Before you made your own knives..........

Squawsach

Squawsach

Well-Known Member
what knife did you carry? I have not been making knives near as long as many of the folks at Knife Dogs. I still remember the first fixed blade knife I carried when I started hunting dear. It was a little Buck. It didn't have much of a blade and didn't hold an edge as well as the knife I use today. It had a little rubber handle with a nylon sheath and cost $7.50 at Wal-Mart on clearance. I have never thought of making one like it. It is not my style of knife at all. It's rubber handle doesn't fit my hand well. The visual proportions are bad and it looks like a $7.50 knife. It is just an ugly little knife. After using the ugly, little knife on many dear and other critters, it is one of my favorite knives only due to the miles it logged with me. It is now retired but I always know where it's at.


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Looks like somebody put that knife in really cold water and the blade shrunk up like my............. well, you get the picture.
 
First decent knife I bought with my own money was a Buck 110, back in '86 or so. Still have it. First halfway decent kit knife was an unstamped, uncoated ka-bar blade I put a pakkawood handle on, about a year later, still have that too.

Cool thread, I bet we'll see a lot of folks saying Buck of one kind or another.
 
Buck Pathfinder was the first knife I took into the woods hunting. A few years later I got a buck vanguard and carried that for over 15 years.
 
my very first knife was given to me by my dad. it was a old timer, and for me, I still see those as being a very good first knife. Now all i carry are knives from custom makers.
 
I think mine was a chinese swiss army knife knockoff. My elementary school principal took it away from me, I got it back at the end of that year. Then the main blade (which was about as sharp as a worn butter knife) snapped off, the scissors broke, and the corkscrew bent. I still have it. After that it was the venerable Buck 110. I've had it for a quite some time. Then came my first fixed blade, a Cold steel Master Hunter in Carbon V steel. Then I got seriously into buying knives...and lets not talk about the number of cheapo balisongs I have thrown away when they flew apart mid flip.
 
MoreBeef said:
Then came my first fixed blade, a Cold steel Master Hunter in Carbon V steel.
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EXCELLENT factory knife! I was lucky to get one shortly before Camillus (who actually made them, Cold Steel just marketed/sold them) went belly-up, as well as a TrailMaster made from the same steel, also by Camillus. Both are very well-worn and have served me well on many a camping trip. NO, they're not for sale!! :D But if you find one for a fair price and like the design, snap it up, you won't regret it.
 
james terrio said:
EXCELLENT factory knife! I was lucky to get one shortly before Camillus (who actually made them, Cold Steel just marketed/sold them) went belly-up, as well as a TrailMaster made from the same steel, also by Camillus. Both are very well-worn and have served me well on many a camping trip. NO, they're not for sale!! :D But if you find one for a fair price and like the design, snap it up, you won't regret it.
Click to expand...


Agreed. Carbon V was one of the best steels Cold Steel has ever put out, it would pit and stain if you looked at it wrong but it was sharp as all get out and stayed that way. One of the reasons I want an Arc Angel so bad is they were Carbon V...and made by Camillus as well.
 
I'm one of those weird guys who doesn't mind staining and even minor pitting on a knife. On one camping trip, I purposely didn't clean my TrailMaster other than brushing off the big chunks of wood etc, and kept in its leather sheath during very humid weather. Just to see what would happen. Blasphemy!!

I even left it in the sheath that way for a few days after we got home. Horrors! Much weeping and gnashing of teeth!

Guess what happened to it? Not much! Developed a little patina, I think that adds character. The few actual orange rust spots cleaned up easily with 0000 steel wool. A normal touch-up sharpening took the slight corrosion off the edge.
 
This hunting knife has been passed down from my Grandfather, to my Father, and finally to me. It will eventually go to my oldest daughter. It is approximately 70 years old. It was the first "straight blade" I ever carried. I decided it needed a better sheath, so I beaded this one for it. Click the "Link" to see the photo.

www.knifedogs.com/album.php?albumid=113&pictureid=1108
 
Scout Knife ( think it was an Ulster)
Then onto a Buck Crosslock
Then Sebenza, then Emersons , then Striders .

While I do carry one of my own daily , I still carry knives made by friends.
 
I had a Kabar USMC knife when I was a kid that went everywhere I did. My parents sold it at a garage sale after I moved out to go to school. They deny this to this day, but I believe thats what happened.
 
My great grandfather from norway gave me a solingen tree brand stockman when I was 8years old, I still have it in excellent condition.
 
I got a Uncle Henry Golden Spike from my brother a long time ago, That's what I have always carried while Deer Hunting, I am going to be replacing the handle with some Curly Birch that i got from Shaughnessy(thanks again).

I have always carried either a Old Timer Or a Buck Slip joint. I have since replaced the pocket knife with The one I received from Ken Erickson while at his place learning how to build slip joints(Thanks Again Ken).
 
I carried a Case pen knife (dad gave it to me when I was 10). Then I got a Buck stockman when I was 13. I also carried a few Kershaws, Gerbers and a Mora fixed blade. these were all mid-late 60's -early 70's vintage. Still have them all.

Ric
 
I carried the old XX knives,the older the better, I had an old Case XX Jack knife I used for almost everything. I still carry factory knives, and handmade knives.And of course my own knives and axes.I like all knives regardless. But prefer handmade.
D.B
 
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