Ha! Only a knife lover can relate. It really is traumatic. I'll never forget. I was seven years old when my grandmother "secretly" showed my parents the gift she planned to give me for my birthday, a brand new Swiss Army Knife. It was beautiful. I know because I was hiding behind my bed at the time, 20 feet away. I watched my parents put it at the top of my closet (where I would never find it). For the next 6 months I tried everything in my power to get up into that closet to have a closer look, but to no avail. A week before my birthday, my parents started throwing hints on what my present might be. Of course, the first words out of my mouth were that I always wanted a pocket knife that could do a million different things. The first words out of their mouths were, "You're much too young to be playing with dangerous knives. What else do you want?" That was the last I ever heard of that beautiful Swiss Army Knife. I know........I tore that closet to pieces for three years. :(
The only knife I've ever lost as an adult still hurts to this day! Many years ago I worked offshore on a construction barge in the Gulf of Mexico. One day I was on a catwalk on a drilling platform cutting loose some welding cables and I needed to remove my work gloves, so I set my just purchased stag handled Puma Prince on the rope I had just cut. In my haste and not thinking, I wasn't careful enough and the Prince slipped off the rope and through the grate. I will never forget watching that beautiful knife as it fell into the Gulf. It seemed like it took forever! My backup knife was a Buck non-stainless lock blade.
When I was around 15 I lost my no-name cork handled fixed blade on a hike from the campsite down to the river. I retraced my steps many times looking for it but never found it. No tears lost for it though. I see brand new ones all over the place, and they're so cheap it's no wonder my parents bought it for me first time I asked. In those days I looked at the BUCK case like a girl standing in front of a Tiffany's window... I haven't lost a knife since, but I have a few I wish I could throw away.
ps: I had one knife stolen in a home invasion... a Schrade made in Ireland folder with a weird fiber handle, and I gave a Chinese made Buck Whittaker away as a birthday gift. I liked that Buck. It had a nice main blade on it.
I'm glad I haven't gone through this traumatic event we're discussing. Some have popped out of my pocket but I always found them when I traced my steps back (not fun in heavy terrain and as the day passes).
I've collected knives since I was 5 and haven't lost a single one (yet), yay!
Oh, something repressed just came up now... I bought a cheapo buck chinese copy as a kid that I loved - and lost :(
I was fishing in the briny deep south of the big island in hawaii. We were trolling six lines for blue marlin, without success. When a buddy caught a shark I used my red and gray handle Kershaw #2950 twist-lock to cut the line. It slipped. I watched the first 10m of its 5000m descent. In thirty years, never been able to replace it.
I.ve lost too many. Out of pockets when on a bike seems to be the worst. Working on cars or other toys also alamed a few. A few more were lost by my boys. I finaly bought a dozen Mora knives for the scouts to use. The one I miss the most was a stag handles bowie I lost camping in a rain storm when I was 16. For brands, I was buying & loosing Spyderco at a regular pace.
Well the first ever knife I bought for myself was a Nomad lock back folder, the tension bar let go so it sits in it's case somewhere in all my stuff... Has a lifetime warranty, but does the company even still exist? Have also misplaced my buck vanguard and a gigand mustang by Fred Carter. Hiking the other day, my benchmade 740 dejavoo slip from my pocket (clip is too light on smooth G10) with a back track and my black labs keen nose it was found in some fallen leaves. I hate losin them, gonna tear house apart today!
I haven't lost many but the one that sticks out was my first,a Lone Range Pocket knife with pearlized handles and a big silver bullet on the side, loved that knife and still don't know what happened to it, I must of ben about seven or eight, don't remember who made it. If anybody knows, please reply...about 1954
Permalink Reply by Joe on November 11, 2010 at 18:10
My dad had this old fishing knife with red scales and a marlin spike and a sheepsfoot blade. He gave it to me on my 10th birthday and I carried it everwhere until I was 12. then, I was goofing with my friends in the swamps near our house, climbing trees and sliding down rocky hills and swinging like Tarzan off the mimosa trees and somehow lost the knife. I was devastated and kept going back, trying to find it. But never did. I searched every time I went back there, for years!
Lost a Case Arapaho hunting knive in Savannah while deer hunting. Know just where I lost it at but no matter how many times I looked for it, it was not there. More recently I lost the saddlehorn I almost cut my finger off with. Sure did want to keep that knife