Are Knives Just Tools?

Tools you say!? Do you have 30 hammers? Did you pay 30, 80, 150, 250, 450, 680 (that is how my knife buying progression looks) and so on for each hammer? Do you use each of those hammers at least once a month? No, for most guys here (if they are honest) knives are much more than tools.
 
Are knives just tools?

To me this question is like asking the same thing about breasts. If breast are just tools then they serve no other purpose other than feeding the baby. Both sex's are well aware of their multiple uses.

My knives aren't just tools they are one of my hobbies. I use some but most are to collect and admire, to sell and trade. Hobbies are for satisfying one's obsessions.

Never have spent much money on breast by the way they are way too expensive.:eek:
 
ryanv403 said:
or is it something more.
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It can be something more. For many of us, it is an anesthetic that distracts us from our inner turmoil.

Huh? Like booze or drugs or hoarding, knife collecting can give our conscious minds something to focus on that temporarily blots out something much darker that lies within. This is the only explanation I can come up with for why I have so dang knives. Why I buy multiples of knives. Its why I have 30 or 40 multitools that I never use, and zillions of knives, and guns and flashlights. That kind of stuff. The internet browsing, the hunt, the purchase, the anticipation, the mailbox, the opening and the pocket. Its all a big distraction. Thats why that 30 minutes after you receive the knife - the knife that was going to be your last knife and holy grail - you start to look for the next knife.

A knife can cut stuff. But for those of with The Illness, it can do much more.
 
I consider my knife as a tool and not a collection piece. However I have one knife I used alot but retired while it is still in perfect condition, but this is because of sentimental value. Even though I use my knives as tools, I see my knives as more than tools, I call them my toys because I see them the same way a rich guy might see a very expensive car. My knives are not very expensive, but I love them. I do try not to abuse them or mess them up, but I do use them whenever I have a reason to.. and if I dont I usually make one up.
 
"What is a knife to YOU?"

There is no wrong answer to that question. If it's your knife than it's yours to do whatever you want to with it. If you chose to use it as a tool or hang it on a wall or throw it at a tree, it's your knife and no one is in a position to tell you what you should or shouldn't do with it.

What a knife should be and how it should be used are often questions that bring out "knife snobbery", that is, people telling you that their way is right and your way is wrong.

My knives are tools. Some have been chosen and are carried with last-resort self-defense in mind. But I never judge people for how THEY define THEIR knives or what they chose to do with them.
 
For me it depends on the knife in question. Most of my blades get regular use, but a select few are used on very rare occasion only. For instance: I usually carry a Benchmade 32, it gets used very often. On the opposite side, I also have a Spyderco Centofante Memory, which I don't use save for formal occasions, like weddings.
 
powernoodle said:
It can be something more. For many of us, it is an anesthetic that distracts us from our inner turmoil.

Huh? Like booze or drugs or hoarding, knife collecting can give our conscious minds something to focus on that temporarily blots out something much darker that lies within. This is the only explanation I can come up with for why I have so dang knives.
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Sounds like therapy might be a better purchase than knives.:eek:
 
Over Kill said:
Blades are early mans greatest achievement. Not much has changed with them over thousands and thousands of years and they still serve us the same. That is why we love them. Knives are more than a tool they are in our dna.
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Forbes named the knife man's #1 invention of all time, I agree so feel its mankinds greatest achievement!

ridnovir said:
Tools you say!? Do you have 30 hammers? Did you pay 30, 80, 150, 250, 450, 680 (that is how my knife buying progression looks) and so on for each hammer? Do you use each of those hammers at least once a month? No, for most guys here (if they are honest) knives are much more than tools.
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I probably have close to 30 different hammers, like knives there is an endless variety. Although my hammer purchases are closer to my slipjoint finds- very rarely do I spend over $20 on one. Why collect more? See below.


2 shot said:
Are knives just tools?

To me this question is like asking the same thing about breasts. If breast are just tools then they serve no other purpose other than feeding the baby. Both sex's are well aware of their multiple uses.

My knives aren't just tools they are one of my hobbies. I use some but most are to collect and admire, to sell and trade. Hobbies are for satisfying one's obsessions.

Never have spent much money on breast by the way they are way too expensive.:eek:
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I've always said (and even on here once or twice), that knives are like breasts, (and I like them both) because of diversity! Change one small factor about either object and you change the entire dynamic.

