The News from ElephantToenails.com

Hello everyone, my name is Clay Strong. I live on the southwest coast of Florida along the Caloosahatchee river, not far from the Everglades with its swamps, mosquitoes, and alligators.

I have a small collection of a variety of knives. I haven’t concentrated on a particular category, partly because I like all knives. The investment aspect isn’t as important to me as is the utility and design of a knife to meet a given purpose. The elephant toe-nail was born out of necessity. A tool was needed to perform a particular task in the field and it was not meant to be used for much else. I’m sure that men who carried them learned to do just about everything else that came along though. That’s part of getting to know your knife.

I’m sixty years old. And, since I can’t remember not trying to accumulate one more knife, I guess you could say I’m a lifetime collector. I only have a couple of toenails. They’re beat up and tarnished, but they tell me a story, as do most of my knives. I grew up in the middle of the Texas oil fields. Members of my family and others that I knew worked on oil rigs. My father told me that the big knives carried by his uncles were used a lot to splice steel cable. Rope was never used extensively, except for towing and securing equipment. He mentioned once that my great-aunt’s husband carried a Sunfish all the time. He was the father of the famous golfer Ben Hogan. How’s that for trivia?

My background is a duke’s mixture of experiences. I’ve worked on just about every motorized transportation there is, including airplanes. I was in the Coast Guard and on Navy submarines. I got involved with computers as a result of my military training. Today, I spend most of my time on the web visiting interesting sites such as this one, working on my various websites, writing blogs, and moderating a knife forum. I attend the local shows sponsored by arms and knife collectors. I am amazed at the variety of toenails that are displayed. Each with its story.

Well, that’s my story. I look forward to reading yours, one and all. Give me a shout sometime.Clay Strongeditor@knifelinksunlimited.com