Some finds make me feel terrible!

[dirt_swinger]

I found this Camillus 64 knife in the park yesterday. It wasn't very deep, and all it took was a night in some vinegar before I could open the blades. After a thorough cleaning and oiling, I sharpened it and it's shaving sharp after just a few passes on my stone. Why do I feel terrilbe? Because I can tell this is an "heirloom piece". I have an Old Timer pocket knife that I've had for 30+ years. One day my oldest son told me "You know dad, I don't want anything from you when you die. Except that pocketknife, and your hammer."

Talk about tearing up.

It's just something that I've always had, and he's always seen me with. The knife I found is well-used. The tip is broken off. But it was kept sharp, and maintained. It's a Model 64, from the late 70s, so someone has probably carried it around for most of their lives. Or maybe they gave it to their son or daughter. I don't know. But that's the thing about detecting. Imagining the history of these items we found, who carried them, how they were lost. It's endlessly fascinating to me. And sometimes, the items hit close to home.

But things are just things, and it's the people who are important. My son would be just fine if he never got my knife and hammer. We've had a lifetime of memories together. Those are the things I fear losing the most.

 

[Ronstar]

I know exactly what you’re saying. My first knife I carried hunting deer was a simple folding Buck knife with plastic handles, couldn't afford anything much more at the time. When oldest boy first started going out hunting with me he needed a knife to open a food package so I gave him the Buck.
A few years later he was with me when I got a doe, used it to cut paracord, did a little whittling, etc. same type story recently. Now I have a couple knives, one being a Randall. He asked for the Buck because of the memories.......
I’m including a couple pictures of a knife I found out in an old county park, always wondered what young lady lost it and when.....

 

[wildwilly]

The knife I carry was given to me as a present by my service manager, Noah Barbary in High Point, NC, in 1972. It's also an Old Timer carried daily. I know your feelings.

 

[fwcrawford]

I found a “mother’s ring” with three birthstones in it and also the names of her three children.... I’m sure she would like to get it back, but almost impossible to find the owner.
I also found a nice wedding ring a few years ago that a couple had reported lost to a lifeguard that told me about it...I found the ring, and tried calling them from the phone number the lifeguard gave me that they left with him.... recording came up stating the number is no longer in service.
I went back where I found it a day or so later and left my contact information with the lifeguard staff in case the owner called about anyone findIng the ring.... never heard anything more about it.

 

[dirt_swinger]

I know exactly what you’re saying. My first knife I carried hunting deer was a simple folding Buck knife with plastic handles, couldn't afford anything much more at the time. When oldest boy first started going out hunting with me he needed a knife to open a food package so I gave him the Buck.
A few years later he was with me when I got a doe, used it to cut paracord, did a little whittling, etc. same type story recently. Now I have a couple knives, one being a Randall. He asked for the Buck because of the memories.......
I’m including a couple pictures of a knife I found out in an old county park, always wondered what young lady lost it and when.....

That is a really cool Brownie knife! On the flip side of things, I once lost a knife of my dads while hunting Antelope. It was a nice sheath knife with a bone handle. Only YEARS later did he let me know that it was a gift from his father and it was a very old Mora Knife his dad had brought back from Sweden in the 1930s. I was at the point where I knew a bit about knives and to say I felt terrible about losing that is an understatement. He was very cool about it at the time though and didn't make me feel bad.