Anyone else had immediate family knife scrutiny?

I'd show a new purchase to a fellow enthusiast but that's it. I don't waste my time showing anything I purchase to others...frankly I don't care what they think or say and it's none of their business so why bother involving them?
 
To answer the original question - the only immediate family I have to worry about is my wife. She is aware of my personality traits already, and I don't complain (much) about how she chooses to spend her extra money so it's a fair arrangement.

In fact, she's a convert. She carries a Victorinox Alox Electrician that she appropriated from me, and the other day mentioned that I had "ruined her" because she won't leave the house without her pocket knife now. She has a Vic Rambler on her keychain and a Boker Subcom in her car.
 
My immediate family and inlaws will look at you sideways if you're not carrying a knife. At family gatherings everyone shows off their new blades. Guns and knives, a Texas tradition.
 
pinnah said:
IMO, there's a big difference between the average joe owning 10 steak knives and a knife knut owning 10 EDC knives.

The average joe needs 10 steak knives for hosting a dinner where he serves steak. The knife knut doesn't need 10 EDC knives. He only needs one. And this is problem that happens when a knife knut shows off a "new knife". The average joe sees it like somebody showing off a newly collected stamp or a coin. It doesn't make any sense to them.
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I think that is about the truth of it. Ten or twenty vs one or two does not make any sense to "them". Hence, unless someone asks specifically, I don't show my knives to anyone other than when I am using them. Same goes with firearms and tools in general.
 
My family is open-minded and does not care what I carry. My Ma carries a Spyderco Chicago in her work bag and Grandma and Pa live vicariously through my knife purchases:D It's people I encounter that seem to have a problem with knives.

The most common reaction I get from the guys at work is "man, you could F someone up with this!":rolleyes:
 
I'm a lucky guy, my family totally support my knife addiction. My wife wants to put a display in the living room to show my knives.. only my mother in law think that I have a weird hobby, sometimes she looks at me like I'm a serial killer, like Dexter... [emoji1]

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I wouldn't worry about what the brother in law thinks. Maybe you could get him a nice set of dish towels for Christmas.
Then he would be wishing for a knife, next year.
 
Different people are into different things.

I'm into knives. The rest of my family and most of my RL friends are not. I used to get criticized about the number of knive/bayonets/swords/axes I have. Then I started making comparisons.

They would brag about their new RV or new art work or ...... that they had bought and I would say things like

"Wow! I coulda bought 3500 civil war bayonets for that amount."

"Cool. That's worth 200 of these." And then holding up whatever knife I happened to have nearby, even if the price wasn't equivalent. They didn't know.

After a few "cost comparisons" like that, the knife criticisms went away.
 
My ex wife. She thought I had far too many guns. 70 % were inherited and will never be sold.

My dad thinks I have too many shoes, but I have scaled down due to losing weight and going down a size.

No one yet has complained about my cologne collection.

My knife collection change from a lot of sub $200 knives to a few higher quality knives. I think if I still had 35 instead of 9, there might be a problem.

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If you show people your knives they are going to comment in some way. Knife lovers are going to respond positively. Non-knife people are going to comment with the why's and maybe negative. When you show it to them , you open yourself up to those comment( just like when you start a thread). You are almost forcing them to make some response (when you show your knife) and it may not be the one you wished for.The people around me are not that into knives, not that they dislike or fear them. I rarely show them my knives, it is not within their realm of interest.
The alternative would be for them to fake enthusiasm for something they neither understand or care about
 
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I've got more non-kitchen knives than the "average joe", but a paltry few compared to most here (case in point, I have exactly one "EDC" knife). So I don't get many of the family/friend comments beyond the "you like knives" type of stuff. That said, I get enough of the mentality behind collecting not to question when someone has every variant of every model of a knife.

I think my issue is that I have many hobbies (mountain biking, photography, Audio, building computers, etc). Each one of them I've spent more on than knives (some quite a bit more), but also perhaps because of that things are spread out a bit more, and I don't catch as much flack for a single hobby. And so far for each of these other hobbies, I haven't really "collected" anything. I've got just about what is functionally required, but not much more (so far anyway...).

So, the short answer is that I haven't really yet had any "scrutiny" for a hobby.
 
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My wife mostly sees my firearms as a pile of money that is tied up. She knows that some of them are worth thousands of dollars. Been giving serious thought to selling a lot of the collector stuff as I find myself really not looking at them anymore and not even considering adding to the collection. Plus I am getting older. It is sort of like the evolution of thought that Jack knife went through before he downsized.

I purchased the little Condor Mini-Bushlore knife (3" fixed blade) in the last week or so. Kind of like the little knife. She knows I have a pile of knives. Told my wife I swung by the knife store and she saw what I purchased. I had told her that I was using my original bushlore as a yard knife digging out troublesome "weeds" that have tubers and hence hard to kill with herbicides. Her comment..... so it's a tool! That in her mind justified the purchase. I just smiled and didn't make the obvious comment that they are all tools of sorts, sharp ones, but tools. Some will say potential weapons. Such is life. I certainly don't need to carry a knife as a weapon when I own firearms perfectly suited for that purpose.
 
