Collecting?

W

WickedSharp

Joined
May 22, 2010
Messages
38
If you're interested in finding nice vintage pocket knives to actually carry in your pocket every day, you're not really "collecting" are you?

With handguns, you have people who collect "safe queens" that never see the light of day. They have no intention of ever actually using the gun. Then you have the folks who just prefer older to newer and are happy to take a well worn but fully functional revolver to the range and have a blast!

I'm guessing most in the "Traditional" forum like to carry and use their vintage knives. The fun is trying to find something unique and then use it, right?
 
I don't know why using something doesn't count as "collecting". I collect knives, both users and safe queens.
 
I have to admit I have never quite understood the safe queen thing.

If I have something, I'm going to use it for what it was intended. To not use it is a waste of an object.

The best teacher I ever had on that subject was Bill Moran. Bill had this guy trade him a 1847 Purdey percussion rifle for one of his knives. This was an icredably beautiful rifle, made maybe for some English royal or rich landed gentry in it's day. Bill being Bill, cast up some round balls, worked up a nice load, and took it hunting. That fall he got a nice buck at a paced off 97 yards with it. About a year went by, and some rich collector traced the rifle to Bill, and wanted to come see it. Bill showed him the rifle and the man fondled and ogled it. He made the comment that it must have been a great shooting gun in its day, and Bill told him that it still shoots great as he had taken a deer with it just last season. I understand the collector eventually recovered from the shock.

There's a deep gut level satisfaction from using something that your father or grandfather used before you. No matter if it's a gun, or a knife, or an old pocket watch. If it works, then it should be used, that's it's best destiny. It's what it was designed and made for.
 
comoha said:
I don't know why using something doesn't count as "collecting". I collect knives, both users and safe queens.
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Yep, me to.


I've been buying knives for over 30 years, so no way I could use all the knives I have bought. I do plan to get rid of more safe queens and TRY to stop buying knives unless I plan to use the.
 
I guess you're right. I am interested in finding and using some old knives, but if I ran into something really really nice, I'd probably snap some photos for you all and then stick it away somewhere.
 
I've been working on my problem with carrying REALLY nice (read: expensive) knives. I have been buying more customs lately, and I want to carry them. I am so freaked out about losing them. So at heart I believe in the "no safe queens" rule, I'm just trying to put it into practice. :(
 
The only things in my safe are birth records, marriage records, deeds and the such along with ammunition and my loaded pistol I carry a few days a week. All my knives sit on the dresser in a box.

The only knife I have recently acquired that I have decided to not use is a custom slipjoint that I intend to gift to my son when he turns 16 (in about 3 years) or maybe sooner.

I've got a couple of really old Case knives from between the 40s and the 60s that I do use because they are very well made tools.

I say if you want to pick up a vintage knife to use it, use it in good health and conscience. Good luck!
 
Of course you can use an item from a collection!!!! Nothing wrong with carrying a nice or custom knife at all. Hell, I've even been know to put a very nice, brand new, GEC knife out in the rain just to see if it would rust or not.

I'd say about the only knives not meant to be used are "Art Knives" but I'd bet some "Art Knife" owners use their knives.
 
WickedSharp said:
If you're interested in finding nice vintage pocket knives to actually carry in your pocket every day, you're not really "collecting" are you?

With handguns, you have people who collect "safe queens" that never see the light of day. They have no intention of ever actually using the gun. Then you have the folks who just prefer older to newer and are happy to take a well worn but fully functional revolver to the range and have a blast!

I'm guessing most in the "Traditional" forum like to carry and use their vintage knives. The fun is trying to find something unique and then use it, right?
Click to expand...

In some cases "safe queens" are actually used more than some "user" knives. Let me explain - Some will have a hunting knife that is only carried once or twice a year, and may not even get out of a hunting pack for any "use". It may never see the light of day. A "safe queen" may be admired daily for it's craftmanship and style. We need to define the term use. Whittling a stick or cutting carrots is not the only use a knife may have. :) Something to consider!
 
The only new knives in my safe are the ones that were purchased as back ups for the ones that I am using because they don't make them anymore. The used knives in the safe are the ones that I can't carry all at once. As the pile increases in size, it becomes more difficult to rotate through all the nifty EODCs (Every other day carry). I have a few knives that I don't carry but got at a good price with the intention of flipping or trading them. I have copies of the knives I carried as a kid, but they don't need to go in the safe. I don't carry these much because knives have improved so much.
 
If I take my knives out and fondle them on a regular basis that counts as "using," correct? I get a kick out of the pictures I see here, written up as EDC's, which have obviously never touched a sharpened (or unsharpened) edge to anything, and never will. Nothing wrong with that, but they are not EDC's, unless the owner just never DOES anything. By the way, for the price of that bar-in-wood or backlock or full sidelock Purdey, you could buy an original factory wooden box containing one dozen mint Cattaraugus King of the Woods, and have enough left over to buy a car.
 
I am in the same camp as jackknife in regards to usage. I have stated a number of times on the forum that I don't understand the whole safe queen concept. If I own it I am going to use it. I have no desire to make some collector I don't know happy 50 years from now when he buys my pristine, never used knife. I would much rather my daughter, nephews, and niece inherit knives they have seen me using, knives that have stories attached to them. I use the knives that were passed along to me from my father, his father, and so on. When I hold them I am reminded of those no longer with us. The knives have a life of their own...they have soul that no safe queen will ever have.

