# Lucked into some real-deal Sicilian knives.



## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

While I used to be able to find "luxury items" while growing up in Milwaukee, I've had trouble finding real-deal knives in the Madison area. Most guys here have never seen the real thing, and other than knives smuggled in once in a while, you have to find a reliable "buyer" and find green dollar bills in the "fifty and up" status.

I got lucky and found two stilettos, both Sicilian, and shipped without a scratch. I might save one of them for posterity, but the other one will warm my denim jeans.

I must warn you about how these knives are made. If you can find some Sicilian family often shown in some films, you'll find that these knives are all hand-made my up and coming teenagers and hardened by elders. No two knives will be the same, but then, what's the fun of having a "made by hand" example if all the knives look alike?

These knives are often shipped, usually by several shipments in Italy and finally the United States. The cost gets ridiculous since four or five dealers pile up the costs as stuff shifts from one guy to another. Then again, that's the problem with superior stuff, the price goes out of sight...


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## 7515 (Aug 31, 2014)

Look here Milano Italy stilettos less than $10 each.




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Load up on your dream knives @The Tourist


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

*Load up on your dream knives @The Tourist*

I would if my wife gave me enough "toy money"!!! But to be fair, I have several drawers of Sicilian knives going back to 20 years and more. Yes, a few of these toys had "working jobs" over time, but now many of them are carefully waxed, oiled and polished rather than a life of being beaten to death. As I write this I have a sleek Dozier knife clipped to my pocket.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

The Tourist said:


> While I used to be able to find "luxury items" while growing up in Milwaukee, I've had trouble finding real-deal knives in the Madison area. Most guys here have never seen the real thing, and other than knives smuggled in once in a while, you have to find a reliable "buyer" and find green dollar bills in the "fifty and up" status.
> 
> I got lucky and found two stilettos, both Sicilian, and shipped without a scratch. I might save one of them for posterity, but the other one will warm my denim jeans.
> 
> ...


Good score on that. I have a nice Eyetalian Catholic friend who says everybody in Sicily is in the mafia. Maybe thats why they have all those fancy knives huh? They also bake or fry their meatballs prior to going in the tomato formulation. Eyetalains poach em in the gravy from raw and spoon off the grease that accumulates on top. There ya go.


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

While I no longer live in Milwaukee, I was born there, and worked my way through college as a "dock donkey" for The Master Lock Company. It took me six summers to pay off my college fees, but in the end it was all worth while. I knew lots of folks who either charged up loans or had their parents pay the freight. I paid my own way, and while it took me six summers to gather up the money, I made it through all 4.5 years.

Supposedly I was easy to spot. The students (all 40,000 of them) wore period clothes of the late 1960s. I wore jeans and motorcycle boots--because that's all I had. I did leave one organization for another. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin and joined C.C. Riders MC. I still have my colors, and they still make my wife shake her head!


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

What kinda tats ya got?








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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

I never got any tats. I was putting myself through college and my dad got me a job at Master Lock for better pay. It was clear I was my dad's son, and more to the point, I really didn't know if a college or a national company liked tatted up bikers.

It's hard paying for college, pleasing your dad, joining a bike club and then returning to a profitable company. I also met the company's father's kid, and we became friends. The kid never got tats either. I could understand that, I figured in time the kid would inherit the father's five-story business and then become an instant millionaire.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Ok..now we see. You coulda been a Hells Angel. They are all Docs..Lawyers and Dentists these days. Nobody else can afford the Harleys. A person cant just go steal one these days..as was fairly common back in our day ya know. Marlon Brando even made a movie about it but those were trying to mimic Booze Fighters. We have quite a few of them around here.


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

Well, Bigwheel, the issue for me was "location." The guys who were assembling motorcycle clubs for Wisconsin folks were careful about forming a "good guy club." The city of Milwaukee already had some outlaw clubs, and about the last thing anyone needed was open warfare.

It took a while, but there were lots of other good guy clubs in Wisconsin. When the founder of our club suggested we tour around the state, we found that several dozen clubs felt the same. Yeah, these guys also wore beat up leather jackets with a sleeveless denim vest over their club name sewn on top. These guys might have looked tough, but they had jobs, and wives and no tolerance for other bikers who would set fire to anything.

Sadly, the "old guard" is now kind of the 'grandpa' section. But the best thing is that they seek out the youngsters and teach them there's more to life than drunken screaming and trying to screech their wheel stands...


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