Our History as Collectors

[jim d,]

I was looking through the "Blast From the Past" thread and found my first post on one of the predecessors to this forum. That got me thinking about how I ended up here and wondering if my story is typical. Here it is.

At the age of 7 or less I remember telling my father that I wanted to collect knives, and asking if I could have a couple of pocketknives that were around the house. From that point on during my childhood I put whatever knife I could acquire into my "collection", just a bunch of small cheap pocketknives but I was happy. Then at about age 12 I learned what a switchblade was, and that they were illegal (this was mid '60's) and that there was seemingly no way I could ever get my hands on one despite the fact that I became obsessed with them. That proved to be true for the next 35 years or so. I did manage to acquire a cheap false button and a couple of manual Italian stilettos through my teen years. I always kept an eye out for a switchblade but never scored. Then one night about 7 years ago I was at home and something told me to do a Google search for "switchblade". MUCH to my delight I found SKM and the old SKM forum. I have been trying to make up for lost time ever since.

Jim

[Bill DeShivs]

My story is similar...

[j.a.c.]

pretty much the same here , except I had a small collection of beat up American switchblades and a couple edgeco knives till my house got broken into ,the kids got caught but I never got anything back .
After I bought my fist computer I discovered you could get them online. Went crazy for about a year and bought everyone I could find , re-sold most at a lost and switched to mostly lever locks.
Now that I've been through the whole buying phase , I'm down to maybe a dozen that I use as E.D.C.'s.
leaning more towards making my own and starting to play around with making knives from scratch.

[jim d,]

Bill,

You are being modest. I read your story on your e-zine and your website. One fundamental difference between us is that you had the talent to repair knives at an early age, and I never acquired it.

Jim

[natcherly]

I was 11 years old in 1956 and living in England. My only knives were a fixed blade sheath knife with a plastic handle I sometimes wore on my belt and a couple of odd-ball pieces my parents brought back from travels to the Middle East.

Movies were very restrictively rated in England, and I could see none of the famous switchblade movies such as Rebel w/o a Cause, Blackboard Jungle, etc. Therefore I had no first hand or visual experience with these knives. When vacationing in Italy that year with my parents, I walked by a store window in Florence full of stilettos. I inherently knew exactly what they were and also knew in my gut that these were the coolest thing ever. So I bought one despite my father's promise to dispose of any such knife were I to obtain one. He came close but never did find my 9" picklock. After losing that first auto knife 10 years later, I lost interest until I put Google to work some 5+years ago. SKM and this place were among my first stops.

I still have a couple of the odd-balls.

[blackjack]

My story is similar but different. Ive never really been a knife collector but was obsessed with switchblades from the very first time I saw one on TV or the movies (cant remember which), bought any knife that even looked like one. Having seen them so often in American movies I thought they were legal down here so the first time I was in the US when I was a kid I went into a store and asked for one and was told they were illegal. The first time I saw one was when some friends of my older brother went to Mexico and brought some back, I was so envious. The first one I ever owned was one I found under a table in a bar I worked at after some loud scary dudes had been there, it was a beat up 13 incher but it fired fine, I traded it for a survival knife, what was I thinking! About five years ago for me I had the same brain storm while I was sitting at my computer and the rest as they say is history.

[John Brown]

There’s a common thread here for sure. When I was about 11 years old (1964) I watched the movie “Twelve Angry Men” with my Grandfather on TV. An 11” stiletto was one of the stars of that movie. I was fascinated by it – so evil but so beautiful! I only ever saw a few in my life until I bought my first one in Cologne, Germany in about 1976. Until, like you guys, I googled switchblade, I only had four in my collection. Of course I found this forum and Blade Auction. It took a lot of money to begin to satisfy my hunger for switches – I now only buy one occasionally. JB

[hogwild]

I found a fishtail in my Dad's toolbox around 1965. He caught me with it soon after and beat crap outta me. That's all it took, I had to have more just cause they were taboo. Got caught with more in school, many trips to hold edge of principals desk while getting board of education applied. The good old days when boys carried knives and weren't considered criminals- we didn't use them on each other either.

