What is your oldest knife still in use?
medic07
Member Posts: 5,222 ✭✭✭
Got to thinking about this when my friend asked what to get her future SIL for Christmas. He likes to hunt and fish the Great Lakes areas.
Told her every man needs a good reliable knife. That made me think about all the knives I have used over the years in everyday use as well as military. I realized that I somehow always came back to the same knife to carry daily (even in uniform).
I to this day still carry the Buck 110 Folding Hunter that my father bought me for Christmas when I was 14. I have had to replace the leather sheath twice (last time I went with their nylon sheath) but that knife still locks up tight, holds an edge and does what I need it to do for daily tasks and simple things in the woods when hiking or hunting.
Wood is worn smooth and the brass definitely has darkened over the years but it is still reliable and means a lot to me as it came from my dad the same year he bought me my Marlin 336 30-30 (used that for many years and just in the last 10 years passed it on to one of my nephews to hunt with as I use a Marlin 336 SDT now).
So what is your oldest or most prized knife that you still use?
Comments
For hunting Knives it would be a Buck 119 given to me by my first wife as a Christmas present in 1980 the knife has held up well ,the marriage not so much so ,over with by 1984.Have several Old HIckory type butcher knives that date from the 40's that i use almost daily .One custom made deer skinning knife of my own design and build from an old broken crosscut saw blade that was from around 1910 or so ,according to my father
I, too, have the Buck 110 my dad gave me for Christmas in 1974. Skinned many a deer with it.
I have a buck 110 I bought around 1980 Or so I left my first one on a ditch embankment doing construction work on the Dayton Oh. airport I did not notice it until that night at home by then the ditch line was covered up and in no mans land at the airport no way to ever go looking .
my next in line is a case 3 blade ( stockman ) a departed buddy (RIP Ron ) gave me about 30 years ago about the same time my dad ( RIP dad ) gave me one just like it but just a bit smaller .
glad to say all still in use and carry the case(s) one at a time daily every time I use one I think about Dad and Ron
I do not own a Buck 110.
That is your misfortune.
Dad gave me a Buck 303U at least 40 years ago. It's always been in my pocket since then. 😀
The oldest knife still in use,, a cut stone, no question.
I received my Buck 110 from my Grandfather in 1980 or so. I used to carry it everywhere. Great knife, I still keep it sharp and clean but It is now in the prized possessions drawer along with his little stag handled 2 blade folder he left to me. Saving stuff up for not too far in the future Grandkids.
Another Buck 110 got it around 1976
Not particularly old but Benchmade did discontinue the Pat Crawford Leopard line a few years back. I have owned several and now have two. The one you see here is the Leopard Cub with 2 3/4" blade of ATS 34 steel. The other is a black full size Leopard with 3 5/8" blade. They are liner locks and as smooth as greased glass.
Western fixed blade that my dad got me when I was around 11 or 12. Little over 40 years old.
Buck 110 for me too.
As a side note, I used to go to the swap meet / bike show every year. There was a guy there selling knives including a Buck 110 that had been converted to auto opening, only it had to be used left handed, if you wanted to open it with your thumb. I stopped for years asking when he was going to have a "right handed" one. He finally did get some. I asked him how much? He told me, and I said that was too much. Again this went on for a number of years. One year I asked the same thing, he told me how much, and I said too much. He asked me how much I would pay for one and I told him. He said.......SOLD. I think he finally caved in just so I would quit bugging him every year. It is still in the original box, in the safe, never been used.
I carry a Buck 110 but my oldest is a 3 bladed case. It got loose and fairly worn out. I was at the Case shop in Branson and showed it to the dealer. Told him I was looking for one like it. He said Why, send it in to case and they would fix it up. I did and they sent me a brand new replacement no charge.
I still skin deer with my 110, but switched to the shorter 112 for removing innards.
A Buck 110. I carried it for 20 years as a Deputy Sheriff, and also my youngest son carried it on 2 tours to Iraq. Leather sheath has lasted with a little care. That knife was handled by Old Man Buck when his house in Blossom Valley burned down. He took it and had it sharpened (tip had broke off).
I have bought 2 more Buck 110 and they are in the gun safe. I also have a couple of fixed blade Buck knives for fish cleaning.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
Buck 102 fixed blade woodsman, have lots of brands and models but this is the oldest I still use. I'm guessin I bought it in the late 70's. Been on lots of trips and still serves me well
In '81 I worked at a Kawasaki dealer in N. Charleston, SC. I was picking up a bike that had a flat in a swampy area. As I walked out to get the bike I found a large Dexter Russell butcher knife. The edge was chewed up so I took it to the shop and ground the cutting edge to a new shape and cut a new edge. Been using it for 29 years. I have wondered if it was a murder weapon.
