First, the always boring backstory. Lost my 10 year-old Gerber Ivory Micarta LST at a club meeting in 1992 - Gerber had quit making them, of course. Bought a Schrade Uncle Henry 897UH. Liked the knife, but it didn't feel right in business pants, so I bought a small Swiss Army Knife (SAK to the cool kids) for my pocket, and stuck the Schrade in my desk drawer for envelopes, boxes, fairly light use.

It moved with me through 6 towns and about 10 desks. Then about a year or so ago, it was missing from the sliding compartment of the middle drawer of the the 3-drawer file cabinet it was kept in. Tore my cubicle apart, twice - no luck, and of course Schrade had ceased operation, and the name had been bought by a company that was having them made in China.

I could have bought an USA made one in the same condition as my lost one off of eBay for less than I paid for the original, but it wouldn't have been mine, with over 20 years of memories.

Then last week I was trying find the "panic button" I was supposed to have, and was shining a flashlight behind the drawer in the file cabinet, and there was my knife caught in a lip of metal on the bottom of the cabinet. I was very happy.

Here's the SAK with the emblem worn off from use, the Uncle Henry, and a case knife I bought to replace the Uncle Henry. It's funny how attached I get to tools that have served me well. The Case is a nice knife, but it doesn't do anything special for me.

I know exactly how you feel, I am never without my pocket knife. I'm a Case XX fan and keep a backup on hand just in case I lose then one I carry. It take years of pocket carry to get broken in nice, rounded corners and such.

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Back to back World War Champs.

That's even better than finding cash in an old sport coat.

I know how you feel.....

I just lost my favorite hat....

I've torn apart my house and patrol car.....no luck

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Un-Reconstructed Southerner

I know how you feel too. I just lost my Kershaw Leek. I was wearing some baggy pants with pockets that didn't contain well. I hope I'll find it under the passenger seat of my wife's car, or else that a dog grabbed it off the counter and dragged it off somewhere.

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Not in jail.

I lost my first Victorianox SAK in March 1979 while on a two week ski touring and mountaineering trip in the Wind River Range, WY. We bagged Gannett Peak, the tallest in WY, but the SAK is still out there somewhere. I have four different SAKs now. Each has a different purpose, but the main one I carry in my pocket every day is the Spartan model.

Probably my all-time favorite pocketknife was a USA-made Schrade 8OT, the four-inch stockman. I lost it in the course of doing a couple of friends a favor. They aren't the same since Taylor bought the name and move the manufacturing to China. Unused older ones are bringing substantial money these days. But thanks to the generosity of a member here (he knows who he is), I now have one that shows some wear but suits me very well indeed.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I lost my glasses once. Found them a few minutes later on top of my head!

My Leek is back. I was using it to slice some cabbage, but somehow it ended up in a bag of potatoes, where my wife found it.

I'm happy to have my knife back, but I hate it when she finds the stuff that I lose.

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Not in jail.

Makes me feel like a dork when my wife does that.

I like Kershaw knives, too. My EDC is a Kershaw Ken Onion "Scallion". Fits perfectly in the small 'watch' pocket in jeans.

I can sympathize. I've owned a Buck 501 for 38 years, single-blade, lock-back, dark red micarta scales. Buck no longer uses micarta. Early last year, I lost it. Looked high and low, but couldn't find. I bought two of them on eBay. But like you mentioned, they weren't mine.

Yep! The very next week, I asked the club bartender/custodian if she had seen it, or someone had turned it in to her. "Is this the one?" Like a lost child being found!

Ted Trueblood once wrote an angsty column in Field & Steam about the agony of losing a knife.

Thankfully, it hasn't happened often to me, but somewhere around here, there's hopefully a Camper model Victorinox that I still hope to find. It may well have been stolen by a guest who I found in my bedroom about the time the knife went missing. It was out in plain sight. I did buy a new one, but that old one has sentimental value and I want it back.

I lost my beloved Zeiss 6X20B pocket monocular, a model no longer made. I was heartbroken. Thought it'd fallen out of a jacket pocket in a restaurant, but they claimed they hadn't found it. I saved up and bought the 8X20B current version as a replacement. Months later, I looked behind a box in my closet under a row of coats and there was my 6X20B, in its fine leather case! I was delighted to find it undamaged, having fallen on a carpet. I guess it had just fallen from the coat when I hung it up. I'm sure glad that it's back.

The OP chose that little Uncle Henry well. Two of the most famous knife writers carried that same model of pocketknife. I don't care for the Turkish clip main blade, so have a similar knife with a conventional clip blade and I have the four-inch (closed) Uncle Henry stockman they called the King Ranch model. And I have a very fine red bone Case medium stockman.

