addicted to collecting military stuff in general

Gehazi

Gehazi

Joined
Jun 30, 2013
Messages
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anyone else like this, or are you guys focused on khukuri? I find I just can't resist the history of military antiques, especially things like ww2 khuks and strange things, but I also collect guns mainly from the ww 1, ww2 era , and if I had more money I would definitely collect muskets.

so do you guys think its just natural thing, do you suffer the same urge just limit yourself? or are you only attracted to collecting the knives of this forum in particular-- I have notices several venerable collections among the posters in the forums so thought I would mention this, kronk and berk come to mind most readily. blue lander too i think !

so just a thread for antiques collectors to confess addiction, to try to ascertain the nature of the desire to own old weapons.

I just find they are the most contained purpose machine/ art available, as opposed to boxes or eggs or crowns, they have had more often than not a direct hand in the particular history of a given nation and its movements, thats what I think is my own attraction to antiques like this.

and that being said I feel like HI is the only place we can collect affordable modern approximations of the hand crafting of older blades
 
I have had over the years a pretty extensive collection of Filipino and Indonesian blades, and some Indian stuff.
Partially as a bladesmith research collection, partially as a student of FMA and Silat, but mostly because I like them...almost all ethnic blades.
 
Collecting all military things isn't on top of my list but if I'm ever too rich why not?
All I have are
* some historical Kukris
* a few German military blades (my knife from 1997 + its predecessor model and its successor)
* some old German Army Chess game (Wehrschach) with 11x11 fields. Not being a Nutzi and just trying to preserve something which is unusual and almost nobody knows about anymore. There are a few interesting details. The manual for example could be ordered in "all important languages" back in its day. Seems like they thought the whole world would not only be German but also that the world would like to learn German Army Chess :eek: Hubris
 
very cool jens, about the strange chess, thats a real collectors item, and yeah JW I find indo-persian/ indonesian metal pretty intriguing as well, still looking for a decent keris blade
 
i collect camo jackets from around the world, so far i have a british dpm camo smock, german flecktarn parka, french CCE smock, US m81 woodland camo ECWCS gen 1 parka, 1970's vintage m-65 field jacket from US, a new tactical softshell in USMC coyote brown, a ploartec USMC SPEAR fleece jacket.
 
Gehazi said:
just a thread for antiques collectors to confess addiction, to try to ascertain the nature of the desire to own old weapons.
Click to expand...

This post raises two related, but different, questions.

First, what drives people to acquire goods of a specific type in a quantity beyond any need or utility ? - a form of pathology which we give social legitimacy by calling it "collecting".

Second, among the group of persons afflicted with the collecting mania, what factors are responsible for the choice of goods to be collected? Why do some people feel attracted to porcelain unicorn figurines, some to fountain pens, and yet others to variations of the Colt Model 1851 navy revolver?

Psychologists have attempted to answer the first question with theories consistent with their general methodology. Freudians asserted that the urge to collect arises from an individual fixation at the anal retentive stage. Jungians saw it as an expression of the primal hunter-gatherer stage of human development. Current psychological thinking brands it a form of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

To those of us afflicted with this seemingly inexplicable pattern of behavior, such negative labeling is unnecessary. Collecting, we would argue, offers a respite from the mundane preoccupations of the workaday world, an opportunity for mental stimulation through study and scholarship, and the chance to behold the ideal of "beauty" in a form which seems to us most attractive, regardless of the aesthetic opinions of others. If pursued with care and forethought, collecting can represent a form of investment which is proof against the ravages of inflation. However, to many – if not most – collectors, the profit motive is secondary at best.

