The Case of the Missing Knife

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Last week, I thought I'd lost my favorite Swiss Army knife, the one I usually carry. It's a Victorinox Spartan.

I had gone shopping with an acquaintance and thought the knife had slipped out of my pocket and was probably in her car. Couldn't find it at home and I looked everywhere after I reached in my pocket and couldn't find it.

Nope. Not in her car, either.

I gave up and substituted an identical Spartan from my spare knife box.

A couple of days later, I wore the same slacks as I had the night I lost the knife. I put on the slacks and began dropping the usual stuff in the pockets: keys, small flashlight, Chapstick, etc. I dropped the new knife in the right pants pocket...and it clanked against the "missing" one!

Now, I had patted down those pants and checked that pocket. How did I miss the knife?

I'm baffled. Maybe the handkerchief I'd left in the pocket padded the knife enough that when I patted the pants hanging in the closet I missed feeling the knife? But I put my hand in the pocket, too!

A mystery, but I have my friend back. It had been in that pocket the whole time!

Has anyone had a similar experience? I'm amazed that the knife didn't fall out of the pants when I hung them in the closet.

The only similar thing that's ever happened to me was when I lost my Zeiss 6X20B pocket monocular a couple of years ago. I thought it'd fallen out of my jacket when I had it on the back of my chair in a restaurant. Looked everywhere. Nada. I bought the current 8X20B model, the 6X no longer being made. Figured that someone in the restaurant had found it and kept it.

The 8X is a good little glass and I like it. But it wasn't my beloved little 6X companion, which is a more elegant, traditional style. And it has a wider field of view.

A month or more later, I moved a box in the closet, and there was the monocular, in its nice black leather case! It had evidently fallen from the coat onto the soft carpet, so I didn't hear it. Thankfully, it was undamaged and has continued to give fine service.

These experiences seem almost surreal, like something out of the twilight zone. Have you had anything like that happen to you?
 
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I have missed stuff in pants pockets when they are hanging up, folded over a hanger, in the closet. Even after checking the pockets by inserting a hand.

I think sometimes the object gets stuck in a fold up near where the belt goes and even when you stick your hand in you can miss it because you are searching down at the base of the pocket and not where gravity and a fold or somesuch has trapped it when hanging that way. And if you just pat your pockets from the outside you'll miss it because you don't tend to pat where the object is, but at where the pockets ought to be.
 
Onomea-

Yeah, that's gotta be what happened. But I sure feel dumb about it.

I'm glad it's happened to you, too.
 
You have hit upon a universal subject there. Everyone who carries a knife has probably lost one at some time. And for every one that is actually lost for good, another ten are mislaid and turn up again, usually sooner rather than later. And for every one that turns up, at least a couple have probably been overlooked in the search.

It's a horrible feeling, missing that knife. The only thing that cures it is to find that knife again. You can try to guard against it by carrying a knife that isn't vexatious to lose. The loss of a $15 Mora should be easier to bear than a $200 Bark River or Fallkniven, but it isn't, although replacement is less painful. But replacement does nothing to lessen that feeling of loss.

I lost a knife not too long ago. I usually start the day with a couple of knives in my pocket. At some point in the afternoon, I realized that my Case stockman wasn't in my pocket, although the other knife was still there. After looking in all the likely places and trying to recap my day in my head, I concluded it had probably fallen out of my pocket when I lay down for a midday nap.

I tossed the bedclothes, figuring the missing knife would tumble out. No luck. I put my wife on lookout, a risky proposition at best, because a lost knife gives her ammunition for when I have to talk to her about always losing her keys. On the other hand, she is quite good at finding stuff of mine. Locating her lost car keys, not so much.

About three nights later, sure enough, she gets in bed, then sits up and starts groping around under the covers. "Is this what you are looking for?" There was my little yellow knife.

So yeah. It has happened to me.
 
Years ago, when I could still crawl under a truck on a gravel driveway to change oil, I was wearing Osh Kosh bibs that had shallow front pockets.
Yep, my Buck stockman fell out unbeknownst to me. Later, when I realized it was missing, almost sure it was in the gravel somewhere, went back to look to no avail. It was then that I fell in to this funk that you all have described so eloquently......I lost my knife!!

WEEKS later I was working on the tractor in that same spot, and while groveling around in the gravel, happened to turn my head to the left, and, there it was!! Surreal experience!! It needed cleaning up a bit with some 1000 grit but sure felt good.
Dave
 
My son found Dad's yellow case trapper Christmas day. in Mom's recliner that Dad never sits in. Lost for at least a year.
There is another just like it somewhere out in the pasture that he lost the first day he carried it.
I have only lost the NRA gimme so far this year. I replaced it with a chinese Winchester that I use to cut bale strings.
This is usually the time of year when I find lost items in coats and coveralls not used since spring.
 
