Carrying my Knife collection

Quiet said:
I am comfortable in my position, and thus unconcerned with what others might think about it, however I'll just say that I have more knives than I will ever use (and have many years of buying more ahead of me). Also, I'm a desk-driving "white collar" worker who lives in the 'burbs, so my every day cutting needs tend to be minimal, along the lines of opening mail, cutting a steak, or snipping a thread. That's about the harshest "use" that any of my knives that cost me more than $150ish or so will ever see. If I did have some hard use need (like when camping on a weekend), I'd use one of the inexpensive knives from my early days of knife buying. Why mess up the edge on an expensive custom Curtiss F3 when I could use this old Ontario RAT 1 I have in my toolbox instead? Why beat on my custom handmade Bob Dozier out in the woods, when my Cold Steel Recon 1 will do the job just as well, while my Dozier is safe at home in my knife chest?

I get that some folks seem to almost make it a point of pride to be able to mar up or destroy beautiful, expensive things but frankly, I have expensive knives that I'll never use for anything more than slitting open an occasional envelope. I also have subset collections of knives I don't plan on using at all. I just like looking at them. I don't feel bad about it, and frankly, I'd be amused if others thought less of me for it. I couldn't care less. I don't buy expensive knives to beat on them, I have cheap knives for that. Simple as that. There's that silly hashtag on IG you see on knife pages, "#USEYOURSH$%" (except with the last word spelled out), and whenever I see it, I'm like "Heh, I DO use the cheap #$%^ knives I own. I just don't beat on my nice knives. Big difference there."
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That's pretty much what I was trying to get at. I always have 2 and sometimes 3 knives on me. By using the "nice ones", I'm implying it being carried in your pocket and the occasional light use like tape or envelope or food etc. If I need some grunt behind it, I will pull out my $100 dollar v3 Kizer blade. It hasn't let me down yet. I'm a blue collar worker and use a knife quite frequently. But a lot of the times I will just grab the ol razor knife out of my tool bag. There's no way I'm going to beat on a very nice knife.
 
Hvactech said:
I just came to a realization that it's silly to buy a bunch of knives, but never carry the majority of them because you don't want to get a scratch or smudge on them. A year ago I only had a small handful of cheaper Kershaws, $50 dollars or less. Then I purchased a Kershaw Dividend with the olive Drab handles and composite blade. Man I thought that composite blade was the coolest knife ever. Then I started buying all kinds of older composite Kershaws and leek and Damascus versions. I finally saw the light and found the Forums here and started seeing what all the knife lovers on here were buying. Now I have quite a few Zero Tolerance's, Spyderco's, Hinderer's, and others. But I still would only carry a small handful of knives, compared to what I own. Well I finally realized that they don't do much good sitting in my knife folders looking all pretty. I'm sure a bunch of other folks on here does the same thing. Has anyone else had the same ah ha moment as me ? Today I'm carrying my brand new Tuff that I purchased months ago but never carried one time. Also in my side Carpenters pocket is my newly purchased from the exchange Half Trac. It actually feels good to carry these. And I will keep rotating them for other neglected ones that don't get carried! Yall have a great rest of your day!!!View attachment 1786207
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I came to realize the same thing about a month ago. I have a few folders that really was hard and expensive to get, but were kept in the boxes, some for years. At one point i did put them up for sale.
I was lucky enough not to sell ALL of them, since i realized that i really like those designs, and the best way to enjoy it, for me at least, is use it and have it close to you. No point to spend all this energy and time to get something and then sell it because you don't use it.
*That being said, i still regret selling the ones i did (mostly some great ZTs)





sailfish said:
Go big or go home.


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Now, THAT'S a nice Sebenza!
Honest to God, to me, this looks better than brand new. Looking at the pictures, i both feel my stomach turn but enjoy it at the same time
 
My opinion would be that in order for me to fully appreciate a knife - I need to use that knife.

But, whatever makes you happy bro.
 
I clicked on this thinking it was about some guy who enjoyed carrying his collection on his back like a snail. 🙂

But, it’s just the old use or lose it meme. There many ways to enjoy a collection and not everything has to be used to be enjoyable. I discovered a long time ago that a simple knife can easily suffice to meet my cutting needs; and being a waste not want not kind of guy, I would rather preserve what I need not use. Knives are an interesting and diverse area of study that extends far beyond a mere cutting tool; it is easy to enjoy the history, technology, art and creativity without considering the edge. most of us also enjoy the people that we meet along the way. The edge is the least important factor, since any edge can be easily applied by the user to just about any knife, and whatever edge is on there now will only last through to its next sharpening.

N2s
 
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I knew a guy back around 1997-98 who had just picked up a Lincoln Navigator. This is when they were still fairly new on the scene and were the fanciest of the pants that Lincoln had on offer. I was expecting him to bring it around all polished and shiny. He came over to show it off and it was literally covered with mud inside and out. No joke, the floorboards inside had at least four inches of mud caked in there. Fast food trash, empties, tools just tossed in. In the span of a week, for all intents and purposes to the uninitiated, had ruined a brand new 70K truck. He was a GC for a fairly prosperous builder. I asked him, what gives? You know they make work trucks for that job. He looked at me and said, "trucks are tools and I like to be comfortable". It blew my mind at 19 years old. I just couldn't fathom how someone could be flippant about trashing a vehicle that many considered the pinnacle of American luxury car building at the time.

Different strokes. Knives are no different. I carry every one of mine. But, that is me. It doesn't matter what you do with yours as long as it makes you happy.
 
Chris*33 said:
Now, THAT'S a nice Sebenza!
Honest to God, to me, this looks better than brand new. Looking at the pictures, i both feel my stomach turn but enjoy it at the same time
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It was hard to bring myself to use an expensive knife that hard when I got my first one (micarta drop point) but once I got my feet wet, I haven't had to think twice about it. They're tough knives and purpose-built. I do have more collectible ones I'd never do all that with but it's nice to know they're still built to the same quality.
 
Interesting opinions here. I fall into the category of "collector that doesn't use", mostly. My original intent was to buy a few (autos) to see what style I liked, and use that one or 2. So, the way it's worked out is I LOVE the chase and acquisition (as usual with all things I collect), but after that, I'm not sure what to do. I feel compelled to collect new or nearly new examples of knives, and some of the have approached $500. That's not an insignificant sum for me, so I then feel bad about using them, and don't. I have tried to buy already used but not abused examples, but that hasn't really worked out. The vast majority available are new-like.

At this point, I feel like m y choices are sell most and use the $$$ for something else, or display them so I can see them regularly. I wish I needed a coffee table, I'd make one with a glass top, and display below the glass.
 
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