Hitting a Wall

WValtakis said:
Run fast, lol...search posts by wvaltakis2 on candlepowerforums to see how deep it can get:eek:
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Don’t worry. I am very happy with what I own already. Only after one more light and it is not really needed so it can wait. Only about $30 or so.

I have a greater need for a solar charger than another light.

The Jeep and bills take priority anyway.

Besides, @chuck4570 set me up nicely with lights.
 
Forester_01 said:
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.
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I have a well made Hon file cabinet. The top drawer is for knives and related items. Another is for legal papers and the other two are for emergency preparedness gear.
 
Six solid fixed blades and six folders ( five modern and one traditional ) has about done it for me for a collection of knives that I can both use and appreciate.
 
This entire thread is blasphemy!

It betrays the very day I logged in. I am here for knives.

There is never "enough" knife. There is only more knife.
 
I think it's ok to have a colletion shrink, I used a Spydie roll to keep most of my stuff and as of right now it's not even half filled but I'm still pretty content:
  • Massdrop Zinker Dogtooth
  • Endura
  • Native
  • Baby Jess Horn
  • Real Steel Metamorph
  • Insingo
  • Bunch of alox and saks
  • CRKT Ripple 2
  • Ontario Rat 1 which I have been reprofiling in order to gaw
  • Kershaw mini Natrix in copper
  • Spyderco Muleteam
I have only a few on my next list right now but they're not immediate, a CRK 31 or large format Insingo (not sure why I want this as I don't carry larger knives but I'm very drawn to the bladeshape) a ZT with the same bladeshape as the Insingo and or a Kizer Feist with holes on the scale.

On a positive note, I've been able to pick up and trade a few guitars while taking a break from trading knives and am almost pretty happy with my small collection of telecasters. I just need a HSS superstrat and I'll be set at 3 guitars. This too was something that has been a work in progress for a really long time, trying to figure out my preferences in guitars vs the "I should get one of each type," type of collecting. Finally came to realize as much as I love Les Paul guitars my last was an ESP EC-256 that I upgraded, I really don't like switching back and forth on neck scale lengths. Once I realized that things became a lot more simpler for me and I've been able to learn a few songs rather than focus on staring at FB marketplace all day.

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Been reflecting, really over the past 6 months or so re: the knife.....and wallet collection. I'm in my mid 60's....loved knives as a kid (remember rubber Bowie style knives....my father one birthday morning left a trail of them from my bedroom to the kitchen....so ultimately it's the parents fault for driving behavior...right?). Those rubber knives all eventually were confiscated by my teachers. At age 10 my father gave me my first jackknife .....which subsequently was stolen at Camp Lawrence. Then had a variety of SAKs. Really got back into it about 10 years ago....joined blade forums.
Buying & selling & collecting/using. I have come to the conclusion it's time to thin out the small herd.

Going to keep the collection to 4 modern folders and 7-10 traditionals (including a couple of novelty knives that really don't get carried). Net...net knives and wallets will be hitting the "for sale" forum soon. Some would claim that this is part of a natural progression.....but for all those who will continue a full raging knife nut lifestyle.....GO FOR IT!!! And keep posting pics!!
Peter
 
Grandmaster said:
Walls will always crumble, I stopped buying $500 knives, then boom, holt, guthrie, gavko, eustler, burger, sham, cole, shiro, rockstead, olamic, appeared, now Im in a new way, buying exactly what I want, the wall on price I had crumbled, I wish you good luck. After you get a CRK, you’ll want that fit and finish on every knife you buy.
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Agree
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There are a few things that I have been looking forward to trying:

Learning how to work with Kydex.

Dying scales a different color.

“Stonewashing” blades.

Leatherwork.

Out of these four, working with Kydex interest me the most with stonewashing coming in second.

I tried stonewashing once with extremely poor results.

Maybe it’s time to pursue these items for while.
 
I find myself where you are with my knife collection every couple of years. Like virtually everyone else here, at this point I have more knives in my collection that I could ever use in a lifetime. I teeeeechnically could cut things until my final day without ever needing to sharpen a knife again. Despite that, I am sure that I'll own many more knives before they lower me into the hole.

What I do every year or so whenever I hit a lull is simply grow my interests in different directions, whether it's a type of knife, or perhaps a certain maker. In 2018, I got heavily into Emerson Knives, and rode that train for awhile until various circumstances brought that to an end. I was up to something like 26 of them at one point. That passed. Near the end of last year (2019, man, it's 2020 already!), I had hit another lull, so I directed my attention to the Spyderco Delica. I bought one, caught the bug and then ended up buying one in every supersteel they make them in, up to ten at current. Then I got interested in slipjoints and have fallen down that well a bit. Who knows what it'll be next time.

I will say that I don't foresee there ever being a point where I'm well and truly done buying knives. However, I'll confess that my tastes have become much more focused and while I will say that it takes a lot to capture my interest, that doesn't necessarily mean that I need a $900+ flipper either*. Sometimes, it can be as simple as "I really like that shape, it seems interesting" or it could be a materials decision. I know a guy (he's not on here, because he's a tad old fashioned) who only buys knives in D2. "But what about...", "Nah, I'm good." There's something for everyone. Me, I'm at the point where I don't always know what's going to strike my fancy, but "I know it when I see it". I'm carrying a knife today, a Brad Zinker custom in Damascus that I bought at BLADE this year. I didn't arrive at the show on Friday looking to buy one, nor did I even really have any idea about Zinker Knives. But, when I got to his table (thanks in part to my friend @WValtakis pointing him out), "I knew it when I saw it". All said, I can't wait for BLADE 2020, who knows what I'll come home with? I certainly don't have any idea right now! LOL

I am exceptionally fortunate to be able to buy the knives I want for the most part, after growing up in a...let's call it a lower economic tier than I am in now. Buying, say, a $100 knife would have been an astronomical luxury, and completely unheard of to little kid Quiet. I'm grateful to be able to enjoy the things I enjoy now.