Turning from the general behavior to the specific choice of collectible objects, it seems that early childhood influences are probably a principal determinant. Every photo of myself as a child in which I was not wearing diapers shows me to be holding at least one toy gun - often a pistol and a long gun.
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During my formative early teen years, I was surrounded by adult relatives and their acquaintances who all collected military or western firearms. One of those men went on to establish and become the first curator of the Texas Ranger Museum. Because of my interest and enthusiasm, I was able to visit him in his private gun room, where I could admire Colt dragoons, brass-framed Henry rifles, and Sheffield Bowie knives to my heart's content.
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At the age of 13, I resolved that someday I would have a gun room of my own. More than 50 years later, I'm still working on realizing that boyhood dream. Thanks to an understanding wife, I am fairly far along the way to attaining my goal.
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In 1995, while walking through a gun show with only a few dollars in my pocket, I was attracted to an oddly shaped big blade which I vaguely recognized as a "Gurkha knife".
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Money and knife changed hands, and as usual I began trying to learn something about my new acquisition and its history. I also started to feel the need to acquire more, more of these funny curved blades.That led me to eBay, and a fellow named John Powell who regularly outbid me, with whom I developed an email correspondence. The growing internet also introduced me to a masterful salesman named Bill Martino who had figured out that using the Nepalese spelling "khukuri" would send search engines away from Indian tourist kukris straight to his forum and real Gurkha knives.
The rest is truly a tale of pathological obsessive-compulsive behavior.
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(Which probably explains the traditional pocket knives, hats and caps, and walking sticks also).;)
 
I fall under the obsessive collector category too. In the last 15 years I've collected:

swords/khukris/large asian knives
military surplus rucksacks and bags
pocket knives
soviet made wrist watches
fountain pens
pipes and pipe tobacco
lighters
Stetson and Dobbs fedoras
old stereo equipment (esp vacuum tube amplifiers)
records and 8 tracks
Chinese yixing teapots and pu'erh teas
computers and video games from the 70's/80`s

And probably a few other things I've forgotten.
 
Awesome Gun Room Berk! Youd never get me out of there:thumbup: I have always collected the most primative tool of all...rocks. Military? Dont know? More like tribal squabble? Arrowheads and cutting tools etc. 99% of them I collected myself. I see yours there behind the bush:thumbup:Nice way to display them.
 
old stereo equip and lp's. Im definitely guilty of obsession there! I collect anything i think will be useful. Nuts bolts scrap metal,electronic components you name it.and especially hand tools (not from China).

blue lander said:
I fall under the obsessive collector category too. In the last 15 years I've collected:

swords/khukris/large asian knives
military surplus rucksacks and bags
pocket knives
soviet made wrist watches
fountain pens
pipes and pipe tobacco
lighters
Stetson and Dobbs fedoras
old stereo equipment (esp vacuum tube amplifiers)
records and 8 tracks
Chinese yixing teapots and pu'erh teas
computers and video games from the 70's/80`s

And probably a few other things I've forgotten.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, stereo stuff was my main hobby for awhile. I started buying vintage stuff from thrift stores but ended up building my own amplifiers and speakers. I bought an old rek-o-kut turntable from a radio station to make my own record player but I never finished that one.
 
Mr. Berkley, your one very lucky guy. To be able to visit the bowels of a museum like that and be surrounded by collectors. That's one very nice man cave you got going there.

I'm proud of my little man cave. I was afflicted with a love of firearms I think from birth. None of my relatives were collectors per se. They all hunted, had rifles and such but other than that, they were just tools.

I too was bitten by the strange shaped blade and a friend from a gun forum sent me a WWII. That kicked the feeble embers into a 4 alarm fire in a big way. If only I had the pay check to support my endless wants and desires. It's great fun collecting and trying to figure out how to make it happen.

Right now Bonnie's (of Bonnie and Clyde fame) 38 Colt auto is going up for auction. Estimated to go for 125 to 175,000 with 6 original rounds and the mag along with documentation and period era photo's. Way way way out of my wildest dreams but that's what dreams are made of.

I'm starting to babble.
 
Berk,

Ever since you had the Berk's Special (Dui Chirra), i've been hooked. Your Nepali shelves got me really envious!:D
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I have personally bought 3 dui chirra,all on the envious gazes i put on berks original-- I have two hanuman dui chirra and one massive 26 inch dui all based on that one. def one of my favorite blades at HI-- i share your envy of the berk

also does anyone know what happened to john powell? I saw several of his khukuris being sold at auction
 
John doesn't feel well and sold off most of his khuks. He has since been doing well as what i heard from Spiraltwista.
Let the man have some peace of mind.
 
good to hear he is around at least, I know his collection was probably the best provenance of many, people like him and bill are really responsible for legitimate khukuri collecting imo.( for many of us here anyway)
 
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Got this from another forumite. WWII vintage officer's khukuri, tin chirra, 18" 18oz.

TinChirra18-WW2vintage18-02_zpse98e9e51.jpg
 
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lol I think im buying the rest of the collection from the guy you picked that up from :D , it is a great looking knife, i love the elaborate fullers, er chirras
 
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