As appears to be the norm here, a Buck 110 folder.
Also a (smaller) [5"] fixed blade Buck. (Model # ?)
Used to carry Old Timer multi blade folders when I was younger. (Loved buying a new knife.) All gone now.
*I do however, really really like the IPAK D2 that Ricci sent me not too long back. A fearsome heavy Butcher style blade, leather sheath. (Thanks Ricci.) Similar to the knife Crocodile Dundee pulls on the mugger, "Now That's a Knife."
Dad's KBar from WWII
That reminds me, I have a new KBar in the safe, I need to dig out/locate and send to the Boy.
Solingen buffalo skinner....used it when i worked at a state experiment field cutting odd stuff out of test plots in the late 1960s....lost it off of a pickup fender back then for a year and found it ...polished it up and gun blued the blade.....
I've got a Queen pocket knife that is 58 years old. (stockman version) Carried it as a pocket knife and squirrel skinning knife for approx 20 years. One of the blades looks like a leather punch and really sharp.
I have a buck 110 that I've carried for several years in the deer woods. It's about 40 years old.
I could give both of them knives to my son to carry and he would not even know where they went in less than a year. (and not be very concerned)
He has lost more knives than I've ever owned.
Schrade Uncle Henry LB7 received as a gift in the mid-late 70s. Not my daily carry, but I'll never forget this: Inside the box was a certificate for a free replacement if you ever lost the knife. Wow...two knives for the price of one! I told dad I was going to submit the certificate and would then have two knives. Damn near got a whoopin' just for planning to lie and essentially steal.
My grand-dad's Marbles fixed blade skinner from around 1910.
I have a couple of old carbon steel Shrade sharp finger but mostly use a Buck 112 that I bought back in the mid 70s.I still have my issued Camillus K-Bar with the oxblood sheath.
I haven’t used it in a while but I have my Dad’s Ka-Bar U.S.N. rigging knife from WW2. He stayed good with that marlin spike braiding lines for the boat and monkey’s fists when I was a kid.
I also have a 110 and just recently broke the tip. I sent it in and for 10 dollars they replaced the blade and polished the knife to almost new condition. Don
used to mow a neighbors yard till he retired in early 70's, he got into knife making and made me a knife from an old sawblade one of the best knifes I ever owned, the handle was plastic stacked "washers" red and white, then shaped to mold your hand. that thing would hold an edge, took it with me to camp Lejeune to deerhunt one year off base at a gunny's farm, on the way back on base MPs stopped me when they saw the gun case in bed of truck, It was a model 12 from the armory we were allowed to check out to hunt with, the knife didn't fair as well it was either 5-6 inch blade and they said it couldn't be over 4 inches and confiscated it, I got the captain involved next day to try and get it back no luck as MP's never logged the incident in, I allways looked for that MP the rest of my hitch figured he was gonna get a butt kicking, or at least I was gonna get a few swings in, even if I had to do brig time, for stealing my knife. By the time I got out that old neighbor had passed away I was hoping he would make me another....
"...he got into knife making and made me a knife from an old sawblade one of the best knifes I ever owned..."
I have the butcher knife my grandfather made from an old lawn mower blade for my mother. I was probably 4 when he made it and gifted it to her for Christmas that year. No one had money that year so all of the gifts under the tree were handmade. Mom used it her whole life and then willed it to me when she passed.
My aunt and uncle flew around the world when I was 12. They brought back an original Victorinox Huntsman (or Explorer then) pocket knife for me. I have managed to carry this knife every day since receiving it and still have the original belt sheath.
Best.
It's a folding Schrade that was given to me. It had been owned and used for skinning deer by my wife's grandfather. I don't know how old it is actually.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
The knife on the left (dark scales) belonged to my maternal grandfather. It is a Trustworthy Hardware #36810. The other belonged to my paternal grandfather. It's a Henry Sears and Sons knife. To be honest I don't carry them anymore for fear of losing them. I believe them both to be from the 1930's-40's.
5 inch butcher knife that my grandad made from a chrome molly power hacksaw blade. Not only will it hold an edge, but it think it could cut a railroad rail in half.
Oldest one I have that I bought myself is one of the original Leathermans. Bought in 1988 at the PX at Fr. Drum NY. Still use it every day.
I have some older ones but they don't have sentimental value.
Those Buck 110s are classics.
I just picked up a new Buck Cadet three blade folder. I am very impressed with the fit and finish and overall quality. Handles good and it very pretty. Made in the USA even.