lost pocket knives

[dirtlooter]

I have quite a few knives too, I have made quite a few also and have given a lot away as gifts. After my series of strokes left me unable to talk to do much of anything back around 2004, I struggled to do anything. I had previously found about 10 circular blades around 10 to 11 inches used by a chicken processing plant and decided to made a knife out of one. I used grinders to cut out the shapes or styles from them and then ground them out from there. Didn't have a forge or anything like that so I made do with how I was doing it. I had a lot of antler and other material and so I made probably 30 knives from that. it was therapeutic and helped me a lot. How ever, I love to watch Forged in Fire and always wonder what if. I am not physically able to hammer very hard anymore so am not pursuing it. I have recently inherited most of the forge (hand crank blower etc and huge vice) that belonged to a relative that smithed for both sides in the CW. Story goes that after one side would head out, the other made their way there to get work done.

 

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[Davers]

it can be hard to buy a knife for a man, there are so many kinds of them and they are or can be very personal. My grandfather always said that you could tell a lot about a man by his knife...the condition of it. well used or hard used to hardly used. the style also could reflect what he did a lot of. A broken knife or a very rusty one spoke of miss use or abuse. I have always been slow to loan my knife out, broke that rule once when I loaned it to a guy in the woods that had just killed a deer. He worked at the same place I worked at so I knew that I would get it back. A month later, I was shocked to see my carbon steel knife and had never been washed or cleaned and was a rusty mess with dried flesh and hair stuck to it. I give my wife pretty cheap ones, she tends to lose them

IMO
Y'r Granddad was a wise Man, his 'Quote' rings so true in my older age.
We need more Men like Him , I think they are runnin low in this Great Country.

As for yr "Friend" Hope that was Deer remains on the Knife. lol

 

[Davers]

I like my Kershaw knives. Recently I was helping my neighbor with his truck and he asked if I had a knife on me. I said of course, and whipped it open and handed it to him. He then proceeded to cut through a bad 02 sensor wiring harness - I didn't say anything but my eyes had to be about the size of saucers. No major damage done, it sharpened back up fine but I'll have to think twice about letting anyone borrow my knife again.

That's Why I like a Serrated Edge on part of my Knife .'JIC'.

I carry a SOG Flash 2 , I have used it for 5+ years now , Kinda big for a pocket knife, A good Knife but the pocket clip design Sux , I have to carry it ' inside out ' on my belt. Got used to it that way tho.

 

[Tnmountains]

I was always taught the rule if a knife was handed to you open you handed it back open if closed then hand it back closed. Might have been a local thing. I came up with a few "Western knifes" drop tangs from the sixties. They really take an edge and are good at skinning.
Here is a knife I made off a buck I took. I tried to scrimshaw the pedicle the blade was damascus. The steel was given to me and its not that great. Hopefully I will be making better ones before long as gifts.

 

[AlienLifeForm]

I was always taught the rule if a knife was handed to you open you handed it back open if closed then hand it back closed. Might have been a local thing. I came up with a few "Western knifes" drop tangs from the sixties. They really take an edge and are good at skinning.
Here is a knife I made off a buck I took. I tried to scrimshaw the pedicle the blade was damascus. The steel was given to me and its not that great. Hopefully I will be making better ones before long as gifts.
View attachment 1463564

That is the way I was taught too - basically to return the knife as it was given, it was bad luck to close a knife if you aren't the one that opened it and vice versa.

 

[dirtlooter]

I was taught the same thing about handing a knife back. Pretty awesome day as my wife found her first lost knife, pretty toasted of course but looked to be a pretty good one back then

 

[digger27]

Pocket knives are one of the more odd things I love to find for some reason and I have found many.
Those, along with watch parts and lighters, are always welcome any time I dig them up no matter what kind of shape they are in or condition.

Here are 5 knives I found at just one site, an old yard near a knocked down house that was part of an old farm the went back to probably the late 1800's.

I felt like an archeologist after I lined them up, you can just sense the different ages and eras they were lost in looking at the condition of each one.

 

[Stretch Da Truth]

Nice thread and story DL!
I have not found a lost knife while out detecting but hope to some day.
I have been collecting knives all my life. Prob have over 50 in my collection.
They have to be special to be in the collection... not any old run of the mill knife makes it in.

I made 3 knives years ago... went through the whole forging process. Really neat stuff! They do not have handles on them as we never got that far. Guy I was working with decided to move out of state. I should finish them up some day. It was similar to Forged in Fire... awesome show BTW!

Bought my first Buck back in the 80's and used that knife for many years! It was always on my belt when I was doing construction. Could slice up pepperoni paper thin at break and be ready to cut any and everything all day long! I still have it and use it anytime I need a knife and have a belt on.

Will try to get up a pic of some of my fav's! If DL doesn't mind, it would be cool if any poster puts up a pic of a couple of fav's to share.

 

[dirtlooter]

Pocket knives are one of the more odd things I love to find for some reason and I have found many.
Those, along with watch parts and lighters, are always welcome any time I dig them up no matter what kind of shape they are in or condition.

Here are 5 knives I found at just one site, an old yard near a knocked down house that was part of an old farm the went back to probably the late 1800's.

I felt like an archeologist after I lined them up, you can just sense the different ages and eras they were lost in looking at the condition of each one.

awesome, what I love is the opened blade, someone was using it when they set it down, dropped it or just forgot it. a cousin of mine seemed to lose every knife he had, heck he lost everything period so he bought the cheapest knife to carry...still has it

 

[dsdigger]

I have yet to find a knife but I see that several find them and most have a story behind them if you could only find out what it was. I carry mostly Kershaw and have for so long. Very dependable and I had a knife that I found in a box that my Dad got at auction and the spring-assist had failed. Got the number off the knife, emailed KAI and they ended up sending me a replacement at no charge along with the replacement instructions. Always carry one if not two when no gun on me. Also have several Buck knives and a few very old Gerber knives. Most are stainless but there are some Carbon steel and I do know to keep lightly oiled and not in leather or cardboard liner as those attract and hold moisture and can discolor or rust the blade. In fact as i write this, have a Kershaw in a front pocket and a Buck in a back pocket.

