's old buck 112 2 dot. However I do not really carry it unless going to a family function.

Forgot about my Vanguard. My favorite is still the Yojimbo 2 but my favorite hunting knife is my Vanguard.

I look at my own picture and I can see the top of the grip of the Yojimbo chewed up from opening pop off beer bottles. My BIL asked me how much that knife cost once after I opened one of his. I said, "Less than I paid for the Paramilitary 2 I got you."

My philosophy is if you pay a lot of money for something then you better use it....one way or another.

Then my sister handed me a bottle opener. Heh, good idea.

I have a few knives that I would consider prized. I have a D2 Kabar that went with me in many not so nice places overseas in a thigh holster. Benchmade Infidel bought in the same country. A SOG Mini Instinct that spent the last 1.5 years in an FBI evidence locker.

Too many to list that have special meaning.

There’s the “first” knives. First I had (sharpfinger I found in the road as a kid) or the first knife I bought (case trifold). The first knife I cleaned a deer with was a sad little folder but it was given to me by a neighbor who was like an extra grandpa. Maybe shouldn’t mention the first knife used to open a pregnancy test (rough rider blue bone toothpick) but it still stands out in my mind from way back some 20ish years ago.

Then there are some other knives that have had lasting memories like the knife I was given when I graduated high school (Buck pearl baby toothpick) or the knife I bought myself to carry the day I graduated from college (case 2 blade toothpick). Or the knife I carried a lot that saved my bacon once when a guy tried to rob me (Kershaw Brawler).

The ones that really mean the most to me though are used to hell and monetarily pushing worthless. My granddaddy meant a lot to me and I remember countless hours sitting in his lap as a kid peeling apples and pears we had just picked from his back yard. When he passed grandma gave me his 3 blade Buck, but she also told me the story on that knife. She had bought it for him as a wedding present the day they got married. She was 16 and he was 19, she sold firewood that she cut split and carried to town on her bike to try to get the money up but ended up gambling a bit and quickly increasing the weight of her coin purse. Alongside that knife now sits the other half of that story. Granddaddy also gave grandma a knife for a wedding gift. A case pen knife with pearl grips. Grandmas knife has been used around the house for some 60 years including doing some time in the blue jean mill, not to mention the time spent in another factory making uniforms for GIs during the Korean War.

Grandaddy was gone before my wife and I met, and Grandma and my wife never saw eye to eye, but grandma did make the suggestion to her that she give me a knife for a wedding gift. A good knife but not an expensive knife, and one to be proud of. It was a Buck Canoe. My father in law gave me a Case Congress. My Dad gave me a Case Muskrat.

There are just too many to pick one. And almost all of these knives are still in rotation as daily carries with the exception of my grandparents knives. I don’t carry the wedding gifts much, but I have acquired examples in similar pattern to carry in their places.

I have a lot of really special knives. Cutting to the chase, i think my most special knife is an old school Fiddleback Forge Woodsman. Back when Andy Roy, the founder of Fiddleback Forge, was just getting into making knives he made me one of his first models of his Woodsman pattern.

I've know Andy since he was bending leather. I've watched him succeed as an artist.

There is no other knife in my collection i would bet my life on before my Fiddlebacks.

I had the pleasure of having Joe Greco make two knives for me before he passed away. The first was this fighter. The second was, what he called his "general purpose" knife.

Like others, too many of mine were gifted by loved ones or inherited from loved ones to pick one.

Probably my favorite one that I paid for and never use is my Skirmish:



My most used non folder was made by a THR member, it is the blue one:



The big one on the top photo and the signed Reeve and mini Batman knife all have pretty high sentimental value:

Probably just the one I’ve carried the most. About 10 years. An Al Mar SERE 2000.

Back a few years after I first got it (2005 or so). Even has some cigarettes in the pic (I used to smoke, I quit awhile back).


Currently. It’s Number 1.

Damascus bowie

waterhouse said:

My most used non folder was made by a THR member, it is the blue one:

Click to expand...

I remember you did like those small skinners! I'm very glad you cherish it!

My Case Bowie would be my most prized.

After finishing Navy Dive School, back in 73, I was stationed on a sub tender and issued a MK2 Kabar for a dive knife. Pretty much a "daily carry" on the belt ,right next to the film badge case, and it suffered mightily from the salt water, humid air and rough use. I still have it, though I did replace the leather handle and the issued sheath was lost.
I have a wide assortment of other knives but when I pick up that particular one it reminds me of another time, place,and younger, me...

My late Grandfather's pocket knifes! a 1920's Boker small Stockman and the others 340 OT
Stockman!