at what the price point do you start to baby your knife?

I do not abuse any knife, but I use every knife. So I guess you could say I baby every knife....or that I baby none of my knives.
 
Charlie Mike said:
Anything under $2200... only because that's the most I've spent on a knife.
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When I first read that, I thought it said the most you spent was $200 and I LOL'd. I had to do a double take :D

The only ZT that I've ever owned was use to baton branches off a shrub when I was doing yard work. I don't baby my knives, but I also don't abuse them.
 
[video=youtube;BNQULw8E8H0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNQULw8E8H0[/video]
 
I use but don't abuse my custom hunters and Sebenza. I haven't owned a knife I wouldn't use yet.
 
Much of this is my history as well and the topic definitely resonates. Much to my own chagrin I too 'baby' my knives after about $300. Can't help it. I know the functional merit of using good tools for their intended purposes. I understand that quality blade ware was created for function.
But I'm a bit reluctant to hard use expensive knives, acknowledging that the word 'expensive' is relative.

xAnarkx said:
my knife buying history started from $30 went all the way up to $800, now its coming back down to around 200. because i found out around 200 is the point i dont have to conscious/subconsciously baby the knife.

xm-18 is one of my all time fav, even tho i bought it for edc/hard use but when push come to shove it always make me cringe a little hard using the knife. so as much as i like the high end stuff the days of me edcing them 24/7 is over, not that i dont have the money to replace or fix them if they get lost/damaged but i just dont feel like worrying about it anymore.

do you guys have a price point that you just cant help but baby your knife?
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I hate to admit it, but I baby all my knives. Don't know why, just ends up that way. Perhaps one day.
 
None. I have a couple of knives for collecting that I don't use. The don't cost near as much as some of the knives I do use. I have a couple of knives that have been used but are now retired, they didn't cost very much. Other than that, all my knives get used regardless of cost. If a knife is so expensive that I wouldn't use it I won't buy it.
 
None of them get babied. All of my expensive knives have excellent warranties or backing by their makers, but I don't try to pry off car doors with them, either.
 
I'm the same as many here, in that I don't baby any of the knives that I carry, but I also carry multiple knives for a reason. There are some knives that would be more of a pain to have to repair the edge on if they were damaged, so I use those for most of my cutting tasks, but always have a capable, cheaper knife on me as well, with a broader edge geometry or tougher, but more easily sharpened, steel.
For EDC, I like to be able to only have to sharpen them really every few months, and just lightly maintain the edge with a strop in between, so some of the steels that are categorized as "super steel" are more my preference, along with some rather...rare...designs.

That way my $600 custom EDC fixed blade can slice like crazy, like it is supposed to do, or my $900 Shirogorov (of which I have 2 now) EDC folder can handle anything that I need it to, while the cheaper knife can take the abuse and bounce back faster. Usually a little 3V necker or something similar, but I only really need that out doing chores or something like that. I know that my regular EDC knives can handle what I do at work, so they are all I usually have for most of my day.
I generally won't carry (and therefore won't buy) anything over $1000, but that's only the mental rule I made for myself, and there are a select few knives that I know specifically would become an exception to that rule if I were to be able to find them and get them.

I generally won't buy something I won't carry, and I won't carry something I wouldn't want to buy again if needed ;)
That's the short answer.
 
Brew-Jitsu said:
None of them get babied. All of my expensive knives have excellent warranties or backing by their makers, but I don't try to pry off car doors with them, either.
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And this is really how I think knives should be used, or really any hobby item should be used, with the exception of people who strictly collect, because I certainly understand that thought as well.

There are people who are in this hobby to collect, and I don't see anything wrong with that, but I do think it's really a slightly different passion than looking for a knife you want to use.
 
My initial reaction was "oh, I don't baby any of my knives - I use 'em all..." but then I dialled down my own bullshit and thought about it;

I have just taken possession of my first and only CRK Sebenza (small, with cocobolo inlays) and whilst I have had it in my possession for a couple of weeks, I have yet to use it...

Maybe that's my price point?!!
 
xAnarkx said:
my knife buying history started from $30 went all the way up to $800, now its coming back down to around 200. because i found out around 200 is the point i dont have to conscious/subconsciously baby the knife.

xm-18 is one of my all time fav, even tho i bought it for edc/hard use but when push come to shove it always make me cringe a little hard using the knife. so as much as i like the high end stuff the days of me edcing them 24/7 is over, not that i dont have the money to replace or fix them if they get lost/damaged but i just dont feel like worrying about it anymore.

do you guys have a price point that you just cant help but baby your knife?
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This is a very good question (surprised I never thought of asking :D) Since my most expensive knives don't go over the $200 barrier (yet) it used to be anything over $50 would start being in the baby territory. But I am noticing as I am getting older that now its reaching the $100 barrier - so anything getting to $100 and over gets babied. I wish I would stop doing this - but I have this same scenario I do all the time, which goes:

-Decide on buying the knife
-As I wait for the knife to arrive, I assure myself "I am going to use the sh** out of that knife when it gets here"
-Knife Arrives
-After inspecting knife, knife is too nice to use and back in the box it goes into my collection/toolbox/safe
-Search for new knife

:D
 
RBid said:
Give me a $25 knife with a polished flat, I'll spend all day wiping it down to keep smudges off it. Give me stonewash or satin, I'll stab a petrified tree, regardless of the price.
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lol poor petrified tree
 
For me it depends on how you define "babying". I use all my knives but some I will clean every time when I get home at night. For example my Sebenzas and my higher end Spydies I will use but religiously clean at the day's end. Most of these would be $100 and up I guess.
 
stabman said:
I find that regardless of the price I like using them.
In fact, I tend to feel silly if I DON'T use my expensive knives...what else would I have bought them for?

Yes I have a collection...a collection of used knives. :)
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This! :thumbup::thumbup:
 
unit said:
I do not abuse any knife, but I use every knife. So I guess you could say I baby every knife....or that I baby none of my knives.
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^^^
This is same for me, but the one I watch not to drop or over use, if I can say that?
Is this one, that was my grandpa's old knife, I do carry and use it some.

GPC_zpsbecb2bfd.jpg
 
I use, but baby all my knives. Don't see why these two can't go hand int hand. I use and baby my wife as well ;-)
 
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I won't own a knife I won't use. Even if its a ancient knife from 10000BC with a blade made of diamond with a sabre-toothed cat handle. Use it or sell it. No safe queens here. A client and friend is leaving me two civil war swords (as well as her guns) to me (she's 87). Once I have those, I'll have to buy a cruiser and go around lopping the heads off the hipsters in the north side of Chicago.
 
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