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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on February 13, 2017 at 19:04

David,

Combo hatchet knife sets!  Now that is something you do not see as a collection every day, even among knife collectors.  I LOVE IT!  I have also been drawn to them and have always been surprised that with the survival game being what it is today, they have not made a strong reappearance.  It seems a natural to me and wow what a great reason to own one (or a hundred)

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Permalink Reply by Frank Spero on February 14, 2017 at 8:35

researching my first Buck110 on e bay buying all those uncle henrys and old timers at kmart for a song back in the  late 70's really got me going joining NKCA and seeing all those beautiful knives in their magazine

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Permalink Reply by Frank Spero on February 14, 2017 at 8:54

how about the "blade forum" coffee and knives i think

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Permalink Reply by Mark Bigolovich on May 22, 2017 at 16:12

I'm still just getting into the hobby, and as my funds are usually limited, it will likely stay a modest collection. I've always loved basic, practical, tools... and a knife is about as basic, yet.. multi-purposed as one can get. I'm also an avid outdoorsman, primitivist etc... and therefore know the importance of a good knife. When I go in the woods I carry the minimal gear, from clothing, to hydration, to shelter (solely a camping hammock), to tools (just one good knife). But knifes carry over to my home life too, and I just love finding and restoring beautiful knifes. This forum is both inspiring and humbling.

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Permalink Reply by Sue OldsWidow on April 19, 2018 at 21:23

Short and sweet....hubby started collecting with my cousin....I got bored at knife shows since they had very little interest for women at that time...I picked out a pattern I liked .........the rest is history.....MINI COKE BOTTLES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(somewhere this is a longer version of this ) LOL

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Permalink Reply by Wayne Zieschang on April 23, 2018 at 1:03

How did I get into knife collecting?

It started one dark and stormy night, lightning blazing and thunder blasting the ether as if the gods were at war.....

Well, I wish it was that exciting,,, 8-)

My steel accumulation started off tamely enough.  I was gifted my first knife at age 6. I had just started first grade and the first weekend after school started, my grandfather gave me a smallish peanut folder, saying

"Now that you're starting school, you need your own knife. We can't have you borrowing one all the time."

After that, when ever my father or grandfather got a new knife for general use, I'd pinch the old "used up" one for my hoard.  A new kind of pocket knife was on every birthday and Christmas list.  Didn't result in a new knife every time, but I kept asking.  I did get the occasional scout knife as birthday or Christmas presents.

My first fixed blade was a Western L46-5. I was helping my grandfather get the combine ready for maize harvest. His left shirt sleeve got caught in the chains/gears. 

He reached down, pulled out his Kabar 1232 and cut off his sleeve before he was injured. He looked at me and said

"That's why you carry a fixed blade when working on machinery. You'll never get a pocket knife out in time." 

I replied with "But Popo, what if it had been your other arm?" 

He looked at me like I was speaking Greek at first, then he realized what I was talking about and he walked over, turned off the tractor and said "Let's go." We got in the truck, drove 3 miles to the Western Auto in town. They were out of 1232s, so he got the Western. A couple of weeks later, the WA owner called and told him that the "little Kabars" were in if he still wanted one. 

He replaced the Western with another 1232 and the first time he saw me after getting it, gave me the Western L46-5, saying "If you're smart enough to come up with a question like that, you're old enough to carry a fixed blade."   He never knew what rat hole that shoved me down.  He died 4 years later due to complications from kidney cancer and radiation treatments.

Except when prohibited by law, regulation or workplace rules, I've carried, at a minimum, paired fixed blades and paired folders. Because you never know which hand you will have to cut something with nor what you will need to cut.

The first knife I bought for myself was in 1973 when I used some of my HS graduation money to buy myself a Buck 110.

By this time, I probably had close to 40 pocket knives in various conditions and a single fixed blade, my beloved Western L46-5.

As far as what really kicked off my collecting of sharp and pointy things, that began the summer of 1976.  I came home from my 1st Class Midshipman Cruise between my junior and senior years in college and I had "free" money in my pocket from getting paid for 8 weeks of active duty. I knew that I needed (based on reading Navy Regs), that a small boat crewman (Boat Officer being one of the extra duties of an officer I experienced on cruise) should have either a USN MK1 or USN MK2. 

(Aside - turns out the mandatory requirement had gone away, but the regulations had not been updated.) 

So I went down to the local surplus store in College Station TX to see what they had. They had a 30 gallon barrel full of MK2s and another full of MK1s for $10 each. I picked out a nice MK2 (had to get the 7" blade over the 5", right???). Then I saw this weird looking bayonet. The guy wanted $10 for it, as well. I asked him if he'd take $15 for the pair. He agreed. It took me a while to find out what I had was an 1869 Yataghan bladed Chassepot sword bayonet. I decided later that I wanted a MK1 as well. I went back and got one, talked the guy down to $8 for that one.