I buy my knives to use as I feel like it. I don't say that each one gets equal use time, but I have no knives that I'm afraid to use. Currently I am carrying a $1 Imperial slipjoint next to a many hundred dollar custom Damascus folder. If the knife suits me that day it gets in my pocket. I have hundreds of knives and they all cut. Our if them there was one knife I wasn't sure of using because of its age, but replies by Bernard Levine today assured me that future knife lovers won't miss out if it gets an edge and prunes a tree as it was made for.
They are knives- not letting them cut is wasteful IMO, but I have no problem with others that keep theirs pristine. Just don't expect that 'mint' means a lot to me if you want to work a trade. I don't sell my knives, so mint resale value means next to nothing to me! Give me a Scagel, and I'll probably cook a steak so I have something to cut with it!
 
Why can't it be both?

I have knives I buy to use as tools and others I mostly just admire. I do carry/use most of my knives though. I wouldn't use any of the expensive customs though, but again, that's me. I'm not rich and spending $700+ for a knife to beat on is not what I consider a good investment.


Knives are my hobby. I love working on them, taking them apart, sharpening them, watching vids on them online and talking about them here on the forums with you good folks.

You wouldn't ask a stamp collector if they use their stamps to mail things or a coin collector if they use their coins to buy soda in a vending machine. I think knife collection is just as legitimate hobby as those things except we have the added bonus of having something useful to EDC or for survival or for defense.




Also, I can tell you this. If knives were just tools to you, you wouldn't be here. How often to you frequent the spanner forums? Or the hammer forums? Or the Screw driver forums?

Yeah.
 
cars are just transportation . but when you have a sports car..
bikes are just transportation, and then you get a full carbon S-works for $12,000
watches just tell time, but then you get a rollex.
wallets just hold money then you get a gucci
guns just shoot till you get a custom build.
the point is they are all things with cool factors, but they are very functional and have uses. this goes for anything.
its fun writing with a Damascus custom pen and it gives you enjoyment you dont get from a bic.
 
and is S30V a better steel than (insert steel here). And is a Strider better than a Chris Reeve. and what is your EDC. and what do you think about question marks at the end of questions. And bleh....again and again. Tahhh-rollll.
 
fernando said:
and is S30V a better steel than (insert steel here). And is a Strider better than a Chris Reeve. and what is your EDC. and what do you think about question marks at the end of questions. And bleh....again and again. Tahhh-rollll.
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I thought this thread was interesting enough, until your (insert snarky term here) post.

Anyway...
Hmm, I wonder if there's a hammer, spoon, or fork forum out there... ;)

I have one knife, my Microtech LCC D/A that I bought 10 years ago, that I didn't buy purely as a cutting tool.
I bought it more as a gadget because of the hidden, bolster release. So cool.
It has gotten very little use, and I doubt it ever will.
 
powernoodle said:
It can be something more. For many of us, it is an anesthetic that distracts us from our inner turmoil.

Huh? Like booze or drugs or hoarding, knife collecting can give our conscious minds something to focus on that temporarily blots out something much darker that lies within. This is the only explanation I can come up with for why I have so dang knives. Why I buy multiples of knives. Its why I have 30 or 40 multitools that I never use, and zillions of knives, and guns and flashlights. That kind of stuff. The internet browsing, the hunt, the purchase, the anticipation, the mailbox, the opening and the pocket. Its all a big distraction. Thats why that 30 minutes after you receive the knife - the knife that was going to be your last knife and holy grail - you start to look for the next knife.

A knife can cut stuff. But for those of with The Illness, it can do much more.
Click to expand...

Deep and profound. I may have found a post my wife (getting her Psy.D in Psychology) might be interested in. I am excited, our interests can align! Seriously though, you are right on as far as I am concerned. First it was fishing gear, I have more quality gear than most guys with a $40,000 boat, but cannot afford the boat right now, so I got into knives. Something else might be the next thing, who knows.
 
For those making the hammer comments: obviously you have never seen vintage Maydole hammers. Those are some damn sexy hammers and I would love to own 30+ of them. As it is I own around 7 hammers and use them often. Knives are tools. But, if well-made, they are not "just tools." The same goes for any tool. There is a special kind of beauty found in tools and machines that I like to call "functional beauty." When a tool is refined in its design and superbly crafted to be idealized for its purpose it automatically assumes a kind of silent grace that no painting could ever hope to achieve.
 
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