Collector's, born or made?

Raymond Richard

Raymond Richard

Joined
Jun 17, 2001
Messages
5,705
I've never been one to collect anything other than a few marbles and baseball cards at an early age and that was short lived. The marbles became ammo for sling shots and the baseball cards targets for my bb and pellet gun. Most my purchases over the years have always been because of need such as tools and now mostly supplies for making knives.

Is collecting something you got interested in at an early age or something you got interested in as an adult? Are knives the only thing you collect? I'm just curious. This is something I think about from time to time.
 
I'm 50 years old and tastes have changed, but seems like I've always collected something. I think growing up poor might have something to do with it. Good question. Great knives!:thumbup:
 
I'm not a sociologist, but I think collecting is something ingrained in us from the get-go. Heck, even the dead collect bugs. A collection of shiny (sharp) objects is another instance of a 'hoarding' impulse, I would guess. Of course, whereas some male birds add shiny objects to their nests to attract a mate, our collections seem to have the opposite affect. Go figure.
 
Ive collected since about the age of 5 i would guess.........
First toys, comic books, sport cards......... Around the age of 10 i started collecting knives..... On my own at first....... Then i needed my parents to buy them until i was of the age...
Oh yeh, i have a couple hundred coins i collected... how can i forget that?
 
I've realized recently that I'm fundamentally a collector. I love to accumulate knives, I have toyed with the idea of collecting watches, guns, classical US coins, etc, SF first edition books, etc.

As a kid, I was never interested in collecting because in my home a kid collection meant something "cultural" - stamps, postcards, etc. I had no interest in that. On the other hand I did accumulate a large collection of books and magazines I didn't want to throw away, because they were important to me.

One aspect that is important is that I am interested in the unique and exclusive. I have never been interested in the idea of collecting huge numbers of low price items (e.g., pennies or other modern coins). That meant that I couldn't really start collecting until I was an adult.
 
trimcut123 said:
Ive collected since about the age of 5 i would guess.........
First toys, comic books, sport cards......... Around the age of 10 i started collecting knives..... On my own at first....... Then i needed my parents to buy them until i was of the age...
Click to expand...

About the same story with me. The toys/comics/cards phase lasted about a year and then I discovered knives. Been drawn to them ever since.

When I was 7 or 8 I wanted a Gerber Mark II more than anything in the world but the sporting goods store would only sell me their smallest hunter/skinner :)
 
Charles M said:
When I was 7 or 8 I wanted a Gerber Mark II more than anything in the world but the sporting goods store would only sell me their smallest hunter/skinner :)
Click to expand...

Very cool.... My first purchase was a schrade Beast, followed by a buck goliath.... Two huge knives for a 10 year old... But i was always out in the woods building forts, huts, hiking ..... you name it..... I was meant to be in the woods.....
 
Stephen F said:
.. that would explain Heinleins Stranger in a Strange Land artwork! :D;)


Stephen
Click to expand...

Yes, this is a meaningful book to me. However, I don't have any first / special edition of this book. I have a couple signed copies of his last book, Friday.
 
trimcut123 said:
Very cool.... My first purchase was a schrade Beast, followed by a buck goliath.... Two huge knives for a 10 year old... But i was always out in the woods building forts, huts ..... you name it..... I was meant to be in the woods.....
Click to expand...

Yeah, I never had so much innocent fun as when I was a kid playing in the woods... building stuff and then blowing it up :D
 
My parents had a reasonable art collection and that was generated primarily by my Mom. Dad was an "accumulator", of many things, but not really a true "collector". Knives were really what started it for me, first as an "accumulator" then...well as a serious addict. Most of the stuff I really want today is beyond my price range. I've been concentrating on engraving many of the knives that I've collected in recent years. My wife and I are collecting art as well these days. I'd say it's a "multifactorial syndrome" with genetics, environment and experience (as well as available CASH FLOW) all playing significant roles!
 
ckerwin said:
I'm 50 years old and tastes have changed, but seems like I've always collected something. I think growing up poor might have something to do with it. Good question. Great knives!:thumbup:
Click to expand...

Similar story with me. In the 60's being a teenager, anyone that was "cool" had a Buck 110. When I went to buy one, I noticed the 119 for the same price and bought that. When it became obvious that I couldn't wear that most places, I also bought a 110.

I played a lot of pool in my younger days and cue sticks were something I always was interested in but couldn't afford to collect them(unfortunately).

I have always liked guns, tools, scientific instruments and finely crafted things. :D

Peter
 
RogerP said:
I collected marbles and stamps as a kid. Knives and watches now.

Roger
Click to expand...

Roger, do you still have the marble and stamp collection?

I think collecting is human nature. I look at my folks growing up in the great depression and blame that for some of the things I found in mass numbers when I had to relocate them in there later years. I do have a nice collection of socks. With me guns were a big interest from about 4 years old. Fishing lures became something I had a lot of but all were bought to use and lose.
 
I've always been a collector. Toys, comics, baseball cards, and video games as a little kid, knives and music CDs now.
 
In my teens I collected comic books...sold them all when I was in my twenties. When I began making a fair amount of money I started collecting fountain pens (MontBlanc) and watches (only mechanical ones). About 5 years a go I've been bitten by the knifebug and ever since I stopped collecting pens and watches. My focus is now on knives and only knives.

Marcel
 
As a kid, I collected everything. coins, some stamps, comic books, rocks...whatever. Didnt really have much money to spend, so whatever I could find or something that no one wanted. At seven, my Mom and Dad gave me my first pocket knife. Just any money i could earn would go towards those. got into guns and militaria. just within the last several years I have got back into knife collecting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top