My 3 Most Prized Knives

[VICMAN]

These are my 3 most prized knives of all the knives I own.

The top knife is the West-Cut, Boulder, Colo. knife my dad carried in World War II when he served in the US Army Timberwolf Division in Germany.

The Buck Pathfinder right below it was my dad's, and the bottom Buck Pathfinder is the one he bought for me.

It was 1967 and I was 16 years old. It was a Saturday and it was raining out. My dad asked if I wanted to go to the Phil's Gun Shop. Naturally I said yes.

When we got there he walked over to the Buck Knife Counter Display (see picture) and bought both Buck Pathfinders.

I could not believe that I finally had a Buck knife. I still remember the feeling every time I see these two knives.

I have included several pics so you can see the difference in the Pathfinder blades. Back then each knife was slightly different. They were not identical like the current ones,

Click on 71.27, 695.1, 713.23, and 674.88 for full pictures.

[SteveC]

Nice collection of Bucks and good story behind your prized knives !   

[VICMAN]

Nice collection of Bucks and good story behind your prized knives !   

Thanks Steve.

[Nix]

Great story, VICMAN.

[Mechanickal]

Nice!
I think my most praised knife hasn't arrived yet...
Will post pic(s) when I get it.

[VICMAN]

Nice!

Thanks Mechanickal.

[VICMAN]

Great story, VICMAN.

Thanks Nix.

[Mechanickal]

Nice!

Thanks Mechanickal.

Well you thanked me for an understatement...

Your dad's war knife is the most awesome one of the bunch.
The story itself makes it invalueable.
However, the one gifted to you by him has it's own, more personal, story.
Whatever the case, all 3 are just as awesome as the story behind them.
Thank you for sharing.

[Poncho65]

Nice collection of Bucks and good story behind your prized knives !   

+1 What Steve said

[sak60]

Great story and knives, thanks for sharing them. 
 

[VICMAN]

Nice!

Thanks Mechanickal.

Well you thanked me for an understatement...

Your dad's war knife is the most awesome one of the bunch.
The story itself makes it invalueable.
However, the one gifted to you by him has it's own, more personal, story.
Whatever the case, all 3 are just as awesome as the story behind them.
Thank you for sharing.

   

[VICMAN]

+1 What Steve said

Thanks Poncho.

[VICMAN]

Great story and knives, thanks for sharing them. 
 

Thanks sak60.

[Ray S]

That to me is what collecting knives is all about; the stories behind them. For the past several years I have been attempting to assemble a book filled with stories of some of the knives I have acquired over the past sixty-odd years.With this forced recuperation on me I just might be able to finish it now.
For me it is very hard to select just three of mine as there are so many that have a story to go along with them but I will try:
First up is my grandfather's Kamp King.This was the knife that introduced me to just how sharp a knife can be and nearly removed a finger in the process when I was but 8 years old. It was kept in the top drawer of my grandmother's sewing machine cabinet next to my grandfather's rocking chair and was off limits to me. Naturally the first chance I got I removed it and attempted to open it.The blade snapped back and nearly severed my finger! That was probably the only reason I didn't get a good thrashing because he figured I had suffered enough.
When I was 10 I was allowed to get my own knife(with his permission of course)which I kept in the drawer of a small table in my room. It was still there when I left for the Navy in 1964 and in early 1965 my grandfather passed away. When I finally returned home a couple years later his house had been sold and all my belongings were MIA.
Fast forward to 1987 when my mother passed away and I am cleaning out her apartment and come across the table that still held my knife and in addition two of my grandfather's knives! Needless to say they will never be sold!
My second one is a homemade knife that my dad made when he was in the Navy and stationed in San Diego in the early 1920's.He gave it to me when we finally met for the first time(a LONG story!) in 1987. It is pretty crude but one of my prized possessions.
The last one was given to me by a good friend in exchange for me gifting him a Buck 110 I had repaired. I was never a fan of Buck 110's as a work knife as they are too handle heavy for my tastes. The knife was a Persian jambiya in it's original scabbard complete with a companion dagger that was found to be made around the mid 1600's. Damascus blade with gold etching and carved elephant ivory handles.Was offered a silly amount of money but turned it down as I don't believe in selling gifts.
Anyway that is a capsule history of my three most prized knives.Hope you enjoy them.

[Aloha]

   some nice knives but great stories shared. 

[David]

Vicman those are three treasures! Thank you for sharing them with us.   

[VICMAN]

That to me is what collecting knives is all about; the stories behind them. For the past several years I have been attempting to assemble a book filled with stories of some of the knives I have acquired over the past sixty-odd years.With this forced recuperation on me I just might be able to finish it now.
For me it is very hard to select just three of mine as there are so many that have a story to go along with them but I will try:

Thanks for sharing Ray. That had to be really cool when you were reunited with your knife and 2 of your grandfather's knives after so many years....the feeling of finding something that you thought was gone forever is almost beyond description.

[VICMAN]

Vicman those are three treasures! Thank you for sharing them with us.   

Thank you David

[Old Boy]

Best story ever.

[Barry Rowland]

Thanks for sharing your stories gents!   

[Blackbeard]

Nice knives and stories, I'm just a Joe Schmo with some modern stuff, nice that you guys have some history to your stuff which most of us never will 

[Ray S]

Nice knives and stories, I'm just a Joe Schmo with some modern stuff, nice that you guys have some history to your stuff which most of us never will 

I wouldn't be too sure of that. If you stay with it when you reach my age(I just turned 74)I'm sure you will have many memories of a lot of things and not just knives.

