Have you bought countless knives and still haven't found THE ONE?

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I personally started with automatics, just because I wasn't allowed to have them and actually carried a few. Then I learned that I could get in trouble.

Then I bought folders, then learned that they need to lock up tight. So I bought more, then learned they need to open up fast. Bought more. Learned that they need to be safe when opening fast. Got cut. Returned one.

Then, I learned that fixed blades are the way to go. Got small ones so they don't show so much. Not easy to grab and can get knocked out my hand easy. Got mid range size, neck knife styles. Too heavy and shows up under the shirt. Besides, don't want to get snagged for concealed carry. Got a decent sized one and waiting for the nerve to walk out of the house with it on. Stays in the drawer.

Then, I discoverd custom knives. Same situation, only more expensive.

How many folks are getting knives not just because you collect them, but are collecting them by default as you search for THE ONE!
 
Every new knife I get is THE ONE. That's why I have so many knives.:rolleyes: This is what keeps the knife business rolling.:eek:
 
I'm nowhere NEAR that far along in my quest....

I have an auto coming as a toy... (it cost all of $8.50 shipped...)

But! I have my doubt that I will find anything I like as much as the feel of my Kershaw Vapor II. It is as if Ken Onion used my hand to design it.

That said, I'm going to get a CRKT Falcon to try, as well as a Gerber Harsey Air Ranger eventually! And the Outdoor Edge Paragee looks like a very nice knife!

A fixed MIGHT come along... the Camillus Neck Knife is cheap enough that it speaks to me....

Can't say as I'll ever get a custom though... I'm just too tight!

Joe Shmoe - as cheap a$$ed a dude as you will ever find!
 
Every new knife I get is THE ONE.
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lol, even though I don't have that many, I'd have to agree.

I don't think you can have a perfect knife...what would you do then? You would sit there staring at the wall and would have to stop "logically" collecting them (after all, you WERE in search of the perfect knife). What's the fun in that? :p

I just got a SOG Tomcat II cocobolo....BEAUTIFUL knife, VERY strong, VERY big :D

BUT, I also don't want to drop it or bang it around a ton because it would make the handle look like crap....believe me, I'll carry it everday AND use it all the time but it requires a little more care than, say, a $40 Buck knife that's not so sacred:D (this was $120). Therefore I carry it in a belt sheath instead of the normal in the pocket routine because it would get scratched by my keys, most likely fall out a lot (like other knives) and I can't afford to lose it.

I'm already looking at other small, cheaper knives that would be able to be dropped, etc. I would take that knife up in the woods (higher potential for getting lost or banged up) or bring it to work. I can't bring my Tomcat to work because it's so dang huge:D

Have fun...
Warthog
 
...........for the ONE. I started with production knives of all sorts; Benchmades, Al Mar, Gerber, Buck, Puma, Microtech, and several others just too numerous to name, in my search for the perfect folder. Then I turned to customs and raised the stakes a bit. I had customs from all the big name makers of tactical folders. I always found a tiny flaw that set me on the quest once again. I rarely carried the same knife for more than a few weeks at most. Again in search for the perfect one. Let me just say, this got quite EXPENSIVE!:(

But there is a happy ending, and anyone who has read any of my posts probably know what the happy ending is. It is 3 letters and is a production knife, but not just any production knife, it is the finest production knife available today and is the CRK SEBENZA!!:D :D :D

I have brought my quest to a successful conclusion. I have carried the Sebenza for over a full year EVERY DAY! This alone should tell you something. I still pick up other knives; a Cuda MAXX, a MT Halo III, and I jsut got a BM 735 Ares. They will not replace the Sebbie, but will only get the oppurtunity to be in it's company for a while!:eek: ;) :D
 
Lately I've only been buying and using Sebenzas. Can't really see myself buying any other kind of folder unless they're customs (and except SAKs, which I love and can never have enough of). The Sebenza, particularly the small model, is pretty much my ideal folder.

Since buying new knives is an experience we all live for, the prospect of finding your ideal knife, if you think about it, is actually be pretty scary. I mean, after perfection, then what do you do?

Fortunately, I have practically no fixed blade knives, so I'm now gearing up for the search for the ideal fixed blade. I hope I don't find it right away! ;)
 
THE ONE-It doesn't exist. It is an idea, a fantasy, like a unicorn. It is like the end of the rainbow, the more you chase, the further away it is.
 
As with many, many others, I have found and bought far too many "THE ONE KNIVES"! And I have loved every last single one of them! I have been well and truly bit by the knife bug, especially the Spyderco subspecies of it.
 
If you have gone through all of this and still haven't found the right one then it's time to go with a custom. Think of all of the knives that you have owned, and try to see if there was one thing that you liked about each knife, handle design, blade design ect. Then take all those things and combine them into one design and there you go. You could probally come up with a fixed blade and a folder. Have them made by a custom maker and you'll have a matched set ready for any situation to your liking.
Hope this helps,
Chuck
 
I have two "The Ones". My Chris Reeves Sebenza wood inlay, and the Fallkniven Model P.

Have a belt pouch for the model P, and want one for the smaller sebbie.

still desire number 3 however!
 
After you have been collecting for a while you realize that there is no one knife that will do it all - Yahoooo! ;)

Then you have to start looking for the ONE in every category! The more categories you can think up, the better!

