How Old Were You When You Began Carrying?

[Bolster]

A trip down memory lane:

How old were you when you began carrying a knife on a regular basis, and what was the knife? (Extra points if your first knife was a Spyderco.)

[kennbr34]

Gosh, hard to remember. I started carrying knives pretty young.

I think the only noteworthy mention was a Buck Odyssey II that I got when I was about 14. Before that, it was all just kinda Chinese knock-offs of Buck 110s and Leathermans.

[Naperville]

I started carrying folders when I was in 1st grade at 6, and used it defensively for the 1st time before I was 9.

[Wartstein]

Quite young, I guess not older than 7 or 8 years - back then, like many boys, I had a "Taschenfeitel" in my pocket - "Tasche" actually is the German word for "pocket" , "Feitel" an Austrian term for our traditional, very simple non locking folding knife (see here ... actually a thread, you, Bolster, created viewtopic.php?t=90506#p1551420
or here viewtopic.php?t=82372#p1293139)

When I was around ten I got my first "HIrschfaenger", an also very traditional Austrian / Bavarian fixed blade which I had with me all the time...(see here for a bit more info viewtopic.php?f=2&t=82372&start=20#p1410790)

[Zipper]

My brothers and I were brought up on a farm and as long as I can remember we had horses. I always had a stockman pattern (clip point, Spey and sheep’s foot blades) slip joint knife on my belt. Usually USA made old timers. Probably the first belonged to my dad or grandfather. At a guess I would have been 5-6 years old.
There are photos of when I was less than 10 using a cane knife (still have it) to take bark off and then Tordon (herbicide brand) wattle trees. Other pictures of me with my grandmother using an axe (still have it) to chop the heads off chooks. Didn’t think anything of blades. Just considered them tools.
Only got my first Spyderco about 10 years ago. A PM2 my eldest son now carries in his army webbing.

[Brock O Lee]

Around SAK's since I was 8. First true EDC was a Victorinox Pioneer at around 23. That thing really floated my boat when I saw it for the first time in high school. Today, 23 years later, I still have a Pioneer in LFP. It must be my favourite pocket knife...

First serious EDC after the Pioneer was a PM2.

[kennbr34]

When I was around ten I got my first "HIrschfaenger", an also very traditional Austrian / Bavarian fixed blade which I had with me all the time...(see here for a bit more info viewtopic.php?f=2&t=82372&start=20#p1410790)

Hmm, that's really interesting, because I was left a dagger that I was told was caled a Hirschfaenger. I believe it had it etched on the blade too. I was always told it was a kind of ceremonial or officer's blade from around WWII. Was my great uncle's, who gave it to my grandfather, who I inherited it from; both had served in the Navy, so I always assumed that it was like, a war trophy, but only realized that they were too young to have served later on. Basically https://www.catawiki.com/en/l/29100301- ... rt#gallery but without the etching on the blade.

I will say that I had a whole lot of knives before I started carrying any. When I grew up in the 90s, having a knife on you at school would be a serious offense. Yet, it was still pre-Columbine, pre-9/11 and etc. So I remember literally my first day in school, my grandmother sent me to school with a pen-knife in my pencil box to sharpen my pencils with. I actually knew it was a seriously bad situation, so I tried to sneakily throw it away in the trash, except that I was apparently obvious as **** because my teacher pulled me aside and confronted me for tossing it in the garbage. Luckily the 90s still had some semblance of quaintness, and she laughed when I told her my grand mother had sent me to school with it for my pencils.

I think probably my first real *nice* knife was a Buck 119 that I got when I was twelve. I'd had all sorts of cheap knives, usually dollar-store knock-offs or thereabouts. I actually remember getting a lot of those knock-off Spydercos that were very popular in the early 90s. Instead of a Spydie hole, they had a black plastic button that was set through the blade. Yet their shape was basically a copy of the Military. I remember tearing all sorts of stuff part with those, ended up getting a lot of cuts on my fingers because of them. I had also gotten one of those little mini SAK knives of course, but the first "big knife" (really just normal size) knife I had was some kind of copy of a Buck 110 that was made by some brand called "Coast". Too bad I don't still have it, I hear they're a little more well-known now days. My grandpa also gave me a bunch of Old Timers and Uncle Henry model knives about that time that I really liked. But I never really carried any of these.

[aicolainen]

The culture around knives is probably a bit different here. Growing up I didn't see a lot of pocket knives or folders and from what I can tell, this seems to be broadly applicable around the country and also further back in time.
Fixed blades are the bees knees here. The knife culture is definitively concentrated around fixed blades both as it pertains to carry and use, and craftmanship.
When I was younger knives were much more widely accepted and there was pretty much no laws limiting what and where you could carry. Still, with a culture based around belt sheath fixed blades, people generally only carried knives when they expected to need one.

