An epiphany

Pete1977

Pete1977

Joined
Apr 15, 2002
Messages
3,376
Hi all-

I know everyone here has different thoughts on knives, some collect, some use, and some do both. Some like tactical folders, others like fixed blades, and still others like slipjoints, customs, balisongs, et cetera.

I'd like to know what do you guys and girls collect?

Me? I am primarily a user. I use SAKs, Spydercos, and Benchmades, mostly. I'm working towards a Sebenza.

I do collect though, and a few days ago I picked up a small slipjoint antique boker penknife. It had mother of pearl handles, and I'm a sucker for MOP. When I put it with my other mother of pearl slipjoints, I had a realization that I collect mother of pearl slipjoints :)

I have four so far. I wish I had pics to post.
One is a bear MGC razor. It was my first. The other three are antiques, one is in very poor condition, but is apparently over a hundred years old. The second is foreign, age unknown, with a broken backspring, and chipped blades. The scales have to be the most beautiful white mother of pearl I've ever seen. And the last one is the H.Boker & Sons.

They aren't the most good looking knives, or the most expensive, but I like them, and I suppose that is what matters the most.

What knives do you folks collect?

Pete
 
I'm more of a user. My main user knife is a Kershaw, or an old Buck 110.

But I seem to be, unintentionally mind you, collecting Buck knives. I've got three 110s and five 112s. Nothing special really, but when the custom shop opens back up I'm thinking about getting a custom 110 made.

I like mother of pearl too, but since I use the knives that I have, and tend to use them pretty hard if I find one I like, I don't think MOP would be safe in my hands.

I play violin and one of my bows has the most insanely beautiful, deeply flamed mother of pearl inlaid ebony frog (handle, for lack of better words) I've ever seen. I took that piece of MOP out of an expensive ivory frog (ivory was a bit too heavy for my tastes and the MOP looks better in ebony anyway). The violin I made has 24k gold rimmed MOP inlay on the tail piece and pegs.

Love the stuff, but can't justify buying a "collector's" knife because I'd feel bad for not using it, but then I'd feel bad when I scratched it... never ending circle for me. So I think it's best to blow my money on expensive knives that I'll use. My Sebbie has a nice, loooooong scratch in the blade, but I don't really mind. I don't use the knife much anymore anyway, I didn't really like the way it sat in my pocket... but I picked it up cheap (relatively... cheap for a Sebenza anyway) on ebay for $275.

I use what I own, and as long as it doesn't harm its function, I don't mind scratches here and there. I banged my fiddle on a music stand walking onto stage once (80+ year old, $3000 violin), scratched it good, but didn't hurt it. But you'll never know how much and how long the word f*ck echos in a filled recital hall until you've said it and 1000 people are looking at you. I think I said the same thing when I scratched my Sebbie too.
 
I've been looking for a Sebenza deal like that for a while. :) I can't justify spending that kind of money for a new one, that I'll beat to hell anyhow. I wish I could find one that is used, and someone doesn't want, and doesn't mind letting go of at a cut rate price for a charity case like me. :D

My "collection" of mother of pearl pocket knives is far from pretty. like I said, all of them have been used at one point or another, and two are 80+ years old. The scales caught my fancy. I wouldn't use a knife with MOP scales for any serious work, maybe for a gentleman's folder to open letters and such, but I think it is too pretty to "beat up."

Pete
 
Psychopomp said:
.....you'll never know how much and how long the word f*ck echos in a filled recital hall until you've said it and 1000 people are looking at you. I think I said the same thing when I scratched my Sebbie too.
Click to expand...

:D Good story.

Actually my epiphany has been that I'm not a collector. I always thought that my journey towards sebenza/strider/busse land and then customs was inevitable. I looked for that urge one day and it just wasn't there. I've got my users now and I may upgrade one of them from time to time but that's it.
 
My name is Paul, and I'm a user. :D

I've been through many different types and styles of knives over the years. I ALWAYS end up back with SAKs as my primary carry/user knives.

Paul
 
I'm a user.

My EDC favorite is my Emerson CQC7B Wave. It carries well in my jeans and BDU cargo pants. Right now I've got the Benchmade CQC7 clipped in my right front pocket. When I'm at work it's either the CQC7s or my Buck Strider 880 Tanto point. I like the size of the blade on the 880 but it's hell on my pant pocket. The rough scales chews the heck outta them but I appreciate this knife more when I'm camping or hiking. At work, I'm opening everything from cardboard boxes, thick rope, nylon straps and thick zip ties. I keep a Kershaw Black Out in my opposite thigh pocket for light work.
 
