- Joined
- Dec 7, 2001
- Messages
- 227
Reading the "$400 knife" thread, someone made one of my favourite statements. It's about the people that will buy dozens of production knives but won't spend more than £200+ ($350) on a custom. Dozens of people have made the point that they could have got one really great custom for that amount, and infer that "the way of the custom" is the only way to go.
Not many people post a rebuttal to this, so I thought I'd take a shot.
It's true, I don't own a single custom knife. I have no idea about how much I've spent on my production and handmade knives (note I said handmade not custom, there's an important difference), but it's got to be at least the price of four of five "top name" customs.
Why? Why not just buy a handful of customs for this price? Then I'll have a knife (or multiple knives) that's made just right for me, fits me perfectly, and has everything I want to the last detail.
Because I love my knives. My collection is mainly daggers. I can't carry them anyway because I'd be thrown in jail. but why so many productions? Because there are thousands of different shapes, sizes, styles, steels, fittings, handles, and a million other details. If I limited myself to only buying custom's, then sure I'd have a few truly fantastic perfect knives, but I personally would rather have dozens of knives that show a broad diorama of design and engineering. A great scope, which is still probably less than a single percentile of the designs that are out there.
Maybe in a few years time I'll get a custom maker to make me the "perfect" dagger for me, but I probably won't. For the price of one single design. one songle handle material, one single edge geometry, one single fitting material, one single blade, I can get half a dozen, from a smatchet to a sub-saharan hammered out of a piece of train track, from a F-S knife to a main gauche, from a sgian dhub to....well, as I said there are a million variations on a theme.
I'm rambling here, I'll try to sum up.
One custom may well be a better "investment" and it may well be a perfect example of that makers art, but a dozen productions or un-named handmades will show a much greater variety, different designs, different everything, and since I'm not buying these things as an "investment" but simply because I love them, the actual re-sale value is irrelevant.
But that's for knives I'll probably never use. If I think I'll need a knife for self-defense, you'll see me holding a cheap POS dagger made in Taiwan out of "stainless steel" for reasons I won't go into because this post is long enough already. Of course, even these have thier inherant value to me for the above reasons.
But that's not folders. I can say I'll never buy a custom folder, or even a high-end production such as a sebenza. BMs, Spydies, lots of other production brands I won't buy either, because I don't like the look (or when findled in a shop) and/or feel of them. But I like the look of the Boker Orion, so I bought one. I like the edge retention and pure slicing ability of the Boker Infinty, so I bought one. I like the Smith and Wesson HRT for it's guards and opening system, so I bought one. I like the Kershaw Whirlwind because oif the speedsafe, the blade shape, and the size, so I bought one. If you add up the cost of those and just a couple others, I'd be looking at the price of a custom, but again we're looking at the choice of a single design or a choice of many. Sometimes I need something small and dressy (Orion), sometimes I need something that'll cut for a week without re-sharpening (Infinity), sometimes I'll want something large and solid with an actual guard so I won't slice my fingers open puching through wood (HRT), sometime's I want something useful and gadgety (Whirlwind). I can't think of a single custom that will do all these things in one, or any way it would be possible to have one that does it all.
That's it, the essay's finally over.
Not many people post a rebuttal to this, so I thought I'd take a shot.
It's true, I don't own a single custom knife. I have no idea about how much I've spent on my production and handmade knives (note I said handmade not custom, there's an important difference), but it's got to be at least the price of four of five "top name" customs.
Why? Why not just buy a handful of customs for this price? Then I'll have a knife (or multiple knives) that's made just right for me, fits me perfectly, and has everything I want to the last detail.
Because I love my knives. My collection is mainly daggers. I can't carry them anyway because I'd be thrown in jail. but why so many productions? Because there are thousands of different shapes, sizes, styles, steels, fittings, handles, and a million other details. If I limited myself to only buying custom's, then sure I'd have a few truly fantastic perfect knives, but I personally would rather have dozens of knives that show a broad diorama of design and engineering. A great scope, which is still probably less than a single percentile of the designs that are out there.
Maybe in a few years time I'll get a custom maker to make me the "perfect" dagger for me, but I probably won't. For the price of one single design. one songle handle material, one single edge geometry, one single fitting material, one single blade, I can get half a dozen, from a smatchet to a sub-saharan hammered out of a piece of train track, from a F-S knife to a main gauche, from a sgian dhub to....well, as I said there are a million variations on a theme.
I'm rambling here, I'll try to sum up.
One custom may well be a better "investment" and it may well be a perfect example of that makers art, but a dozen productions or un-named handmades will show a much greater variety, different designs, different everything, and since I'm not buying these things as an "investment" but simply because I love them, the actual re-sale value is irrelevant.
But that's for knives I'll probably never use. If I think I'll need a knife for self-defense, you'll see me holding a cheap POS dagger made in Taiwan out of "stainless steel" for reasons I won't go into because this post is long enough already. Of course, even these have thier inherant value to me for the above reasons.
But that's not folders. I can say I'll never buy a custom folder, or even a high-end production such as a sebenza. BMs, Spydies, lots of other production brands I won't buy either, because I don't like the look (or when findled in a shop) and/or feel of them. But I like the look of the Boker Orion, so I bought one. I like the edge retention and pure slicing ability of the Boker Infinty, so I bought one. I like the Smith and Wesson HRT for it's guards and opening system, so I bought one. I like the Kershaw Whirlwind because oif the speedsafe, the blade shape, and the size, so I bought one. If you add up the cost of those and just a couple others, I'd be looking at the price of a custom, but again we're looking at the choice of a single design or a choice of many. Sometimes I need something small and dressy (Orion), sometimes I need something that'll cut for a week without re-sharpening (Infinity), sometimes I'll want something large and solid with an actual guard so I won't slice my fingers open puching through wood (HRT), sometime's I want something useful and gadgety (Whirlwind). I can't think of a single custom that will do all these things in one, or any way it would be possible to have one that does it all.
That's it, the essay's finally over.
). Instead, think of it as a rebuttal to someone saying "I can't imagine spending $400 for a knife," when they have indeed spent that much, only on two or three knives. I think you'll find that a lot of people who carry and use $400+ knives also carry and use production knives. Personally, I left the house today with a one-off Tom Anderson Wolfpup in my right pocket and a Whitewing Warlock in the left front pocket of my jeans. I went to the local gun show, looking for a Spyderco Meerkat (~$40).