Thank you everyone for making this Noob feel so welcome.

I am just an amatuer who loves knives.  When I was a kid I collected knives.  I loved their beauty and their usefulness.  As I got older I spent my time with other things but now I am getting back into collecting.  I am focusing on switchblades.  I really like their sleek craftsmanship and their kind of hidden deadliness.  At the same time I love old pocketknives and their utilitarian usefulness as well a the beauty of a sweet fixed blade knife. But my collection will focus on switchblades.

I bought a book over the weekend and will start educating myself with the help of Mark Erickson's  Antique American Switchblades book.  When I was looking at his site I found a knife that caught my eye and bought a fairly inexpensive Colonial NOS Bowtie.  That will be my new start for the collection.

Then I bought two cheap vintage Italian blades and bid on some pocketknives on eBay but didn't win the auctions.  Probably for the best because I feel overwhelmed by my lack of knowledge.

But I will learn and I can see that joining iKC will help me!

This is a pic of my Grandpa's pocketknife.  He was a box maker (among other thing).  Can you believe we had a job called "boxmaker"?  And he was a good one.  But I remember him sitting and cutting his apple with the knife.  And working in the garage, cutting string, opening cardboard boxes and things like that.  He always had a knife in his pocket.  And he gave me my first Scout.

This is an Imperial Scout, with Providence, R.I. below the company name.

Noob,