Throwback to my misspent youth Part II

[Grant Lamontagne]

A while ago I posted photos of a truly awful knife that I bought when I was young and didn't know any better.  Now, I am posting a slightly better knife that I had bought long before that, when I was still a teenager and knew even less.



I don't recall when I bought this Premier Boot Knife, and big surprise, Google doesn't seem to know anything about it either.  It is just one of many knives from the 80's that came out of Taiwan.  I'm pretty certain I bought this after my Rambo Survival Knife period, but before I started buying real knives.  I remember thinking that it must be good quality, it has a wood handle.   



A top quality wood handle couldn't protect it from the rigors of very bad knife throwing, and eventually it split.  I tried to fix it with Squadron Green filler putty that I used on my model kits, but as you can see, it wasn't that successful.



Still, I carried this knife and used it a lot.  It didn't really take much of an edge, and being a dagger it was a bit more difficult to sharpen, but I learned.  If nothing else this knife taught me a lot.



Some of you may be wondering what this interesting cutout at the base of the blade is for.  I'll admit, I wondered for a long time too, well after I bought it.  Longer than I care to admit after buying it I realized that if you pulled on the lanyard (there used to be a lanyard in the ring, but it apparently hadn't withstood the test of time like the rest of the knife), out pops a smaller knife.



I can't tell you how awesome it was for me to find out that this cutout wasn't just a fancy design, it was a second knife!



I said earlier that it was hard to get a decent edge on this knife, and that is true, but that didn't stop me from working at it until I got it.  There's actually a funny story about this knife that I tell people occasionally, and now, for the first time in print, here it is.



One of the reasons I liked this knife was the sheath- it has a nice clip on it and the sheath is kind of loose fitting but with a nice retention strap with a snap on it.  This makes the knife very easy to access and replace.



Because of this I used to carry it on my paper route- newspapers at the time came in bundles of about 15 (give or take, depending on how much news was rammed into them that day!) and I usually had several bundles as I'd built my paper route up quite a bit.  I had pretty much perfected grabbing the knife in my right hand, pulling up the nylon strap that held the bundle together and with one swift motion, cut the strap and replace the knife- all without looking.

This was in the days before newspapers had color photos- only the name of the paper was in color, and for the Mail Star that I delivered, the logo was red.  One cold winter day I was walking along, delivering my papers when I needed to open a new bundle, so with practiced ease I swiped it open and kept on my way.  I noticed a few drops of ink must have run on some of these newspapers as there were little red splotches here and there.  Not paying any attention I kept going, then I pulled out a newspaper with a potato peeling on it.  That seemed odd, as I kept my newspaper bag in the basement, far away from the kitchen where someone would have been peeling potatoes.

As I walked along, more and more of these red splotches appeared, and I had even seemed to get some on my hand.  While I'm sure you have guessed by now, that wasn't a potato peel- I had actually peeled the skin off the back of my thumb when I was holding the strap, and my fingers were so cold I didn't notice.  The red splotches weren't ink, and I was looking at a hole slightly bigger than a dime in the back of my hand, and the bone inside.

Needless to say I finished my route as quickly as possible, ran home and bandaged it up and never told my parents about this!   

Of course, as it warmed up it became quite uncomfortable!  That was one of my worts knife accidents, but surprisingly there is no scar for that one!

Def

[Pignut71]

Nice story Def.

Regards, Jon.


Sent using my chubby fingers...

[Grant Lamontagne]

Thanks.   My father has a similar story involving the trigger ring on his shotgun.  It took quite a few hours for him to realize his finger was broken because his hands were so cold.

The joys of being Canadian!

Def

Sent from my smurfing hunk of techno sorcery

[AimlessWanderer]

I like the knife within a knife 

I think what this shows us (again) ... aside from "Def is a clumsy sod"  ... that even the cheapo knives that us lot tend to see as garbage, still can do a job. It might have been a PITA to get an edge on it, but it certainly held that edge well enough to take a chunk of flesh out. Serves you right for chucking it at trees  Sometimes and just for the hell of it I'll carry one of those "crap" knives I got back when I knew even less than I do now, and despite the cheapo feel and edge holding ability of a carrot, they still cut stuff.

[Grant Lamontagne]

They do a good job of removing my flesh, that's for sure.

And, as far as cheapo knives go, this one is actually not that bad.  I've often thought of either making new scales or perhaps having new scales made for it.  I think maybe I'd go with something a bit tougher this time, like micarta in case I get the urge to throw it again! 

Def

Sent from my smurfing hunk of techno sorcery

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Great story oh to be young and oh so cool again

My first sheath knife was a cheap Golok when I was about 14/15, how I never amputated something while twirling it around like a ninja I'll never know!

Sent from the astropathic choir.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I had a big survival knife that I wonder the same thing about!