* Though, I've got several of those.
 
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I know that there are knives available that I would want but, right now I look at what is being offered and feel that it is butt ugly or not worth the money.

I currently use full size Griptilians
for my large EDC folders. They are not my favorite knives but, they do the job extremely well so
I don’t expect that will ever change. Besides I love the Axis Lock. I figure if I want something different I can change scales.

A handle shaped more like Emerson’s CQC7 is more my taste but, I don’t care for his blade grinds or prices.
 
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I hit the wall sometimes. Kinda get bored with the current offers at times as well. But then again I'll go on a buying spree. But the more and more that pattern continues, the more I find out what I really like.

I always like trying new things, but I tend to go back to alot of the same knives, and maybe find a couple others to join the entourage. Currently I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm buying/trying a few new ones, but I feel like I have a pretty solid grasp on what I want and what I'm going to buy again and keep.
It's almost like Im fighting the fact of being content, because I enjoy the hunt and getting excited about the future of knives.

I think my new plan might be to buy my keepers, and have them customized the way I always wanted them. Seems like a better compromise, then to buy knives I know I'm going to sell.
 
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@bikerector in another thread mentioned a "knife rental" concept. You pay a (small) fee and get sent a new kinife at a regular interval - when one arrives, you ship the other one back. Kinda similar to Netflix in its early days. I think its a great idea - allows one to try out various types of knives without lot of investment and the risk of "hoarding".
 
Give the hobby a breather! I've been deep in to knives for over a decade, and there have been some points maybe two or three times give or take where I too have given it a breather...It doesn't mean your "hitting a wall" or "finished" but just need a little break as you do with everything in life. I never sold off my entire collection, I knew I'd regret that- but downsized and only kept those that I absolutely loved and knew that I'd miss. I wasn't super active in the community during that time or following new drops.... but as time went by I found myself back in to knives and the community and not only back in to it... but deeper than I ever had before. I found my mentality about knives had changed in more ways than I can explain - for instance nowadays I don't have any safe queens, If I buy a knife and LOVE it then its a keeper AND a USER! - anything short of that and it's back up for sale the next day. I also came back with a new-found appreciation for it all in general, I see it as more than just a hobby
It's my little slice of "ME" that I dont really share with many in my day to day life, but am able to share with all of you here, and I love that!

Sorry if thats too deep -- LOL!!! Just trying to give some thought and insight is all!

Be good man, see you around - hopefully ;)
 
Maybe after all these years I have just found what works for me.

I can tell you guys that some of my extended family has health issues and I expect that I may also suffer the same problems as I get a little older.

One of those problems may be a loss of motor skills in my hands. That is why I look for knives that are easy to open and close.

Fixed blades may the future for me.
 
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sabre cat sabre cat here's what i have currently that doesn't find me itching for much elseKnives Collected.jpeg
Folders:
Boker Stag Stockman , Lionsteel Kur , Spyderco PM2 , Kilimanjaro Gear DW Folder , CRK Small Sebenza 21 (Plain Jane) , Darrel Ralph Dominator, Medford Praetorian Genesis T
Fixed:
Winkler Woodsman , Behring Made Knives custom Pintail , Bakr-Bilt Model 1 Stag , TM Hunt Hedgehog , Esee Izula II , Paddy Smyth Knives 'Pocket' hunting knife

(Not the best pic, but what I got to today)
 
sabre cat said:
How many of you have hit a wall with the knife hobby and why? What's your story and how did you work it out?
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After buying over 330 knives of all types - folders, fixed, autos and balisongs - of many different brands in just couple of years, I'm pretty much done buying any more knives and am also looking to downsize and thereby refine the collection.

However, after going thru the collection, there are actually very few knives that I want to sell. Perhaps only 30-50 out of the entire collection and the value of these knives is actually quite low, they're being the cheapest knives that I bought earliest - mostly $20-50 Kershaws and CRKTs costing little more than $1k for all of them when new.

These knives are probably the most difficult to sell because they are not highly regarded for quality and would only sell for a fraction of their original cost in the 2ndary market - perhaps 25-30% -- which really doesn't justify the effort to sell them and the amount expected to be realized from their sale. Better to give them away in connection w/the sale of other more popular and valuable knives as an act of appreciation.

I may try to sell a knife here and there (or perhaps a lot of the cheapies as a group) but I really do not have a great incentive to do so. A couple are listed in my signature line but these knives have been offered for sale for months w/o interest and I really haven't done anything to try to move them.

On the other hand, having collected so many knives in so short of time, there really isn't much that I don't already have that I want to buy. So, I have no reason to buy much else either unless some knife I have been interested in comes up as a surprisingly low price or something "new" pops up that I is so different & unusual that I just have to add it to my collection, but there aren't many knives like that.

So, pretty much what I've got, I'm going to keep.

BTW, most of the 330+ knives I own cost between $100-250 range (the bulk of them Spydercos and ZTs) which gives you a general idea of how much $ I've spent (I have receipts for all of them) in building this collection.
 
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