Unbelievable lost and found story. Purchased in 1989, Lost in 1995, showed up in my mailbox in 2020.

[tbdoc4kids]

Wish I could get a few things back the same way!

[sal]

Hi Ceese,

Welcome to our forum and thanx much for sharing your great story. That model was considered very innovative at the time. The stamped clip was copied by a number of companies, including Al Mar. I wasn't very well known in the knife industry at the time, but designs like this one helped.

I'm glad you found your knife. I've experienced similar in the past and it's always a high.

It's some funny history, but Hoffritz owed us a great deal of money at the time. I even went to New York and spoke with Mr., Silver, the president about the debt. He said that he would personally guarantee that I get paid. Almost $200,000 an we were a small company. We had to borrow funds to operate. As it turned out, Fool that I am, I trusted him. His word was no good and they never paid us. Really hurt the company. I swore I'd piss on his grave one day, but never did. These kinds of businessmen really offend me......and there have been a few.

So, Since Hoffritz never paid for the knife, send me your address and I'll invoice you

sal

[JustinB]

Hi Ceese,

Welcome to our forum and thanx much for sharing your great story. That model was considered very innovative at the time. The stamped clip was copied by a number of companies, including Al Mar. I wasn't very well known in the knife industry at the time, but designs like this one helped.

I'm glad you found your knife. I've experienced similar in the past and it's always a high.

It's some funny history, but Hoffritz owed us a great deal of money at the time. I even went to New York and spoke with Mr., Silver, the president about the debt. He said that he would personally guarantee that I get paid. Almost $200,000 an we were a small company. We had to borrow funds to operate. As it turned out, Fool that I am, I trusted him. His word was no good and they never paid us. Really hurt the company. I swore I'd piss on his grave one day, but never did. These kinds of businessmen really offend me......and there have been a few.

So, Since Hoffritz never paid for the knife, send me your address and I'll invoice you

sal

Crazy to think, but that could have been the end of Spyderco as a company. Think about what the cutlery industry would be right now without Spyderco! :eek:

[sal]

I guess there's hope for the Spyderco Rescue that I lost in 1994.

Hi Soulspy,

In 1982, I was helping to dig out stuck cars in the snow. It was in May 1982 and we had a late snowstorm that really stuck a lot of cars in my area.(10,000' altitude) I had the prototype of the serrated Mariner in my pocket. This was what ultimately became the the Rescue. I spent a great deal of time under cars and hooking up chains that I realized when I got home, the knife was gone and we had 3 feet of show on the ground.

I had to leave for a Fair we were working the next morning and would be gone for 2 weeks.

When I got back, there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. I went back every day after work and looked for the knife. About the 5th day, the snow had melted enough that I could see the tip of the handle sticking out of the snow. A really good moment in my life.

sal

[Holland]

Incredible story and thread! Going to keep watching this one

Welcome to the forums

[ceese]

First I'd like to thank everyone for their warm welcomes. I thought that many of you would appreciate this story. I've actually been an occasional lurker off and on for many years as I share your love of Spyderco knives and I think I'll be participating from now on.

That’s a really great story, thanks for sharing! I’m a little bit surprised you initially passed over the eBay listing without instantaneously noticing that it was your knife in the pictures. It must have struck you like a bolt of lightning when you opened the package and realized it truly was yours! I had to Google Hoffritz to read up on that company, that was interesting — did they sell many Spydercos to your recollection, or was that model pretty much it at the time? (And yes, I understand how very few models in the catalog there were at that time! :)).

I sold them but not nearly as much as I'd like to. It was always a knife I'd show someone looking for a pocket knife. Spyderco knives were bleeding edge and very different from what people thought of as a pocket knife. Our biggest market for them were EMTs. If I remember correctly there was five models when I started in 1989 and they were all stainless (Police, economy, sailing knife - can't remember the name all with straight and serrated variations). We sold a ton of Victorinox swiss army knives and the occasional Case. As far as work knives went Cold Steel was the "hip" in knife at the time and Buck knives were still a popular and respected brand (They should never have moved manufacturing to China for their premium knives). Kershaw was gaining ground by copying a lot of what Puma was doing. And, Spyderco was fairly unknown. It was right about the time Hoffritz closed in late 1990 that awareness of who Spyderco outside of knife circles started growing. Obviously through my passion for the brand even back then, I definitely played my part in promoting them. Spyderco marketing rep if you're reading this. I'm happy to pay whatever it costs but your helping me to find my nephew that rare Spyderco that he'll love and carry for the rest of his life and that will break him of his Benchmade affection would be greatly appreciated.

As far as instant recognition, it was definitely there but overshadowed by self imposed doubt that I was suffering from wishful thinking that I wanted it to be my knife. It took about a day to get over the belief that I was being certifiable. I was uncomfortable telling people because if I thought I was being nuts, what would they think. Reality just doesn't work that way and I didn't think for a moment after I graduated that I'd see this knife again. It just never occurred to me. As far as I was concerned it was lost to the universe. We live on a planet that is 200 million square miles in size with almost eight billion people. What are the F'ing odds it didn't end up in the bottom of someone's tool box or even in a landfill. When I did think about the knife it was always and I mean always about finding a replacement that I would love more and finally let me forget about the d**n thing.

