The Knife Place lakeland Florida . Been there ?
Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2026 11:45 pm
Prior to the late 80's I had only a few knives . Most notably was my Old Timer Sharp Finger , which for me is The great knife . I so love a sharpfinger and I still have mine which I got in 78 or 79 . To think it was a kinda "newish " pattern back then , lol
Anyway , fast forward to 88 or so , I think , and I discovered a knife shop outside of Lakeland , Florida . I was living in Plant City fl at the time which is where my ex wife was from . I think I remember the shop owners name as Dick Plank [ ? ] . He was a retired older gentleman and had a nice sized shed type building to the side of his home that he operated his knife shop out of
The first time I visited his shop it blew me away . He had glass countertop cabinets filled with knives and I spent a long time looking and talking with him and i always made sure to buy a knife any time I visited him because first off I want to and secondly I thought I ate up a chunk of his time asking him a bazillion questions and having him show me so many knives . In a short time he let me know that he had many more knives in these wooden trays behind the counter and they were the older more collectable stuff
The first knife I bought from him was a Western fixed skinner with the rubber grip handle in stainless . I wanted that knife for hunting , though my hunting days are few and far between these days , its always been there and always will be for large game hunts . My sharp finger was always there , unless I lost it for a while
The sharp finger was doable in all things but I lost the sheath for it which bummed me out and got me to go into the knife shop in the first place. I hadn't had a stainless fixed and at the time I thought it would be cool to have one .
The next three years Id buy many knives from his shop and I didnt shop anywhere else except for SMKW which had the " different " type stuff , like a Case " side lock " I think they called it , which was a liner lock type knife that I wish I still had . Lock backs were the locking thing of the time and liner locks really weren't yet , at least in my neck of the woods
I didn't care for plastic handle stuff too much . I did own a Bucklite until I lost it and I did own the first Gerber plastic knife until I lost it . Ive lost more knives than I own . Anyway , Dick had some old knives and I took a liking to Keen Kutter , Schrade and IXL which all had bone or wood handles that I liked the feel of . I also liked having different fixed knives and bought a number of them from him . Id guess 75 % of my collection , which isnt very big , came from his shop . Ive given some away to my sons and they take pretty good care of them
Lol , I can remember my oldest son , Nick ,when I told him he was going to have a brother , he asked if he'd have to share the knives I would leave to him with his brother , lol , I swear . My middle son , when I told him he was gonna have a younger brother just smiled and said .. good , what will you name him ? My middle son , Anthony is the softer soul of the family Joseph , the youngest was and still is to an extent , a handful . But to this day , Joseph [ my youngest ] is the only one to give me a grandchild !!!
Oh well , the main reason I posted this thread which went off track , of course , was to see if anyone else ever visited the Knife Shop in Lakeland Florida . Mr. Plank was an excellent , fair and super decent human being and I spent many wonderful hours talking with him and his customers . I say he " was " because he was elderly back then and I assume he has passed .. but it would be great if he's still kickin it !
Super fond memories that lasted from there . I wish Y'all could have known him and his shop because I know youd be as thrilled to have been there as I was
Anyway , fast forward to 88 or so , I think , and I discovered a knife shop outside of Lakeland , Florida . I was living in Plant City fl at the time which is where my ex wife was from . I think I remember the shop owners name as Dick Plank [ ? ] . He was a retired older gentleman and had a nice sized shed type building to the side of his home that he operated his knife shop out of
The first time I visited his shop it blew me away . He had glass countertop cabinets filled with knives and I spent a long time looking and talking with him and i always made sure to buy a knife any time I visited him because first off I want to and secondly I thought I ate up a chunk of his time asking him a bazillion questions and having him show me so many knives . In a short time he let me know that he had many more knives in these wooden trays behind the counter and they were the older more collectable stuff
The first knife I bought from him was a Western fixed skinner with the rubber grip handle in stainless . I wanted that knife for hunting , though my hunting days are few and far between these days , its always been there and always will be for large game hunts . My sharp finger was always there , unless I lost it for a while
The sharp finger was doable in all things but I lost the sheath for it which bummed me out and got me to go into the knife shop in the first place. I hadn't had a stainless fixed and at the time I thought it would be cool to have one . The next three years Id buy many knives from his shop and I didnt shop anywhere else except for SMKW which had the " different " type stuff , like a Case " side lock " I think they called it , which was a liner lock type knife that I wish I still had . Lock backs were the locking thing of the time and liner locks really weren't yet , at least in my neck of the woods
I didn't care for plastic handle stuff too much . I did own a Bucklite until I lost it and I did own the first Gerber plastic knife until I lost it . Ive lost more knives than I own . Anyway , Dick had some old knives and I took a liking to Keen Kutter , Schrade and IXL which all had bone or wood handles that I liked the feel of . I also liked having different fixed knives and bought a number of them from him . Id guess 75 % of my collection , which isnt very big , came from his shop . Ive given some away to my sons and they take pretty good care of them
Lol , I can remember my oldest son , Nick ,when I told him he was going to have a brother , he asked if he'd have to share the knives I would leave to him with his brother , lol , I swear . My middle son , when I told him he was gonna have a younger brother just smiled and said .. good , what will you name him ? My middle son , Anthony is the softer soul of the family
Joseph , the youngest was and still is to an extent , a handful . But to this day , Joseph [ my youngest ] is the only one to give me a grandchild !!! Oh well , the main reason I posted this thread which went off track , of course , was to see if anyone else ever visited the Knife Shop in Lakeland Florida . Mr. Plank was an excellent , fair and super decent human being and I spent many wonderful hours talking with him and his customers . I say he " was " because he was elderly back then and I assume he has passed .. but it would be great if he's still kickin it !
Super fond memories that lasted from there . I wish Y'all could have known him and his shop because I know youd be as thrilled to have been there as I was
