Becoming Minimalistic

Joined
Nov 27, 2012
Messages
171
Around the end of last year I opened up my knife draw to be greeted with the familiar feeling of being overwhelmed with the choices of knives I have at my disposal for EDC, kitchen and outdoor use. Just too many. So many I'd never be able to wear any of them out in my lifetime. So many to choose I'd get a mild panic attack at wondering if I'd make the right choice for the day. So many that have never even cut anything, let alone have been carried. So many that have been bought due to a romantic idea of a certain situation I might see myself in. I know I'm not alone here.

So I started whittling down the collection. First the duplicates, because in this day and age I'm likely to be able to buy the exact same or similar knife if I lose one. Then the ones I have never used. Then the ones that share the same role as others, but not as suitable for the task. All gifted or sold. Sometimes I'd relapse and buy a couple extra on impulse, then come to my senses and remember the path I'm on, and quickly sell or gift those.

It's taken a long time to whittle down the collection, and to be honest, I'm not quite done yet. I really can get rid of a few more. There are some that I will never get rid of for sentimental reasons, however I am more open to using those sentimental knives now.

The thing is, I feel more free not having the burden of so many choices available to me, which was the point of it. Every morning when I wake up, the same EDC knife is on the table next to me that I will carry everyday. There's no thought behind it. It's like grabbing your keys, wallet and phone and heading out the door. That feeling is more valuable to me than a draw full of forgotten, barely used knives.

Just putting my thoughts on paper here, but I'd like to hear your stories of cutting down the clutter if you have any. We really don't need much to get by everyday.
 
I hear you, I'm sure I could live a full and happy life with just a few knives. The problems is knowing *which* few. Luckily, looking for that answer is fun for me, as is having an overwhelming number of options while getting dressed. When I stop carrying or having fun with a blade, out the door it goes. I view myself as a temporary custodian of most of them, after all you can't take it with you ;)
 
Last edited:
Observing the forums over time, it seems many collections undergo periods of expansion and contraction. Contraction to simplify life, expansion because of the enjoyment they bring and YOLO.

Then many approach the point that they don't want to leave a collection too large for their next of kin to deal with, or may not appreciate.

I think I'm somewhere near the latter at the moment.
 
I could have written your post!
I was at 145 knives when I just couldn't take it anymore. I kept 5 special gifts from my girls, picked the knife I wanted to be “ My Knife” and gave 50 away , sold the rest and now I carry the same knife, keys, wallet and flashlight every single day, they are all very much minimalistic.
It is an amazing feeling of freedom!
Congrats.
 
I'm finally at the point I have everything I could ever want. It's ridiculous, I have a collection that is far nicer than I ever imagined. I finally don't feel the need to constantly stalk the knife dealers hourly on refresh for new items. I'm beyond grateful for every gift, every person that thought of my blade addiction on birthday or holidays.

I won't sell any from here, but it's like I understand my collection finally if that makes sense.
 
I did the same thing this year, cutting my connection by about 90%. It feels good, and I enjoy having fewer choices; those choices mean more to me, too.

I don't know if I'll ever stop buying knives -- it's too much fun to explore new stuff. But my purchasing has slowed to a crawl, with a lot more time considering any potential new knife (most of which I don't buy).
 
I have set rules for myself over time. Rule number one- if there’s no use for it, it has to go or doesn’t get bought in the first place. I keep duplicates to a minimum. The only duplicates I own are 2 pm2’s. 2 white river backpackers. But they’re not exactly the same.

No more impulse buys. No more I might need it buys. If it doesn’t fill an actual role in my edc, work or outside of work, I move on.

I’ve thinned my knife collection down over time. 10 knives to select from for carry when I’m not working. 10 knives to select from for work (landscaping) or work around the house. Not counting 2 fixed blades aside for fire prep and a few folders that stay in my trucks as extras.
 
Nice to hear that it is not only me. I have to keep telling myself that it is my hobby yet I want to hand down my collection to my grandson. My biggest fear is he will throw the Sebenzas or GECs at fences or trees. Funny how it’s important to me, fear of the unknown I suppose.
 
I hear you on a basic level. There is a difference between grabbing “my knife”, grabbing “a knife” and “which knife should I grab”.

It doesn’t have to be my only knife to be “my knife”.

So once you have a knife for each role, the rest are extras or spares. You can still be minimalistic and have multiples.
 
