Of Guns and Knives

 

 

I've always liked knives. I like them a lot. Too much, maybe, considering the number of times I've inadvertently nicked, poked, slashed or hacked myself. I'd probably have more knives, but I also happened to like guns. So far, I haven't shot myself. Just about any gun costs much more than most knives, so if I buya gun, it counts for anywhere from two to twenty knives I might have bought.

Back in the late 1960's & early 1970's, admission to Knott's Berry Farm was free. That was while the venerable Walter Know and his wife were still alive and at the helm of the park. Day after day, sometimes two or three times a week I could be found strolling through the Knott's ghost town, ogling the guns and knives and other Old West tools and toys in the three or four musea in the park. This digression, unlike many, has a relevant point.

There were also a number of stores that were licensed to operate within the park, and that weren't out of place there. One was Bob's Knife shop. N ow, I did buy a few knives from Bob's, expensive as they were in a theme park shop. The one I didn't buy, but left fingerprints and drool stains all over, was a huge, beautiful Bowie, with a blade almost as long as my forearm.

The knife was shiny stainless, with a finger notch in front of the guard and a copper strip over the top of the blade from the clip back to the upper guard. I'm told that was a soft metal strip designed to catch your opponent's blade edge, maybe to pull his knife out of his hand, with any luck.

This fantastic Bowie was in prominent display above and behind the clerk's station behind the cash register. Its price tag proclaimed its value to be a tough 0over $75. That's $75 in 1970 dollars! I was earning about $7/hr at the time (not terrible wages), and was a single dad with a young son in a private school.

I never did get the knife.

In more recent years, I've acquired several knives, including a very nice Bowie and a stunning Buck General. Why Buck discontinued that one is a mystery.

Although I'm not a fanatic about it, I'll still buy more knives--those that catch my eye.