Anyone else collect knives?

I have a small collection of primarily old folders - used to have a good deal more, but many were stolen in a small burglary a few years back.

Then tonight the thread got me to reminiscing on the first "new and just for me nice knife" I ever saved up for at the ripe old age of 12, which led to some, well, slightly buzzed browsing on the 'bay...anyway, a very old friend is rejoining EDC rotation and collection soon as I now have an early gen Spyderco Harpy incoming! It looks to have a touch of wear, but I intend to give it a good going over, sharpening, and then into the pocket it'll go - some days 😁


*Pic from auction post, will post a proper one alongside its stablemates when it gets in. 😀

I don't collect knives but I can fully appreciate this KA-BAR I picked up recently.

I like racing, I like knives. What's the best combo? Duh.

Below is a Roland Riddle Custom Knife Set - Made for Racing Legend Ralph Johnson (Smokey Yunick's right hand man)

Made by Master Bladesmith Roland Riddle in Andes, NY. Absolutely amazing work, including scrimshaw by his personal friend, Denise Kondrla. Sadly, Riddle died in July 2001 at age 52 so his craft does not go on but this set is from his most masterful years.

Ralph Johnson's Initials(RRJJ - Ralph R Johnson Junior) are inscribed on one side, an image of a wolf on the other side, all done by hand. The scrimshaw is signed and dated on each, one blade 1997, the other 1998. Beautiful African Ivory handles.

Being in Daytona Beach, racing is a whole universe here. And building race cars is an art. Ralph Johnson was Smokey Yunick's right hand man for decades at the Best Damn Garage in Town (yes it was really called that). Smokey is arguably the greatest overall race car mechanic in history, with Ralph as his business partner.

Ralph was a racer, engineer, and extraordinary mechanic during the early years of NASCAR and IndyCar, starting out with Chevrolet.
He and Smokey designed the Hot Vapor Motor technology together, and well as ground breaking carburetor technology for Holley(the high volume quad, used on virtually every race made for the next 20 yrs).

In fact, Ralph was the one that came up with the Hot Vapor Motor idea in the early 50s, fully developed and virtually perfected by Ralph and Smokey in the early 80s.

Ralph worked for several NASCAR/IndyCar racing teams as Engineer/head mechanic into the 80s/early 90s. Finally working as Head Designer for Crane Cams before retiring at 75!

Ralph was regularly talked about in Smokey's legendary book "Best Damn Garage in Town"

Here's a little bit of the story, from Ralph himself...he worked with Smokey almost 20yrs.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

By GOWIN KELLY
NEWS-JOURNAL SPORTS WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH — During more than a half-century in Daytona Beach, Smokey Yunick became an automotive legend. For much of that time, working alongside him at “The Best Damn Garage in Town” was Ralph Johnson.

Together they built stock cars, Indy-cars and assorted pieces and gadgets that serviced a wide variety of automobiles.

...

"I got along with Smokey. I loved the man, pure and simple. I can get choked up. I loved the man.

There were times when we´d take the race cars out on the street to test different things. We ran on Beach Street, north of Route 40, where its´s all covered with trees. We were out there with Goldsmith. We clocked him one day...I know he ran 146 miles an hour up there. I was in the car with him, braced against the roll cage on the passenger side.

That was the only way to really set that fuel injection. I put a flow meter in the car -- this measures the gas. As you´re going through the rpm, I know what fuel I want for the power. I would just set it up to have that fuel. They used to let me ride at the tracks too -- I´d wedge myself into the car, hang on. I liked to ride with Jack Smith. I liked him. He died about a year ago.

Coming out of the corner, let´s say it was 3500 rpm, I know what I wanted for the flow meter. Going down the chute, down into the corner, I knew what I wanted for fuel, so I set the fuel injection for the track that way. But as years went by, they wouldn´t let you ride along to set that up.