[Guitars and Blades]

Yeah, for me it was Rebel Without a Cause and just the looks of a stiletto. One of my friends had a couple he had brought back from Italy (thinking back, I think they were Frank B.'s stuff) and I tried to get him to sell me one, which he wouldn't (very scarce in the 70's) so I dreamed of one until my first trip "South of the Border" where I purchased a couple and we were freaked out in the car, coming back because we thought for sure were were going to be busted for our high crime of switchblade smuggling, but the border guys were more worried about weed than blades so we made it back to NJ where we were the neighborhood heroes because we had switchblades and nothing could be cooler.
Sold those over the years and tried to acquire real Italian stuff to no avail until I got lucky in a bar one night and paid big bucks for a real Italian work of art with real Horn scales and Rostrfei stamped on the tang (think it was an 8 incher) which also went by the wayside over the years until I too discovered Edge and their junk, then eventually (guess I'm a late bloomer) I found the knifeauction site and HEEEYYY!!!! Yeehaahhh!!! BLADES!! So, now I'm building up my collection. I have a 13" AKC, a LL in Stag with a clip point(8") a LL in honey horn with a spear point blade, a B-Stealth in all black (for formal occasions) and a Godfather clone. I have a real Godson on the way and my next one will be a Benchmade Pardue.
Sorry to hear the supply from Maniago is "drying up". Any news on the resurfacing of new stuff? I LOVE that CLICK!!

[hollowdweller]

I have always liked all sorts of knives. When I was a kid I had a switch with a broken spring I used as sort of a gravity blade.

I used to buy gun mags and Shotgun News back in the 70's just for the knife ads.

So has the internet been great for knife collectors or what?

A lot of times I go to gunshows and even a few knifeshows and I'm always blown away at the lower prices and unlimited variety offered online.

Also the net has allowed instant suggestions and feedback between customers and producers that to me has made the late 90's and 21st Century (so far) the golden era of knife collecting and producing

[truthandjaney]

For me it was the late 60's when my friend showed me this book "Run baby Run". In it, Nicky described a situation where he was being harassed by some kids outside school and he knocked the switchblade out of the one kids hand and scooped it up. He described in detail how it felt in his hand and how it worked. From that moment on I was in search of a switchblade. I had seen an antique double one of my friends in the 8th grade had found but he refused to part with it. A few yrs. later a couple of boys up the road from me showed me an 11" Italian stiletto from their dads dresser drawer but they too refused to sell it. I had seen the now famous switchblade comb in a comic book and sent away for it. Of course it needed to have a real blade for it to be what I wanted, but it fueled the flame and I eventually pried the plastic comb out of the metal blade piece and inserted a long carpenters blade from my dads bench and wha-la I had my first switchblade, of sorts. I'm sure it would have been considered illegal had I been caught with it, and all it did was fuel the flame more. At age 20 I hitch hiked from Wis. to Cal. with a buddy and once in Sacramento I had my friends buddies start a search to find me any switchblade. Well one day his friend showed up with a 9" black handle rizzy for which I gladly paid $20 for. It was 1980. A couple years later a neighbor showed up with an 11" rizzy and said he'd sell it for $30 for which I again gladly forked over. Now I had 2 but I wanted something more sturdy so the search continued. About a yr. after getting my second rizzy my apartment was broken in to and the prick stole my 357 ruger and both of my treasured switchblades. I got the gun returned but the police said the knives would be sent to the State Capital to be destroyed! How bout that, they gave me the 357 and trashed the SB's, or at least thats what they said???? Now I was switchbladeless and jonesen. It wasn't until the now defunked Edge Co. that I was able to own another SB, but as my luck would have it I went to a Motely Crue concert and forgot I had my 9" MOP stiletto inside my leather jacket. Well while in the parking lot before the show, partaking in a bit of, well lets just say pre concert embibing of a green leafy substance, I got pinched by a undercover police officer, who couldn't even figure out how to open or close the silly thing. Well I got a ticket for embibing and the knife was to be destoyed, "sure", and I was told that I may be hearing from the DA as to charges for the knife. Never did!! Well by this time the Edge Co. was no longer offering SB kits, so I picked up a copy of the shot gun news and saw a guy in Mich. called the knife trader who was offering kits. This would have been the early 90's. My first purchase was a 9" Italian with blackhorn scales, which I still have today. I bought several other 9" er's from him before finding Adams knife works where I purchased several others but found them to be a bit pricy. Then came the internet and the game was on. I no longer carry my autos, lessen learnt! and I don't show anyone my collection who isn't friend, or family. Funny how a few paragraphs in a book could have such an impact but it did. I remember my older brother was in fort knox KN and had bought himself a 13" Italian stiletto lockblade with the most beautiful black, green, white, brown swirly scales I've seen. He gave it to me when I was in highschool, but as nice as it was it wasn't a switchblade. I sold it years later, being down on my luck and in need of cash. I think I got $75 for it but would gladly pay twice that to have it back. I've never seen one like it since. Well thats my story, and I still remember that part of the book when I hold one of my knives, the feeling of a SB in your hand is hard to desribe, but it is Good!!
T&J