 

[dirtlooter]

I used to carry a spare knife with me, the loaner that if not returned or destroyed was no great loss. I have had several return minus the tip or more, I usually grind and reshape those. I guess this article has prompted my memory to even more knives lost over the years, several my young son at the time donated to the woods and water. Now at 32, he finally keeps up with knives and tools. I have a few knives that are just too nice to use and I keep them put up or they were given to me by someone dear. I have found very good Kbars, Bucks and a few Old Timers on the road where someone probably forgot and left them on the rear bumper or tool box. I even found a very nice military issue survival type with sheath ect. on a four wheeler trail, it was a fresh drop and probably sorely missed.

 

[Tnmountains]

Here a few dug.Most I find are toasted and end up in tupperware and stored. I found the paratrooper knife in Chickamauga creek. The white handled one on a CW site off Missionary ridge in Chattanooga. The case xx in Graysville,Ga. It has a 50/50 chance of being restored someday. It is rusted open.


Here are a few different ones that were passed down.

 

[RGINN]

Cool to see the pocket knives found and I know the owner regretted losing them. When I was growing up I was not allowed to have a pocket knife until I was 11. No problem taking them to school either. These days, they don't let you carry them into concerts or amusement parks up here. Another custom surrounding knives in my family, you could not 'give away' a knife to someone, as a gift or present. They had to give you something in exchange, generally a nickel would work. My uncle told me you give away your knife, you give away your luck, and that did make sense to me.

 

[AlienLifeForm]

I used to carry a spare knife with me, the loaner that if not returned or destroyed was no great loss. I have had several return minus the tip or more, I usually grind and reshape those. I guess this article has prompted my memory to even more knives lost over the years, several my young son at the time donated to the woods and water. Now at 32, he finally keeps up with knives and tools. I have a few knives that are just too nice to use and I keep them put up or they were given to me by someone dear. I have found very good Kbars, Bucks and a few Old Timers on the road where someone probably forgot and left them on the rear bumper or tool box. I even found a very nice military issue survival type with sheath ect. on a four wheeler trail, it was a fresh drop and probably sorely missed.

You just reminded me of a Gerber I had years back, the last place I can recall seeing it was under the hood, sitting on the radiator support.

 

[gunsil]

Remington began making pocket knives in 1920, and they ramped up to producing over ten thousand of them every day. In the late 1920s they did a study which they determined that the half life of an average pocket knife was two years. In other words, in two years time one half of all the pocket knives sold would be lost or broken beyond use. In two more years half of the first half would be lost or broken and so on. I have carried pocket knives since I was five and I know as a child I lost many of them. As a teenager I lost less of them and as I got older I still lost less, but I still occasionally lose one, usually overboard on a boat. I still figure I lost over thirty of them, maybe over forty of them, I am almost 70. I have found many many of the in my 45 plus years of detecting, and all were toasted and all have gone in the trash, I do not consider them worthy artifacts since they are so common. By the way, Remington stopped making knives in 1940 and all the modern ones marked Remington are not actually made by that company. Many were made by Camillus in the late 1980s up to their recent demise. There are also a myriad of fake Remington knives made overseas.

 

[dirtlooter]

Times have truly changed, when I went to school, at least here in Arkansas, all the boys carried pocket knives. I even received one as a gift from another student at Christmas at school. The high school boys would turkey hunt in the mornings as long as they could and then race to school. Somebody got one or a deer, it got taken care of, no body thought anything about it. We also had real cooks cooking real homemade meals for lunch. None of that today but they got their phones etc. I remember in the ninth grade having to get in front of the class and speak about something, anything so I choose how to sharpen a knife and I sharpened my pocket knife, no problem. my old folding single blade Buck has taken care of a lot of deer, it is like an old friend and the first thing I grab when going hunting. knives are just cool useful tools that can be a very personal thing, so many factors come into being as to how much a knife is appreciated. A lost knife is usually something missed and sometimes never fully replaced, especially a favorite one. For a lot of us, losing a knife is almost like losing a ring. It has been very good to hear so many speak so fondly of lost knives. Even a toasted knife is appreciated by a lot of us.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

With all this talk about sharpening knives, I had to post a photo of my father's sharpening stone. He was an expert at getting his blades razor sharp. I can sharpen an ax head with a file, but never got the hang of sharpening knife blades. A lost art in this day and age...

 

[Stretch Da Truth]

3 of my favorite knives that get the most use.



SpyderCo - Small, light, very sharp serrated knife. In my pocket just about everyday. Great for cutting just about anything.
Parker - First knife with flip clip. Really sharp and used anytime I have my belt on. Can slice and dice all day long.
BlackJack - Great hunting knife. Has double edge look and flip clip. Solid, sharp and excellent weight balance. Have sliced up a few critters with this bad boy.

So those are just a couple of other name knives I wanted to share.

 

[rcs]

Here are most of my sentimental keepers. I have several that I carry daily, but none of these. Every single one was given to me by my dad and I plan on them going to my future child like this. Built the case with my father in law a few months ago, he's pretty handy to have around.

 

[Stretch Da Truth]

Greats story and pic!
Awesome case with some sweet knives in it!
Pretty cool dad to give you all them knives.
Great legacy to pass on to your kid.