I buy very few brand new in the box knives. Most of what I buy are used vintage knives and I can tell many are safe queen when I get them...that lasts about one day with me...lol. Some I buy however have been well used, blades aren't full, they need cleaned, maybe some chips worked out of the blade edges. Cleaning and making these usable again gives me a huge sense of accomplishment. Even tho I don't know the folks who owned them I can feel the soul in these knives. I know at sometime they were used by someone who cared about them even if they were later forgotten about. A great example is the 1924-35 Remington Boy Scout Knife I found in a $5 box in an "antique" store. (story here http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=709780&highlight=scout ) Dirty, rusty, stiff...I clean it , worked oil into the joints, removed rust without removing metal...now when I hold and use it I can feel the pride of the scout that owned it 80 years ago.

So yes...I like finding and using vintage knives.
 
My intent in collecting and preserving these knives is in fact to preserve the history of Cutlery in general, and The Empire Knife Company in particular.
A large portion of these knives are over 100 years old, and most soon will be.
A lot of the skill to make them has been lost, being preserved by a very few stalwart companies and individuals.
Without a respect for history, it is easy to lose your way, as an individual, and as a society.
It would be wasteful, foolhardy and tragic if these knives were lost to our progeny.
There is a place for safe queens in this world, and this is one of them.
I have a hundred nice knives I can use up with impunity, and I do.
But there is no logic justifying the use/loss of any of these. Unless you prefer your children to be raised in ignorance!
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I agree with Charlie. There is a place for users and also preserved treasures. This is a grey world. It is not in black and white, and anytime you hear people making rigid statements (especially in politics!:eek:), seek a little further for the truth. I have users that some people would never use, and safe queens that the same people might use up. Subjectivity rules here. Different folks have different values that run deep, can't be proven, and are immutable. That's ok with me.
 
I don't consider those to be safe queens, they are being used albeit in a unique way. They are not locked away in the dark never seeing the light of day.
 
waynorth said:
My intent in collecting and preserving these knives is in fact to preserve the history of Cutlery in general, and The Empire Knife Company in particular.
A large portion of these knives are over 100 years old, and most soon will be.
A lot of the skill to make them has been lost, being preserved by a very few stalwart companies and individuals.
Without a respect for history, it is easy to lose your way, as an individual, and as a society.
It would be wasteful, foolhardy and tragic if these knives were lost to our progeny.
There is a place for safe queens in this world, and this is one of them.
I have a hundred nice knives I can use up with impunity, and I do.
But there is no logic justifying the use/loss of any of these. Unless you prefer your children to be raised in ignorance!
DSCN0657.jpg
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Excellent Point! :thumbup::thumbup:
And a great collection I might add - It shows an appreciation for the craft and design of what is now lost. That is a much better "use", than scraping mud off the bottom of your boots, or whittling a stick with them. There are plenty of other knives for that!
 
I collect and accumulate knives. I use some, I don't use others, I buy some, I sell some, I trade some, I hoard some, and some I give away. I'm not sure why, other than I like doing all of these things. Myself, I like to use old things, but I also like to show friends new old things.

I have collecting, hoarding, and trading in my blood. I have a dad who is the same, and we collected coins when I was a kid. He collects antique china and coins to this day at 81 years old. He collected stamps when he was a little guy. My Grandmother Mary on my mom's side, she collected coins (got me and my dad started), matchbooks and menus, and hoarded over the counter medicines, candy, lozenges and gum. She could not pass up a sale item if it is a good buy.

I did not collect anything for for a long time, but I once I handled an old slip joint with pretty scales and blades a few years ago, something clicked in, and it was over.

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I can easily have safe queens like this knife, since I have one like it to carry when I want, and have no urge to scratch this one up or cut things with it. To me they are like old coins, and those I don't have to spend. I have thousands of old matchbooks and don't light a single one. But for you guys who like to use and enjoy your old nostalgic knives and guns, I'm all for it.
 
The only thing I collect are swords. I have twenty one nineteenth century American and British swords, mainly cavalry sabers. It is my goal in life to obtain one from each major contractor to the US government. If you put mine and my dad's smaller collection together, I am missing some Rose's and Starr's from the 1810-1820 era. I have some very nice swords. But being swords, one cannot easily carry them around on a day to day basis.

Knives, I use and carry.
 
I really enjoy the new slippies I have gotten, but I prefer the older vintage models that I have picked up. An old Boker made Primble scout knife with some of the best walk and talk I have ever seen, a very well used if not abused Kutmaster stockman, a Winchester moose from the 80's with the best snap I have ever heard, my father's old 34OT. The 34OT is nothing special, but since it was my fathers, I really like it. No, it's not mine yet. However, it's one of the knives that doesn't go the dryer every couple weeks because he forgot to take it out of his pants pocket. He put that one away, it means something to him. He asked me to sharpen it for him, and then put it away.

If you get something, use it. The Buster Warenski Tutenkhamen dagger, or a handmade shotgun with gold file work, yeah, you probably don't want to use those.
 
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