Horrible guilt...Help me!

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drjones

Joined
Sep 6, 2000
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913
Ok, so I've broken down and am going to buy a Strider BT, Tiger-striped, and with Spine serrations. But, with about a $400 pricetag, I'm having awful feelings of guilt. :(

I ask two things of you fellow knive lovers:
1) Do you share these feelings of guilt when you buy an expensive knife? I know the term "expensive" is relative, but just relay your feelings to me.

2) Help me feel better about my purchase. Realistically, I know I will not get the chance to use my Strider much, but it is tooooo cool! I must have it, and I know it will serve me well whenever I do need it. I'm just trying to make myself feel better about dropping so much ca$h on a blade. :cool:

Thanks!
Drjones
 
Just look at it this way-- you probably would have blown the $400 on knives anyway, but instead of ending up with a bunch of cheap knives, now you'll have a really nice one.
--Josh
 
Imagine this: you don't buy the $400 knife, you keep the money. Then you burn a stop sign and get a $500 ticket. No knife, no money ... :D
 
Josh has it right. One handcrafted knife is worth many factory ones. Don't get me wrong, I love my Spydies and BM's etc. too, but once you're into blades for a while you get drawn to the higher end stuff. I usually get a little twinge of guilt too, but it passes real quick when you get that new blade in hand!
 
I have lots of high-end knives, but that's not what made me feel guilty. I wanted to have the complete set of a certain knife. My regular guy was out and confided to me that he may never see that knife again. I freaked. I hunted with a search-engine, and found a place. I paid 175 bucks, and added red-label because I was in a froth.

Doesn't sound like much, does it? Well, the only difference was the color of the handle. I had two just like it. My wife works hard, she has her own hobbies and she doesn't ask for much.

This was an unforeseen bill that we could have done without. I thought only of myself, and that makes me feel guilty.

As for your knife, a Strider is an investment. It's a great knife, enjoy.
 
Yes, I had a horrible quilt once. It was sewn all crooked and the colors of the pieces didn't match and it had these hideous red streamers all around the edge . . . . . oh, you said "guilt". . . . . Never mind!
 
GronK, you read my mind! If I had a horrible quilt, I would take my $400 Strider and cut it to shreds!:D :D :D

Seriously, I think most people freak when they first buy a high end knife. Let your self settle down, from what I've heard, Striders are well worth the money.
 
You can't go on living this way. the pressure is too great. You have made an awful mistake and your life is ruined. People don't respect you anymore. your friends all talk about you behind your back. Everybody hates you. Go snort a couple lines of Drain-O immediatly and leave the knife, well actually all your knives to me in your will. Hurry...Its the right thing to do...you cannot live with the shame any longer. Let them be with a good new owner. Its nice and dry here in Texas. They won't rust, I will take good care of them...Do the right thing....
 
Do you share these feelings of guilt when you buy an expensive knife?
Click to expand...
Yes. As a result I tend to be very agreeable when Mrs. Rev. Pete shows off her latest mail-order jewelery/quilt/clothes purchase.

...it is tooooo cool! I must have it, and I know it will serve me well whenever I do need it.
Click to expand...
Of all the things to lust after knives seem to be on the harmless end of things. I knew a guy who collected Volkswagon Beatles. Quite a hastle when he had to move. An (ex-)buddy from my Army days took up collecting girlfriends, which didn't please his wife at all and cost him many of his friends. This year I've gone on a cruise and I've bought knives. The cruise is long gone but I still have the knives to enjoy. Hmmm.... ;)

I hope you really enjoy your new knife for years to come!
 
I've experienced it both ways... I've bought higher-end (meaning relatively for me in the $150-$350 range) knives that I love and don't feel guilty about, and then I've bought a few that I still feel guilty over...

The big difference, given that I'm not a collector, is whether I can really (that is realistically and in a properl context) <b>use</b> the knife or not!

