How Old Were You When You Began Carrying?

[awa54]

I can't collect the extra points, since I got my first pocket knife in the mid 1970s (probably '74 or '75, so around 7 or 8yo)... it was an Imperial 2 blade jack, around 2.25" to 2.5" overall, that was bought at the local Ben Franklin department store. I immediately learned to sharpen it with a soft Arkansas stone and Buck honing oil, the edge wasn't amazing for the first few months, but before long I could bring it back to serious sharpness with a few minutes work.
Pretty sure it cost $1.79, which was about four weeks allowance.

This pic is of the same style knife, possibly the identical model:

[mazze]

I can’t remember exactly when, but around 12 when I was a junior scout, my father gave me his old bush knife from the colonial wars. It was a huge fixed blade and that was my first knife, although I had borrowed and used my grandfather’s pocket knives many times before in his farm.

I was only allowed to carry the bush knife in outdoor activities, but it blew my mind that my father trusted me to use that thing. A few years later, he gave two Gerlach “SAK type” knifes (made in Poland), one small and one very big that I still own.

And now this is making me rethink if I am taking the right path with my kid…

[Coastal]

I carried some sort of knife for fishing and knocking around outdoors starting when I was 8, and have done so in those activities ever since. I never really EDC'd until in my 30s, and then only when I was away from the house. Nowadays, I usually have a knife with me all the time, even though in the house there's always one within a few seconds walking distance.

Edit to say my first knife was a Cub Scout knife; I then moved on to a Case Sodbuster and then to some Case pointy-blade knife that I still have. My first true EDC was either a Sogwinder or a Spyderco C01 Worker, both of which I still own.

[Bolster]

Great stories, folks. Have enjoyed them all, thank you.

Looks like I'm not the only one who was weaned on a traditional slipjoint, or something similar!

[billdoier72]

I guess it was about 1982, I would have been 10 years old.

My uncle gave me an Old Timer 3 blade folder.

Been carrying a pocket knife ever since.

This was me too, except it was 1984 or 1985 and my Dad instead of my uncle. In Tennessee too.

Greetings to a fellow TN kid!

[Josh Crutchley]

I started carrying when I got my first warehouse job at 27. I owned a few knives before then but never carried them.

[SchoonerBum]

I can't recall exactly, but I had an SAK well before I was 10 years old. We did a fair bit of camping and backpacking and the SAK was everyone's pocket tool kit. If it wasn't in my pocket or on my belt it lived in whatever bag I was carrying. At some point in my mid 20s I started leaning more toward general wilderness living than backpacking and the SAK in my bag was joined by a Mora Companion. That was pretty much my off-the-clock carry until about 5 years ago when I started dabbling with carrying a clipped folder regularly and then discovered Spyderco's salts.

[Bill1170]

I was 8 when my dad gave me my first pocketknife, a Henckels bone handled pen knife with nickel silver bolsters at both ends and carbon steel blades. I learned how to sharpen it on oil stones. I used the larger, clip-point blade for general utility and saved the small blade for exacting precision tasks. I still have it!

Edited to add:
What a fun thread! Interesting how many boys’ first knife was found on the ground. My dad found his first knife on a street and late in life gave it to me. Those inexpensive slip joints from the mid 20th century were cheap and surprisingly well made, remaining serviceable for decades.

I carried my precious Henckels daily until a SAK Spartan kicked it out of my pocket at age 12 or 13. Stainless steel, combined with “other tools” was a heady experience. After a quarter century of daily carry I collected on the lifetime warranty because the red scales came loose. Sent it in and got it back with brand new scales a few weeks later! Amazing service, plus I got the toothpick and tweezers, which hadn’t been a feature in 1971 when the knife was new.

[ladybug93]

my first knife was a ladybug when i was 12 or 13, but i didn't regularly carry a knife until i was probably 23. i had other knives in between there like a swiss champ and a few others, but i didn't edc them. it's a little embarrassing now, but the first knife i regularly carried was a very small gerber ridge folder.

shortly after that, i moved up to a sog flash 2, which i carried for probably a decade before moving on to a zt0350. i carried some other cheap knives in there for a while, but ultimately came back to spyderco for the salt series and stayed for quite a few more.

it's a rainy day here, so we're just chilling after church. i decided to dig up these old knives.