Def

Sent from my smurfing hunk of techno sorcery

[magentus]

Thanks for sharing that story Def - I'm sure we all had some kind of dumb luck which saved us from killing ourselves before we reached adulthood.

I still have a scar on my knee from shrapnel from a blast cap I decided to hit with a hammer 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I did something similar last month, only it was a big rock and FOUR blasting caps.

That was a much bigger boom than I was expecting!

Def

Sent from my smurfing hunk of techno sorcery

[magentus]

I did something similar last month, only it was a big rock and FOUR blasting caps.

That was a much bigger boom than I was expecting!

Def

Sent from my smurfing hunk of techno sorcery

For those about to do something 'to see what happens' we salute you 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yeah, I was kind of annoyed because we'd just shut the Gopro off a few minutes earlier.

Def

Sent from my smurfing hunk of techno sorcery

[cool123]

A while ago I posted photos of a truly awful knife that I bought when I was young and didn't know any better.  Now, I am posting a slightly better knife that I had bought long before that, when I was still a teenager and knew even less.

(Image removed from quote.)

I don't recall when I bought this Premier Boot Knife, and big surprise, Google doesn't seem to know anything about it either.  It is just one of many knives from the 80's that came out of Taiwan.  I'm pretty certain I bought this after my Rambo Survival Knife period, but before I started buying real knives.  I remember thinking that it must be good quality, it has a wood handle.   

(Image removed from quote.)

A top quality wood handle couldn't protect it from the rigors of very bad knife throwing, and eventually it split.  I tried to fix it with Squadron Green filler putty that I used on my model kits, but as you can see, it wasn't that successful.

(Image removed from quote.)

Still, I carried this knife and used it a lot.  It didn't really take much of an edge, and being a dagger it was a bit more difficult to sharpen, but I learned.  If nothing else this knife taught me a lot.

(Image removed from quote.)

Some of you may be wondering what this interesting cutout at the base of the blade is for.  I'll admit, I wondered for a long time too, well after I bought it.  Longer than I care to admit after buying it I realized that if you pulled on the lanyard (there used to be a lanyard in the ring, but it apparently hadn't withstood the test of time like the rest of the knife), out pops a smaller knife.

(Image removed from quote.)

I can't tell you how awesome it was for me to find out that this cutout wasn't just a fancy design, it was a second knife!

(Image removed from quote.)

I said earlier that it was hard to get a decent edge on this knife, and that is true, but that didn't stop me from working at it until I got it.  There's actually a funny story about this knife that I tell people occasionally, and now, for the first time in print, here it is.

(Image removed from quote.)

One of the reasons I liked this knife was the sheath- it has a nice clip on it and the sheath is kind of loose fitting but with a nice retention strap with a snap on it.  This makes the knife very easy to access and replace.

(Image removed from quote.)

Because of this I used to carry it on my paper route- newspapers at the time came in bundles of about 15 (give or take, depending on how much news was rammed into them that day!) and I usually had several bundles as I'd built my paper route up quite a bit.  I had pretty much perfected grabbing the knife in my right hand, pulling up the nylon strap that held the bundle together and with one swift motion, cut the strap and replace the knife- all without looking.

This was in the days before newspapers had color photos- only the name of the paper was in color, and for the Mail Star that I delivered, the logo was red.  One cold winter day I was walking along, delivering my papers when I needed to open a new bundle, so with practiced ease I swiped it open and kept on my way.  I noticed a few drops of ink must have run on some of these newspapers as there were little red splotches here and there.  Not paying any attention I kept going, then I pulled out a newspaper with a potato peeling on it.  That seemed odd, as I kept my newspaper bag in the basement, far away from the kitchen where someone would have been peeling potatoes.

As I walked along, more and more of these red splotches appeared, and I had even seemed to get some on my hand.  While I'm sure you have guessed by now, that wasn't a potato peel- I had actually peeled the skin off the back of my thumb when I was holding the strap, and my fingers were so cold I didn't notice.  The red splotches weren't ink, and I was looking at a hole slightly bigger than a dime in the back of my hand, and the bone inside.

Needless to say I finished my route as quickly as possible, ran home and bandaged it up and never told my parents about this!   

Of course, as it warmed up it became quite uncomfortable!  That was one of my worts knife accidents, but surprisingly there is no scar for that one!

Def

These seems to be really good as hunting knives.
Can these knives be used for everyday  carry to outdoors and other survival trips like hunting, trekking, camping or so.

[Ashley]

Talking about thinking you are cool and knowing no better brings up a story. So gather round kids for a short story. This past weekend at a local gun show a guy had a cadet with metal handles and wanted $90. I explained it was called alox and this price was steep. Well I walked away saying too myself can't teach some people and he probably thought stupid female. Lol He told me it wasn't alox it was metal and $90 was cheap. Ok then sir. Later.