New Member from central Texas

[zzyzzogeton]

Retired USN LCDR, 1110
Admiral in the Texas Navy
Refugee from the high tech corporate rat race
Collector/Accumulator/Packrat of sharp and/or pointy things since 1975
97% of my edged instruments are fixed blades
Volunteer Fireman/EMT-B since 1989


Hobbies include -
Gardening (Texas Master Gardener certified)
Fishing
Throwing Knives and Tomahawks
Wood/Metal/Acrylic working
Designing throwing knives
Starting to dabble with Aluminum/Brass/Bronze casting

Former hobbies -
SCUBA diving - made over 6000 logged dives before being diagnosed with a Patent Foramen Ovale (hole in my heart) which should have precluded SCUBA Certification - ooops -

Archery, Competitive - used to shoot 300 to 500 arrows a day until I damaged my shooting shoulder playing racket ball. That's when I took up knife and hawk throwing.

My main areas of knife knowledge are Western fixed blades, Kabar fixed blades, USMC 1219C2s/USN-MK2s/USN-MK1s and bayonets.

My first knife was a small, single blade peanut from my grandfather in 1961 given to me upon starting first grade with the words

"Now that you're starting school, you need your own knife. We can't have you borrowing everyone else's."

The same grandfather gifted me my first fixed blade, a Western L46-5, when I was 10 years old.

"If you're smart enough to come up with that question, you're old enough to have a fixed blade."

which is a tale for a later post.

 

[zzyzzogeton]

In my initial post, I referenced my grandfather giving me my first fixed blade based on a question I asked. Here's what happened...

Back in early August 1965, a couple of years before he was diagnosed with kidney cancer, my grandfather and I were working on a combine when his left shirt sleeve got caught in one of the drive chains. He "calmly" pulled out the Kabar fixed blade on his hip , cut off the sleeve and said "That's why you carry a fixed blade... you can never get a folding knife open fast enough." and in my 10 y.o. naivete, asked "What if it had been your other arm?"

What you need to know here is that he was a lot like I am now - short, balding, fat with short arms.

He just gave me a funny look, walked over to the tractor, turned it off and said "Let's go.".

We drove 3 miles to the Western Auto in town to get a 2nd knife. They were out of Kabars, so he bought the closest thing they had to what he liked to carry.... the Western L46-5 in the picture above, and started wearing both when working on equipment. A week or 3 later, W.A. got some new Kabars in and he got a new one that matched his old one. Until the day he got too sick to work, he always wore 2 blades when working on farm implements or machinery down at the grain elevator he ran in town.

After he bought the second Kabar, he gave me the Western and said something on the order of

"If you're smart enough to come up with that question, you're old enough to have a fixed blade. Don't ever work on moving stuff with out one".

That knife was my first fixed blade ever. I just had a few slip joint folders until then. That started my love of fixed blade knives in general and Kabar and Western knives, specifically. I added the 2nd keeper strap to the sheath because the original one (top) was a little slack and lets the knife slip up too easily.

The Kabars he carried were smaller than the L46-5, - stacked leather with about 4 inch, straight spined blades. The best my memory can dredge up is that they looked a lot like the 1232. I don't remember ever seeing model numbers on them, just the word Kabar. Don't even remember if they had USA, Japan or Cleveland on them. They were probably Brown-family era Kabars. I got 2 old 1232s off fleabay - one is marked 1232 Japan and the other, 1232 Cleveland, Ohio, so they are both post-1965 Cole National era Kabars. These 2 1232s represent the 2 he had. When he died, since I had the Western, my grandmother gave the 2 Kabars to a couple of cousins who promptly misplaced them somehow.

Here the three knives are, together.

The old barn that he had built just before WW2 is trying to fall down and I will eventually make a shadow box from some of it for them.

 

[BrandantR]

Welcome to the forum. I enjoyed reading your post and appreciated getting to know you through it, especially the story about your grandfather. There are a lot of nice folks on here and we all share a love of sharp, pointy objects. It's good to have you with us.

 

[bladegrinder]

Wow, great write up. I like hearing story's like those. my uncle gave me my first knife around 1966, he was a state trooper who fought on Iwo Jima in WWII. my father was a police officer for over 30 years, when he passed I inherited his badge and duty firearm.

 

[brazos2]

Enjoyed your write up, brought back memories of my grand father and my 1st.fixed blade, a case. istill have it and many more belonging to my family. I am one of these people who has kept everything I ever treasured. I have passed over thirty to my son and grand son who is 13. I also made him a sword and hawk. His like me, everything sharp or pointed is special to him. He forged and help make one knife, he can only come out every few months. I am new to knife making and knife dogs. I've only made 76 knives since I started 3 to 4 years ago but do not have the energy to much of anything but read about knives and making them.