Hitting a Wall

I have been collecting and trading knives for 50 years and have reached the same feeling of hitting a wall frequently. It is never about the knife or collectible. Whether or not you are conscious of it, we collect on a theme, and at some point we simply run out of story, and need to commence a new one.

n2s
 
I just don’t need any more. They cut, at times I sharpen. New is interesting but tools are just tools. Old guy here, that still loves knives and well made ones but I have limited use and need at this time in life. Blade Forums takes the place of me purchasing unneeded extras. I let you guys post, I enjoy seeing the new at your expense and enjoyment. I’m grateful for your sharing here. This is a great place to relax.
 
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jakemex said:
I just don’t need any more. They cut, at times I sharpen. New is interesting but tools are just tools. Old guy here, that still loves knives and well made ones but I have limited use and need at this time in life.
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Need has nothing to do with it. A handful of knives can easily fill our needs for several lifetimes. Most of us here are far beyond that.

n2s
 
jakemex said:
I just don’t need any more. They cut, at times I sharpen. New is interesting but tools are just tools. Old guy here, that still loves knives and well made ones but I have limited use and need at this time in life. Blade Forums takes the place of me purchasing unneeded extras. I let you guys post, I enjoy seeing the new at your expense and enjoyment. I’m grateful for your sharing here. This is a great place to relax.
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I don't need any new knives either and honestly haven't needed a new knife for 20 years. As not2sharp not2sharp says, need has little to do with it. I needed a new knife 40 years ago.... I was in late 30's before I even purchased a fixed blade and never felt that I couldn't complete the task at hand with a folder.

I can only speak for myself, but the kinds of knives I prefer to carry has changed or at least solidified. I don't need a CRK to make me feel accomplished or happy, but I enjoy handling new knives just because I like them. Handling at a store is not enough. In the early 2000's, I moved to modern knives and tried different sizes. Ultimately I settled on a short range of 3.0-3.25" blades. I liked blades approaching 3" on slip joints and the modern's fell into to the same general size range for a good while. Then in the last couple of years, I started downsizing where the 3-3.25" knives are my large folders. I came to appreciate smaller knives for their utility and ease of carry without sacrificing much in terms of function. That's where I'm at now with one huge change.... been edc'ing small fixed blades (2 to 3 inch blades). That is where my new acquisitions are likely to happen.
 
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hhmoore said:
You haven't hit a wall - you've come to your senses....

Pare down the collection. You'll hit a wall in that effort - finding yourself still with more than you want, but not wanting to let anything else go. That's fine... stop there. Enjoy the knives you have - whether by using, carrying, fondling, or just having. Consider the idea of maintaining a set number of knives - meaning that if another comes in, one must go. You'll probably find that, in many cases, the new acquisition will be the one that doesn't stay...

...I have become extremely selective & avoid purchasing on a whim. When something catches my eye, I find a reason to wait. Often, the knife is sold before I look back; but, if it isn't, I take some time to think about whether I really want it.
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You just stated exactly where I am with all of this.

A few years back I decided that I would change how I dealt with my knives. I would scale purchases back with a goal of only three of each blade style. One dress knife, one EDC, and one fixed blade.
So, I would have three clip points, three drop points,etc. It sounds simple enough but it is not easy to accomplish.

I quickly found out that I did not want (or need) many of these knives.

The next step was an attempt at owning one of each brand/lock type. That went a little better but still not quite right for me.

Next came the goal of a dress knife, an EDC, and field/heavy duty knife and a back up for each. Six knives. That’s it. Well, a dozen actually. Any additional knives are based upon need and are purpose driven. Rescue knife in the car, beater knife in the tool bag, etc. This is where I am at presently.

This works extremely well for me.
I am finding that the desire to purchase another blade is greatly reduced. A new knife comes in, an old knife goes away. At least that’s what should happen.

The neat thing is that I now enjoy my collection much more and I am not chasing the latest/greatest blade steels or wanting Benchmade’s or Spyderco’s newest arrival.
 
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hhmoore said:
You haven't hit a wall - you've come to your senses. There is no need to continually dump money into a hobby in order to enjoy it... and what's the point in continuous accumulation of items that don't really bring you joy? (Hint, if you call it an investment, you're deluding yourself.)

Pare down the collection. You'll hit a wall in that effort - finding yourself still with more than you want, but not wanting to let anything else go. That's fine... stop there. Enjoy the knives you have - whether by using, carrying, fondling, or just having. Consider the idea of maintaining a set number of knives - meaning that if another comes in, one must go. You'll probably find that, in many cases, the new acquisition will be the one that doesn't stay. (I don't like selling before a new arrival, because there have been too many times that the new arrival left me flat.)

