How frequently do you handle your "unused" knives?

22-rimfire

22-rimfire

Joined
Nov 20, 2005
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My interests change and I go back and look and handle some of my older knives from time to time. Knives that fit my current interest that I like, tend to get handled about once a week or biweekly in some fashion. The older stuff I revisit and probably look at/fondle maybe a couple times a year. Stuff that is just "stored", but of interest, probably once a month.

What about you all? I am not talking about knives that you edc or frequently carry. I'm talking about the ones that are just part of the accumulation or collection that sit in a dresser drawer, cabinet, or where ever they might be stashed....

The follow up question is, why do you handle them? Why do you keep stuff that you may have little interest in?
 
Hardly ever---have a bunch of unused knives I have little interest in----blades in EDC or hunting rotation are well cared for.
 
Pretty frequently, late at night I sit at the table by my bed and use a dental scraper and pick to clean out the lint and pocket debris that accumulates over the course of the week. Wipe them down with a silicone cloth and choose the ones to pick from four the next week. :)
 
This sounds like a question my wife would ask. My reply - How often do you wear those shoes?
A constant craving. The Holy Grail knife is not within my reach.
 
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coop1957 said:
This sounds like a question my wife would ask. My reply - How often do you you wear those shoes?
A constant craving. The Holy Grail knife is not within my reach.
Click to expand...

What does it matter how often she wears her shoes. I hope she's happy. That is really what matters. But as far as knives go, many of us handle our knives often and if you have a lot of knives, some don't get looked at much. Some would say.... Sell them.... and my thought is that is just way too much trouble just like returning most things that are shipped to me that turn out to be not quite what I want or even the right shoe size that fits. I'm the one who typed in the size. I got what I ordered and I accept that.
 
I have a few that just sit in a box. They are neat, and I appreciate their beauty, but seldom open the box. A few folders; a couple of nice fixed blades...
I only use one knife, and just buy/sell/trade the others occasionally.

It's no different than having a gun collection, or stamp collection, or Jay Leno and his warehouses of fancy cars... There is VALUE and BEAUTY in the craftsmanship, the materials, the engineering genius that produces these "thngs." IMO.
 
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Every week or two I sort through the safe because I forgot what I have lol. I have a lot so there's still some safe queens in there.
I kind of settled into my users after a few years , and the others just sit there. Doesn't bother me in any way.

In my "user" bag right now is:

Benchmade Bushcrafter
Sog Force
Gerber Prodigy
Buck 103
Condor Bolo.
 
Most of my non users are kept in glass top display cases. Just looking at them is usually good enough for me but I'll take a few out and admire them in hand once in awhile. Generally speaking, I usually only handle them when I'm thinking about adding one to my EDC rotation.

My carbon steel knives get inspected by hand once a year on Labor Day weekend but they have never needed any maintenance. The Renaissance Wax that I used on them when they went into storage does a great job of preserving them.

I should probably sell a few but I agree that it sometimes is too much of a hassle.
 
my answer is "not often enough"

I have a collection of custom hunting knives that I bought just because I liked their looks. I don't have a way to display them so I keep them stored away. It's a lot of trouble to take them out and look at them so I don't do it very often. Similar for some of my EDC folders that I don't carry any more. Like everybody else here I have a lot more knives than I can use.
 
Once, maybe twice.

"Unused" knives become "sold" knives. The knives I like and stay with me and stay in use, and they start being used pretty much immediately. When a knife feels just -right-, it goes in my pocket and a smile is on my face. If it doesn't, I put it in the box with the other knives to sell / trade. I don't have a need for knives I won't use, and I won't know if I want to use them until I handle them.

My Kershaw 4KXL is in my nightstand next to my ProTech TR-4.1 - in my pocket right now is a Protech Maple Burl Godfather. All three will see carry time this week, and the next, and the next... If I feel like I have to baby a knife, I won't carry it, and then I get rid of it to free up funds or to trade towards a knife that I might add to my carry rotation.

The only knife I've parted with that I have carried and used for some time and wasn't trading it for something else was a Hogue EX-01 4" Tanto with green aluminum handles. I only sold it because there is a new and improved auto version that's going to come out and I'm going to hop all over that. Love that knife. My first soul blade - where everything about it resonated with me and I knew I could be happy with it for probably the rest of my life. The anticipation for the release is killing me.
 
I have three "levels" of knives- Garage knives, shelf knives, and drawer knives.

"Garage knives" are ones that don't really have any value to me, so I put them in the garage to cut down on clutter inside my house. Years can go by without these knives being touched.

"Shelf knives" include the ones I regularly carry, as well as the ones I never carry that I really like and enjoy "admiring" while watching tv. I call them "shelf knives" because they sit on a shelf in my private sanctuary next to my chair (minus whatever knives happen to be on my person at any given time). These knives get handled on a frequent basis (weekly, daily), even the ones I never carry. My shelf knives are my "treasures", and I like to admire and appreciate my treasures often.

"Drawer knives" are ones in between "shelf" and "garage". These knives sit in a drawer in my sanctuary. I don't have strong enough feelings for these knives to keep them out on the shelf, but for whatever reason I haven't chosen to banish them to the knife dungeon (garage). These knives get handled maybe a couple of times a year.

I'm 45 years old, I've been acquiring knives since I was a little kid, but I have never once sold a knife in my life. I have never bought a knife with the thought that I might sell it one day. I also tend to modify everything I own in one way or another to better suit my tastes or needs, and I would never think of selling a modified knife. I've given knives away, and I've thrown a few in the garbage, but I've never sold any.
 
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A lot actually. I tend to lose them around the house or they get left in backpacks. Then I go to head out for more bushcraft adventures and can't find the one I want so I just grab another one out of my knife drawer. 😜
 
Very seldom. It is a reason they are unused.

The knives I don`t use are mostly, too Heavy, too wide, too thin and so on.
But I`m not going to get rid of them. After all they don`t eat Food.
 
A couple times a year, I keep them because some are part of my collection and others are a part of my initial collecting and serve as a reminder how much my interests in knives have changed and I just can't bring myself to get rid of them.
 
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