Are you GLAD you know more about knives than most people?

L

Lavan

Joined
Nov 8, 2000
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I was just thinking about how I used to blithely use a knife for EVERYTHING. Blissful days of just whittlin, stabbin, pokin, pryin, whackin an just USING the stoopit things.
Then I became WISE! I learned of metals. Never again would I use a Buck 501 to pry open a stuck Toyota tailgate and bust it only to have Buck replace it FREE even though I told em I had WRECKED it and just wanted to BUY a new blade and then get it back looking like new so I could go back to prying, whacking, stabbing, etc.
I think I may even have known .... CONTENTMENT. Contentment at having just STAINLESS steel that didn't turn to brown powder from benign neglect and look awful until ya scrubbed it on the side of the STONE ta loosen it up afore slathering OIL all over it.
The days when NOTHING was better than WD-40.
When a dropped knife that picked up a dent was just put in yer pocket without even a GLANCE at the dern thing.
Goin out and cuttin stuff up with whatever was in yer pocket.

Actually that was kinda FUN!

But NOW.... I am a sophisticated steel connoisseur with 3 knives in my pocket and NUTTIN ta pry open a Toyota tailgate with unless I go get a screwdriver.

Ahhh....ignorant bliss.

:eek: :) :D
 
Now that you mention it, ignorance was bliss.

I once just used a knife to do whatever, pry, scrape, wittle, stab, etc. I didn't care to sharpen, oil or strop.

Nowadays, if I need to cut something, I take a few seconds and wonder,
what knife is best?
how would BG-42 handle this?
how would metal d'jour handle this?

Sometimes I may take about half and hour just thinking about these questions, then decide on the blade to use, then make a couple of simple cuts.

Sometimes intelligence sucks ;)
 
I used to try and pry with my swiss army knife knife, still have some nicks on the blade to show. But since you'll know that saks (or at least mine) doesn't lock. Biiig mistake. Thank god I was using the small blade, but it folded over and sliced my thumb pretty badly. Ignorance is bliss, except when it hurts. :o
 
I've carried a knife since I was about 6 or 7, my Dad always had a knife on him he used it constantly at work, he was a printer. My uncles all carried a slipjoint of some sort. I didn't know the term slipjoint before I found BFC. I couldn't tell you the pattern or brand of the knives before 1998, who knew they had names?

I find I learn something new just about every day here, some knife related, some not. I still know next to nothing about steel, I couldn't tell you what steel a blade is made of by looking at it. Oh, BTW neither can you. ;)
I stick with makers and manufacturers i know and trust them to use the right steel for the job intended. I take a little satisfaction with how much I've learned about knives, but it's pretty trivial. It doesn't come up in normal conversation all that often and I doubt it will ever be a category on Jeopardy. I'm glad I have this place to learn about and discuss knives.
 
I wish I knew more about knives than most people.. HOWEVER , I DON'T..
I do know how and how not to use a knife, and I know a little about different knives. But everytime I come on here I learn something new, and that is part of the enjoyment, learning. fortunately for me and a lot of other people, there are a lot of very knowledgeable folks on here that are willing to help us learn what has taken them many years and many hour to learn.
 
Y'know, I am glad that I know stuff 'bout knives. Before I got into them, I always suspected there was more to them than a handle, an edge, serrations or no, and a difference between carbon and stainless. I like knowing as much as I can about my interests and passions. Knives fall into both categories so I like being informed :)
 
You make a good point. I thought the response to this post would be obvious, but you put a new perspective on it. Even so, I still think that I do like knowing more about knives than most people. Perhaps not more than most on this forum, but enough to have gained a new appreciation for knives. Before, they were just another tool. Now they are a fetish. I like being the knife expert to my friends and family, and get a lot of enjoyment out of collecting them.
 
I hate knowing more about knives than most people. Not because ignorance was bliss (although it was :D ) but because I wish all those sheeple out there knew as much about knives as I do. It would make it a lot easier to get some of our stupid knife laws repealed. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to carry the right knife for a task instead of trying to do something with what you can have without getting arrested/causing sheeple stampedes?
 
Hateman said:
Now that you mention it, ignorance was bliss.

I once just used a knife to do whatever, pry, scrape, wittle, stab, etc. I didn't care to sharpen, oil or strop.

Nowadays, if I need to cut something, I take a few seconds and wonder,
what knife is best?
how would BG-42 handle this?
how would metal d'jour handle this?

Sometimes I may take about half and hour just thinking about these questions, then decide on the blade to use, then make a couple of simple cuts.

