My oldest boy turn 8 today.

What is a good age to give him his first knife?

I hope to do many camping trips this summer and start his outdoor training.

It depends on the abilities and responsibility of the kid.
I know some adults that I won't trust them with a butter knife.

I was allowed to carry a pocket knife if I was with my dad when I was 7 and full time when I was 8.

I made a very nice little fixed blade for my nephew when he turned 8 (with my sisters o.k.). Sized for smaller hands, black linen micarta with some nonslip checkering cut in it, ATS-34 steel, and a hand stiched leather sheath with the belt loop on a swivel ring. He got the whole being responsible speech and how I would take it away if he did anything irresponsible with it. He was very good with it. Had a hiding place where he kept it. I also explained to him how a dull knife could be more dangerous than a sharp knife because it takes more effort to cut something. "So bring it back to me and I'll keep it sharp." He would bring it to me and it would look like he was trying to cut rocks with it! I did keep it sharp for him. He spent a year deployed in Iraq and he had it with him.

I've got a little boy that will be 5 this summer. I'm already planning on the knife I will make him. I've got some hunter orange G10 I think I'll use for the handle. Kinda thinking on making the sheath with a built in LED light and a small firesteel in the handle. Maybe the other way around. However I do it, it will be cool. The kind of thing that stimulates the imagination for adventure.

For a folder, Victornox makes a pretty good first knife for kids. Has a rounded point. Think it's called "my first knife".

They are adults that someone failed to instill responsibility in when they were kids and more easily trained. A knife can be a great way to teach responsibility to a young skull full of mush. Many kids nowdays are not given any responsibility till they're teenagers and then the parents complain and wonder what happened. I think the fact that he's thinking about doing this and having some hands on with camping means his kid will rise up to the responsibility of knife ownership.

I got mine on my 6th birthday, along with a camping trip with Dad.

I was carrying a poket knife before I was 8.

I can only tell you when I got my first knife. It was for my 8th birthday and I believe it was a Cubscout related gift. It was a folding Cub/Boyscout knife with a blade, an awl, a can opener, and a bottle opener/screwdriver. It had a shield with the Boyscout logo on the side. I recently saw one online and I think it was made by Camillus. It didn't lock and I somehow survived. It was a very important day in my life. I wish I still had it....

What joaquin39 said. You have raised your son, you will be the one to know if he is ready for a knife yet. I had my first one (actually several) before I was eight, but I know a lot of kids much older than that who have no business with a knife, or even a baseball bat. If you think that he is ready, I'd suggest that you select several different knives that you think are the best for him, then let him have a hand in picking which one he actually gets...

I've had a lot of experience with boys in Cub Scouts and in Boy Scouts using knives. As the others have said, there is a wide range in maturity and common sense among boys, but an eight year old CAN be mature enough to learn to use knives.

Here is a link with information on the Cub Scout program that I think could help you teach your son. I'm not saying to join Scouts, though that would be a fine think for a young lad - I'm saying to borrow the ideas.

http://www.geocities.com/~pack215/whittlin-chip.html

http://www.crossroadsbsa.org/pathfinder/ptc/KnifeSafety.pdf

I got my first Cub Scout knife when I was seven, I think. It was similar to the one Norad described. I could've been 8 or 9 so, but I seem to remember playing with it in the iceplant, which has California (Fort Ord) written all over it, so I bet I was seven. My Dad was big on responsibility, I was only allowed to carry it here or there, and do this or that with it during those early years.

He got me my first shotgun when I was 12 (Savage bolt-action, 3-round magazine, adjustable choke 12 guage). I couldn;t even take it out to clean it or look at it unless he was present and he'd take me to the Rod &Gun club to shoot skeet and trap. I don;t have either or them any more, and I've often regretted letting them go. I don;t know what happened to my knife, but I sold my shotgun to a friend when I was 22..... I regretted it almost immediately.. and more so as the years went by.

ON EDIT: Almost forgot... my little girl is eight and turns 9 in September. This past Christmas, I bought her a Victorinox SAK. She carries it in her day pack and we find some instructional reason to use it each time we go out practicing survival skills. She can, all by herself since last fall, prepare and start a fire with nothing more than a Doan's magnesium/flint. The SAK doesn;t spark well (and doesn't lock) but I've let her use almost every single knife I have and no cuts or "almosts" yet!!! This Easter, I will giver her a Bark River Mini-Canadian (slightly used) that I have on order from a member of another forum. That one will be VERY sharp, so we'll break her in slow.