When I was growing up, there used to be an old 1950's black and white TV program on that I watched avidly, called "Jim Bowie." The theme song went something like, "Jim Bowie JimBowie..." and this huge Bowie knife went flying through the air and stuck smack dab right in this wooden door just as pretty as you please. Then I saw Walt Disney's "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier." My dad took me to see John Wayne's "The Alamo," when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. He also used to read to me in the evenings, books on the Alamo and Rodger's Rangers, and Lewis Wetzel and Simon Girty and Jonathan Zane etc. So adventuresome, knife totin' hombres like Jim Bowie, and all those rough and tumble, hell for leather frontiersmen, the Indians called the "Long Knives," were burned into my psyche at a very impressionable age.

My parents used to let me make wooden knives and they bought me rubber knives to play with, but they never would buy me a real one. I wanted a knife in the worst way. I mean it was hard to mentally envision my hanging out with the likes of Bowie and Crockett with a painted rubber knife. Just not acceptable.

Now back in those days (we're talking the very early 1960's) I used to collect comic books (Oh, if I had only kept them, I could be retired and writing this from my own private island). There was this older kid up the street who took a fancy to one in particular that I had. He wanted it very badly, and the only thing he had to trade was a knife, and get this--a real one. Can you tell where this is going to go?

We made the trade, and I went home (secretly) with an 8" Imperial brand, Bowie style blade with a sheet metal double guard and cracked plastic imitation stag handles with a big buck deer embossed into the grip. The end of the handle had some OD green US Marine 200mph tape wrapped around it. But it was a real knife and it was mine! When I walked along in the woods, I was, in my mind, walking in the ranks of all my boyhood heroes. I just knew that somewhere old Jim B. was looking down and smiling to himself and saying "atta boy, Kid! Hey Davy, look, here comes another one." Did I mention that I had an active imagination?

I still have that knife and to this day consider it one of the best trades I've ever made, even though the comic I traded for it is today, probably worth more than my house. But that old Imperial knife tangibly marked the beginning of a life long love affair I have had with edged things, and that is worth more than you can put a dollar value on. When I made my first knife, I knew that I had come full circle and was right where I was supposed to be.

Let's hear your stories.

Dana that is a great story. I was influenced by the same people. Lew Wetzel was my all time favorite. I have looked for those books by Zane Gray several times hoping to send them to my grandchildren. Have not found any in the places I frequent.
I can not remember my first knife. I can remember shooting my first deer with my first rifle when I was 12 and I can remember the blood and gore I had everywhere when I field dressed it but I can not for the life of me remember the knife.

Thanks for the memories

ghostdog

Ghostdog, for hard to find books, check out:

www.alibris.com/ (http://www.alibris.com/)

These guys are smokin' on obscure and out of print books.

Then for your reading pleasure check out these links. Mickey Wise and I talked about Lewis Wetzel at our last hammer in.


www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh50-5.html (http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh50-5.html)

www.patc.net/history/native/wetzel.html (http://www.patc.net/history/native/wetzel.html)

www.earlyamerica.com/review/spring97/wetzel.html (http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/spring97/wetzel.html)

wheeling.weirton.lib.wv.us/landmark/historic/WETCAVE.HTM (http://wheeling.weirton.lib.wv.us/landmark/historic/WETCAVE.HTM)

www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/pioneer/chap12.html (http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/pioneer/chap12.html)

Enjoy!

I've had really good luck with www.bibliofind.com (http://www.bibliofind.com)

Found several out of print books there. They sell used books and new alike. Great place with great prices. Good luck ghostdog.

Thanks guys. Not only do I learn a ton about forging and blade making here.....


Treasure Island was another book I read a whole bunch of. Cutlasses and knives between the teeth, arrgh eh matey.


ghostdog

Oh yeah, I remember my "first" it was a 3 " blade Ka-bar with orange bakelite handle. Mom got it at a thrift store along with a bunch of other stuff for a quarter. I was proabably 10 or so and I remember gutting my first deer with it. Well 35 yrs. later I still have that knife and it still guts my occasional whitetail. BTW dana I remember those old Jim Bowie T.V. shows as well. :) :)

best i can remember , first knife i ever had i got when i was in first grade.my bus stop was near a truck stop right off of interstate 75 here in florida.and at almost every town there is a truck stop/tourist trap of one sort or another. well this one had, way back by the bathrooms, vending machines with all kinda worthless trinkets.one of those trinkets was a miniture bowie knife.it had plastic handles.a straight guard and some cheap metal for a blade.it even came with a small imitation leather sheath. and all for only a quarter.i bought one took it to school sold it for 50 cent and bought another that afternoon when i got home.after that i kept that machine empty buying them for people at school : ).
i also used to take my moms "old hickory" butcher knife out of the drawer and walk thru the woods playing with it.i had grand illusions of the marines and the island hopping campaign of ww 2 moreso than of daniel boone or davey crockett.
you know now days if a kid takes a nail clipper to school he could be expelled for the year.when i went to school i always had a knife.i might forget my pencil one day but never my knife.in high school i carried the case sod buster. could you imagine if a kid was found with a sod buster at school today????i'm sure he would have to go thru psycholigical evaluations and all other crap and his poor parents would probably be looked down on.
i kinda wonder if its this attitude that got us where we are today as a society?

