A "Laser" focus on collecting, or whatever floats ya?

DaveH

DaveH

Joined
Dec 2, 1999
Messages
12,249
Money is short, but opportunity is a knockin.

Unfortunately having trimmed all the fat from my collection, selling some "lesser" pieces is gonna hurt. So here's my question, does it pay off to keep a laser focus on what you like to collect and get rid of all others? Or are or is it better to keep some bit of variation around?
 
I never get rid of a knife. Of course I've lost a few knives I carried at work, but I still have nearly every knife I've ever owned, 240-ish of 'em.

Dispite having two areas of focus, OldTimers and vintage Bruckmanns, I still "accumulate" knives of every type.

-Bob
 
Just to give some perspective, I might have had up to 50 knives at one time, I'm now down to < 20.
 
I think the first thing you need to consider when answering this question is: How tightly focussed are you on what you like?

If you don't have a laser focus of 'like', then trying to laser your collection is going to be impossible without regret.
 
Well,, I used to be over 200, and I am down to about 29 (not including the Case knives.) For me, I wanted to focus on the Customs, mostly, so I sold or traded off the majority of my collection, to get more focused. Does that help?
 
I ebayd 4 pieces to finance and was successful in making a profit, this time...
 
Tastes change as you get deeper into the hobby..needs outweigh wants.
Best trick I know is only buy the knife you really desire (& not take second best choice.)
 
I sold/traded off a few because what i want in a knife has changed. My knowledge on knives has also expanded since i have gotten into knives so what i look for in a knife has changed. I also went through little stages where i was really into folders, then bali's, now fixed blades. So i got rid of my bali's and a folder to fund for some more fixed blades. I really dont mind selling my knives to buy more knives.
 
I have mostly Busses and customs now. I have around 120, but I know I had around 200 at one time.
 
I am quite focused on what I collect. At this point it is forged bowies. I do however plan to diversify my collection and add some fighters, chute knives and traditional Japanese knives. There is certainly nothing wrong with having a focused collection. Whatever floats your boat.
 
I keep what I value (whether its for use, nifty factor, history) and expunge what I really don't want. Kinda regret the policy, but once I acquire too many knives, I divest. I try to keep around 20 or so, but when I get to 50, it's sell/gift time.

It all depends on how many I'm willing to store, move around.

Also, are you accumulating or collecting? Collections I can see and can be very impressive, but I've run into accumulations that just confound me.
 
collecting or accumulation
Click to expand...

I think that's a key point. Used to be I was accumulating whatever looked good, now I'm pretty much collecting a single maker, except for a handful of other pieces that are also nice.
 
It depends! There are so many branches of knives that I think it is too hard (at least for a dummy like me) to keep up with all of them. My laser focuses on two areas. One are Gerber Paul knives (they lock like a bank vault door). The other is automatics.
 
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