Hey everyone! I notice my post is a bit overly-explanatory so feel free to skip around, I hope it's interesting!
I'm a 22 year old student from Virginia. I recently became interested in knives, which I would argue is a natural step after my previous hobbies of automatic watches and fountain pens. For each of those I was involved in their respective forums, fountainpennetwork and watchuseek, and had a lot of fun attending events. I also briefly was interested in straight/double edge razor shaving, but decided two cheap disposable razor-blade models were good enough for me.
I first was exposed to knives, various types of steel, etc from being interested in cooking (lurker on cheftalk forum). As anyone who cooks knows, it's vital to have a sharp knife to cut with. Instead of saving up for an expensive chef knife like the cool Henckles Cryodur line, I told myself I should learn to sharpen knives on my cheap japanese waterstone before owning something expensive I can't maintain myself. Unfortunately the cheap Chinese vegetable cleaver I use is very durable for as frequently as I bring it out, haven't sharpened it yet. My other knife, arguably the best cooking tool knife, the Victorinox 10 inch chef knife is slightly more expensive at 30 dollars, and I've gotten into the awful habit of *gasp* using an electric sharpener on it. While I know I'm taking off too much steel and not getting as sharp an edge, I figure even like that I use the knife for years upon years and then switch over to cheap vegetable cleavers which have the blade depth to last an even longer time. Hopefully with this hobby I can finally learn how to sharpen properly, and maybe even experiment with the DMT Dia-Sharp diamond sharpening blocks.
In the last 3 years, I started playing video games after building a pc. Two games, Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist featured some cool knives. Counter Strike is one of the most popular pc video game series ever because of the skill and strategy involved; at higher levels you really need to learn how to outsmart opponents on a map because their level of aim means if you pause you're dead in a single click. CSGO gains additional revenue by colored weapon and knife skins, customizations with an arguably minimal effect on competitive gameplay. In terms of knives, there is a gut knife, a flip knife, a sawback m9 bayonet, a non-sawback bayonet, a karambit and a butterfly knife. These virtual items go from between like $45 to $2000 depending on the patterns they have and the wear. Fortunately unlike real knives, one can buy and sell without a depreciation hit from wear and tear
. However if people stop playing the game, they're instantly worthless. CSGO maker Steam's CEO Gabe Newell is known for being a knife collector. Blacklist is a recent iteration in a spy/stealth game series which uses the karambit for silent takedowns when clearing the area. After I found out about these knives, I realized how cool knife collecting could be. As a former martial artist and black belt, the karambit in particular is very interesting to me.
For EDC, I have just ordered what I believe to be my ideal knife, a Benchmade Hunt Small Summit Lake. Very excited to get my hands on the S30V steel as well as the "wooden" handles even though I'm not sure how frequently I'll carry it. For the most part I'm planning on being a collector, and intend on keeping knives in a display case of some kind eventually, and playing with them infrequently in my spare time. So far I have collected a Stonewash Microtech Metalmark Butterfly knife (love the handles, still learning how to flip it open/close though I know it's not the best for flipping), a Mantis Vuja De butterfly-karambit (Great for opening boxes with the forward grip! Already cut my pinkie flipping it around :grumpy
, an OKC ranger EOD Karambit (very substantial yet GREAT to play with as it comes with a blade that's not very sharp), an OKC M9 Bayonet with green sheath (I'd say mine doesn't have the finish quality I expected after the OKC Karambit).
I'd love to hear any tips on care, I'm planning on doing some research on oiling here in the coming days, and the butterfly especially concerns me. Even linking a thread would greatly help me, I know it can be irritating for experienced users to sift through newbie posts from my other hobbies.
Additionally if anyone wants to suggest any cool karambit/butterfly I could save towards I'd love to hear it. I had my eye on the Coogler Chimera/Dragon but I'm still wondering if those are good buys/what else is out there.
Excited to meet all of you!
I'm a 22 year old student from Virginia. I recently became interested in knives, which I would argue is a natural step after my previous hobbies of automatic watches and fountain pens. For each of those I was involved in their respective forums, fountainpennetwork and watchuseek, and had a lot of fun attending events. I also briefly was interested in straight/double edge razor shaving, but decided two cheap disposable razor-blade models were good enough for me.
I first was exposed to knives, various types of steel, etc from being interested in cooking (lurker on cheftalk forum). As anyone who cooks knows, it's vital to have a sharp knife to cut with. Instead of saving up for an expensive chef knife like the cool Henckles Cryodur line, I told myself I should learn to sharpen knives on my cheap japanese waterstone before owning something expensive I can't maintain myself. Unfortunately the cheap Chinese vegetable cleaver I use is very durable for as frequently as I bring it out, haven't sharpened it yet. My other knife, arguably the best cooking tool knife, the Victorinox 10 inch chef knife is slightly more expensive at 30 dollars, and I've gotten into the awful habit of *gasp* using an electric sharpener on it. While I know I'm taking off too much steel and not getting as sharp an edge, I figure even like that I use the knife for years upon years and then switch over to cheap vegetable cleavers which have the blade depth to last an even longer time. Hopefully with this hobby I can finally learn how to sharpen properly, and maybe even experiment with the DMT Dia-Sharp diamond sharpening blocks.
In the last 3 years, I started playing video games after building a pc. Two games, Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist featured some cool knives. Counter Strike is one of the most popular pc video game series ever because of the skill and strategy involved; at higher levels you really need to learn how to outsmart opponents on a map because their level of aim means if you pause you're dead in a single click. CSGO gains additional revenue by colored weapon and knife skins, customizations with an arguably minimal effect on competitive gameplay. In terms of knives, there is a gut knife, a flip knife, a sawback m9 bayonet, a non-sawback bayonet, a karambit and a butterfly knife. These virtual items go from between like $45 to $2000 depending on the patterns they have and the wear. Fortunately unlike real knives, one can buy and sell without a depreciation hit from wear and tear
. However if people stop playing the game, they're instantly worthless. CSGO maker Steam's CEO Gabe Newell is known for being a knife collector. Blacklist is a recent iteration in a spy/stealth game series which uses the karambit for silent takedowns when clearing the area. After I found out about these knives, I realized how cool knife collecting could be. As a former martial artist and black belt, the karambit in particular is very interesting to me. For EDC, I have just ordered what I believe to be my ideal knife, a Benchmade Hunt Small Summit Lake. Very excited to get my hands on the S30V steel as well as the "wooden" handles even though I'm not sure how frequently I'll carry it. For the most part I'm planning on being a collector, and intend on keeping knives in a display case of some kind eventually, and playing with them infrequently in my spare time. So far I have collected a Stonewash Microtech Metalmark Butterfly knife (love the handles, still learning how to flip it open/close though I know it's not the best for flipping), a Mantis Vuja De butterfly-karambit (Great for opening boxes with the forward grip! Already cut my pinkie flipping it around :grumpy
, an OKC ranger EOD Karambit (very substantial yet GREAT to play with as it comes with a blade that's not very sharp), an OKC M9 Bayonet with green sheath (I'd say mine doesn't have the finish quality I expected after the OKC Karambit).I'd love to hear any tips on care, I'm planning on doing some research on oiling here in the coming days, and the butterfly especially concerns me. Even linking a thread would greatly help me, I know it can be irritating for experienced users to sift through newbie posts from my other hobbies.
Additionally if anyone wants to suggest any cool karambit/butterfly I could save towards I'd love to hear it. I had my eye on the Coogler Chimera/Dragon but I'm still wondering if those are good buys/what else is out there.
Excited to meet all of you!