Sometime in ´67 or ´68, we had done a Z28. Chevrolet did it, and I did the carburetors. I came down here with Smokey, and he had Jim Hall and Bruce McLaren to drive the car in the 24 Hours. There were some problems in the infield with it, so they decided to pull the car out. I went back and thought about it, and that´s when I did the double-pumper. I came down here with two carburetors, and we put them on Smokey´s car. He got ahold of Al Unser and we went to Sebring.

After one lap Al came in and said, ‘I don´t know what you´ve got on there, but its´s the finest thing I ever drove.’

In 1969, Smokey told me he could get me a development contract with Chevrolet. They paid my room and board, and I worked for about a year on carburetors and manifolds. That contract expired after about a year, and Smokey said, ‘Why don´t you stay here with me, and you can work for me or with me, depending on how things go, until you find a job.’ I said fine, and I spent the next 18 years there.

I worked with Smokey all those years -- in an engineering capacity, in a machine capacity, in a race capacity as mechanic or engineer or whatever.

I probably enjoyed the Indy R&D best. It´s all interesting, but it´s like right now, if I had the chance to help someone, I´d rather work with a Formula One team. I´m not knocking yesterday, I like to take trips there myself mentally. But you live today and tomorrow, and that´s where I´d rather play.

When I first met Smokey, there was only that front part to the shop. Then Champion added the north end, and Ford added out back. It was all part of the process there.

The hours? It´s no secret, we officially started at 8 in the morning, and we officially ended at midnight, but midnight was always 1 or 2 o´clock. And we did that seven days a week. For years. My wife, Evelyn, worked at Ward´s, days and some nights. We were a lot younger then.

All my life, and even today, I require very little sleep. I just seem to be able to get along without it. At night, I have a shop 20 feet from the house that I can walk to. Or I just prop up and read. I read a lot.

Smokey said it best. He said, ‘You know, there isn´t time to do what we did.’

You know, Smokey´s address was the best address in the whole world to run a racing business out of. In the´70s, he got calls all days long from race people. I would say the heads of every car company that I know of were in there. All types of racing people were in there.

All of 1978, I had enough spare time that I built a motorcycle there. I built bicycles for a while. I got interested in that and had some spare time. I always said, Smokey had the best hobby shop in the whole world.

I still drive by there sometimes. I have to go out of the way to go there, but I do. I was over at the shop there recently, and there was a picture there that his daughter had. It was a picture of an old Smokey, but not a sick Smokey. They´re planning on getting prints, and I said, ‘I´ve got to have one.’

That´s the best picture of Smokey I´ve seen. I´m not that sentimental, but I am some. I spent a lot of years there. They weren´t all easy years, no, but it was fine. I´ll never say anything bad about Smokey.

I´ll give you an example of how I felt. The year, I believe, was 1962. I was at Kaiser Jeep in Toledo, Ohio...I got a call on Friday afternoon about 3 o´clock. This was in March or April. Smokey said, ‘What are you doing?’ I told him I was up at Kaiser Jeep. He said, ‘I´m going to Indy, why don´t you come down and help me.’ I said, ‘I´ll be right there.’

We pushed it and worked, and that´s the only way you get it, is to push it and work. There were a lot of things that came out of that shop.” -- Ralph Johnson

Another Civivi made its way home. This time their new Bo model. Designed by Brad Zinker, Nitro-V Steel and 1.94 ounces. I think they knocked it out of the park in the sub 3" flipper EDC category. Here it is compared to my Civivi Elementum.

I told myself I was done buying knives this summer... and then I had the chance to acquire something I've wanted for a long time.......

I have a few benchmades, wouldn’t classify myself as a collector though. Knives are handy tools for me when I’m out hunting or fishing, and there’s definitely something to be said for having a quality blade that holds an edge.

Benchmade knives are more reliable and perfect for me!
My EDC or outing for camping and hunting always carried a Benchmade knife.

Hi Anders, a Finnish knife I assume

I'm a knife guy but I wouldn't say I'm collector. Most of them have been gifts. While I enjoy high end handmade blades, I tend to lean more towards production blades for my EDC.