I'm mostly a user. Of course, I'm a compulsive buyer, too. For example, yesterday I went to a knife store to get a Leatherman Wave. I ended up buying a Wenger SAK (because I wanted to check out the regular sized models with locks), a Victorinox One-hand Trekker (because somebody told me the serrations were easy to remove, and a one-hand opening SAK is just too good to pass up), an Opinel Nº8 (you can never have enough of them) and a Puma Alpine Guide II (because it looked like a good little EDC, although the factory sheath sucks).

This kind of uncontrolled shopping spreas created my collection. I focus on hunting/outdoors knives (no tacticals) with wooden or stag handles. I've changed the handles on many of my knives to fit in, I've made new leather sheaths for some of them, too.

Most of my non users were either gifts, inherited or lucky finds. For example, when my grand father's brother died I travelled to an old country house of him to help put everything in order before it was sold. I found around ten Spanish pocket knives, in excellent condition (with only two exceptions), very nice and elegant knives, most of them still have their original sheaths!. A couple were clearly users (scratched blades and plain wooden handles) and some were more "show off" knives (one of them has a beautiful design made with gold inlays at Toledo), my favourite one is my great-grandad's "tactical" folder, it looks like one of the big SAKs, but the main locking blade has a thumbstud for ambidextrous one-hand opening. Many of my friends and relatives have given me an old knife or two because they knew I would appreciate them, my uncle's parents (who live in Pilzen, Czeck Republic) gave me a couple of bayonets they found in their back yard while planting tomatoes. So, besides the hunting fixed blades and the folders, which I use, I have a small bayonet and a pocket knife collection, started mainly with pieces I didn't buy. Come to think of it, of the non users, I only bought two (an antique Wostenholm bowie and a long Mauser 1909 bayonet).

I also have a small collection of traditional Argentinian knives. They are sometimes used, not that much. I make them with my dad in our free time, most of the times we buy the blades and focus on the sheath and handle, but we made a couple of them integrally with good results. They started out pretty simple, but after we began taking leather-working, and silver-smithing lessons, the handles and sheaths kept getting nicer. Now I want to try a somewhat bizarre piece: I want to use a Scandi blade and make a "criollo" style handle and sheath for it. Something like an Argentinian view of the moras.
 
I'll most likely begin a collection of balisongs. Each one I aquire will be flipped just so I can appreciate the knife a little more than its looks. I have a BM 42 that I use as my everyday flipper, and I just ordered a BM 710 for an EDC due to legal issues with balisong carry.
 
Sebenzas, Striders and Terzuolas. I like all 3 for different reasons. I only collect folders because I can carry any that I own without legal troubles.

John...
 
I think I'm a bit of a mixed bag here. For the most part, for me, it's a fascinating thing to do. I'm naturally an inquisitive person, and the more I learn, the more I want to try different things. Knives, in a general sense, have been a pretty dedicated "hobby" for me for the last 3 years or so. The more I learn, the more it means buying stuff to try for different things (user part), which leads to collection :D . Guilty as charged for being a compulsive buyer ;) I do a bit of stock removal, and of course, there is no end to trying new things, materials, etc. in this area. If you do any "handyman" things around the house, and a bit of a compulsive buyer (though my wife gives Power Shopping a whole new meaning :eek: ), places like House of Tools, Home Depot, Rona and Lee Valley Tools can be very dangerous to go "looking". I think every time I go "looking" at Lee Valley it costs me $50.00. When I go shopping...........
There is so little time & money and soooo much stuff to buy and try.....

- gord
 
I'm an "accumulator" - knives I like, I buy.

I have over 170 knives - vintage, high-tech, bayonets, hunters, slipjoints, a kukri, common factory knives, a custom or two, SAK, etc. Among the 'accumulation' are several small "mini-collections" - OldTimers, Bruckmanns, and unusual mechanisms.

I have a single, inexpensive, lightweight knife that's a designated user for backpacking and hiking. Otherwise, I rarely carry a knife - paranoid of losing one, and with good reason.

Hope this answers your question. We're an eclectic group here at BladeForums - users, collectors, accumulators, and swappers all interacting together in a friendly and social manner. Perhaps there's hope for humanity after all...

-Bob
 
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