Between the end of the second summer session and the start of the fall semester, I took my first "vacation" - a week long SCUBA diving trip to the Cayman Islands.  On a shore dive, in about 30 feet of water, I found a P.I.C. brand dive knife that was partially corroded.

I still have everyone of those knives.

After graduation and commissioning into the US Navy, since I didn't go out partying and drinking a lot, I would spend my free time (and money) by going to pawn shops, garage sales and estate sales where ever the Navy sent me, always looking for swords, bayonets, sabers and military knives.

It wasn't long before the word got out that "Ensign Z is crazy - he buys knives and swords."  I put a bounty out with my enlisted guys to get them to spend less time getting drunk and more time scrounging for me. 

"Bring me a GOOD CONDITION bayo/sword/saber/military knife and the receipt - I'll pay you a finder's fee of $10".  

In the era of $2 minimum wages and low EM pay, they pounced on that deal. Plus, being "broke enlisteds" they could dicker down to better prices than I could.

During my active duty service, I slowly built up a large fixed blade collection - mainly bayonets, military fixed blades and big Bowie knives.

After I got off active duty, my collecting went into hibernation while I went back to school for a Computer Sciences degree and worked 4 PT jobs so I didn't have to take out any student loans.

Since graduating the second time and working "real" jobs, I have gradually spread out my collecting to include dive knives, Western, Kabar, Muela and a few other brands of fixed blades, with an occasional folder thrown into the mix

This coming July, it will have been 42 years since I started collecting military knives, bayonets, swords and then non-military knives. 

Some years, I have bought as few as 20 knives (thank you 9+ month deployments overseas).  A couple of years, I averaged well over a knife a day, primarily by buying lots of 20 or 30 knives at a time to get 1 or 2 that I really wanted.  I found it was cheaper to dicker at a garage sale or estate sale for "the whole box" rather than pick up 1 or 2 out of the box and say "How much for just this one?"  Red flag to the seller!!!!

I've bought way more than I have sold or given away, and I've given away more than I have sold.  I have been called "knife nut", "knife crazy", "weird", "the bayonet guy", "the knife man", a "steel dragon" (courtesy of my niece as she says I hoard steel the way a dragon hoards gold.) and probably a few other names behind my back.

The only comment I ever get is from my mother when she opens a cabinet or drawer in my house and finds more knives.  She asks (sarcastically)  "Do you have knives in EVERY cabinet?"

One thing I seldom get asked by anyone who knows me longer than a week is "Do you have a knife?"

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Permalink Reply by Tom Meador on April 23, 2018 at 14:23

It’s a tool. I love tools. They help complete a job or task at hand. I think the coolest thing about a knife is that it was the “first” tool. Formed from rock and then evolved through time to the beautiful works of art we have today. I guess the “history” of the knife made me love them.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on April 23, 2018 at 17:51

Wayne,

You keep that steel dragon name, I am thinking that one is an honor!  Great story and brings us back to what many have said..my dad,grandad,uncle...got me started.  What they sparked was a respect for a tool, what you grew was a yearning for more :)

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on April 23, 2018 at 17:52

The history brought me in also Tom.  It is one reason why we have so much history captured on this site

Tom Meador said:

It’s a tool. I love tools. They help complete a job or task at hand. I think the coolest thing about a knife is that it was the “first” tool. Formed from rock and then evolved through time to the beautiful works of art we have today. I guess the “history” of the knife made me love them.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen L. Corley on April 23, 2018 at 23:40

Welcome to the nut house. 

Wayne Zieschang said:

How did I get into knife collecting?

It started one dark and stormy night, lightning blazing and thunder blasting the ether as if the gods were at war.....

Well, I wish it was that exciting,,, 8-)

My steel accumulation started off tamely enough.  I was gifted my first knife at age 6. I had just started first grade and the first weekend after school started, my grandfather gave me a smallish peanut folder, saying

"Now that you're starting school, you need your own knife. We can't have you borrowing one all the time."

After that, when ever my father or grandfather got a new knife for general use, I'd pinch the old "used up" one for my hoard.  A new kind of pocket knife was on every birthday and Christmas list.  Didn't result in a new knife every time, but I kept asking.  I did get the occasional scout knife as birthday or Christmas presents.

My first fixed blade was a Western L46-5. I was helping my grandfather get the combine ready for maize harvest. His left shirt sleeve got caught in the chains/gears. 

He reached down, pulled out his Kabar 1232 and cut off his sleeve before he was injured. He looked at me and said

"That's why you carry a fixed blade when working on machinery. You'll never get a pocket knife out in time." 

