The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel
I would like to start a discussion of the story behind the knife. What I envision is not so much what makes the knife itself special such as by a custom builder or very expensive or rare. It might be a cheap, nothing special knife, but something makes the knife special to you or brings back memories to you. Maybe how or why you got it or from a special person to you.
As an example of what I'm looking for I will start with this little knife. It is worth little if anything but brings back good memories of a family vacation. We had rented a cabin in the mountains of Colorado. There was a lake near the cabin and we were going to go fishing. We went to a little hole in the wall store in a nearby small town to buy temporary fishing licenses. They had a box of knives on the counter. They were all cheap knives mostly in the $2 to $8 range. I rumaged through it to see if anything interested me. Nothing caught my eye until I pulled this little knife out of the bottom of the box. It didn't have a price marked like the others did. I held it up and asked the clerk how much it was. She said, "Free." I said, "Sold" and stuck it in my pocket.
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Well this knife is the first knife I ever carried on a regular basis. After this I have always carried a knife. My father gave me this knife. My father was Superintendent of the press room of the Washington Post Newspaper in Washington D.C. Salesmen of newsprint paper and such would talk to my father and give him advertising "stuff" with their company name on it. Knives were a very common item to be given to my father. Tingue, Brown & Co. was one of those companies - The knife is made by Victorinox.
I used to carry this knife everyday when I was a Xerox Corp. technician working on Capital Hill in Washington D.C. It helped me out on the job MANY times! When I look at it, it reminds me of our time and experiences in the nooks and crannies of the Capital building, House of Representatives buildings, Library of Congress, and Supreme Court.
This knife was my very first knife buddy, given to me by my father. It will never be sold or given away.
Craig
That is exactly the type of story I was looking for.
This knife is a nice knife but what makes it special to me, even more than what it says, is that my son and daughter gave it to me as a CHRISTmas present several years ago. Like you Craig, this knife will not leave my possession until passed down to maybe my now 18 month old grandson.
This Schrade 51 OT from Jack Roseburrough my friend/mentor and Grandfather of my 2 younger daughters. He had this on his workbench in his garage since the early 80's. He gave it to me about a year before he passed away, he had asked if I could fix some of the damage he did to it over the years. After I did so, he told me he would like for me to have it. He said he would have kept it if I couldn't repair it and since I was able to bring it to nearly new condition, he was pleased to gift it to me.
I occasionally carry it on my belt during casual Fridays and during big Home improvement projects. He said it was a user and should be used, I am just not as hard on my tools as he was.
This will go to my youngest Rylee Nicole, as her grandmother passed away when she was 2, he was the one she remembers the best.
Good stories Charles and Brad! These knives are special way beyond what the "collector value" is!
This knife has a funny story behind it. We were on a family vacation at Yellowstone. I wanted a knife with a bear on it. I saw this knife in a gift shop and since it wasn't expensive, I bought it (without looking at it too closely.) That night in the motel, I examined it more closely. The joke was on me. It wasn't a bear, it was a wolf! Oh well, I now had a knife with a wolf on it, which wasn't bad. I later got a knife with bears on it. And the only thing better than one knife is two knives. It was a good object lesson, make sure when you buy a knife (or anything else for that matter) that you are getting what you want.
My wife says you are better off with the Wolf knife. LOL! She's 25% Mohegan Indian - "People of the Wolf"
She may be right. I am part Cherokee.
Charles,
Funny, between this and the discussion on Blue I thought about a knife I love and dont see often enough. It is in the safe, tucked in safely. I have a dear friend I have never met, someone I dont talk with often enough. He calls himself a hermit because he doesnt own a phone and didnt know too much about being on the internet either. He wanted to be able to share pictures but did not quite know how to get them from the camera to the site. I sent him some instructions and with a small series of emails we succeeded. I was able to then see his wonderful desert home and share some knife pics. I was shocked and surprised when a knife showed up to me from him!! This is one of the knives that will never leave my collection, thanks for getting me to walk down the lane with that memory again, it warms my heart
Jan
That is why I started this thread. I feel like most everybody who collects knives probably has one or more knives with a story behind them. Several of my knives have some kind of story attached to them, some more special than others. It is a pleasure to recall those memories. Also I enjoy reading about other people's special knives.
This little knife brings back a lot of memories to me. My grandmother got it at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. Do you remember Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies? They could have used my grandmother as a model for Granny. They had Irene Ryan made up to look a lot like my grandmother. Like Granny, my grandmother was very spry and active until near the end of her life. At ninety, she would still cook and clean and work in the garden. She was a small woman, probably weighed about a hundred pounds. She was a great cook, never measured anything. She planted garden by the "signs". When the signs said it was time to plant, thats when she planted. I remember one time she had me planting potatoes right after it rained. The garden was mud but it was time to plant potatoes. I don't know if the signs had anything to do with it, but her gardens always had a bumper crop.
I plan to pass this knife through my son to my grandson (now 18 months old). He will be the fifth generation of the Sample family to own this knife.
Well some folks have heard this story before so don't mean to bore you who have but thought I would post this for my friend Charles. Well here goes:
When I was about 10 I bought my first knife
it was a yellow Imperial Fish Knife
I bought it with my own money at a hardware store with my Dad
He had a knife and I wanted my own for when we went fishing
So I counted out my change and bought the knife
I carried the knife for years and eventually it made its way to the tackle box and I forgot about it
40 years later....
I was going through some old stuff and found the tackle box and inside my old knife
I was really excited.... kind of like seeing an old friend
So...
I put it in my jacket for safe keeping and figured I would do something with it....
I forgot about it again though
Now during this time we had cows and come winter I was putting out hay and things
I had no thought of the knife until one day I was working in the field in the spring and moving some things and I see something shiny on the ground
sure enough my Imperial Fish Knife again, one side missing the yellow
a cow had stepped on it and cracked off the scale but the knife was still good, so I cleaned it up and now sits in a good spot on my shelf.
Steve
I like to hear stories like that. (BTW, I am proud that you call me your friend.) I am sure lots of others on the forum have stories about knives that make them special. I hope they tell them. Your story about your fish knife is somewhat similar to my Case Mini Blackhorn. It was my normal every day carry knife. I lost it. I bought a Case Caliber to replace it. Two weeks later I was walking back to my truck after deer hunting. I saw a knife laying in the grass. It was my Blackhorn! I deer hunt on a friend's property about five miles from my house. The amazing thing is that that area had been bush hogged after I lost the knife. But it was not damaged. I started carrying it again and lost it again. About ten days later I was putting some of my clothes in the washer. In the back pocket of a pair of my old jeans I found it again. I have no idea why I stuck it there. And just a couple of days ago I went to the store for a couple of things. Coming out of the store I pulled my keys out of my pocket and the Blackhorn fell out on the pavement. Fortunately I heard it hit the pavement and picked it up. I don't know whether to put it up before I lose it permanently or to keep carrying it because I can't lose it!
A knife with two stories. A childhood knife that, in later years, was attacked by a cow! LOL!
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