john

The 1st knife I owned was gotten out of a vending machine,back when they had stuff like knives and those eternal matches things in them,I still have it and wouldnt take any amount of money for it!The 1st knives I was given were my grandads and my uncles pocket knives and later my father gave me his old case folder that he carried in the Navy and had with him when the Forrestal blew -up.

My dad bought me my first knife when I was about 6. It was a very simple single blade pocketknife made in Solingen (Germany). The red plastic handle had the portrait of a dog burned in. This knife was an important part of my child-adventures. When I received the knife from my father: he made it duller with a grinding stone. The first thing i tried was sharpening it again (I was clever enough to realise it would also work for sharpening. I used it to cut the neighbours fence so i didn't need to take the gate any more (the neighbour wanted to tie me up with chains to one of his trees :) ). Anyother one: I was building a small camp with a friend and we needed a roof desperately. The only think I could think about was the neighbour's rubarb (we only took the leaves, so he could still use the stems). When I grew older, the old worn out pocketknife was no longer a hot item to carry around, but normally i still have it somewhere in my collection. I'll post a picture after retrieval...

Well, the first one i remember was a gift from my grandparents. They used to pass their hollidays in Bavaria (southern Germany) and one day, when i was about 4 years old, came back with a big package for me, containing bavarian style short leather trousers, a woolen jacket, a hat, socks and shoes. And, of course, the matching Nicker for the special pocket in the trousers. It's been a very small cheap dull plastic imitation stag gripped fix blade knife. But to me it meant more than all the expensive clothing stuff. i lost it some time later.
The first real knife i got was during a holiday in Bavaria (must be somewhat knife related, this part of Germany!). I was age 8 and have been ill for some time and during the hard times of the illness my mother promised to buy me a nice knife of my choice. In the town was a hardware store we visited and we asked to see the knives. Well, and there it was, a 7" blade bowie knife with brass double guard, a hardwood grip and a real leather sheath. My mother bought it for me and my friends at home made big eyes when they saw it first. At home we used to chop down small trees with this, in our eyes, monster knife. There have never been any restrictions by my parents to keep it and walk around with it, so it's been perfectly normal for me to wear a knife. I lost the knife when i was 12 years old during a hiking trip in the woods. I was very sad!

Achim

The first knife I remember having was a smallish two blade jack knife with striped brown celluloid scales. I had gone with my Dad and family to a gun/knife show show in Louisville, I think. I had about 25 cents to spend. I remember very well looking at all the militaria, swords and all and just having an amazing time looking. I looked all over this huge show several times locating the cheapest pocket knives, but they were still too expensive, 50 cents maybe. I kept running back to mama beggingmore money to no avail. I was determined to buy a knife so I kept bugging this man, trying to talk him down. He finally threw a knife at me , and said here kid just take the d*** thing. Gee Thanks Mister! I was just a little shaver about eight years old. I later lost the knife mowing the yard, and found it again several years later all rusted up.

I was in 1st grade on the bus when a 3rd grader pulled out his pocket knife. It was polished bone slabs with two blades and a metal inlay with the name Jim Bowie on it. I didn't know who he was at the time, I just thought this kid stole it from someone else. The second blade tip was broken. Ah ha! A flaw! Well by the time his stop came around I had talked him into trading me his knife for...get this...the name of a store where he could buy another one, a better one I told him. Later on(years later) I kinda felt guilty about that trade. I had a knife and he had a piece of paper. I lost it when I was in 10th grade. Man, I wish I still had that thing. I felt good in my hand.

Great story possum<G>. Remind me not to do any trading with you.


ghostdog

First knife, I have a heck of a time just remembering where I set the knife down that I was just working on. Ray

mine was my dads bayonette from vietnam. when he came back in 1970 he gave it to me. i was 4 years old and all i could do was look at this thing. man was it big and just the neatest thing in the world. all my life iv showed this knife to all my friends and used it for all kinds of things. i still have it and i think ill go pull it out and play with it. boo

i still got the first 2 blades i ever made
i was 9
saw blades
harley
www.lonesomepineknives.com
p.s.
my dad made knives and he and i would watch theat t.v. show
a fond memorie