Sometimes intelligence sucks ;)
Click to expand...

True. I've mentioned before on here, I got all the way through Boyscouts with a cheap Buck knock-off. Occasionally I wondered why it was so hard to keep sharp, but it served its' purpose well enough.

Now that I've gone back to always having a pocket knife on me, I'm slowly sliding toward a multiple-carry type. Not that that's bad, I just notice myself thinking "Should I really use my nice pocket knife for this? Where's that mat knife when I need it? Why don't I have an ugly beater for cutting stuff like this?"

Where before, I wouldn't have given a second thought to cutting anything and everything that needed to be cut!
 
For myself; yes. For other people; not particularly.

Knowing a lot about knives and steels makes pretty much everyone else I talk to about knives sound kinda like an idiot because they know less than me. This is mainly because it seems that unlike other hobbies people are much less likely to want to learn about knives.

It's hard to explain just why I bought a ZDP-189 Delica for 30$ more than the VG-10 one to my girlfriend who refuses to learn anything about steel (can't really blame her). I've just started settling for things like "Because it's green and it has this cool little bug on it." *Cue girlfriend calling it a crab, looking at me like I'm a moron and going back to watching Project: Runway.*

I do miss the carefree days when I would buy any knife that looked neat to me. Now it's all about if the knife is lefty-friendly, is it going to be discontinued soon?, where's the G-10?, how thick are the liners?, where's it made?, am I in line with the companies business practices?, has the company recently downgraded their steels but kept the price the same? has the company recently wronged one of my favorite dealers? if the knife breaks what is the warranty like? can I get that in plain edge?

It's a real grind sometimes.
 
I guess I know more than most of the folks around here but I still know NOTHING compared to 99% of those on this forum. (And very little compared to most of the remaining 1% :rolleyes: ) Knives are considered "Bad JuJu" here in the UK because our wise and wonderful Government :jerkit: :barf: says they are.
I miss the days when, as a kid a knife was a "good'un" if it was still as shiny as it should be, but I guess thats because I miss the times I lived in then rather than missing the lack of knowledge that let me abuse a blade without a second thought. Those times ended when I was about 7 and my grandfather taught me how to sharpen things until they'd shave (and better)
I like being the guy that friends and family come to for info on knives if they have a choice to make. I enjoy being the one they come to when their blades need sharpening. Over the years I've managed to "convert" a few of them into people who might not understand knives as much as I do, but at least they respect the nicely stropped edges I put on their knives for them.

I carry a knife every day and I look after it. If I want to pry open a Toyota tailgate I'll use the short stubby "extra large" screwdriver blade of my Swisstool. If I broke that I'd be far far less upset than if I broke a real knife.
 
No. I wish everyone else knew as much or more. Then, we wouldn't have to deal with silly knife laws across the country.
 
It has become an obsesion and got totally out of control. I check steel stocks and know how much vanadium costs. Today I read an article on different coatings that could be used on blades and look up new advances in metalurgy.
 
Yes and no.

I know a lot more about quality of manufacture, and see my old treasured brands becoming cheap junk. I remember how cool it was to imagine pulling out a Pocketknife of Immense Power to hold bullies at bay - after 22 years in the USAR and a tour of GTMO, how stupid that is.

Exciting new steels, yeah. Immense pressure in manufacturing to hold costs down, wish I didn't. Knife newbies and street talk -constant battle of responding only to the most dangerous misperceptions. The rest they'll learn.

Losing a slipjoint my mother in law gave me to possibly losing my SnG?

The horror, the horror.

Maybe we were better off ignorant. I'm think I'm glad I'm not. I think.
 
I'm glad to know more about knives than I had in the past. First of all, I've made many more friends than I would have otherwise. Second, I enjoy having at least one thing I know better than my brothers. Third, I now have a relatively sane hobby that will never get boring, and offers a chance to learn about so many different things, like steel types (stainless, carbon, damascus), handle materials (natural, synthetic, metal), knife laws (we have it pretty good here in the US), and embellishing techniques (scrimshaw, engraving, anodizing).

Also, this place, in particular, allows me to get a better understanding of people, in general.

I am so much more enriched than before.

Ignorance is ignorance. Enlightenment is divine.

Daniel
 
No, I regret it, if I knew less I would be happy with my $10 flea market chinese crap and have more money for my motorcycles!!
 
In a way i'm glad - I have had a chance to turn people on to some good gear . This knowledge has cost a lot of bucks .

Chris
 
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