I've cut down and made huge downsizing of my accumulation of both knives and guns over time. In the mid 1990's I called over the family and friends, and had my over done accumulation spread out on a table. I told them to help themselves. I had sold off the Randall accumulation, and some other customs from makers in the American Bladesmith Society. Now have a knife collection that I can hold in one hand, with a little room left over. Gun collection also went and now just have a few revolvers and one rifle.

I found out as I got older, that all this crap in my life just complicated things. All kinds of things. As I went to senior citizen age, my materialism seemed to fade away, and all that really mattered to me was the people in my life that I love. People are what matters. Things are just things, and can be replaced or just tossed, but the people in our lives are what really matters in the long run. I still visit the forums now and then, just to see whats what. And I like to keep up with some of the friends I've made on the forums. But they all now take a distant back seat to 'real life'.

Looking back on it all, it was nuts. It was like I was in the grip some sort of temporary insanity, and when I came out of it, I looked at all the 'stuff' and said "what the hell am I doing with all this???" I wish I could go back in time, like in that Micheal J. Fox movie, find myself, and kick myself right in the rear end and ask myself 'what the hell are ya doing, bone head?'.

When I look at a potential new knife, I ask myself, "What will it do that my present knife will not?" I end up not buying new knives like that because the answer is alway 'not much, if anything."

I think the guy from EESE knives said it best when he stated that 98% of the knife market is BS. I'm glad I'm done with it.
 
I have also more than enough, but I don't obsess, because I make the decision in advance by strategically placing this or that knife on the desk, on the kitchen magnet strip, in various pockets, bedside table, deck, backpack and so on. I can reach anywhere to find a knife and sometimes I even manage to surprise myself. I use a knife until it is time to sharpen it.
 
Last edited:
I'm a minimalist as well, more so with the passing of time. I'm neither a collector nor an accumulator, aside from need which is thoroughly covered by just a few knives (I actually have practically no need for knives anymore), I was in pursuit of specific types of knives, merely for the enjoyment of ownership and possession, namely- a heavy-duty manual stiletto, and a heavy-duty stiletto switchblade.

My knife buying is now over, and my quest is complete, as I have acquired my "grails". As a result, I've started selling knives that I had considered prize possessions. I have several other knives that I eventually plan on giving away.

I moved a little over a year ago, downsizing from a house to an apartment, and that really kicked my minimalism into high gear and motivated me to lighten my load.

My "grails".

DJ6C8Db.jpg
 
I went on a knife buying binge in '17 and bought over the next couple of years far more knives than I really had any legitimate need for. I retired in '20 so it was a fast and furious frenzy up until then. Now, there are far more important things than another knife I have absolutely no realistic use for. All possible occasions to use a knife are fully covered by what I already have on hand

To be honest, if something happened that I lost all of them, I would likely only replace one slip-joint and one OHO folder. Well maybe two of each or three...
 
My knife collection is my like my waistband. It fluctuates from month to month, year to year. It happens.

One thing I would say about the OP. I hope your choice of knife for the day doesn't stress you out. If your reduction of knives helps that out, I'm all for it.
 
When covid started I had time to assess the accumulation.
I sold most of my folders and started carrying custom/handmade fixed blades.
Then when I went back to work I realized I couldn't do fixed so what to do?
I decided to stay on the custom/handmade thing and while I do still have a few other folders, I carry only a combination of around ten custom/vintage blades.
Makes deciding what to carry easier.
I found that with customs, there is a pride in ownership I wasn't getting with high end/midtech.
 
My knife collection is my like my waistband. It fluctuates from month to month, year to year. It happens.

One thing I would say about the OP. I hope your choice of knife for the day doesn't stress you out. If your reduction of knives helps that out, I'm all for it.
It doesn't stress me out anymore, because there really is only one knife I carry for EDC use. It's a slim, fairly small, easy to carry knife. I grab it, along with my phone, keys and wallet and go. If I'm going to be doing some heavier work that requires a bigger knife, there is only one to choose. When I want to fillet a fish, there's only one filleting knife to grab. Having only one choice is great.
 
I'm not "there" yet.

Two of my major hobbies in retirement are collecting knives and jazz LPs and I'd just find something else to spend my time/$ on if I stopped collecting them.

I did sell off all about 100 cheap Kershaws/CRKT and other knives earlier this year but that still left me w/over 300 knives and I'm still buying more, as you can see from my recent post in the Latest Acquisitions thread.

See: https://bladeforums.com/threads/everyones-latest-acquisitions.1376705/page-523#post-20913568

I have a few knives (that were replaced by others that I recently purchased) to sell but I have no plans for any further major reductions in my collection at this time. Don't need the $ and/or space that would result if I did.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top