Hello From New Jersey
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Hello From New Jersey
Hello, my friends, just joined tonight wanted to introduce myself. I've loved knives literally since when I was 5 or 6 years old and discovered two pen knives in a junk drawer at my grandmothers house. My first knife was a inexpensive boy scout knife--probably a Colonial--that my dad bought me when I turned seven. The rule was I could only open it when he was present, but I don't remember ever actually honoring that impossible to enforce rule. My first Sheath knife (as we always called them) was a junky little Japanese dagger with some kind of gold floral pattern imbedded in green plastic handles I saw in a case in a Bambergers Department Store near us. With that knife I learned that all that glitters does not take or hold an edge. I wasn't supposed to take that one out of the sheath unless my dad was around either.
I was a shy kid for the most part but I distinctly remember boldly asking this older kid on my 5th grade bus if I could check out the little Mexican bull fighter lever-lock he was showing off to his friends. He told me to get lost as did the kid showing off the well worn K55K on some other schoolbus in 6th grade. But with those fails my lifetime love for what I call "street knives" was born. I got a Case derlin handled Barlow in 1970 or 71 (?) after I read Tom Sawyer but all I really wanted was a classic Italian Switch Blade or at least the non auto versions I saw for sale in a shop window at the Port Authority Bus Station in NYC along with 007 folders and some other deadly looking blades you could find in old Times Square back in the day. The places that sold cutlery in and around my suburban town were fairly conservative tho. You could find the two bladed fishing knives sold by Case and Colonial, for instance, but I never saw a straight up single bladed 093 pattern-- I seriously didn't know they existed! I remember buying a two bladed Colonial in order to try and de-construct it and rebuild it as a single blade which I thought would look wicked. That was a fail due to lack of patience and the correct tools.
I Joined the Marines in '75 and after boot camp in Parris Island SC and Infantry Training School At Camp Pendleton CA. I was stationed at a Naval Ammunition Depot In Hawthorne Nevada. I bought what I believe was the fairly newly released Gerber MkII boot knife in a Reno gun shop. Loved that--even after I foolishly handed it to this crazy "friend" of mine who proceeded to stab me in the leg with it just for $hits and giggles. He was nice enough to help me get to sick bay for stitches. Oh, and I finally ordered a huge Italian non auto lock back stiletto from a mail order company of mainly surplus bayonets whose ad I found in the back of a Guns &Ammo magazine.
I extended a year in order to see a little more of the world and went to Okinawa with the 3rd Marine Division. while there AJ Russel released those awesome little boot knives which he had made in Germany. I scored one of those and even the Company Commander complimented me on it. I remember he asked me "is it balanced for throwing?" One of the platoon commanders had a Randell combat knife. Our rank gap prevented any real conversation but I was again emboldened by my love of knives to enquire if he was actually sporting a genuine Randell to which he replied "Yes." End of conversation.
When I got out in '79 I enrolled in College and felt like I needed to suppress my love of knives in that refined environment but when my first college girlfriend went to Italy on vacation and asked if there was anything I wanted her to bring back, without thinking I blurted out "Yeah, a switchblade!" And damn if she didn't buy me a nice little Indian (?) lever-lock shell puller and damn if she didn't have her sweet and innocent looking mom get it through cu$toms and back to Jersey! (hope I didn't just break a forum rule...).
Okay this was supposed to be an introduction not a memoir so I'll stop here. I will say tho that GEC's pattern 63 Mako and pattern 62 Ben Hogan got me full blown back into my obsession. But my big love now is the Case 093, 095 and 098 pattern knives--imagine my surprise and joy when some time ago I discovered that single blade toothpicks actually DID exist! I've been collecting them for a year or so and even acquired the tools to mod some 095 fishing knives to single bladers hopefully as a way of acquiring the skills to build my own one day. So here I am 'cause it looks like the place to find the help and support I'll surely need from you all-- which I of course look forward to giving back in any way I can. Cheers!
PS: I promise never to go on so long ever again. Ever.