Long intro to put things into perspective :)
I believe I got my first fixed blade when I was around 8-9 years old, but as a product of my environment, I only carried it for outdoors activities.
The real change, for me and the culture in general, came with the introduction of pliers based multitools. I think I became aware of these, or at least realized how they could be useful for me, in the fall of 1996. I was totally in love with the Leatherman Supertool after seeing it in a marketing catalogue for hunting and shooting gear. It was on top of my wish list for Christmas that year and magically found its way under the tree.

I carried that thing (and the LM Wave, superseding it in 2000) almost every day throughout trade school, military service and my first couple of years in the trade, before venturing into a white collar career. Age? 17 to 21 or thereabouts.

I didn't really discover folding knives until around 2016 and became quite intrigued by the "concept", but we were probably well into 2017 before I had developed an EDC that included a knife. Felt a bit weird at first, but now I can't go back.

[JD Spydo]

Well my first Every Day Carry knife was not a Spyderco. Actually I had several hardware store knives from the time I was maybe about 9 to 10 years old. I often carried several popular brands of blades in my younger days made by Ka-Bar, Case, Buck, Queen Cutlery as well as a few others. We had 3 hardware stores locally and all 3 had great selections of cutlery.

Back when I was growing up in a rural town it was common for boys to carry folding pocketknives as young as 10 years of age. I probably started carrying consistently at about 12 years old. I got my first Spyderco folder back in the Spring of 1995 and got several other Spyderco knives for the next 5 years or so. So I've been carrying Spyders since I got my first one in 95.

Growing up here in Missouri was a culture that was conducive for all young men to carry a pocketknife. It's amazing to me that I'm seeing a revival of guys carrying folding knives on a daily basis. There are a lot of guys like myself that are really into hunting, fishing, hiking in this state that I live in (Missouri) and many of my friends are now carrying pocketknives again. Actually I never ever stopped carrying one. I'm now 69 years young and have no intention of quitting either.

[Manifestgtr]

I was really, really young when my grandfather got me a Swiss Army knife…probably 7-8. I was completely awestruck at all the little tools available at my disposal.

Now, 30 years later, I have more tools than any one man should ever own and so I focus more on quality and usability for any given specimen…hence, my interest in spyderco knives.

[standy99]

15 years old
Apprentice butcher, carried 3 knives and a steel pretty much 12 hours a day for over 20 years

[JSumm]

I don't exactly recall what age I was when I got this. Probably between 10-12. It is the first knife I can remember. May have had one before. I do know I had a machete before this, but that was for wackin' mocassins going fishing at a pond on our property and clearing trails.

A childhood friend had saved his money in order to give this to me. Still have it to this day.

Schrade Old Timer

[Evil D]

Literally as far back as I can remember. I found a Case folder on the side of the street, I couldn't have been older than 6. Sharpened it on a cinder block, carried it everywhere.

[apollo]

Probably around 5years old.
It was a gift from my Grand pa.
We spend allot of time in the nearby forrest. He learned my brother and me how to safely use a knife.
It is the one on the right side of the Picture.


My first Spydie was an endura 3 when i was around 14 years old. Sold it a year later to afford my Chinook 2.

[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.

[apollo]

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.

Let me guess the ZT0350 crawled its way in to you’re mind thanks to watching NCIS ?

[yablanowitz]

I found a tuxedo penknife when I was seven. One end had seperated, probably because someone tried to use it for a prybar. I repaired it (used an axle from a Matchbox car for a pin) and carried it for years. I still have it.



Not a Spyderco, but Sal was still in school then.

[TkoK83Spy]

I honestly never did, every day...until I was 27. First real knife I bought on my own and used was a Kershaw Cryo. I was getting sick of using the cheap utility blades at work that dulled quickly, couldn't do minimal prying tasks and also would break on me under high tension cuts.

A friend at work mentioned Kershaw, I thought it was cool looking knife and for around $30 I figured why not. Enjoyed that for a few years, but would dull quickly and I had zero sharpening skills at that time.

Decided to look into other brands, read some good reviews on Spyderco and thought that hole in the blade was pretty interesting. Took me until I was 29 to get my first Spyderco knife, Manix 2 LW with BD1 steel. Came here under a different username, asked a question about camping, Decided to give a Sage 5 a try, and it was on from there!

[Evil D]

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.

Not embarrassing at all, I've got several. My buddy also loves those knives and has several. For years I carried one as a box knife.

[RAHComanche]

57 years old.