left to right...
the ladybug and chinese sak copy were my first knives. i got them for Christmas one year. i cut myself the next day with that chinese knife bad enough that i can still see the scar. that was during a time where you could get dropped off at a river as a kid and not see your parents for the rest of the day. i thought it was hilarious to put up a thumb and pretend to hitchhike with blood running down my arm. fortunately, a maintenance guy that i knew from my mom's work drove by in his truck and had a first aid kit. he gave me some gauze and tape and drove off leaving us there to keep fishing. the '80s was a wild time.
i bought myself the swisschamp. great knife that solidified my love for saks to this day, but it was just too bulky for a pocket.
the schrade lb7 felt like a man's knife in my teenage hands. i got it because my dad said it was a good knife and it wasn't too expensive for me. i didn't carry it much though unless i was camping.
i don't know what the next one is... i think it's some kind of cheap sog copy with a thumb stud and no clip. barely ever carried it because i hate having a knife in my pocket loose.
next up is the gerber ridge. this was the first time i ever had a knife with a pocket clip. it's small, light, and unobtrusive, so it got carried daily. i even accidentally took it to an airport. they put it in an envelope for me and it was still there when i returned from my trip. hard to believe that happened in an airport since 9/11, but it did.
finally, the sog flash ii. this knife got to be very frustrating to me. it had blade play and steel that was okay, but not great. i also fell out of love with serrations during the years i carried it because people said they were unnecessary. the clip caught on everything too. as i said, i lost it so many times because of the clip. once, it caught on a bus seat and snapped. i was relieved because i could finally get something new. i called sog first though and they sent me a new clip right away. it was one of my first experiences with good customer service with anything. i carried it a few more years after that before finally retiring it.

sort of on topic, if anyone is still reading... the sog flash ii is largely responsible for shaping my preferences. i don't need a spring assist. in fact, i don't even really like them anymore. i don't need deep carry either. but, i've come around and started carrying serrations again. instead of carrying a combo edge, i always carry a pe and se knife on me. most importantly, the ergonomics provided by the indexing and also the way the handle narrows at the clip are two of the main things i love about the manix. the sog even has a pad on the side you pull down to unlock the knife. very different knives, but some surprising similarities.

[Dodge]

I was 17 and it was a ATS-55 PE Spyderco Endura with the big FRN clip. Still have it too!

[Haunted House]

My parents let me carry a knife when I was 10.
Before that, I was only allowed to carry my boy scouts knife to scout meetings.
I was crazy about knives as a kid, so I got to use my dads before then. But I wasn’t allowed to have my own and carry it till I turned 10.

[Ramonade]

I'd say between 8 and 10 when my grandfather gifted me his trusted Victorinox Huntsman.

[Fireman]

I must have been 6 years old. Had a few Case looking traditional slip joints that I took from my Dads garage. I learned the hard way can end up biting you.

[Cowboyfromhell]

10 y.o.....A buck 110 from my uncle!

[wrdwrght]

My memory is vague but I know I had a non-locking folder in my pocket from time to time once I joined the Cub Scouts at maybe 7 years old.

[The Mastiff]

I was about 7 or so. I was sick of having to go get the sickle off the garage wall to cut something when doing chores and I knew I could use a knife of my own. Having one had to wait. I found a knife walking through an old site where topsoil was mined and trucked away. It was on the ground forgotten and had been there a year or more. It was an Imperial fish knife with one blade and a descaler. The knife had no scales and the blade was broken about half way and it had been sharpened on a grinder and overall was rusty and in terrible condition. It was better than no knife and I valued it greatly and it was mine.

I had mostly junk until I was in the army. I bought my first Spyderco in 1992 when I was already over 30 years old. It was an Endura. I carried it for the next 6 or so years or however long it was until the upgrade to VG10 steel whereupon I bought one of those. I have bought almost every Endura version since and still always have one nearby even when trying out other knives.

I still have my old beat up and broken Imperial as well as my first Spyderco Endura.

[FK]

I remember pocket knife carry to school in 3rd grade.
About 7-8 yrs old.

Regards,
FK

[PaloArt]

My first EDC knife was Tenacious in 8CR13MOV, which I bought when I was 17 years and few months old, that was in 2008. At that time I was already in love with Spyderco brand for three years since I laid my hands on L`Encyclopédie du Couteau from Olivier Achard in my local library. I was visiting regularly one knife shop in Prague on weekly basis and was marveling about US knives for three years before I saved money for my first EDC knife and before my family allowed me to buy it.

That Tenacious spent in my pocket following two years before it was abused and destroyed (blade broken) by my Mother`s boyfriend who just said "it was just a knife, don`t fret about it". Needless to say I was devastated at the time but soon I replaced Tenacious with 2nd Gen SS SE Delica and Endura 4 FFG later on. Since then my humble collection of Spyderco cutting tools got bigger (not collector per se, more of a user I am).

I can still remember the day I recieved that Tenacious from mailman, that excitement, shaky hands, unboxing and extreme joy of owning something I dreamed of for three years, fidgeting and using that budget\value line knife on daily basis, looking for even smallest tasks where I could use my newly acquired knife and taking care of it like it was 500USD knife.

Thinking about this I am now really considering purchase of Tenacious LW in S35VN from pure nostalgy , what a great piece of knife

[skeeg11]

A pox on your mother's boyfriend. Merely jesting. Might otherwise have been a great guy.

[PaloArt]

A pox on your mother's boyfriend. Merely jesting. Might otherwise have been a great guy.

Well until today I have the same opinion as you - not the most pleasant person in the world and it didn’t get better with age, rather the opposite.