About 12 years ago, I was collecting sort of whatever appealed to me. It was fun, but I thought I needed some direction and discipline in my collecting, like a friend who collects all the Spyderco Q models, or another friend who commissions custom makers to do their variations on an ironwood handled, wire-wrapped folder design.
I decided I would assemble a collection of Folders from A to Z, 26 different handmade or custom folding knives from 26 different makers, each maker representing one of the letters of the alphabet. As I got started, I decided to include at least one example from each continent (excluding Antarctica), and include as great a variety of styles and mechanisms as possible. Finally, I needed to keep the cost down, so I wanted to average no more than $200 per knife, and spend no more than $250 on any knife.
Within 3 years, I had 23 of the 26 letters represented. You can imagine that some letters have more makers than others. I was missing the letters Q, U, and X. There are few folder makers whose names start with Q and U, but I diligently searched for their knives. It took a couple more years to find one for each of those letters.
I have not found any folder maker whose name starts with the letter X, but I found a couple of makers who marked their knives with an X. Chris Christman of Texas, who used to mark his knives X-man with the X representing a cross for Christ. And Dick Atkinson, who most people know with his Wassau, Florida mark, actually began making knives in Decatur, IL, and marked his first couple of dozen knives with a simple X. It took another 7 years to find an X-marked folder, but I finally found one.
The collection is now complete.
I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I will list the collection in the next post.
I decided I would assemble a collection of Folders from A to Z, 26 different handmade or custom folding knives from 26 different makers, each maker representing one of the letters of the alphabet. As I got started, I decided to include at least one example from each continent (excluding Antarctica), and include as great a variety of styles and mechanisms as possible. Finally, I needed to keep the cost down, so I wanted to average no more than $200 per knife, and spend no more than $250 on any knife.
Within 3 years, I had 23 of the 26 letters represented. You can imagine that some letters have more makers than others. I was missing the letters Q, U, and X. There are few folder makers whose names start with Q and U, but I diligently searched for their knives. It took a couple more years to find one for each of those letters.
I have not found any folder maker whose name starts with the letter X, but I found a couple of makers who marked their knives with an X. Chris Christman of Texas, who used to mark his knives X-man with the X representing a cross for Christ. And Dick Atkinson, who most people know with his Wassau, Florida mark, actually began making knives in Decatur, IL, and marked his first couple of dozen knives with a simple X. It took another 7 years to find an X-marked folder, but I finally found one.
The collection is now complete.
I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I will list the collection in the next post.
