Family is mad of my expensive knife purchases

C

Craig083

Joined
Jul 27, 2014
Messages
18
I'm sure you guys have heard it also , "why would you spend 230$ on that knife when it just looks like a regular one?". Basically, I can't buy a knife I love without a member of my family making comments like, "what's so special about this one?" Or "feels cheap to me". Ahhhh I get so frustrated with people who don't understand knife quality when they see it. I tried explaining handle materials, blade steel, lock mechanism, etc. and people still don't get it. I always tell people, just like any hobby(or anything for that matter) YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I love my benchmades and spydercos, they are worth every penny and then some. It's funny how my wife can justify a 250$ purse, but she thinks buying an expensive knife is stupid. What can I say to my family and make them understand? I don't want to lie about the price because I'm proud to pay a lot for excellent American made knives
 
I had the same issue with my wife then I bought her a kitchen knife and she came around to being ok with it. A few months later I got her a quality folder and she is now almost as nuts as I am. Win them over a little at a time.
 
My wife and I have been married some 30 years. We have 3 pots of money. "Hers", "mine", and "ours". What she buys out of the "her" pot is up to her. What I buy out of the "my" pot is up to me. What we buy out of the "our" pot, we talk about.
 
If by family you mean your uncle, parents, or sweet grandmother, why are you trying to convince them? Your current efforts fail.

Stop trying. Don’t talk about knives. Don’t show off your new knives. If they insist on complaining, refuse to respond. Eventually they’ll get bored. End of problem.

A wife is a different story. She is legitimately concerned with family expenses. This requires negotiation. Can you cut a deal with her? “You buy your purses, I’ll buy my knives.”

When you budget, give each of you an equal entertainment allowance, to be spent as each chooses. Never criticize you wife’s fun buys. Insist on the same courtesy.
 
I feel you man, It gets frustrating sometimes, my friends pay over 150 for a pair of Jordans all the time and when I tell them I spent 75 dollars on a knife they look at me like I am crazy. Today at work I was cutting up some boxes in front of the store, I don't like the box-cutters they give us, and since they don't regulate the use of any other knife, I use my G10 Dragonfly, my co-worker walks past me and tells me why I have a weapon on me.:confused: I know this thread is focused on the price of a knife but I just wanted to add that on, I need to vent a little bit, still a little steamed-up.
But as for the prices, I always lie about how much I payed as much as it hurts, especially when I gift blades. Recently I gave my parents a Shun Chefs knife with Damascus, beautiful knife, I told them it cost 50 dollars, which is faaaar from what it really cost, and they still were "surprised at how I would waste so much money on a food knife"
I do not like lying about prices so I just keep my distance away from people when using a blade just to avoid questions.
People in this day and age are forgetting the worth of a good tool, but will give an arm and leg just to have the next best smart-phone
 
Good advice. I actually thought about buying my wife a 3 piece benchmade kitchen set(she went to culinary school), it's around 500 tho
 
You might just be fighting a losing battle. My lady has as much chance of understanding why I need more than One knife, as I have of figuring out why she requires the same pair of shoes in three different colors.

Just saying.
 
My wife used to give me grief about my knives. As long as I balance the time I spend messing with knives and being a responsible husband/father, it's no big deal anymore. She actually bought me a custom shop Buck 110 for Christmas. Plus, I come from a family full of mechanically inclined men who understand the importance of quality tools so no problems there. The best solution...... Just don't tell them what it cost. :)
 
If you don't get your own slush fund that you can spend on whatever you want, then you're doing it wrong, especially if you're earning that money.
 
My family stopped giving cap about expensive knives... they'll get used to it.

You should of seen my mom's face when I told her how much my inlay sebenzas cost. More than my work knives...
 
My family knows I'm into knives. They know I spend a lot on em. They can appreciate that. They never give me grief over it because they know I have my priorities straight. I only buy a knife if I have the extra money to spend on it. If I don't, then I don't get one. I have gone YEARS without buying any knives at all, believe it, or don't, but it's true. Sometimes I just don't have the extra money for it, and that's cool with me, because my family comes first.
 