I was a shy kid for the most part but I distinctly remember boldly asking this older kid on my 5th grade bus if I could check out the little Mexican bull fighter lever-lock he was showing off to his friends. He told me to get lost as did the kid showing off the well worn K55K on some other schoolbus in 6th grade. But with those fails my lifetime love for what I call "street knives" was born. I got a Case derlin handled Barlow in 1970 or 71 (?) after I read Tom Sawyer but all I really wanted was a classic Italian Switch Blade or at least the non auto versions I saw for sale in a shop window at the Port Authority Bus Station in NYC along with 007 folders and some other deadly looking blades you could find in old Times Square back in the day. The places that sold cutlery in and around my suburban town were fairly conservative tho. You could find the two bladed fishing knives sold by Case and Colonial, for instance, but I never saw a straight up single bladed 093 pattern-- I seriously didn't know they existed! I remember buying a two bladed Colonial in order to try and de-construct it and rebuild it as a single blade which I thought would look wicked. That was a fail due to lack of patience and the correct tools.
I Joined the Marines in '75 and after boot camp in Parris Island SC and Infantry Training School At Camp Pendleton CA. I was stationed at a Naval Ammunition Depot In Hawthorne Nevada. I bought what I believe was the fairly newly released Gerber MkII boot knife in a Reno gun shop. Loved that--even after I foolishly handed it to this crazy "friend" of mine who proceeded to stab me in the leg with it just for $hits and giggles. He was nice enough to help me get to sick bay for stitches. Oh, and I finally ordered a huge Italian non auto lock back stiletto from a mail order company of mainly surplus bayonets whose ad I found in the back of a Guns &Ammo magazine.
I extended a year in order to see a little more of the world and went to Okinawa with the 3rd Marine Division. while there AJ Russel released those awesome little boot knives which he had made in Germany. I scored one of those and even the Company Commander complimented me on it. I remember he asked me "is it balanced for throwing?" One of the platoon commanders had a Randell combat knife. Our rank gap prevented any real conversation but I was again emboldened by my love of knives to enquire if he was actually sporting a genuine Randell to which he replied "Yes." End of conversation.
When I got out in '79 I enrolled in College and felt like I needed to suppress my love of knives in that refined environment but when my first college girlfriend went to Italy on vacation and asked if there was anything I wanted her to bring back, without thinking I blurted out "Yeah, a switchblade!" And damn if she didn't buy me a nice little Indian (?) lever-lock shell puller and damn if she didn't have her sweet and innocent looking mom get it through cu$toms and back to Jersey! (hope I didn't just break a forum rule...).
Okay this was supposed to be an introduction not a memoir so I'll stop here. I will say tho that GEC's pattern 63 Mako and pattern 62 Ben Hogan got me full blown back into my obsession. But my big love now is the Case 093, 095 and 098 pattern knives--imagine my surprise and joy when some time ago I discovered that single blade toothpicks actually DID exist! I've been collecting them for a year or so and even acquired the tools to mod some 095 fishing knives to single bladers hopefully as a way of acquiring the skills to build my own one day. So here I am 'cause it looks like the place to find the help and support I'll surely need from you all-- which I of course look forward to giving back in any way I can. Cheers!
PS: I promise never to go on so long ever again. Ever.
- whippersnapper
- Posts: 8388
- Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 12:39 pm
- Location: Michigan
Re: Hello From New Jersey
Great intro, old93! Welcome to Talkblade!
- natcherly
- Connoisseur dei Coltelli
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- Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2004 3:59 pm
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Re: Hello From New Jersey
Welcome to the Forum, Old93. Feel free to share as you wish. We enjoy reading stuff about this hobby and its participants.
Re: Hello From New Jersey
WELCOME FROM MASS !!!
TRYKER
A man who brags about how smart he is, wouldn't if he was.
"Rose-colored glassses are never made in bifocals. Nobody wants to read the small print in dreams"
A man who brags about how smart he is, wouldn't if he was.
"Rose-colored glassses are never made in bifocals. Nobody wants to read the small print in dreams"
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- ILikeStilettos
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Re: Hello From New Jersey
Enjoyed the narrative, feel free to bend my ear at any time.
Dave Sause
oldandfat@cox.net
(405) 694-3690
"And you're telling me this because, somehow, I look like I give a shit?"
"Let a smile be your umbrella and you're gonna get your dumb ass wet."
oldandfat@cox.net
(405) 694-3690
"And you're telling me this because, somehow, I look like I give a shit?"
"Let a smile be your umbrella and you're gonna get your dumb ass wet."
Re: Hello From New Jersey
Welcome old93! I'm also in NJ. Some, if not the worst, knife laws in the U.S..
"By accepting you as you are, I do not necessarily abandon all hope of your improving"- My Wife (1963-Present)
Re: Hello From New Jersey
Thanks for the warm welcome!!!!
- rock-n-roll$$$$$$
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Re: Hello From New Jersey
glad you are old93,just asking were in New Jersey are you? Eric