I have been carrying a pocket knife from the age of nine on. You never know when you need to use a pocket knife, but everyone who carries one knows that they come in handy sometimes. They are not only a useful tool, but just knowing they are around is very comforting.

My first pocket knife was a Buck Ranger, with a wooden handle. I then went through a variety of Swiss Army Knives and their different blades and tools. Today I carry various Canal Street Cutlery knives.

I don't carry Canal Street Cutlery just because I sell them. I carry them because I understand what goes into the making of these knives. Each one is not only beautiful, but a puzzle that has been worked out by a master craftsman. They have singular details which give them an edge over the vast majority of knives made today. While they are production knives, they have many of the qualities we in the knife industry associate with a custom knife.

Nothing thrills me more than opening and closing a full moon trapper, and seeing the heated-treated stainless steel components shimmer with the blade movement. The sounds and feel of this knife, the Cannitler, the Half Moon, the Stockman, the Swell Jack, and the Single Blade Hunter all reach a primal place inside of me. The heft and feel of the rigid blade Drop Point Hunters and their various handles all safely snuggled in their form fit sheaths - or carefully wrapped in white tissue - all give me a sense of pride in their beauty and seeming simplicity.

When you talk knives with others, this Northern boy starts to drawl. It is a drawl born of swapping stories and experiences shaped by the individual who has adventured with a knife.

Free masons have a belief that they are constantly being shaped from a rough stone to a more polished stone inside. It is possible that this deep seated belief of a man's personal improvement through life and learning as embraced by freemasonry explains the attraction we have as a species to knives. Knives are a tool that allows us to change the look and surface of other materials using the blade in order to make them more useful or improve them. I believe that this is what makes them so vital to so many.