I haven't sworn off purchasing knives, but I have become extremely selective & avoid purchasing on a whim. When something catches my eye, I find a reason to wait. Often, the knife is sold before I look back; but, if it isn't, I take some time to think about whether I really want it.

(*edited because my paragraphs didn't look like paragraphs)
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^^^This is a really good post.

I’ve always admired folks that can limit their collection to a half dozen knives and rotate something out when they want something new.

I used to have a strict rotation regimen. No more than 5 knives out each week, at least 3 of which were traded out every Sunday. I’ll go back to that today, starting by locking up my two most carried. By the time I get back to them, they’ll seem fresh again.
 
In Oct I thought I was pretty satisfied with what I had. Then I joined a local knife club and ended up handling knives I only dreamed about. It sparked the fire even worse then before.
What ever you do don't buy a Spyderco roll. You will find ways of justifying filling it up! lol :D
 
cbrstar said:
In Oct I thought I was pretty satisfied with what I had. Then I joined a local knife club and ended up handling knives I only dreamed about. It sparked the fire even worse then before.
What ever you do don't buy a Spyderco roll. You will find ways of justifying filling it up! lol :D
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I have two nylon Boker knife cases. Six knives per each case.

I’ve considered getting another but that could be dangerous. The Spyderco even more so!
 
I took a break from buying knives for a few years. I still enjoyed the knives I had throughout that time. Then I started looking at what was new and kinda got back into it. I don't feel any desire to force myself to be into a hobby. For me, that kinda defeats the purpose of having a hobby - I have them because that's what I like to do with my free time. If I don't look forward to it, I focus on what else I prefer to do with my time.

A natural area to move into are other EDC type items (lights, pens, watches, fidgety things, etc.) if you haven't seriously looked in that area yet.
 
I keep talking about the wall being right in front of me but it keeps moving. :rolleyes: I think the only cure is to stay away from BladeForums, especially all the knife threads. :D That's the kind of withdrawal I'm not ready for yet. Still, I keep telling myself - one more and that's it - 3 more on order though. See what I mean? :(

Ray
 
Twenty years ago I went through a streamlining with my firearms. I went from thirteen long guns to three. I should have gone down to two but my shotguns are a matched pair. Two 12-bores and a .300 Win Mag cover anything I'm ever likely to do.

I'm close to doing it again with knives (folders mainly) and watches. I can only use a couple of each and that's too many at times. One of my obstacles is that I hate the process of selling things. It's tedious to me.

Collecting has its ups and downs. The plus side for me, and many others here, is the learning curve. It's enjoyable. But, at some point, I have to ask myself, have I accomplished my goal yet?

Sorry for the rant. I have the flu. :(
 
I pretty much limit myself to "weird" stuff to keep the accumulation under control. A folder has to have some sort of unique mechanism or lock to get attention these days:)
 
I have a medium sized drawer in my desk for knives, and limited myself to the available space in the drawer. It has the capacity to hold approximately 7 folders, 8 slipjoints and 5 fixed blades. Right now, it's working quite well but I'm sure that in the future I'll have to allocate 1 draw for just fixed blades, 1 for folders...etc


Having limited space forces you to really plan out the knives you add to the collection and, at least for me, tremendously improved the quality of knives coming in.
 
Kaizen1 said:
I took a break from buying knives for a few years. I still enjoyed the knives I had throughout that time. Then I started looking at what was new and kinda got back into it. I don't feel any desire to force myself to be into a hobby. For me, that kinda defeats the purpose of having a hobby - I have them because that's what I like to do with my free time. If I don't look forward to it, I focus on what else I prefer to do with my time.

A natural area to move into are other EDC type items (lights, pens, watches, fidgety things, etc.) if you haven't seriously looked in that area yet.
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Lights and pens are another rabbit hole..just saying
 
My Brother David took me to the Blade Show in Atlanta back in 2007..and that was it. David collects Buck 110's so I decided on 112's to avoid competing with him. I like the Buck folks! And enjoy displaying the odd ones I find. If you have hit a wall collecting and enjoying the blades you have..try a different room. I'm still happy with chasing rare and odd 112's but do regret passing on rare odd Bucks of other models that I had a chance to pick up inexpensively because I devoted my resources for more 112's. For some reason other Brands just don't interest me as much as Buck does. I always felt sorry for folks that chase new Case knives for instance, but consider myself lucky I don't collect high end Customs because I would only have a few...
 
Yup - I have at least 6 lights modded by Vinh Nguyen of Sky Lumen via Candle Power forums.
There isn't any corner of my world that is not well lit or cutting problem easily resolved.
Swapping out knives though, for some reason, is easier than swapping out lights. :rolleyes:

Ray
 
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