I got a new knife for Christmas, but that isn't important. It got me thinking about my 1st one and I wanted to share my story and invite others to share theirs.
My mother grew up on a farm along Stony Creek near Elizabethton TN. That's right in the NE tip of Tennessee. The North Carolina and Virginia state lines were both only a few minutes away. My maternal grandfather was a WW-1 vet whose lungs were damaged by gas and he suffered his whole life from it. He died in 1964 when I was only 6.
My mom ended up in Georgia and one of her sisters was living in Kentucky at the time. They would travel every summer back to TN and spend several weeks helping grandmother work in the garden and can for the winter. Our dads would drop us off and come back a few weeks later.
I was about 10, my older cousin about 12 and we both decided we wanted a pocketknife. We had a few dollars and the D.R. Grindstaff country store was down on the main highway at the end of the "Holler" where grandmother lived. We would walk down there quite often to pick up Root Beer and candy so we knew our moms wouldn't care if we went. We weren't sure they would approve of a knife but were working on the principle that forgiveness was easier to get than permission.
But when we got to the store, he was sold out of most everything. We knew of another store on the main road going back into town, so we set off. It was a LOT farther than we had remembered. It only took a few minutes by car, but we were gone for hours and never missed. Our moms were working and didn't even know we were gone.
The next store had a well-stocked supply of Sabre knives. A little history of Sabre knives here.
Japanese "Sabre" Brand Knives - All About Pocket Knives
I bought a 3 blade stockman with black handles like the bottom one in this photo. I can't recall the exact price but know it was under $2.
I have no idea what happened to that knife. But my other grandfather gave me 2 of his knives a few years later. A small Case 2 blade Peanut style knife and a no-name brand Barlow. I kept those knives for years, but have recently passed one to my son, the other to my daughter.
My mother grew up on a farm along Stony Creek near Elizabethton TN. That's right in the NE tip of Tennessee. The North Carolina and Virginia state lines were both only a few minutes away. My maternal grandfather was a WW-1 vet whose lungs were damaged by gas and he suffered his whole life from it. He died in 1964 when I was only 6.
My mom ended up in Georgia and one of her sisters was living in Kentucky at the time. They would travel every summer back to TN and spend several weeks helping grandmother work in the garden and can for the winter. Our dads would drop us off and come back a few weeks later.
I was about 10, my older cousin about 12 and we both decided we wanted a pocketknife. We had a few dollars and the D.R. Grindstaff country store was down on the main highway at the end of the "Holler" where grandmother lived. We would walk down there quite often to pick up Root Beer and candy so we knew our moms wouldn't care if we went. We weren't sure they would approve of a knife but were working on the principle that forgiveness was easier to get than permission.
But when we got to the store, he was sold out of most everything. We knew of another store on the main road going back into town, so we set off. It was a LOT farther than we had remembered. It only took a few minutes by car, but we were gone for hours and never missed. Our moms were working and didn't even know we were gone.
The next store had a well-stocked supply of Sabre knives. A little history of Sabre knives here.
Japanese "Sabre" Brand Knives - All About Pocket Knives
I bought a 3 blade stockman with black handles like the bottom one in this photo. I can't recall the exact price but know it was under $2.
I have no idea what happened to that knife. But my other grandfather gave me 2 of his knives a few years later. A small Case 2 blade Peanut style knife and a no-name brand Barlow. I kept those knives for years, but have recently passed one to my son, the other to my daughter.
). The stiletto was somewhat pointy and had the edge of a butter knife. I carried that sucker around for years (again, as a child). It was surprisingly durable, and I used it as everything from a pick to a mini-prybar. I even sometimes used it as a knife, to cut very brittle tape. 