[Straydog 5247]

Snoopin' around the house ,in the year 1956 ( I was 9 ) , I discovered a slim , sleek , shiny black knife with the words Black Beauty on the blade in my father's nightstand . I played with it , and marveled at the speed it would open !....carefully replaceing it back when I was done ....during my teen years , a friend at school sold me a "bullfighter" leverlock , for $ 5 , which was confiscated by the Vice-principal within a week ! ....
During the early 70's I started collecting , at that time had two Italian stils ( 13" & 9" ) and about 8 or 9 Rizzutos ! ....hard times hit and I sold them ....
I pretty much forgot about collecting till I discovered the internet ( my story is very much like Jim d 's from then on ! ).....I seriously started collecting 2001 , then discovered "mangleing".....that's when I found a hobby that satisfys !

[tr4252]

I too was inspired by a movie; The Sound of Music. I hated it so much, that anti-social behavior seemed like something I'd like to try. This didn't get me too far in the Catholic school I was in, but for some reason the girls became more interested in me. I had the impression that bad boys carried knives, and the nuns reinforced this illusion, with beatings and various confiscations. When I went into the public school system, in Jr. High, it looked like everybody carried a knife of some type, even a lot of the girls. I obtained a girlfriend, a manual Italian pattern stiletto, and had her name engraved on the blade. Never acquired a switch, but had a gravity stiletto eventually. In time, I lost interest in model airplanes, TV sitcoms, etc., in favor of sex & drugs & rock and roll.

Then in the early 70's I became interested in my career, and other nebulous concepts, never owning any knife more interesting than a Swiss Army Classic, which I've kept in my right front pants pocket, in one form or another, as essential as my wallet or a bic pen, for the last 35 years. Don't leave home without it. Like most of the 70's and 80's, it was a Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, and has since been mostly forgotten or denied.

I had an apprentice about 6 years ago, from the Ukraine, and he took an extended leave to go back to the Motherland for a visit, and on his return had a lot of gifts for everybody. He gave me some genuine Russian candy which turned out to be made in Brooklyn NY, and a cigarette lighter with a built in auto knife blade. I thought it was so cool, and it rekindled my desire to have a genuine switch, so I eventually procured one of those 4 1/2" keychain stilettos; I think I bought it on ebay, for $12.00. Within a couple of months, the spring broke, and an internet search for a new one led me to TalkBlade.

A mouse got into my desk at work, made a real mess out of the candy. But that's another story.

Having made the TalkBlade connection, the world of automatic knives opened up for me, and I became obsessed with them, in a benign way. My first genuine Italian stiletto, bought from Tiny, was something of an enigma; I needed to have Pushbutton explain to me how a bolster release worked, and for the fact that it didn't have a very snappy spring. So of course I disassembled it, rebuilt it into a knife more to my liking, and embarked on this hobby that's more like an addiction than anything I've done so far, except the above mentioned sex & rock and roll ( never got addicted to any drugs [a character flaw no doubt rooted in my childhood], but like to get out of my skull sometimes ). I'm reluctant to admit how many knives I've acquired in the past few years, and certainly only my priest confessor ( if I ever get around to having one ) will ever get to know how much time and money I've invested in my mindless pursuit to build the perfect knife.

But it's been one of the most enjoyable obsessions I've ever had, since I bought my first "real" electric guitar, a '59 Fender Duo-Sonic, at the age of 13 ( yet another story ).

Tom

[Vagrant]

Mechanically they are : simple, reliable, logical and practical.
And certain entities "have a problem with them" and feel they must "protect me"
Need any more reasons

[tr4252]

Mechanically they are : simple, reliable, logical and practical.
And certain entities "have a problem with them" and feel they must "protect me"
Need any more reasons

Those entities of which you speak need our sympathy; they'd be really frightened by the loud noise it'd make if they pulled their heads out of their asses. Protecting us from anything that could possibly be considered as enjoyable is a divine mission, to some. I get on my knees and thank God they sacrifice so much to salvage my soul, and wonder why I'm so ungrateful, having those thoughts of seeing them all in a mass.........um,... Wal Mart.

Tom