Yes, I’m the same guy who in 1974 came up with an idea for a product that turned out to be one of the world’s most respected brands in first quality hunting, fishing, camping, and general purpose working knives….KERSHAW KNIVES.
My wife, and pal, Judy and I founded the company in Lake Oswego, Oregon in a rented warehouse in the midst of a cement plant. I used to check the edge holding ability of our knives by cutting open cement sacks. If they could hold an edge with that kind of punishment…well, I figured that was good enough for out in the field.
Nearly twenty five years later in 1998, I retired as President of the company and we moved to a ranch near Sisters, Oregon. Since then I have kept up my interest in what’s going on in the knife industry, but thankfully I’m totally retired.
It’s been most pleasing to see that my successor, Kai USA, has advanced the company with an outstanding range of terrific new products manufactured in their new state of the art factory in Tualatin, Oregon. Quality without compromise was a cornerstone of Kershaw Knives from the beginning and now I can objectively state that is still the case. I have had no financial or advisory involvement since 2,000 with either Kershaw Knives or Kai USA, and therefore will comment on their products with the same candor as I will with any other company.
“How in the world did you ever wind up in the knife business Pete”. That’s a question I’m still ask. Sometimes for the fun of it I joke that as a kid I was a knife fighter at county fairs and was losing a lot. In order to win I needed to design and make a really good knife. That usually ends any further conversation.
The real answer is that after graduating from college and a couple of uninteresting “big company” jobs later, I met Pete Gerber of Gerber Legendary Blades in Portland, Oregon. I was with them from 1967 until 1974 serving as National Sales Manager. Pete Gerber sometimes referred to me as the “Sales Mangler”. Whatever… it was a good training ground in the quality end of the cutlery business.
After those seven years I felt it was time to take a shot at starting our own business.
So we did. It was fun, a challenge, and thankfully, successful.
Since I was a kid growing up on a pear orchard near Medford, Oregon I have enjoyed hunting, fishing and always working on equipment and all the various stuff that requires a good knife. So the seed was there to get into the knife business even though I didn’t have a clue at the time during the 1940’s and 50’s. (knives weren’t the only thing I didn’t have a clue about in those days)
What a great fit for me. I liked knives and enjoyed the excitement of setting up dealers and distributors while attending trade shows worldwide. Fortunately many of our customers and sales agents shared the same interest in the outdoors so in effect the knives became a ticket to “sporting adventures”. Shooting driven English pheasants or stalking red deer in Scotland are highly enjoyable activities brought about by the knife business. I still enjoy this and plan on many more years of it.
Enough of the background stuff. Here are a few of the topics that I will give you my frank opinion on relating to the knife world :
- Product reviews
- Knife sharpening
- Knife companies…the good, the bad, and the ugly
- The right knife for the job
- Kids and knives
- What to carry in the field. Not just knives. ( maybe a Duct Tape trick you don’t know of. No…it’s not taping your buddy to a tree ‘cus he drank all the camp whiskey last night)
KIDS and KNIVES
The days of eleven year old boys playing the great old American game of “Mumblety Peg” at school during recess are over. Not that sticking a good pocket knife blade into the ground with zinging speed was good for it…but darn it, it was a lot of good harmless fun. It taught boys to respect a knife as a sharp object and that if you did it enough you would end up with a piece of junk.
However, if you were good enough at the game you probably had won enough nickles, and dimes to go down to the hardware store and buy, lets say, a shinny new Case with
yellow scales. Wow !
Anyway, those days are gone. But good red blooded American lads are still attracted to knives much like a dog is to a juicy soup bone. I’ve found little British lads to be the same. Don’t rule out young girls either but they don’t quite drool over them like the boys. Our twelve year old granddaughter Molly tells me, “I need a pocket knife for all sorts of jobs grandpa”. Alright !
Sadly with the world as it is today far too many adults have over reacted to knives to the point of silly hysteria. Should a kid happen to pull out a little pocket knife to sharpen his pencil both he and his parents are complete toast. It’s pointless to go into the legal aspects of all this now. Maybe later. But the nonsense that circulates makes my blood boil.
The whole idea is to get the lad started out in the right direction. It is the sole responsibility of an adult to do this. The key is to be sure he has the right size and type of knife at the right age.
Generally I think nine is about the right age. Our only grandson, Pete, is nine and I’m going to give him one this year. By that time most kids coordination is fairly smooth and a sense of responsibility has started to settle in. Just as important is finger strength. With even the smallest lock back folder it takes a fair amount of thumb strength to depress the latch.
STARTER KNIVES: A small pocket knife with non-locking blades is a good starter. One with a 3” blade or less is an excellent size. A Swiss Army type knife with a few gadgets is good as is one of the micro all purpose tools. If Mr. Little Guy has a specific purpose in mind, like cleaning a fish, then he should have a regular folding knife.
THE NEXT STEP: Sheath / non folding knives are the next level after a safe learning curve with a small pocket knife. Most important with a knife that fits in a sheath/scabbard is to be taught the safe and proper removal and replacement of the knife into the sheath. NEVER wrap your hand around a sheath when doing this. Hold the lower tip of the sheath with the fingers always positioned along the top side of the blade…away from the edge. With the other hand firmly on the handle, start by pushing with slight thumb pressure on the top edge of the sheath and slowly remove.
NO--NO KNIVES: Don’t ever start a youngster (or any novice) out with a knife that operates as a flick, switch blade, or assisted release type folder. Most companies now have a wide range of various flavors of high-tech knives with very clever opening and closing features. Even an adult with little experience around mechanically advanced folders needs to have training.
Many adults are absolute accidents waiting to happen when it comes to using knives. Too often they are KNOW IT ALLS.
Case in point. One time we were exhibiting at a National Rifle Assn. convention when a real 24kt knife nut stopped by with his young son. His pockets were bulging with his own knives. Little Billy Bob proceeds to pick up the biggest lock-back knife we had on display. Right away I jumped in and said that the knife was very sharp and to let me show him how it worked. Big Billy Bob would have none of that from me. He said, “I know all about these knives…got lots of ‘em and I’ve taught Son here everything I know” With that Big B. B. took the knife from Little B. B. and proceeded to fumble around with a miserable performance closing it. About that time we made a dash to the backroom to retrieve the first aid kit.
