Hoarder, Hunter or Curator?

[huntnfishin]

Great thread, i am liking reading everyone's thoughts and perspectives, i have a bit of my thought process in nearly every post. I just like knives. Have a good one everyone, and keep your thoughts coming..

my sentiments exactly...or we could start a self help group?

 

[Chief]

Curator. But in order to become a curator, you must become a hoarder. Like @beezwax described, I have collector DNA. Don't always buy to use, buy to have. Probably fueled by growing up poor. Have a difficult time de-minting a knife. Still have tons of military stuff dating back to my basic training book and clothing stamp used to uniquely identify everything from my underwear to my dress blues. Am picky about what knives I buy but don't have a problem paying market price for something I want. One of each sku is all I need. LOL Rarely sell, have given away more than sold.

Am the curator of a few family heirloom personal items. My son will inherit them including my knife collection ... whether he likes it or not. He will become the curator until he can pass them to my grandson. He knows selling them would be against my wishes and am not about to provide him knowledge that would help him sell. He can sell the farm, house, vehicles, cash out my IRAs, but he better not sell family heirlooms / my knives / military junk. Oh no, just remembered ... he is a user! My pristine stuff is in jeopardy of being used! LOL

 

[FreeState42]

I think the collector/user divide (I mean the mentality here, not the knives themselves-- one to save, one to use, etc) is a MUCH bigger difference than the various types of collector (hoarder, hunter, curator, etc). My wife is a user of things. She doesn't really collect anything, but I definitely have collector dna. She likes to say "You bought it to ride it"...in other words, don't be afraid, use your stuff. But the truth is, in many cases I didn't buy it to ride it, I bought it to have it. This is not to say you can't be both a collector and a user, even the biggest hoarder/collector will have some samples that get used. But for those folks who don't have any trace of the collector gene, they will never comprehend the difficulty we were just discussing in "de-mintifying" something.

I have been in this category since a very young age. With everything from knives to comic books and all the stuff in between. If I buy it new, I have a very hard time making it into a user. Which is also the reason I stopped buying duplicates. There’s no reason for me sitting on 2 knives that are exactly the same when someone else could be enjoying the other.

As far as direction, I have certain patterns/builds that I tend to be fond of. I have been able to acquire some and there are some still remaining that I would like to have. Most of what I collect doesn’t necessarily have a theme. If it appeals to the eye and price is within reason, it’s coming home with me.

Also, impulse buying is a no no...
Until it isn’t

 

[meako]

A greedy Bowerbird who picks up anyhhing he finds appealing and strews his nest with them.