All About Pocket Knives

If you want to keep amassing cutlery, Grails are bad idea – in case you find the damned things

Noddy is touching on my thought on this subject.

Having a grail is a reason to collect, unless you have a Midas personality. The hunt, not the trophy, is how the excitement and anticipation are maintained. When I go to a shop, show, or whatever, it's the anticipation of what I might find that attracts me to collecting. If I had my "grail", all of the other knives in my collection would pale in comparison, lose their appeal for me, and I'd no longer have a reason to take part in the hunt. There would be no reason to come on AAPK, to belong to my local knife club, visit antique shops or go to knife shows. I'd have the GRAIL....and no more reason to be a knife collector.

I'd no longer have a reason for the company of all my great knifer friends either, except to hopefully enjoy their envy.

After that, and having it for a while, the grail would lose it's luster and I would have lost all interest in being a knife collector.


Having said all that, a large George Korn with guards and gutta percha handles would be my pick.



Fran

Sauconian wrote:Having a grail is a reason to collect, unless you have a Midas personality. The hunt, not the trophy, is how the excitement and anticipation are maintained. When I go to a shop, show, or whatever, it's the anticipation of what I might find that attracts me to collecting. If I had my "grail", all of the other knives in my collection would pale in comparison, lose their appeal for me, and I'd no longer have a reason to take part in the hunt. There would be no reason to come on AAPK, to belong to my local knife club, visit antique shops or go to knife shows. I'd have the GRAIL....and no more reason to be a knife collector.

Thats what I thought too when I first started collecting over twenty years ago. I used to say to myself if I find this one knife, them I am done collecting!

Well I have found many of my "Grail" knives over the years and I am collecting more knives now than ever!

Sauconian wrote:I'd no longer have a reason for the company of all my great knifer friends either, except to hopefully enjoy their envy.

After that, and having it for a while, the grail would lose it's luster and I would have lost all interest in being a knife collector.


Having said all that, a large George Korn with guards and gutta percha handles would be my pick.



Fran

Fran, you will never lose your interest in knife collecting, wether you find that Korn or not. That is why most collectors go to their grave with their collection intact. Most will never sell their knives during their lifetime, atleast not all of them. I know there are one or two I want in my pocket when they bury me!

I have enjoyed reading about everyone`s "Holy Grail" knife/knives.

Keep them coming And a picture of them is always welcome

For me, it's not The Knife but the knives. No one knife could ever scratch my itch.

Hey, that kinda sounds like a Country & Western song doesn't it. Hum along with me now, "No one knife could ever scratch my itch." That could be the AAKP theme song.

How about : " I scratched my itch with my pocketknife but I had to go to the ER"
Darn thing was just way too sharp

Wow, had to go back 40 pages to find this thread

This is my new "Holy Grail" knife, it is a Joseph Allen rope knife with a one shot pistol as a secondary blade!!

I would really like to find one of these


Let`s hear from some of you new members what your grail knife might be

GEC Gambler in genuine stag... or maybe a Buck 184 buckmaster... - grails i could get with some saving.

but the holiest of holy would have to be a vintage Randall Made M-1 with stag handles...

seeing MB pistol knife post... i think this one would be a little more attainable to me, and have added it as my most supreme holy grail knife

It would have to be a Remington scout with the spanish etching, or a Holly charter oak.

allmightyoz wrote:...but the holiest of holy would have to be a vintage Randall Made M-1 with stag handles...

+1 on that one oz

dad had one of these blue... sold it on the bay about 7 years ago for 2,800... we had no idea how much it was worth or what it was, and a $125 reserve!

the m-1 SPRINGFIELD

he had the holy grail for 25 years, n never knew it!

^^^They made that model with a stag handle?

be still my heart!
That's purty.
I might would settle for a new made in Richmond Virginia John Ek Model 5, with checkered walnut handles as a "cheap substitute"

i highly doubt it, but that makes it even MORE like the holy grail... unattainable i know they made the springfield fighters not marked orlando OR springfield, which is what my dad had. rumor has it they were outsourced to a different company and made only about 250 of them, thats what the guy that bought it told us. just marked randall made. the guy that bought it said basically it was his holy grail knife, and he'd never seen another.

oz, I'll bet the $125 reserve price was busted pretty quickly on that one!

got a rooskie offer for 500 the first hour !

This might be someone's "Holy Grail" This is my knife maybe not my "Holy Grail" knife
but nice. Also my friend did these pictures.

My Holy Grail is whatever knife I can sneak past the wife into the house.........

Mine would be a WR Case Green Bone Long Pull 6488 Congress with a center shield. Had one in my hand one time but couldnt afford to pull the trigger and still cant.

Folks,

Not sure if there is one. There are just tooooooo many Real vintage knives out there I would like to have, many do not come up for sale either at auction or by other means. That said I'm happy with the beauty's that I have, some nice, others not so. I love them all, the older the better.

BH

I'd like to have something made by the Platts.

I asked Buster Warenski in 1972 if he would build me a folder. His comment cannot be used in public, but the answer resembled ... Not a chance. In 1994 he walked into my office and said here is your @#$%^& folder. I will post a photo here when I get home today. Since he passed on. I have been able to get a few more of his rigid blades and cherish them, as there will be no more.

I was lucky enough to find mine a while back. It's a Case 551 folding hunter (Pig Sticker). Now I am dreaming of owning a Case 5171L bolster stamped lever lock switchblade and I just want to hold a Case 5172 zipper Clasp switchblade. I guess you never really find the end of the tunnel. That's what makes it fun to collect. It's up to each person as long as it for them.
wazu013

Love the Stag on that Case knife wazu


Thanks to everyone who responded to this thread, it is interesting to see what different collectors hold in high regard as their "Grail" knife

Its kind of funny how your Holy Grail knife changes as you get older and taste in knives change. You aquire some of the knives you can't seem to do without, but you always seem to have a few more that you hunt for. To me, half the fun is in the chase.

Case zipper release switchblade 61050L 1920-40 Tested XX, green bone of course.