This is a sad topic, indeed ... I had a beautiful stag handle hunting knife when I was a Boy Scout in 1959, and I've never been able to remember what happened to it. Every knife lost is a personal loss of the spirit. I lost an original run Spyderso Delica last year when it fell out of a pair of wooly warmup pants. Geeze-- twice stupid (but who's counting, eh).
My Benchmade Pardue Ambush,...only owned it for a couple of years. Lost it while out on the bike and on the move. Lesson learned: make sure of a SECURE pocket clip.
Up until recently, I didn't appreciate the older knives that I've had in the past. I was raised with the belief that knives were tools, and if they broke, they were discarded and replaced. I sure wish that I still had my old "camp knife" that I had when I was a kid, broken blade and cracked handle and all...
But that's been over 40 years ago.
Has to be an old victorinox i had as a kid, i can't even remember the model.
It had 1 scale missing and a reground blade where the tip had broken off but i loved it and took it everywhere.
I think it got lost during a house move but nevertheless i have a permanent reminder from it on my index finger.
My fault for trying to lobotomise a tree stump :D