Going back?

W

wvstockman

Joined
Dec 30, 2007
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I got to thinking (uhoh!:rolleyes:) at work last night. Do you ever wish you could go back to being just a knife user and not a knife nut?

Probably just a stupid thought, but back just a fews years ago I can remember. I just carried a knife. Sure, i appreciated the quality, fit/finish, and other such but really it was just a tool. Used it, used it hard, sharpened it maybe once a month. It stayed in my pocket until I needed it and when I got home from work it got thrown in a pile with my keys and wallet not to be picked up again till I either needed it or I went out.

My cousin came over the other day and kinda snapped me out of it. I had my buck stockman, 110, and SAK all setting there with my keys and he said GEE WIZ MAN! Whats with all the knives! And no he's not "anti knife". he likes them but he has'nt "got the sickness" yet. He works constructinon and a knife is just another tool.


Now I find myself contantly playing my knives. When I'm at work there almost like "worry balls". I'll mindlessly handle, open, and test there sharpness. When I get home I usually put my stockman in the pocket of my jogging pants. Same when watching tv. I pick up a knife and start fooling with it. And get to were if my knife even get the SLIGHTEST bit dull it HAS to be sharpened. I'm always testing the blades for side-to-side play. Just little things like that.

So, has anyone wished to could go back? Or, is there a "cure" for the "sickness?:rolleyes::D:(

Sam
 
I've mused over this many times.

Once upon a time, I carried a Camillus scout knife and was totally content. I was 12 years old, and the scout knife was my only knife for a long time. It served me well on many adventures in the scouts, when Dave, Ev, Bobby, and myself tried Mr. Van's patience.

I'm not sure just when I crossed over the threshold of becoming a knife knut, but I think it may have started in the army. When I left home for the service, I left the old Camillus home for fear it would get lost, and I planned on just using the issue all steel scout knife. That worked well for a couple years, then for some reason I bought a Buck/Camillus stockman at the PX. A few years later I bought my first sak at a sporting goods store in San Antonio Texas. I really didn't need it, I had a issue scout knife and a stockman, but it was like an uncontrollable compulsion. I think it was the onset of the sickness.

Over the following couple decades I went from stockmen to sodbusters, to serpintine jacks, to a few more saks, then to custom sheath knives. Randall's, Hasting, Hendrickson, George Stone, Bill Moran, who became a friend and surrogate father.

Sometime in the mid-late 90's something happened. I don't know if it was a reaction to something, but its like I woke up one morning and looked at all the stuff I had and asked myself "What the heck am I doing with all this?" It was the dawning of my downsizing.

First up was the selling off of all my custom stuff. I made some money here and there, broke even on other stuff, lost a little here and there. Then the high dollar folders went. The Pacific Cutlery Company balisongs, the Barry Wood folders, the Al Mar stuff. Alot of guns went the same time.

Everytime I did a downsizing of some stuff, I felt a little more liberated. Lighter of being. Soon I was back to just my old traditional pocket knives again, and the old guns. I'd get rid of some stuff and wait for a while to see if I was going to adapt okay. Then I'd take stock of just what I had used since my last downsizing, and I'd trim a little more. Now I'm almost back to my boyscout days, and I feel great. Alot of stuff I gave to the people who mattered, and the stuff they did not grab got sold off. I don't regret any of it, or want any of it back.

What cured me? I really don't know.

Maybe as we age, material things don't matter as much anymore. We start thinking and living in a more spiritual way and things don't matter as much. Their just things. People and the way we live are way more important than things.

Now for the next year I'm using just my Wenger SI, which is just a modern scout knife, and my old Marlin .22 lever action, and recurve bow.

I'm going back.:)
 
I think about this more and more often as time goes by.....
I like my stuff like most people but, When I look at everything I have accumulated, I ask my self why do I have all this stuff ?
After collecting a fairly large amount of early Winchester rifles, it really hit me one day... This is out of control. So it was time to sell most of them.
In all honesty I really haven't missed them all that much. I'm sure there will be a time when the same thing will happen with knives too.
 
Dont wish that you could go back. People try very hard to cultivate a hobby. If you have something you love, knives, be glad, as long as you dont go crazy with the spending. Life is not ideal. It is often tedious and empty and boring. If there is anything that fills it with a bit of interest and fun and gives you something to look forward to cherish that, be content that you have such a hobby, the key is to really give yourself over to it. Go full tilt. Do what you like and dont have remorse about it.
 
I've been actively collecting slipjoint knives in various forms for almost 10 years. I started out collecting Fight'n Roosters, and then moved on to Vintage Case knives and Vintage Keen Kutters. Even though I collected on a fairly serious level, I always carried at least one specimen of my current craze.