I replied with "But Popo, what if it had been your other arm?" 

He looked at me like I was speaking Greek at first, then he realized what I was talking about and he walked over, turned off the tractor and said "Let's go." We got in the truck, drove 3 miles to the Western Auto in town. They were out of 1232s, so he got the Western. A couple of weeks later, the WA owner called and told him that the "little Kabars" were in if he still wanted one. 

He replaced the Western with another 1232 and the first time he saw me after getting it, gave me the Western L46-5, saying "If you're smart enough to come up with a question like that, you're old enough to carry a fixed blade."   He never knew what rat hole that shoved me down.  He died 4 years later due to complications from kidney cancer and radiation treatments.

Except when prohibited by law, regulation or workplace rules, I've carried, at a minimum, paired fixed blades and paired folders. Because you never know which hand you will have to cut something with nor what you will need to cut.

The first knife I bought for myself was in 1973 when I used some of my HS graduation money to buy myself a Buck 110.

By this time, I probably had close to 40 pocket knives in various conditions and a single fixed blade, my beloved Western L46-5.

As far as what really kicked off my collecting of sharp and pointy things, that began the summer of 1976.  I came home from my 1st Class Midshipman Cruise between my junior and senior years in college and I had "free" money in my pocket from getting paid for 8 weeks of active duty. I knew that I needed (based on reading Navy Regs), that a small boat crewman (Boat Officer being one of the extra duties of an officer I experienced on cruise) should have either a USN MK1 or USN MK2. 

(Aside - turns out the mandatory requirement had gone away, but the regulations had not been updated.) 

So I went down to the local surplus store in College Station TX to see what they had. They had a 30 gallon barrel full of MK2s and another full of MK1s for $10 each. I picked out a nice MK2 (had to get the 7" blade over the 5", right???). Then I saw this weird looking bayonet. The guy wanted $10 for it, as well. I asked him if he'd take $15 for the pair. He agreed. It took me a while to find out what I had was an 1869 Yataghan bladed Chassepot sword bayonet. I decided later that I wanted a MK1 as well. I went back and got one, talked the guy down to $8 for that one.

Between the end of the second summer session and the start of the fall semester, I took my first "vacation" - a week long SCUBA diving trip to the Cayman Islands.  On a shore dive, in about 30 feet of water, I found a P.I.C. brand dive knife that was partially corroded.

I still have everyone of those knives.

After graduation and commissioning into the US Navy, since I didn't go out partying and drinking a lot, I would spend my free time (and money) by going to pawn shops, garage sales and estate sales where ever the Navy sent me, always looking for swords, bayonets, sabers and military knives.

It wasn't long before the word got out that "Ensign Z is crazy - he buys knives and swords."  I put a bounty out with my enlisted guys to get them to spend less time getting drunk and more time scrounging for me. 

"Bring me a GOOD CONDITION bayo/sword/saber/military knife and the receipt - I'll pay you a finder's fee of $10".  

In the era of $2 minimum wages and low EM pay, they pounced on that deal. Plus, being "broke enlisteds" they could dicker down to better prices than I could.

During my active duty service, I slowly built up a large fixed blade collection - mainly bayonets, military fixed blades and big Bowie knives.

After I got off active duty, my collecting went into hibernation while I went back to school for a Computer Sciences degree and worked 4 PT jobs so I didn't have to take out any student loans.

Since graduating the second time and working "real" jobs, I have gradually spread out my collecting to include dive knives, Western, Kabar, Muela and a few other brands of fixed blades, with an occasional folder thrown into the mix

This coming July, it will have been 42 years since I started collecting military knives, bayonets, swords and then non-military knives. 

Some years, I have bought as few as 20 knives (thank you 9+ month deployments overseas).  A couple of years, I averaged well over a knife a day, primarily by buying lots of 20 or 30 knives at a time to get 1 or 2 that I really wanted.  I found it was cheaper to dicker at a garage sale or estate sale for "the whole box" rather than pick up 1 or 2 out of the box and say "How much for just this one?"  Red flag to the seller!!!!

I've bought way more than I have sold or given away, and I've given away more than I have sold.  I have been called "knife nut", "knife crazy", "weird", "the bayonet guy", "the knife man", a "steel dragon" (courtesy of my niece as she says I hoard steel the way a dragon hoards gold.) and probably a few other names behind my back.

The only comment I ever get is from my mother when she opens a cabinet or drawer in my house and finds more knives.  She asks (sarcastically)  "Do you have knives in EVERY cabinet?"

One thing I seldom get asked by anyone who knows me longer than a week is "Do you have a knife?"

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