Keep in mind I worked in a cutlery store back in the day and dealt with customers bent and chipped knife blades on a daily basis. So what's a chipped and bent blade on a thirty year old work knife. I'd be more surprised if it wasn't. My first response that it was my knife was an instinct I tried to fight and so I put it down as soon when I went back inside. I knew my knife was bent just like this one and could even remember where I was sitting when it happened but for the life of me couldn't remember how or why I did it. It was driving me crazy. It took about an hour but I managed to remember all of the details right down to where I was sitting and the conversation I was having. I was going at it with my housemate because the phone bill didn't get paid. The idiot mailed it in cash and was asking for me to pay my half again (I s**t you not and I'm still friends with that moron thirty years later). We were in the middle of it and it's why I didn't get up to get a can opener. I was sitting there talking to him while trying to open a d**n jar and didn't think for a moment it would hurt to stick the blade in-between the lid and the jar and pry it a millimeter or two just to break the seal. Unfortunately, the moment I applied the slightest pressure I felt it bend and knew I f***ed up. I even remember flipping it over in order to try and bend it back but because of the bend in the blade it wouldn't fit from that angle. I was holding the jar in my left hand and if you look at the pictures you can see the curve and chips in the blade and how they align with the angle I was holding the knife so that the blade connected with the inner edge of the lid. Remembering that opened the door and I started remembering a lot of other little details. What convinced me the most was actually how clean it was. I used to clean it thoroughly at the very least once a week inside and out with rubbing alcohol and a small brush, polish the blade with never dull and re-oil it. As a result I knew every ding and every scratch on the knife. It's possible the seller cleaned it, but it's the cleanest well used thirty year old knife I've every come across.

Now when I look at it, there's not doubt. Not only do i remember the blade chips and a thousand other details clear as day but when I opened it the blade rated between a 150 and 200 on the BESS scale (you can shave with it now). If someone besides me had bothered to put that kind of an edge on it they would most certainly have sharpened the chips out, it wouldn't take more than a couple minutes. BTW, I'm literally the guy with the tri-angle sharpender that remains set up in the kitchen cabinet over my kitchen knives and who pulls it down and spends five seconds to swipe every knife five times on each side after each use.

Sorry to prattle, now I stop lurking I can't shut up. It's both great and very surreal to have my knife back and I don't think I'll ever get over the likely hood much less how it all came together.

*EDITED for profanity - TazKristi*

[zuludelta]

The longest time I've spent between losing a knife (a blacked-out combo edge Delica) and finding it is two weeks (I found it wedged underneath the driver's seat in my car, near the center console), and I felt so happy when I found it. I can't even imagine how the OP must have felt when he realized he had just re-bought the knife he lost a quarter-century ago.

[DigDug72]

Wow, what a great story! Thanks for sharing OP.

[bearrowland]

That is absolutely incredible!! Thanks for a great happy story!!

[abbazaba]

Thanks for a great feel good read!

[Filoso-]

A really beautiful story. Thank you for sharing it with us ceese!

[Chumango]

What good fortune. There are certainly things that I would like to find that have been missing for many years.

Sal's story reminded me of something that happened a long time ago somewhere around 1984. My brother and I were hiking up a steep mountain slope off-trail and there was a lot of snow on the ground. He had a Gerber double edged knife on his belt and somewhere in the brush it came off. We looked around but it was hopeless given how far we traveled through the brush in the snow. At least a year later I went back up that mountain when there wasn't any snow and just walking around off in the middle of nowhere up the steep slope I came across the knife on the ground. It was badly pitted but it did clean up and was usable after that.

[ladybug93]

that is crazy cool. i'm hoping my first knife makes it back to me someday. it was a ladybug, hence the name. welcome aboard and thanks for sharing the story.

[Nate]

Epic story! Thanks so much for sharing, it was a great read.

This bit really threw me in a time warp though:

There’s the small scratch I put in it opening a bottle of Bass Ale at the yellow house following the Cramps concert at Bogarts in 1990.

My buddies and I wanted to go to that show soooo bad! We had gotten into all sorts of Rock, Punk, etc ...but we were 7th graders and the parents still had heavy veto powers on letting us go hang out on Short Vine lol. Still caught plenty of great shows there later on though. :)

[DutchBlades]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for a great story :)
Glad it has found it's way back to you after all those years!

[crazywednesday]

Incredible story! I'm so glad you shared it with the Spyderco community. Thank you.

[Pancake]

Awesome story, thank you for sharing. I had a good time reading it.

[remnar]

Very cool story! :spyder: :)

[Ngati Pom]

Amazing story, really well told. Thanks for sharing

[shaztec]

Great story mate, that feeling when you realized must have been incredible! I lost my aaa olight back in 2017 while working construction at a new football stadium and figured I must have dropped it somewhere. Was devastated as I loved that light, my first ever aaa light.
Got it back 2.5 years later sitting on my bedside table! My wife found it, Turned out it had been tidied into a jar full of pens! Even the old battery still worked, it felt like a reunion with an old friend.