To judge by conversations with friends and acquaintances over the years, my family isn't the only one to treat the gifting of a knife as a rite of passage. It's an acknowledgment that the recipient has passed a milestone, having become sufficiently familiar with spatial relationships and mortality to avoid severing anything too terribly important from themselves or others. It's also the entrusting of a reliable tool, perhaps the most useful one that humans have invented and can own.
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-WiscoDave
Should always have a sharp pointy thingy with you
ReplyDeleteIts usually between 10 and 12 I gift a significant knife to one of the kids. Before that they get a cheap lock blade in case they loose it.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest recieved the survival knife i bought at 12 for i think 7 or 8 bucks. Evidently they are a collector item now worth a few hundred. She wears it camping.
My 2nd oldest preferred a lock knife over the fixed blade the oldest prefers, so she got the one I bought myself at CJ86.
The third got the lock knife my grandfather gave me as a kid.
The 4th.... well his time hasn't come yet.
Exile1981
I always have at least two knives on me. One a Swiss Army knife that does everything from cutting twine and opening envelopes to cutting sandwiches (without cleaning in between), and everything else you can imagine. And I mean everything! Two, some sort of lock blade folder that is NEVER used and is held in reserve for when I need a really sharp blade for emergencies. Lately I've been sporadically carrying a fixed blade utility knife. And when I was in Afghanistan I never had less than 4 blades on me, often several more.
ReplyDeleteInherited my dads pocket knife. He told me everyone should carry one. Lost track of how many times it has come in handy. Thanks dad.
ReplyDeleteWife: Do you have your knife with you?
ReplyDeleteMe: I've got my pants on don't I?
Wife: Let me use your pocket knife.
DeleteMe: Which one?
waiting on my grandson to come of age. in my family, that age was 6, depending on the child. I guess I was one of the lucky ones, or at least my grandfather thought so. still have that case canoe. still carry at least two pointy things on me everyday
ReplyDeleteSeems to me I was in about the third grade the first time I heard a teacher say, "If I see it, it's mine." Chattanooga public schools circa 1953. She said the same thing about marbles. See G.Gordon Liddy, "When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country".
ReplyDeleteThese days, it is more like 'If I even think you have a knife at home, you (the student) are getting arrested and/or sent to mandatory psychological counselling. Oh yeah, and the entire school is going on lockdown until we catch any accomplices...'
DeleteIt is a sad world we live in. But don't worry, I'm sure that the whole feminism thing is having absolutely no ill effects, and will work out just fine in the long run...
RL
Like most of you, I always carry a knife of some sort. Generally I prefer a fixed blade but these are not often practical. I do insist that a knife be at least attractive, if not beautiful. These days my EDC is a Boker pocket knife with stag horn scales. When I was 10 or so my grandfather gave me a little Marble knife, maybe a Campcraft. It had some rough use but still looks pretty good. My son has it now. I still keep a pretty good selection of modern and vintage cutlery including a Jap bayonet my father picked up on Okinawa. For amusement I keep a few low end knives to go through airport screening. Gives the Homeland Security folks something to do and makes them feel "impotent."
ReplyDeleteMy two boys have a fine collection of American made knives that I've have been getting them for Xmas the past ten years
ReplyDeleteThis year I'm leaning towards the Camillus kabar
My grandpa - yeah, that old - taught me when I was 7; "this is a pocket knife. Now, why do you think it's called that?" Dad also taught me that "the only time you'll really need it, is when you don't have it. So..."
ReplyDeleteI always have a blade(s) on me. How many is nunya business.
Cub Scouts, 3rd grade....earned my 'Totin' Chip', pretty much have carried at least one everyday since. And until after H.S. (1970) it was either my Cub Scout knife, or my Boy Scout knife, Then it was a Buck Stockman that I carried along with a belt pouch Swiss Army knife until I met and could afford a Leatherman. Multitools are pretty handy, but I really only carry mine for the pliers so I carry a combo (Swiss, Buck, Clip folder) depending on the envisioned tasks of the day. But, my most prized knife is the Marble fixed blade my Dad carried into combat in the Philippines. Leavergun (Levergun Leatherworks, Athol, ID) made a custom sheath for it when the original finally gave out. Sharpest knife in the draw....
ReplyDelete