[VICMAN]

As a side note to those of you who are quite a bit younger than I am, in the 1960's when my dad bought the Buck Pathfinder for me the main US knife manufacturers were Buck, Case, Schrade Walden Cutlery Corporation (a division of the Imperial Knife Associated Companies), Kabar, Camillus, and Western. There was no such thing as Cold Steel, Spyderco, Benchmade, Strider,Chris Reeve Knives, CRKT, etc.

In the early 1960's when Buck introduced the 110 Folding Hunter most knives sold from about $2.00 to about $6.00, (in 1963 Federal minimum wage was $1.25 an hour), so when Buck introduced knives starting at $16.00 many people said no one would buy them, but they used 440C stainless hardened to a Rockwell hardness of 58 to 60 RC which no one else was offering and they offered a lifetime warranty.

The Folding Hunter was originally designed as a knife that was solid like a fixed blade, but would give the horseman and hunter a knife he could carry safely when riding on horseback or in a vehicle. There is some danger with a fixed blade, if you fall on it regardless of the sheath design.

Buck envisioned it as a knife that would mainly be used by hunters just during hunting season each year, but the public saw the utility of it for edc use and it caught on rapidly and soon it was common to see a Buck 110 on the belt of the average working man.

It became the best selling knife in the world and was the most copied at that time. In 1964, they shipped 255 of them. In 1965, they shipped 2,500, and in 1966, 10,000, and it just kept growing from there. In the first 13 years they sold over 2 1/4 million Buck 110's.

Buck's warranty and use of a higher grade steel raised the bar for the other companies, and they ended up improving their products as a result. Owning a Buck knife meant holding a piece of quality craftsmanship built to last.

While it was not the first lockback knife,the Buck Folding Hunter is the knife that blazed the trail for all the other lockbacks that followed it. It is the knife that made it popular to carry a lockback for edc.

And that is why I have a fondness for the Buck 110 Folding Hunter, and Buck knives in general.

[THE_LONGBOW]

VICMAN
Great stories and Bucks. 

[SteveC]

Here is one of my most prized knives and the story of how it came back to me. The Buck 112 is another.

Taken from the original thread here

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,71264.msg1446614.html#msg1446614


" I bought this knife back in the early 1980's out of the back of some magazine. Back when you had to send in a check, wait for the check to clear and then wait some more for the knife to be mailed to you. I carried this knife until my dad bought me a proper Buck 112 for my 13th or 14th birthday.

 It sat in a drawer for years until around 1999 when I moved home to Minnesota from Colorado. At the time my dad helped me venture out on my own being self employed as a Carpenter / Handyman. He would come and help me on jobs even although he was almost seventy. He needed a pocket knife so I gave him this one. Kind of a turning of tables since he had bought me my first few good knives. He loved this knife as it takes a great edge being good Japanese steel and rides well in the pocket. He carried it everyday until he passed away a few years later.

A few years went by and I decided to give it to my best friends son. I kind of forgot about it until recently when something reminded me of it. I was feeling kind of nostalgic for it a few weeks ago and casually mentioned to my friend how I had been thinking about it. I asked him if his son ever used it. He said that he didn't think so as he has a bunch of other knives now. I kind of left it at that.

Well I was over there today helping my friend out with his kitchen remodel and his son surprised me by handing me the knife saying that he would be happy for me to have it back. Well I have to say that I teared up a bit and thanked him for taking care of it for me. "


Here it is,  an old friend returned home









Compared to my Buck 112 that my dad gave me

[VICMAN]

Here is one of my most prized knives and the story of how it came back to me. The Buck 112 is another.

Thanks for sharing Steve. 
There is nothing like being reunited with something you thought was gone forever.
And it is in excellent condition.
Congratulations on getting the knife returned.

[SteveC]

  Vman, it's a great knife and I need to start carrying it more 

[SteveC]

So here are my other two most prized knives.

This knife was given to me for my 8th birthday. We are from Scotland originally and immigrated to the US in 1975. I remember taking a trip over to Glasgow from the Town of Hamilton where we lived to a small shop. My older Brother had gotten a similar knife a few years before and I had been begging for one of my own. We would carry these when we would go and play in the woods by our house.


Joseph  William Rodgers hunting knife







The Buck 112 that I got for my 13th birthday.

20180206_144017 by SteveC, on Flickr

Edited to change Joseph to William 

[Fuzzbucket]

So here are my other two most prized knives.

This knife was given to me for my 8th birthday. We are from Scotland originally and immigrated to the US in 1975. I remember taking a trip over to Glasgow from the Town of Hamilton where we lived to a small shop. My older Brother had gotten a similar knife a few years before and I had been begging for one of my own. We would carry these when we would go and play in the woods by our house.


William Rodgers hunting knife

(Image removed from quote.)





The Buck 112 that I got for my 13th birthday.

20180206_144017 by SteveC, on Flickr

Ha! The Joseph Rodgers - I've got the very same knife including the sheath, same condition and everything!!! It's actually my dad's, but I long-term borrowed it when I was a young. Next time I'm up north (it lives up there) I'll take a pic! Yep, we must be related after all.

 

Edit to add: Bloody hell eh?!

[VICMAN]

So here are my other two most prized knives.

This knife was given to me for my 8th birthday.

Joseph Rodgers hunting knife

The Buck 112 that I got for my 13th birthday.

I love that Joseph Rodgers hunting knife. That was quite a birthday gift as was the Buck 112.