Then I moved on to custom slipjoints almost exclusively 6 years ago or so, even though I was given my first custom slipjoint about 9 years ago. For a long time I couldn't make myself carry even one of my customs. I finally started carrying one of my custom slipjoints about a year ago. Now, I rotate 3 carefully selected specimens from three different makers. I expect to add at least two to this rotation to fit the various niches of my true using "needs". I enjoy the hobby/obsession more than ever, and would never go back to only the "user" mode, even though I appreciate my customs a great deal more now that I use some of them:)

I think to fully appreciate knives (as a Knife Knut) you have to find your own balance between collecting and using. Some continually rotate their collection and really never own more than a few knives at any one time, others rarely part with even one. I am in the middle, I move several knives from time to time to make room for others because I simply can't afford to keep all of them. At the same time, I also maintain what I consider to be a meaningful and goal oriented collection.
 
Thinking back, I was somewhat surprised to find that I could remember a time before I became a knife knut. I was five. I wouldn't go back to that, even though life was simpler then.
 
Durwood said:
I also maintain what I consider to be a meaningful and goal oriented collection.
Click to expand...

Ditto for me. I just worked up a journal, of all the knives I own, or have owned. It's around 104, with about 50-55 pocket & utility (SAK) types knives in my possession right now, and a few fixed blades. Most are mid-level value; some are high end, like Case special issues, and others with stag or pearl scales.

I made a rule for myself that (other than family heirlooms) I won't own a knife that I can't, or won't, carry. That's helped me keep things in a practical perspective, as each knife I have usually has a story.

I always have several little SAK Classics on hand for birthdays, etc. I've never sold a knife, but I do give some of them away to family & close friends, depending on the occasion. I usually thin my collection out every Christmas then buy whatever peaks my curiosity for the coming year.

thx - cpr
 
I am an accumulator rather than a collector.This applies to some interests beyond knives as well. I pick a knife that is intended to be the perfect one, and then I see something else that I think might be better. This is a ridiculous way to conduct myself because the difference between "perfect" and "good enough" is a very, very, slight one.
 
I've got a drawer full of knives accumulated as I kept on looking for the perfect one---finally set on a combo that works for me and have 2's and 3's of those knives---while the ones in the drawer just sit there.
 
I believe I have had the bug since I was ten so I am not sure how far I would have to back. I remember going into a store and staring at the buck display, wishing I had the money for a new stockman, even though the 80T that was in my pocket was just fine. Not sure in my case there is a cure, or that I would go looking for it. Steven
 
Robert045 said:
Dont wish that you could go back. People try very hard to cultivate a hobby. If you have something you love, knives, be glad, as long as you dont go crazy with the spending. Life is not ideal. It is often tedious and empty and boring. If there is anything that fills it with a bit of interest and fun and gives you something to look forward to cherish that, be content that you have such a hobby, the key is to really give yourself over to it. Go full tilt. Do what you like and dont have remorse about it.
Click to expand...

Very true words:thumbup:

I don't see myself as a collector more of a 'minder' one day somebody else will get these knives and I hope get a lot out of them too, who it is doesn't really matter. So long as they are appreciated.
 
My mindset is like jacknifes.as I get older the collection gets smaller and more refined to EDC.( I say this as I have two Remingtons sitting in front of me to write in another thread). I just put another one on the bay because I will never use it or carry it. Perfectly fine knife I might add, but I feel it just sits there and goes to waste. I started out collecting customs. After two, it shifted to benchmade and a Case stockman for EDC. I guess in a way I have always looked for the perfect knife. My tastes change over the years. For a number of years I was on the lookout for anything old. I have a small obsession for watches also. As a collector, I find myself a bit obsessive and I think thats what drives it. The feeling of picking up a Samual Barlow out of a wooden bucket and seeing the stamp and buying it for four dollars is a rush you can't explain to your average person.
After many years of collecting I have only managed to amass to about 50 knives at one time, because of selling and buying. I'm down to about 35 right now and counting.
It's not as fun now because they just are not out there anymore, and the ones that are really sought after are already spoken for. Antique dealers find a Colonial and try to sell it for ten times what it's worth.The ones I am getting now are being very carefully selected to reside in my pocket.Some I will never get rid of and I can't explain why. Maybe because I've let some real beauty's slip away. I find at 51 with an 11 year old I can't find the time to go hunting for them, but I am always on the lookout when the situation arises.
 
some days i wish i could go back to even as recently as a couple of years ago, when i didn't know what the difference between dull and sharp was, and i was perfectly happy with that. well, i suppose not perfectly happy; i did end up here after all.

i do appreciate the large amount of knowledge i have gained in my quest to learn about knives. i have increased my knowledge on metal working of all kinds, as well as my basic understanding of steel composition. i understand geometry on a different level now, because i think about edge angles and hydrodynamics.

i am more careful and deliberate with all of my tools now, and because of my fascination with knives i am better able to maintain my tools. i can sharpen nearly anything. now i just need to work on saws...

as with all hobbies, one finds that they can become a bit overwhelmed in a way, taken over by it. but there are many good things that come out of hobbies, like this wonderful community.
 
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