Well, I've never had a problem with used women or used knives. I've never bought the former outright, but I sure paid for the new scratches and wear (on me) in one way or another. But, that's okay, I left some stories of my own. I guess the real difference is those women can talk where the knives can't. I'm thinking a lot of the stories the knives could tell might be more interesting though.
Truth be told though, if you just buy one, maybe two pocket knives (regular and Sunday go to meetin') brand new and carry those and only those for years then you are being quite traditional. Back when the carrying and use of a pocket knife was a common and necessary thing most men, and plenty of women, had
A knife.
One knife at a time. They bought it at a local hardware store, or maybe out of a catalog. Once home with it they sharpened it the way they liked it, maybe admired it a time or two, then slid it into their pocket where it lived coming out several times a day to serve it's purpose or be cleaned and resharpened. Once that knife's blades got severely worn down or maybe broken, then it got tossed in a drawer or handed down to a kid and the cycle started over again.
Today we have the luxury of several knives. Somehow people have gotten into the "rotation" philosophy with EDC knives, guns, an all sorts of things. I really don't understand it. Okay, you rotate briar pipes so they can dry out, but knives, and guns for those who carry, I don't get. Instead of being a companion tool that a person depends on day in and day out, these things seem to be more like jewelry or adornments that get changed out to match the wardrobe.
Back when these tools were used frequently and consider a very important part of everyday life, few people had "rotations." They had a knife that they carried and used for everything.
So realistically if you are talking only having a dozen traditional pocket knives then you are still a collector. Just one with a small collection. If you want to build stories into a knife then carry one knife or a set all the time and only those as your daily journal of steel. Think of it this way. If you keep/kept a daily journal would you have a dozen and write something in one today, another tomorrow, then keep skipping around writing your story so that the parts of it were scattered randomly in the pages of a dozen different books?
If you have a dozen knives and rotate them you are a collector. I have several knives. Back several years ago when I was first on here and coming back to traditional knives I ended up with over 100 pocket knives and maybe 30 or more fixed blades. Painful as it was, I finally thinned the herd. I still have maybe a few dozen traditional pocket knives, a few modern folders, and probably a little over a dozen fixed blades.
But, I go months, even a year or two at a time carrying the same pocket knife in one pocket, the same SAK classic in the other. Such is life that there are days I don't pull a knife out of my pocket. I have a few Mora's in the kitchen. The odd knife laying around near the computer, but I just don't use them as much as I'd like too simply because there is no need.
Be honest with yourself. Maybe you only want to collect new knives and keep that collection small. That's fine. It's your choice. Just as one person loves Doctor knives or Muskrats, the next person may not like them at all. But... You are collecting if you have a stash, no matter how small, no matter if all purchased new. The first step is recognizing the denial and admitting it.
You could think of buying and carrying used knives as weaving into the continuous tapestry of humanity. You add in a new thread when you are the first purchaser of a knife, but when you buy a used knife and carry it you take up a thread and continue to weave it into that tapestry. After you, someone else picks it up and continues to incorporate that particular thread. Even if they never knew you personally or even of you, the larger picture is still being portrayed.
