My son used to have a knife, but it was apparently “lost” as his mother cleaned out his room.  (That’s a whole different story that I may put in the off-topic blog.)  For his 17 birthday, I bought two knife kits and we made a pocket knifes:  one for him, one for me.  When we sent to the shop to select the wood that we’d use, I told him he could use anything in the shop that wasn’t already being used in a project.  He went straight for the “special reserve” pile and pulled out a piece of purpleheart that I had been saving.  The kid has taste!  The one of the left is the one that Quintin made, but the purpleheart never really got all that purple, instead it became a dark brown color.  I suspect it had something to do with the epoxy we used to secure the wood to the handles, but that’s just a guess.  His is on the left.  Mine’s on the right, made from bloodwood (also from the special reserve pile).  Not too shabby for a first attempt!