I have a couple of small Fenix flashlights that have been through the washer a couple of times. They still work.
 
I carry a Buck knife and keep a Swiss knife in one of the cup holders in the truck, one day I went to get the Swiss knife and it wasn't there, I tore the truck apart looking for it, no luck, a few months later, I was looking in a kitchen drawer for the stone I use to sharpen knives and there it was, to this day I don't remember bringing it in to sharpen it.:confused:
 
I have been losing knives since I was 10 years old.
I lost the folding Buck that I carried in SEA.
Recently, I gave my Grandson a SAK.
I told him there are two things you need to watch out for with knives-
Don't cut yourself, and don't lose it!
 
i have a buck 501 that i carry often. one day i couldn't find it, i tore the car up along with jackets, pants and the house. i found it several months later in the pocket that's built into the drivers door on my car. i was looking for a widow scraper and there it was.
 
I'm still waiting for a Benchmade Mini-Griptilian to reappear from going missing 3yrs ago. I placed it and my car keys next to my desk computer (as usual) and took my truck keys and left for a 4 day hunting trip. Came back and car keys were where I left them, but no knife. :(

After searching for the knife for a couple of days I bought another one.

I still expect it to turn up ..... out of no-where!!!


Don
 
I lost a beautiful 1930's Remington stag handled stockman. A few year later I found it in a box of electrical fittings. Back in a time when I had not started collecting antique folders, a knife seldom survived more than a year or two. One Buck stockman hung around for several years, and I was quite fond of it. While bear hunting I dropped my rifle on its scope. To check its zero, I made an x on a piece of paper, paced off 100 yards, used my knife as a tack to attach the paper to a tree. Yep, the knife went away with the first shot. All my pants are altered by my wife when new. She turns them inside out and sews a "knife pocket" in the left pocket. This only takes up about 3/4"of pocket space and is adjacent to the seam in the pants. This allows easy access to the knife when seated, doesn't turn in the pants but rides straight up and down. During a class once I was frisked by a cop and he did not detect the knife, thinking it was the pants seam. I can always touch it to make sure it is there and can carry a large knife without it turning in the pocket and becoming uncomfortable. And no I do not do belt clips on my folders.
 
I "lost" an old Buck 110 that was missing for years. It was a gift from my Dad so had value beyond the price. It finally turned up in the pocket of an old pair of Filson wool pants when it got cold enough that I dug them out of the closet.
 
For years I carried a nice Swiss Officers model. I carried in my right front pocket and used it a lot when doing large plant maintenance.

Guess I must have set it done or did not push it far enough into pocket and it was gone. Backtracked and searched diligently and could not find so I went and bough a new "officers" That one I used the sheath religiously.

About 7 years later I was working in the tank farm where I lost my knife and just by chance I found it. How that happened I do not know as over time many hundreds of man hours were worked by me and many other people. It cleaned up very well and I threw it in my trucks glove box as a spare.

I continued using my belt sheath officers model till the leathermen came out and I used that one till I retired. It now is my "toolkit" in my DD Pickup!:D
 
I think we are all missing the possibility of of inter-dimensional pranksters! I check my pockets, usually twice, yet a ball point pen usually ruins a shirt in the wash. I've had guns vanish for over six months and show up in the safe. But the one that wasn't a inter-D prank, about broke my heart. I had a early first generation Gerber multi tool. The fittings were all screwed together instead of riveted like now, It came in a nice leather belt pouch. Most Importantly, it worked smoothly. Second, it was a father's day gift from 1986 or so. In the fall of 2007 while at work the leather wore through at the bottom (I had restitched the seams several times) and it fell in the yard. I heard a thump at the time and didn't realize what it was. 20 to 25 minutes later, I noticed it was missing and went back to the area where it had fallen, but someone beat me to it. I have several others, but none are like "The First!"

Ivan
 
My mother insisted that I buy a HS Class Ring. I started wearing it the beginning of my Senior year. I also was playing football. I always pulled the ring off and put it in my pants pocket when dressing for football practice. The ring went missing. I didn't much care. After College Graduation I was at my folk's house helping them move to a new home. I parked my pickup truck exactly where I used to park back in HS. I saw a glint in the sand and spotted the ring. Missing for 5 years. It needed a little cleaning, but was otherwise undamaged. It is in my box of 'treasures' right now. ..............
 
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