Our lives are filled with a deluge of thoughts and image impressions. Our memories are, to put it in computer terms, like files on our hard drive. All day, every day, our internal video camera is recording everything our senses encounter. Just think of the shear amount of data our brains record on a daily basis and many studies conclude the brain retains this information for our lifetime.

And while it is interesting to ponder all that, I'm just an old knife guy who can't even seem to "call up" my kid's cell phone numbers (well heck, I do have four), so trying to remember what I got for my birthday when I was 10 years old is utterly fruitless.

BUT some things I can remember easily and as if they was just yesterday.

And the day I saw my first toenail is one of those instant recall memories. I'll never forget it. The knife was so different from any of the knives I had ever seen. It was unusual, peculiar and really cool- all at the same time. I had to find me one! In fact, I made the conscious decision right then to collect this pattern.

Long story short- I was "studying" Levine's Guide to Knives and Their Values 4th edition and when I flipped to the page and it was there those knives just reached up and grabbed me 'round my throat. Here's what I saw!


The C Platts Jumbo Swellcenter stood out to me the most. You gotta love that knife. I mean look at that master blade. It is huge. Bernard Levine says it's as big as a tea plate (whatever that is, but I'm sure it is big nonetheless).

I lusted over them for some time (before I turned the page) but was disappointed to see Levine say these knives were rare. I figured they were going to be hard to find and really doubted if I would actually own one. But I was going to try! Now the last 10 years of tracking toenails can all be traced back to this event and I clearly remember it like it was yesterday.





While not the point of the story, I will share with you yesterday was an exciting day for me. It marked my first single bladed Jumbo Swellcenter (C. Platts' Sons 1900- 1905). Yes, I've been tracking this particular variety for several years now and finally got me one. Pretty cool, isn't it?


Funny how a little thing like simply seeing a picture of knives can change the direction of our knife collecting. In some cases a spark like this even makes folks decide to start collecting knives. What about you when you first started collecting knives? Time goes by pretty fast in this hobby, but do you remember your first time?