The broadsword, the 1903 Enfield bayonet and the USMC K-Bar played major parts in all history. The other assorted blades have all played parts in my personal story.

You’re reading the inaugural edition of The Outdoor Wire Digital Network’s latest news service, The Knife Wire. Many of our readers have asked for “more” coverage of two items: optics and knives. With today’s launch of The Knife Wire and last week’s first edition of The Optics Wire, we’ve responded. Above all, we’ve tried to let you tell us what you want, not the other way around.

And I’m excited. Because I love knives. Heck, I love edged instruments. But the knife really is one of mankind’s oldest tools. I was taught that being trusted to carry a knife was one of the first symbols of maturity. I was also taught that without a knife, a man wasn’t really prepared for much of anything.

The broadsword, the 1903 Enfield bayonet and the USMC K-Bar played major parts in all history. The other assorted blades have all played parts in my personal story.

When I’m traveling, I carry a folding “gentleman’s knife.” It’s small, but it’s trimmed stray threads off closing and sliced steaks when restaurant cutlery wasn’t up to snuff. It’s almost always in my pocket. I’ve learned the hard way that a knife in your checked bag is far more useful than the one you’ve carried into the TSA screening area.

But I have a lot of knives. Some have accompanied me from boyhood through adulthood and into this time where more trail’s behind me than ahead. My USMC K-Bar was carried by my father before it was passed down to me. Some, like the personalized Buck I sharpened at their Idaho factory commemorate special occasions. Others we simply so well made I just had to bring them home.

While I can dull virtually all of them, I’m not much good at restoring edges. I’m looking forward to reading The Knife Wire and picking up some needed knowledge. Like may of you, I want to learn more about a tool I can’t imagine being without.

—Jim Shepherd