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I've been waiting for this for 9 years - my granddaughter is the same age as when I got my first knife. I haven't "given" it to her yet, but she really likes her purple Ladybug. Anyway, I had previously predrilled two pieces of Basswood so we could carve whistles. I gave her a few safety lessons and we were off. Here's before:



I used my orange Ladybug - great knives for whittling, by the way. The whistles are nothing fancy, but they work - that really impressed her - she carved one and it whistles great! Next time we'll do something more fancy. She got two Spyder bites - one bled a fair bit, but I've seen guys I work with in the kitchen get more upset about a little cut than she did. Cleaned it up, put a bandaid on it, and I couldn't keep her away from whittling. After we finished the whistles, she grabbed some wood and just whittled and whittled. Here are the whistles we made:



Sorry for babbling - it's just exciting for me, and we have a potential new Spydie fan. She was even saying how cool the knives looked on the past two Spyderco catalog covers. Well, thanks for lookin' and listening.

- best wishes, Jazz.

Congratulations, I bet it was well worth the wait. Nice whistles too.

DM

Good job Jazz!

sal

Congratulations. Nice whistles, and I am sure your grand daughter likes the ladybug. :-)

nice. i mean the orange ladybug of coarse! lol :D
but seriously i wish my father trusted me with a deadly weapon at that age. good job.

Cool I wish my first knife had been a Spydie.

SmoothOne25 wrote:i wish my father trusted me with a deadly weapon at that age

He did. Every time you sat at the dinner table. Not much of an edge, but definetely a knife of some fashion. :D

Good post Jazz. When I was about 5 or 6 my grandfather and I sat down on his porch and he let me help him whittle a slingshot. We used an old yellow handled Case Trapper. That's the only type of knife he had over owned. We ended up buying him a new one in the early 70's. He had worn the two blades down to almost nothing.

I can remember him sitting in the back yard with an old oil can and a stone sharpening it. He loved that knife. It was left to me after he died and I keep it in a display. I have left it exactly as it was the last time he used it. He used to tell me that if you took care of your knife it would take care of you.

In retrospect, he is the one that started my love for knives and I have never forgotten that slingshot. How could I, I ended up knocking out Nanny's kitchen window with a rock and having to use that same Case Trapper to cut a switch off the tree for my Dad to burn my *** up haha.

Enjoy the memories you have made with your family. They will never forget you for it. :)

Great story Jazz, Congrats

Thanks for the comments, guys. Nice story, Bluntrauma - I love those old pocketknife memories. I used to carve little canoes and let them float in the Spring runoff down the streets. I'm sure that if kids are taught the great and fun uses of knives very young, they'll most likely not use them as weapons, and'll be good examples themselves. Also, there are the great memories such as your's, Bluntrauma. Anyone else have fond memories like these? Why not share them. :D

- best wishes, Jazz.

Very happy memories.

Cool story.
Next time someone asks why would anyone need a PE Ladybug instead of SE... this thread gives one more reason :)

What a great thread, brings back memories why it was so cool to have a pocket knife when I was a kid.

Funny thing is I gave my 9 year old son a ladybug for christmas this year and it has become his favorite christmas gift. Which is saying a lot since Santa spoiled him rotten this year whith many high dollar toys.

dd61999 wrote:What a great thread, brings back memories why it was so cool to have a pocket knife when I was a kid.

Funny thing is I gave my 9 year old son a ladybug for christmas this year and it has become his favorite christmas gift. Which is saying a lot since Santa spoiled him rotten this year whith many high dollar toys.

That's awesome! May he use it in good health!

- best wishes, Jazz.

Jazz,

Very cool story! Thanks for sharing. I have certain milestones from my own life that I try to pass on to my son. I also have a little daughter who loves dark purple and your ladybug appears to be dark purple, however, the only purple ladybug I saw was definitely light "periwinkle" purple. Is yours dark or is it the camera/lighting? Thanks.

ah very nice. I remember my first knife. My father gave it to me- a very small 3 function swiss army knife.

I was in my grandfathers cabin in PA. Put down the knife, and picked it up. Didnt know it was backwards, and i was carving in a bad direction, the blade closed right on my finger. I remember it like it was yesterday. Still have a scar almost a decade later. I never owned a non locking blade since. oh the memories.

Still, congratulations on your grand daughter's spyder love, and those nifty whistles.

hiredgun wrote:Jazz,

Very cool story! Thanks for sharing. I have certain milestones from my own life that I try to pass on to my son. I also have a little daughter who loves dark purple and your ladybug appears to be dark purple, however, the only purple ladybug I saw was definitely light "periwinkle" purple. Is yours dark or is it the camera/lighting? Thanks.

It's the one that's still in the catalog, and it is a bit lighter than the pics - I'm sure your daughter would love it anyway, but you'd know better than me. It's very suitable for a young lady, if you ask me. :)

- best wishes, Jazz.

Jazz wrote:It's the one that's still in the catalog, and it is a bit lighter than the pics - I'm sure your daughter would love it anyway, but you'd know better than me. It's very suitable for a young lady, if you ask me. :)

- best wishes, Jazz.

Thank you Jazz. All my kids love it when I get out the knife collection, so I think a purple ladybug would be very exciting for her birthday this year. Happy New Year.

Another bump.

What a sweet story!