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I've never had this problem with family, but friend on the other hand frequently say "Why do you need so many knives?" or "Why do you carry so many knives on you all the time?".
 
My wife and oldest daughter think my knife interest / hobby is ridiculous... but I don't seek or need their approval. I also don't try to engage them in knife talk because I know it's not their thing.

it works both ways. My wife doesn't try to drag me to her book club (which I think is really a "drink-wine-and-talk-about-my-husband" club).
 
SoCalEDC said:
What I mean is this.
My Father-in-law and Mother-in-law are absolutely cool with my knives as is my wife. They are from Denmark where if you are caught carrying a tiny SAK, your done in that country.
We went over for dinner tonight and my brother-in-law, who is 40 and been here all his life (and quite Conservative), said after showing him my new knife, "you have enough knives!..geez".
This after buying him a couple but he has never carried them.
I guess what I'm getting at is some are ignorant about these tools we carry. To them they are scary or something.
I am officially done trying to convince anyone about the practical use and carry of knives because it's always, "Why do you need that many knives?".

Feel like asking them, "Why do you need that many steak knives?".
Is there a difference?
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As far as the BIL's statement, I think a lot depends on his tone and intent. If he was just making a lighthearted joke, no biggie. But if he was actually being critical and making a judgement, well, I don't imagine that anyone would like to be criticized and judged by a family member over something as insignificant and innocent as a knife. Some people are jerks, and they insist on proving it to others. No one likes a jerk.

I'm reminded of how sometimes, when people find out I ride motorcycles, they will say "You ride a motorcycle! You'll kill yourself!". If I were so inclined I might take offense, because in a way they are making a negative judgement of me and assuming that I don't know how to ride, or that I don't ride safely. But I just shrug them off. I couldn't care less about the negative opinions and judgements of others, whether it's bikes, or knives, or anything else.

I've never gotten any static from family over knives. The only halfway interesting experience I have is when my sister visits and I show here a switchblade I built. She indulges my desire to showoff something I made, but when I offer one to her to fire it, she refuses as if I were offering her a snake, as if the knife might fly into the air and stab her. Funny thing is, she likes to shoot, and has no fear of guns. Family can be funny sometimes.

I typically keep my interests to myself. I don't assume that other people will share my interests.

A simple lesson I learned in life, and part of my philosophy for happiness is- Never seek or expect understanding or acceptance from others. If others choose to give them, that's fine. But to go through life trying to convince others to understand and accept you is a pointless and futile endeavor that will inevitably lead to frustration and disappointment.
 
if you keep gifting him knives but he doesn't use them, then you should probably gift him something he'll actually like or use in the future.
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Thanks for your responses. Yeah, this pretty much covers it. By profession, he's in construction. He has tools everywhere. In fact, he does use the knife I gave him so I think it was just a spur of the moment comment which I was totally cool with. I usually don't share my knife purchases with any family except my dad (who loves knives)..this was more s spur of the moment thing.
With him, I'll stick to shirts. He loves shirts :)
 
SoCalEDC said:
...With him, I'll stick to shirts. He loves shirts :)
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Funny. Since he's in construction, are they all Carhartts? I have lots of Carhartt tea shirts as I wear them all the time for work and play. Your more apt to see me in a pocket tea than any other shirt.
 
My family I would say is against knives and weapons in general, unless they are a part of your job (military, police etc.). I was not allowed my first pocket knife until I was in the military(reserves). It is all about perspective and personal experience. Somebody who works in lets say.. Children aid society (Canadian organization that helps kids in abusive homes, etc.) throughout the years have seen many horrible things where a knife(or weapon) has been used in the worst ways possible so they would be against having them around the house as they have seen primarily the negative affects of them. However, if you're military personnel, EMT, police etc. these tools/weapons can be used for good and to save lives.
 
killgar said:
I'm reminded of how sometimes, when people find out I ride motorcycles, they will say "You ride a motorcycle! You'll kill yourself!". If I were so inclined I might take offense, because in a way they are making a negative judgement of me and assuming that I don't know how to ride, or that I don't ride safely. But I just shrug them off. I couldn't care less about the negative opinions and judgements of others, whether it's bikes, or knives, or anything else.
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In all fairness, that reaction may also reflect some of your own sensitivity. I don't volunteer that information when people tel me they ride. In fact I'm very interested in riding, but I definitely have THOUGHT that comment before. Not because I assume the rider is bad, but because I've seen way too many bad drivers, and have seen way to many people on bicycles, and motorcycles get injured by bad drivers when the rider was totally in the right. Not that you can't get hurt in a car too, but there's a big difference between getting rear-ended by a car driving 20MPH when you're in a car vs. on a bike.

Doesn't stop me from wanting a motorcycle, but does stop me from buying one.
 
My dad's side of the family loves that I am always carrying and talking about the knives I buy. My mom specifically however, while not against it wholly? Is absolutely against the fact that I will spend several hundred dollars on a single knife.

She doesn't seem to understand that side of things, but then again, my mother is a frugal woman.

Usually the way I turn people over to my side of the fence with my knives is allowing them to use whatever blade I am carrying for some task. I used to carry a piece of trash knife just to allow for interested people to see the difference in quality. Smoothness of a folder, blade geometry performance and so on. That worked wonders really.
 
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