Collector or user?

5881 said:
Sorry Bad Ninja, I should get the names straight of those I agree with! I like "whatever polishes your steel". That said I'm waiting for the guy who has been carrying the same fixed blade for 25 years that he made himself Which is cool and noteworthy) to hop on this thread and call me a sissy, which I can live with.
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Which he made from the leaf spring of the truck his grandfather rode into war in WWI?
 
I have a friend who only had one knife in his collection... In his safe... Never carried... Or used... Only shown to a select few... He knew I liked knives and asked if I would like to see his $75,000.00 knife... Hell yes!

He brought out a smallish folder with an unrecognizable logo printed on the front (plastic) scale... ??? This was his prized knife... I wouldn't pay more than ten dollars for it (heck,
 
I would have never bought something so cheap). He explained that this was all he had left from a $75,000 investment that went belly-up...

Just this "promo" knife . He called it his valuable life-lesson collectable... And kept it as a reminder to pay closer attention to his business dealings...
 
marcinek said:
The purists aren't the ones who will pounce (or care). Purists just enjoy their knives and enjoy when others enjoy their knives.
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The one's who pounce are the ones who keep using "but."

As in...."Everybody is free to do what they like, but...."

That means, "I don't really care about knives, only about what I do being the right way to use knives."
 
5881 said:
Sorry Bad Ninja, I should get the names straight of those I agree with! I like "whatever polishes your steel". That said I'm waiting for the guy who has been carrying the same fixed blade for 25 years that he made himself Which is cool and noteworthy) to hop on this thread and call me a sissy, which I can live with.
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Already happened. "Man jewelry"...."not that there's anything wrong with that"
 
Pharmagator said:
I have a friend who only had one knife in his collection... In his safe... Never carried... Or used... Only shown to a select few... He knew I liked knives and asked if I would like to see his $75,000.00 knife... Hell yes!

He brought out a smallish folder with an unrecognizable logo printed on the front (plastic) scale... ??? This was his prized knife... I wouldn't pay more than ten dollars for it (heck,
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Made me think of this old saying:

Beware the man who only has one gun..because he probably knows how to use it.
 
Guessing this has been covered before but what is a collector/collection? "Back in the day", (I actually hate that expression) it meant doing research, waiting until the right item became available, going to swap meets, and being patient, slowly growing the number and quality of your acquisitions. What comes to mind for me is coin collectors; they tend to really know their stuff and are methodical in searching out their holy grails. Having the ability to whip out your credit card on a whim and buy whatever meets your fancy and then through it in a drawer to ogle over occasionally requires little effort or knowledge. I guess for me it's about the legwork maybe more so than just the ability to acquire.

Edit/Disclaimer: Please understand that I'm not standing on a soapbox being judgmental here. Until about 2 years ago I had a variety of odds and ends knives, with a Delica maybe being my nicest. "Thanks" in part to this forum I now have about 15 "nice" knives, mostly Kizers (don't know why really) but don't view myself as a "collector" just because I now have 25 or more knives, just someone fortunate enough to be able to buy something I like within reason.
 
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5881 said:
Guessing this has been covered before but what is a collector/collection? "Back in the day", (I actually hate that expression) it meant doing research, waiting until the right item became available, going to swap meets, and being patient, slowly growing the number and quality of your acquisitions. What comes to mind for me is coin collectors; they tend to really know their stuff and are methodical in searching out their holy grails. Having the ability to whip out your credit card on a whim and buy whatever meets your fancy and then through it in a drawer to ogle over occasionally requires little effort or knowledge. I guess for me it's about the legwork maybe more so than just the ability to acquire.
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You might be confusing afficionado with collector.

My BIL has a huge Case knife collection. Over 600 Case knives.
He has accumulated them over 50 years.

He doesn't do "swap meets" or worry about specific models.

If he likes it, he buys it.

He works hard and has money to buy whatever he wants (ability to pay has nothing to do with being a collector).
He doesn't really research anything, and isn't really a source of information on Case.
He won't join any online communities, that's not his thing.

He is definitely a collector.
 
Bad Ninja said:
You might be confusing afficionado with collector.

My BIL has a huge Case knife collection. Over 600 Case knives.
He has accumulated them over 50 years.

He doesn't do "swap meets" or worry about specific models.

If he likes it, he buys it.

He works hard and has money to buy whatever he wants (ability to pay has nothing to do with being a collector).
He doesn't really research anything, and isn't really a source of information on Case.
He won't join any online communities, that's not his thing.

He is definitely a collector.
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You're kind of making my point for me. Again, not being judgmental but how does one own 600 knives from one manufacturer and "isn't really a source of information on Case". In my mind someone who has spent decades collecting 600 Case knives would be very interested in the company's history, catalog of products, etc. Would that person be a Case aficionado as opposed to a collector? In my mind that person would be a collector as opposed to an "acquirer". Semantics perhaps...
 
5881 said:
You're kind of making my point for me. Again, not being judgmental but how does one own 600 knives from one manufacturer and "isn't really a source of information on Case". In my mind someone who has spent decades collecting 600 Case knives would be very interested in the company's history, catalog of products, etc. Would that person be a Case aficionado as opposed to a collector? In my mind that person would be a collector as opposed to an "acquirer". Semantics perhaps...
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He doesn't know alot about steel, Case company history etc..
Those are not qualifiers for his collection.

He collects them only if he likes them.

He has lots of old yellow handle trappers.
It started with a few knives his grandfather gave him and grew.
Most are used by him.

I agree it's mostly semantics.
He is an accumulator, but isn't that a collector?
 
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