The KnivesShipFree Collection of Knife Quotes (a work in progress)

"Never go anywhere without a knife." (Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS, "Gibbs' Rule" #9)

"There is no overall ideal knife. The best knife is the one you have with you. With the right skills, you can do about anything with just about any knife -- and the right knife is the one you're most comfortable with." (Mike Stewart, Bark River Knives)

"I enjoy being a craftsman -- that's not something kids hear from their guidance counselors, but it's a career path." (Andy Roy, Fiddleback Forge)

"The biggest fallacy is that gear is necessary to survive. You can't get by on gear -- you need skills. You need to prepare in every aspect of life. And if you don't have the proper mindset, you're going to die." (Jeff Randall, ESEE Knives)

"Look, I learned on the racetrack, in a very graphic way, that you either make a part properly or you're dead. One day I neglected to make a part properly, and I knew it, telling myself that I'd make it properly before the next race -- and it broke. When it failed, catastrophically, I was able to...I handled it. People don't normally hold my view. But I want to tell you -- when you've looked your maker in the eye, you have a different approach to life." (Chris Reeve)

"I work hard to have my knives fit your hand like an old friend's handshake." (Mike Malosh, Chaser Handmade Knives)

"I have found that a knife needs to be a knife. It needs to cut, chop, carve, be batoned. It needs to be strong, take a great edge, hold that edge and be easy to touch-up in the field. With that in mind, the more things you try to incorporate into that knife (saw teeth, gut hooks, skull crushers, hammers, hidden compartments) the less it actually is a knife." (Mike Stewart, Bark River Knives)

"Beware of combination knives; they may be passable corkscrews and can openers, but that is about all." (Horace Kephart, from Camping & Woodcraft)

"A word as to knife, or knives. These are of prime necessity, and should be of the best, both as to shape and temper. The 'bowies' and 'hunting knives' usually kept on sale, are thick, clumsy affairs, with a sort of ridge along the middle of the blade, murderous looking, but of little use; rather fitted to adorn a dime novel or the belt of 'Billy the Kid,' than the outfit of the hunter." (George Washington Sears, aka "Nessmuk," from Woodcraft)

"The conventional hunting knife is, or was until recently, of the familiar dime-novel pattern invented by Colonel Bowie. It is too thick and clumsy to whittle with, much too thick for a good skinning knife, and too sharply pointed to cook and eat with. It is always tempered too hard. When put to the rough service for which it is supposed to be intended, as in cutting through the ossified false ribs of an old buck, it is an even bet that out will come a nick as big as a saw-tooth -- and Sheridan forty miles from a grindstone!" (Horace Kephart, from Camping & Woodcraft)

"The best bushcraft knife is the one you have with you and is best suited to your needs and style of use. A survival knife is the knife you have with you when things go not as planned. For me, a survival knife is a bushcraft knife -- and a utility knife and a hunting knife. I really don't care what style you are comfortable with. If you know how to use it, it's your bushcraft knife." (Mike Stewart, Bark River Knives)

"Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt." (Lao Tzu, from The Tao, 9)

"I suggest we bring some normality back to this country and say if you are carrying a knife, there must be zero tolerance. If it was up to me, everyone caught with a knife would get an automatic ten year sentence." (Simon Cowell, TV personality)

"A kitchen without a knife is not a kitchen." (Masaharu Morimoto, "Iron Chef")

"A gun can be dangerous. But a gun can protect you, you can hunt for food with it -- you know, the tool itself is a tool. The intention of the party using the tool is a part of the process, right? You know, the knife cuts the steak, stabs the person, saves somebody from danger, cuts somebody out of a car." (Peter Guber, filmmaker)