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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on January 28, 2017 at 10:56

I have told this story before but the newcomers probably haven't seen it.  It is one of my favorite knife stories and one of my favorite knives.

I was looking at the knives on Tracy Reed's web site when my eyes beheld a Case Whitetail trapper.  I am a Case collector and a deer hunter.  I wanted that knife.  I was salivating over it.  But I had bought four Case knives recently and was going to SMKW in two weeks.  So I decided I had better wait until the end of the month and my bank account was replenished.  That night in the chat room I mentioned the  knife and how much I wanted it.  A few days later when I went back to Tracy's website to drool over the knife it was gone!  Somebody had bought it.  Oh no, I want that knife!  Diligent searching brought no results.  There just wasn't another available.  Why had I waited?  About a week later when I got the mail, there was a box from Reed Cutlery.  What is this?  I didn't order anything from them.  When I opened the box there was my knife!  A note from Tracy stated that someone who wished to remain anonymous had bought it and had it sent to me.  It was a very generous and kind gesture from one of the many fine people we have on this site.  And again I give my heartfelt thanks to whoever did it.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on January 28, 2017 at 11:26

some great knife stories going on here

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Permalink Reply by Michael Squier on January 29, 2017 at 8:56

Charles, thats a great story, and you never found out who sent it? Well I hope something nice has happened to them. Just goes to show, knife people are nice people. Oh boy that sounds corny. 

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on January 29, 2017 at 15:18

Michael Squier said:

Charles, thats a great story, and you never found out who sent it? Well I hope something nice has happened to them. Just goes to show, knife people are nice people. Oh boy that sounds corny. 

Michael, to this day I don't know who sent it.  And yes, knife people are nice people.

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Permalink Reply by Michael E. Roper on January 30, 2017 at 5:09

I might be a bit late here on the last day, but this is my story and I'm sticking to it. You can usually trust your friends....usually. When I was a freshman in high school, a fellow named "Ronnie" sat in the desk across the aisle from me. One day "Ronnie" was throwing an Italian Stiletto switchblade and sticking it in the wooden floor of the classroom while the teacher, Sister Silvia, couldn't see him. (Going to digress here:) Sister Silvia once taught school in Louisville, Kentucky where she had a student named Cassius Clay....before he was Mohammed Ali.

Back to the knife: I was fascinated by the sleek black stiletto and bought it from "Ronnie" for $5.00 and slipped it in my pocket, saving the desk and floors in the process. Fast forward a few years and I showed the switchblade to a pretty good friend who liked knives as much as I did. (maybe a bit more). When the "friend:Tommy" left that day the switchblade left also but I didn't know it until much later. The next time I saw "Tommy" I commented on the knife and let him know that I hadn't seen it since I showed it to him that day. Of course he denied knowing anything about the knife's where-a-bouts. Foolishly, I believed him. I complained so much about losing or "misplacing" that knife that I must have made him feel guilty. I suppose that he eventually regretted taking it and wanted to return it but didn't know how without admitting to it's theft. Now I have to digress again: My parents were in no way wealthy but my mother was not in the best of health and my father hired a lady to help around the house...."Beatrice" was her name. Beatrice had been with us for nearly ten years and she was a totally trustworthy Christian lady. You can imagine my surprise when I found an envelope on the trunk of our car with the Italian Stiletto inside and a note: "Mr. Michael, I'm returning the knife I stole from you. I'm very sorry that I took it and my conscience won't let me keep it. I decided to leave it here on the trunk of the car so you wouldn't know who took it. Mr. Tommy had nothing to do with it....it was all my idea. Forgive me and please don't say anything to your folks. Beatrice."

So I found out that my "friend: Tommy" was not quite as clever as he thought he was. For one thing, Beatrice had known nothing about the switchblade since the only one I showed it to was Tommy. Plus, as I said, Beatrice was a faithful and honest employee. She was also smarter than to put a note with the knife on the rear of our car and sign her name to it.....and coincidentally on a day when Tommy had been to visit.  I never mentioned the incident to Beatrice because I knew that she had nothing to do with it. When I told Tommy that I'd found the knife, I didn't tell him where I found it. He did think it was sort of stupid for whoever took it to have left it on the back of a car with a note. Now....HOW did HE know THAT?    Needless to say, he was never out of our sight when he came to visit, and his visits soon ended. Good riddance!

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KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by Andy Larrison on January 30, 2017 at 11:32

One of my favorite knife stories revolves around my oldest son, mainly because it was he who got me into collecting knives to begin with.  Around the age of 13 (19 now) my son started showing interest in anything sharp and pointy and was going for all of the really cool/wild and crazy looking knives you could pick up at any flea market, garage sale or you name it shop.  Then he noticed Case knives and fell in love.  He quickly became in-tranced by the workmanship, history and beauty of the Case brand.  This lead me to be involved with it as well since as a minor he really wasn't even supposed to open a knife at a knife store without an adult with him.  Of course it didn't take me too awfully long to start admiring these knifes as well as he would a lot of times ask my opinion on which one to pick up or how did I think it looked. 

On one trip we had we were at a regular place we stopped while traveling which is in Richmond, Ky.  He had his eyes set on a Chestnut bone Tony Bose back pocket....and man it was sweet!  I helped him pick out what we thought was the sharpest looking one out of the lot they had (pun intended)  and he purchased it and away we went.  I would see this knife from time to time in his room and it was a frequent carrier for him in his adolescent adventures.  As time went on and dozens of more knives were purchased by him and then by me for me, I lost track of this knife.  Fast forward maybe 2 years, I'm a member of another collectors club also and I was surfing through some of the classifieds and came across this really nice looking knife that was reasonably priced so I went ahead and bought it.  The knife came in a few days later and I opened it up and cleaned it and was showing it to my son the next day and he says, "Dad, did you buy that off of so and so?"  I responded, "yes, why?"  He says, "That's that knife I bought in Richmond that time.  I carried for a while and traded it off to so and so.  Now you've got it!"

So, long winded, but that's one of the neatest stories I've got about a knife.  It's really cool how this back pocket found it's way back home and into my collection.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on January 30, 2017 at 11:35

Michael,

WOW!  I am glad all ended well but what a terrible way to lose a friend, or at least the perception of one

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Permalink Reply by Michael E. Roper on January 30, 2017 at 12:41

Jan,

Yes I finally had to sever all ties with him. Turns out he wasn't really very sharp.

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Permalink Reply by J.J. Smith III on January 30, 2017 at 19:34

The story here is that Dad ditched in the ocean while attempting a carrier landing and broke the pommel exiting the aircraft. Don't know if the broken pommel came from this or not but I do have the photos of the aircraft "ditching" off the carrier.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on January 30, 2017 at 21:47

And our winner is.......................

                     Michael Squier        

Thank you all for playing!  Michael, send me your address?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Scheuerman (Manx) on January 30, 2017 at 21:53

Congrats Michael!

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on January 30, 2017 at 22:30

Congratulations Michael!

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