Everyone I know doesn't understand except my dad who is a butcher. I get crap from everyone. I'll pull out my mini Ritter and someone will say, "tell so-and-so how much you spent on that knife". I don't care anymore. I don't buy cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol. I never spend more than $7 on shirts, $17 on shorts and I wear socks until my piggies are poking through and underwear until something can't be contained. I splurge on footwear so my feet don't hurt, tools which I make money with, and knives. I don't have a truck payment and I don't even own a television - I'm serious, I don't own a television. All those people who give me a hard time about buying knives can pound sand.
 
If there not interested in knives they probably won't see the value but who cares not everyone needs to understand everything. Just keep your knife chatter to like minded people.
 
I agree! My gf is pretty cool about my knife and gun buys but some she just doesn't get like the standard plain sebenza but show her a 250+ purse and it's justifiable? I actually have a 3 knife limit for the rest of the year and already got 1 coming so 2 to go!
 
My buddies at work are always excited about my new knife purchases. Probably because I have a new one every week. My dad thinks it's a good hobby and appreciates the nice blades that I buy. He is a gun nut though so he understands quality. My cousin on the other hand trys to downplay my knives by saying he likes his junk $10 gerber knives just as much. I still show them though, could care less what they think. When you spend good money on art it deserves to be shown to people.
 
Craig083 said:
Good advice. I actually thought about buying my wife a 3 piece benchmade kitchen set(she went to culinary school), it's around 500 tho
Click to expand...

Look at Tojiro or Togiharu (sp) knives, they are very well made and will beat the snot out of anything German, French or American in the same price range.
 
I'm trying to understand the nature of the issue. Is she getting upset because she feels you're spending too much money, or is she just picking on you because she thinks your expensive taste in knives is silly?

If the former is the case, then I'd say that's a pretty significant issue that you don't want to ignore. In our family budget, my wife and I each have a percentage of our total family earnings set aside for hobbies. She uses her percentage the way she wants to, and I use my percentage the way I want to. So long as neither of us exceeds our respective percentage, there are no issues.

However, if the latter is the case, then I'd say it's a matter of helping her understand that we all have various levels of interest as it regards various pursuits. For instance, I have zero interest in certain sports and will never understand for the life of me how some people can be so enthusiastic and invest so much of their time and energy and money into those sports. But you know what? I'm willing to bet that if one of those individuals were to take note of my enthusiasm for knives, they'd probably get that deer-in-the-headlights look, and say, "What in the world is wrong with this guy? They're just knives!"

Again, if it's a disagreement over spending, I'd resolve it quickly with wisdom and tact. However, if she just doesn't understand your love of the blade, you can try and convert her, but I think it would be more beneficial to simply help her understand why she can't understand.
 
Craig083 said:
I'm sure you guys have heard it also , "why would you spend 230$ on that knife when it just looks like a regular one?". Basically, I can't buy a knife I love without a member of my family making comments like, "what's so special about this one?" Or "feels cheap to me". Ahhhh I get so frustrated with people who don't understand knife quality when they see it. I tried explaining handle materials, blade steel, lock mechanism, etc. and people still don't get it. I always tell people, just like any hobby(or anything for that matter) YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I love my benchmades and spydercos, they are worth every penny and then some. It's funny how my wife can justify a 250$ purse, but she thinks buying an expensive knife is stupid. What can I say to my family and make them understand? I don't want to lie about the price because I'm proud to pay a lot for excellent American made knives
Click to expand...

It's goes much deeper that knives....

Sounds like the wife needs to see a shrink...
 
If money spent on hobbies is harming the family...not enough money to cover expenses, prepare for emergencies, retirement, children's education, etc...then that is a problem regardless of the hobby.
If it is your "spending" money it is, imo, your business...

I work with some people that think I spend too much on a knife but they think nothing of buying their 12th rifle...that they never use...or spend 35k or more on a pickup truck that they do nothing with in case it gets "scratched"...I say nothing because you can't win an argument with idiots...so why bother.

I care about me and my family...f the rest of the world...and stay the f out of my business.
 
What must come first, as stated above, is family, and if the hobby takes on a life of its own and and starts to become more important than that family, and affects the finances, then something is wrong. This hobby is great fun, but do not let it become an idol.
 
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