But whenever I carry another knife, I always need some tool that I'd have if I carried a Swiss Army knife. So I have maybe 20, in various models with some duplicates of favorites. Like a poster above, I rely on the Spartan for my basic pocketknife, but sometimes carry the smaller Executive model in dress clothes. I have a SwissChamp in its very nice black leather SOS pouch in my briefcase. It handles whatever can't be acomplished by a more pocketable model.

I bought a used Vic. with a Boy Scout emblem on the handle. It is essentially the Huntsman model, but the corkscrew is replaced by a Phillips - head screwdriver. I expect that Scout parents weren't enthused about their kids having a corkscrew! Does anyone know which model this is? I may have to call Swiss Army Brands or write the maker. I probably should, anyway, as I want one of their knives imprinted with the ad logo of a company whose food products I like.

Found this Kershaw Chive just walking the dog the other day. Looked down and there it was. It's the smallest one in the Kershaw catalog, 4.75" open. Great just in the pocket. I was shocked when I saw Kershaw on it, U.S.A. too.

Makes up for the Boker I lost years ago, and the Buck 112, and so on and so on.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

Carried a SAK in the pocket of my fatigues in Alaska. Took it to RVN, lost it when I had it in the leg pocket of my jungle fatigues and was sitting in a helicopter with my rump about 3 inches off the floor. My wife sent me another; I carried it until about 2002 when the red plastic had worn enough that the edges of the metal shield emblem were exposed; they were very sharp. I retired that one, but still have it. I now carry another, made by Wegner, with almost the same tools. I have a few of the larger ones with Phillips head screwdrivers: one in my range bag, one in my gun show bag, and one in the glove compartment of each of my two cars. I like SAKs, but dont' think much of the steel in the blades.

Just my opinion, but Victorianox has the best steel of the SAKs I've ever used, and that's the only brand I will own. Wegner's steel doesn't hold an edge near as well.

I picked up a Victranox "Camper" in Nogalois, on the Mexican side of the boarder in January of 1978. I have it in a Buck sheath that someone abandoned when they moved. I enjoy the simplicity yet effectiveness of that knife. About 10 to 12 years ago I retired it to "camp-out only" duty. About 6 years ago someone borrowed my knife and pocketed it. When they walked away with my knife, I pursued them a almost nicely requested my knife back. The next day that person requested the use of my knife, but I declined. With a huff they ask others around the area to use their knives... all refused. People are blind to the idea, that your possessions aren't community property. I've lost several sterling silver Cross pens. When a known "Filtcher" ask to borrow my wife's gold Cross pen, I stopped the wife from loaning it to them (The pen set was my wedding gift to her). People standing near by all chuckled, as they knew not to "loan" this person anything! Ivan

Ivan's comment reminds me that I left a good Parker pen on a restaurant table a couple of years ago. I missed it by the time I reached my car, but it had disappeared and nobody knew nothin'.

I bet I have lost, broke, destroyed at least 100 pocket knives in my life time. almost every time I buy another one to replace the lost I then find the old.
I got two or three in ever room of the house where I lounge.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

i do some snorkeling at the sand bar where all the partys are the next day u find all kinds of stuff . one was a really nice spiderco pocket knife a folder i still use it today.

I could never figure out how my oldest kept losing his pocket knife. He bought a SAK with his bday money when he was about 10. It amazed me he could keep it for as long as he did, then we all realized he didn't have it. So time and knives came and went. Then when he was in his mid 20s we were moving (he'd already done that). Like all offspring, he'd left his junk behind. He opened a box with his model rocket stuff and there was the SAK! Yeah, he was pretty happy. When he was 14 we went for a jeep ride in the desert. He was the only kid along. Suddenly the jeep in front stopped and the passenger hopped out and came running. He stopped in the soft sand and pulled out a knife. We all got out and looked at it, and it was pretty nice. He already had a knife, so he gave it to my son. Son is now 42 and still has that knife, too.

I've learned the way to keep my knife. First and most important is to never loan it to anyone. Its difficult to deny it to your spouse, so if you loan it to her, you hover. Just stand there watching. Better still is to offer to cut whatever it is she needs cut. Over the years she's left my knife a few times right where she borrowed it. No more. Wives even complain about men and their knife. But then they don't value anything they borrow. After all, they can always borrow another from you. Until you learn not to loan it out. We've also tossed out a fair number of pairs of pants. The kind that anything in the pocket just falls out when you're sitting. Its not something you can see when she buys them for you, but you learn the first wearing. No reason to wear them, they're jinxed.

My current pocket knife has been with me for a lot of years now. Maybe not 30, but nearly. I've lost it a few times, but I'm always feeling for it and when its not there, I go looking. Its why I wear blue jeans these days. Knives don't fall out of those pockets. And I have another kind of similar someplace in my dresser. Its a poor substitute for my first line knife, but its acceptable.

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Dick Burg