The one I feel <b>most</b> guilty about is my Busse SHII. Sure its a fabulous piece of steel, but I will NEVER be in an environment where it will be "my best option", and so it goes unused for any realistic need, and that makes me feel guilty about spending that kind of money...
 
drjones, I know what you mean. I just special ordered two Sebenzas, total cost around $700. That kind of expense would have horrified me not too long ago. But you know what? At least I know that I'm getting knives that I like, that are well made, that I will use. I have scads of knives, nice ones too, that I never use. They looked fine on the web, but turned out to be not quite what I had in mind when they finally arrived at my doorstep. I've spend many hundreds of dollars on these knives, so now buying an expensive knife that I know I'll use doesn't seem as reckless as it might have a few years back.
 
It's your money to spend as you choose, and there are certainly much worse things to spend money on (drugs, booze, gambling, ect).
However, maybe you could use this forum to do a little self-exploration: the real question is WHY do you feel guilty?

Good luck,
Allen.
 
Ernest Hemingway said once:
"It was right move, if you feel good afterwards."

(Or, at least, it went somehow like that.)

And anyway, I trust on it.

I think it's an good advice.
 
Some good advice here.
I feel started feeling guilty about some of my more expensive knives when I realized exactly how much work and time (not to mention ability) it takes to create them.
 
Guilt is a natural feeling when you buy something expensive. It comes from remembering how little money you had at various times of your life like when you were young or going to college, and how hard you had to work to earn the little money you had. At least that's the way it is for me.

I have a good paying job so its easy to stash some money away each week that I use for my hobbies or buying my wife presents. My favorite way of saving up is saving all the quarters from my change each day--just the quarters, as I don't like rolling up anything smaller. It really adds up!

As long as you appreciate and take care of the high quality things you've bought, there should be no reason for the guilt to last long. Keep you bills paid and your loved ones in good health and happy, and everything should be cool...

Life's too short!
 
As long as you're not letting bills pile up or your family suffer then what the heck. I just make sure I'm using "Discretionary" income.
 
Thank you all for your great replies!

Allen - to answer you specifically (and maybe everyone else could help with this) the reason I feel so guilty I think is because I'm quite sure that I will not use the knife very often at all. I go camping occasionally, and go to some cabins my uncle has in the mountains, but in all, I never venture into any sort of wilderness any more than about 2-3 times a year.

BUT, I just like that Strider SO much! I'm not going to be putting myself in horrible debt, I don't have kids whose mouths I'd be taking food out of, or anything like that. I only have several knives (albeit sorta expensive ones) but I hardly use them. And I suppose that's what I feel guilty about. Some things you just want to have, I suppose, but at what price? $400 is quite a bit to drop on anything that won't really see much use.

I dunno....tell me what you all think...

Confused Dr.
 
I have a hard time plopping even $100 on a knife when so many of the $50-$70 knives are "good enough".
I'll have fantasy about $500 Simonichs and Striders, $700 Darrel Ralphs and $300 Doziers.
In the end I always end up with a $40 Spyderco or something along those lines.
 
drjones,

I've been in exactly the same position as you. I want something expensive, yet have felt guilty that I won't get my money out of it.

My solutions:

Wait. Seriously, sometimes something has caught my eye, and after a period of time determined that a good part of the want was emotional.

Wait until money is ahead, or sell off some old stuff. That way it still expensive, but the money is easier to come by.

Set goals. Like if I get x,y and z accomplished I'll reward myself. That way I'm "paying myself" instead of it being frivalous. Plus I get x,y and z done.

Wait until a good deal comes up on the forsale forums. Harder to do if you want specific things, but it sometimes works.
 
If it's not taking food off of your table, why would you feel GUILT?
Like others have said you would just spend the money on something else. Probably something that won't last as long as a good knife.

The most expensive knife I own is an Ed Fowler Prong horn, and my guilt wasn't about the price. It came way before, I wrote Ed an e-mail asking if it was wrong for me to own one of his knives since I wasn't a hunter or the outdoors type to really give one of his knives the proper workout it was meant to. Ed assured me he'd love for me to have one of his knives. I bought it from Ed at last years Blade Show, there's not a day I don't fondle it and thank the stars that it's mine.

BTW, there's no need to ask how much it cost, mine is not for sale, you better talk to Ed. ;)
 
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