My categories are:

Nice pocket folder - many excellent examples
Serious utility/defense, dual-purpose folder - Benchmade 730
Neck knife - Kit Carson Large F4
Urban tactical/utility fixed blade - Darrel Ralph ALB
Field hunter/utility - Neil Blackwood Small Hunter
Field combat/utility - Mad Dog 3/16 Arizona Hunter
Small Fighter - Black Cloud Super Valerie dagger
Medium Fighter - Black Cloud Sharktooth
Large Fighter - Hossom Millenium Black Fighter
Fighting Bowie - Black Cloud FB5
Short Sword - Hossom Millenium Black Espada Lite
Largo Mano - TBD
...and Balisongs where the goal is not to find THE ONE, but to get them all...:cool:

I would estimate that I have gone through 500 knives to arrive at those listed above. I have found THE ONE in a few of the categories, and a few of the categories have several ONES.
 
Well, first, I have to say that there isn't only one "THE ONE". Different kinds of knife styles serve different kinds of purposes. I wouldn't expect my "THE ONE" whittling knife to serve equally well as "THE ONE" large wood chopper, to give just one example. So, for me, it's more like "THE ONE" for each knife style of my varying needs, or perhaps "THE ONE" best compromise between all my needs. Second, sometimes I'm just in a different mood than other times. So, there's room for "THE ONE" most elegant, and "THE ONE" best whittler, etc.

Anyway, all of those qualifications aside: Yeah, I bought perhaps fifty or more knives, from most of the major manufacturers, in my quest for the "THE ONE". In my case, the story has a happy ending. I finally found "THE ONE" of each style for my varying needs. (Consequently, I've sold or given away most of my previous knives.) I've also found an overall "THE ONE", which does reasonably well at all of my conflicting knife needs and desires.. You can see a picture of that true "THE ONE" here:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=200597&highlight=stain
 
Wow! You have had the same experience that I have had. I have tried a bunch of different folders and fixed blade knives for EDC and I still havent come up with the perfect one. I am getting a few custom folders because I have seen some designs that look more like "The One" but now I will have to deal with the cost issue. Sure it may be the knife I have always wanted but at $400-$500 for some I find myselfe reaching for a junker when doing the things I bought the custom for just to keep in "new". Lets face it, for a lot of us the majority of the daily cutting we do is cardboard, tape, rope/string, textiles. In other words stuff that is damn hard on a knife. It seems a shame to use a cutom piece of art (not talking about fru-fru damascus and gemstone folders) to do these mundane chores....but im gonna try!

BTW I picked up one of those special kydex holsters for my Balisong and thought that would be a good way to carry the knife.....wrong! The thing sticks out (literally)like a sore thumb and makes me look like one of those "macho" dorks with his hotshot knife!....Next.....
 
Originally posted by fudo
THE ONE-It doesn't exist. It is an idea, a fantasy, like a unicorn. It is like the end of the rainbow, the more you chase, the further away it is.
Click to expand...

Don't believe fudo. He has THE ONE. He's just not telling you what it looks like or where you can get it. One of these days you'll slip up, fudo, and bring out THE ONE, and I will be there to see it! Mwahahahahaha!!!

Joe
 
In a fixed-blade, I THINK that I've found "the one" in the Bill Siegle Fighter/Bowie that I have. It has an 11 inch-long, 1/4 inch-thick blade of 5160 steel, with black grooved G-10 scales, and a nice brass hand-guard.

In a folder, I'm almost there with my Spyderco Chinook. All it needs to be "the one" for me is for it to be more "Lefty-friendly" (with a reversable pocket-clip like on the Native/Endura), and have a blade about 1 inch longer.
 
With nearly 300 knives,(mostly production folders, some customs, and about a dozen autos) in the last 20 years purchased, and most still in my possesion, I discovered 1 major fact,(which I'm sure almost all of you have discovered) you get what you pay for. Sure there are great knives in the $20 to $50 dollar range: CRKT, Schrade, Kershaw, and I know they get better in the $60 to $100 dollar range, Spyderco, Al Mar, Gerber. Than the $100 to $200 dollar range, brings you into the Bench Made's, higher end Spydies. Now comes the $200 to $400+ lower end customs,(don't want to mention anyone I think they are all great knives and calling them lower end customs is a disservice, so I'll call the affordable customs), and higher end production folders William Henrys, and Cris Reeves . Finally the higer end of everything $400 on to the $1000's

What I'm tryin' to say is that as your expendable income increases your idea of THE ONE changes, does that mean you don't have the best knife for your money?

Of course not you still get what you pay for.
 
Having gone through a lot of different folders and fixed blades, I always came back to the same two...and finally realized why; neither one ever needs to be sharpened, no matter how much use and abuse it's gotten...my Spyderco Native and the elusive Satin Jack. ;)
 
Yes, like many here I bought lots of knives getting caught
up in the frenzy to find the perfect knife for me.

Then one day on a lark I bought a 4 1/4" camillus made Buck
307 yellow handled stockman. Don't ask why but I couldn't get this
knife out of my hand. Not a fancy knife , not unique in anyway at all.
There was just something about it that wouldn't let me me leave it home.

Call it vodoo or something :eek: but it just spooky that I can't leave home
without this knife. My other knives are slowly being sold or placed in framed
collection displays.

But hey, I'm still havin' fun:D :D :D
 
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