How has your taste in knives evolved since your first knife as an enthusiast?

What a cool thread, it brings back some great memories. I got my first knife from my neighbor when I was 8 or 9. It was a smaller imitation buck lockback with a cheezy name like "golden condor" or something with a leather case that had a hole at the bottom. I loved that knife even after I broke the tip off trying to pry an arrow out of a log. As a teen I was into the large Rambo survival knives, luckily my folks stopped me from buying any of them (I'd probably be missing a finger or two now). Today my favorite knives are EDC types that I can carry on me when ever I'm out. Nothing too expensive as my knives are meant to be used and I've lost a few over the years. My favorite brands currently are benchmade, kershaw, and spyderco. My son will be born soon and when he's old enough he'll get his first knife from me. I'll definately post a thread on the forum for some input and advice when that time comes.
 
Mine is simply better quality. I don't just buy a knife at a flea market cause it looked really cool.
 
First knife was a small two bladed ivory handled folder my mom bought me at a pow wow (it was really nice and I wish I still had it). Next came a few cheap auto's (nato otf and traditional switch blade), then got older and got into BM and Al Mar tactical blades. Now I have a love for tough outdoor knives, traditional slippies, rigging knives and well thought out tactical's.
 
Like many, my first knife was an Old Timer. I have three brothers, and each of us received one of these around age seven. There's no telling how many sticks I reduced to shavings with that thing. I whittled every day; my two favorite things to make were "calender sticks" a la Robinson Crusoe, and--of course--wooden knives.

From there I slowly grew my collection, mostly through gifts from others: a Schrade folder, a Camillus military-style blade, etc. After I started working and making my own money, I started buying my own knives. Unfortunately, I'm a student, so all my purchases have to be fairly reasonable. In any case, I like more traditional or "civilian" style knives...always have. I was never really interested in the "tacti-cool" blade designs.
 
I started with a traditional slip-joint many years ago and discovered over the years that I tend to collect by brand and maker. First it was KA-BAR, then SAK, then Buck, then Spyderco, then a couple of Benchies and finally Kershaw.

What attracts me to a knife is the quality of design, manufacture and concept. Since I really started using Ken Onion's designs, I have found that there is no going back. They are simply brilliant. As of late, I have also had my eye on some Schatt & Morgan knives, so perhaps in a way, I too have come full circle.
 
I think I have always been a user. I got my first SAK when I was 7 or 8, since then my choice on knives is based on making sure it will get used (leatherman, mora, spyderco, SAK); pretty much would never consider a knife that I didn't think would get used regularly. Just made my first big (and probably last) knife purchase for a long time - a bark river Canadian special for all my outdoor needs - ever.
 
my knife collecting started when i found this forum, i was prior to that happy with a spyderco delica and a cold steel gunsite, but that soon changed lol, was really into tantos for a while and collecting benchmade and spydie, not really into tantos anymore and am more into collecting custom stuff now.
 
When I started, I was a balisong enthusiast, because it's cool.

Now that I'm older, I look at knife as tools. I carry one to do everything, food prep, shaving, etc. and because it's a SAK, it has other uses (fixing, can opening, etc.). I guess that's the change ..

I also learnt to look for quality and not brand. Now testing San Ren Mu knife with 8Cr13MoV and it works well. Price: 10$. It perform no less than my CRKT Point Guard with AUS6.
 
Now testing San Ren Mu knife with 8Cr13MoV and it works well. Price: 10$. It perform no less than my CRKT Point Guard with AUS6.[/QUOTE said:
I would hope so!! As far as I understand it, 8Cr13MoV is closer to an AUS8.
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Hanging around this forum has introduced me to a lot of very skilled custom makers with some fresh designs. :thumbup:

Jeff
 
My tastes changed considerably. When I was a young lad and still pretty immature(well at least I grew out of that young-lad part:D), I used to be seduced by ANYTHING that had a big blade or a fancy name. The more gadgetry the better. Rambo-esque knives, knives that unscrewed so you could fit 'survival gear' in the handle, etc.

Now that I'm a little older and I actually HAVE taste - I'm into the 'less is more' approach. I'm more of an outdoorsman than a knife collector - so I tend to go for Mora's and such - bushcraft knives that are inexpensive and sharp as hell. I only have 4 knives, and none of them were more than 20 dollars. (Mora, Opinel, Tiger Knapp, Woodswalker)

Along the way my taste has changed in more subtle ways towards knives as well. I used to be more into synthetic handles and Kydex sheaths. Where as now I'm a bit more into wood handles and leather sheaths.

Different strokes for different folks though! good topic.
 
An $80 knife doesn't appear cheap to me, but it doesn't appear super-nice anymore like it used too. It just seems like a medium quality production grade knife.
 
T=block I don’t think I have paid over 80 bucks, except for the RC4 which I just Purchased, as a matter of fact, I think that’s the most expensive knife I have ever bought. I do however, only buy American, German, Or Swiss Knives. Hell I still have my first fixed blade knife an Ontario Pilot Survival Knife. I have no clue what happened to my first folder which was a Victorinox Mountaineer my dad had bought for me. I believe for my 6 or 7th birthday. I’ve pretty much always used full tang knives except for one hollow handle a friend gave me about 15 years ago. I believe it was a Frost C. It lasted about a week or so before the blade snapped off from the handle. I prefer and will always prefer a good usable. Full Tang with a 4-8 inch blade length Carbon or Stainless. Over the past year or two, I have used a Ontario Kukri & Gerber LMF 2 and I have literally beat the hell out of these two blades. The Gerber is easily sharpened and holds a decent edge. The newest edition to my collection , as stated is the RC-4 which held up really well this last weekend, when I put it through a few test, look forward to using it more . As far as folders I carry the Swiss Multi Tool and a Swiss champ plus, so I have pretty much stayed consistent in my knife purchases. So I guess I have carried Victorinox for just about all of my life.
 
This is a very enjoyable thread that kinda reminds me of.................ME!

My first knife was a boy scout knife which I thought was very cool. As I got older, I went for mostly "user" knives from Schrade, Case and Buck. Throw in a Kershaw, Sog, Spyderco and Benchmade along the way.

But, honestly, those old slipjoints still get more use than any others. And, I wager they'll still be around when I'm gone.

Now if a Sebenze or Alias just happens to fall into my possession some day, what can I do? :D
 
So-Lo said:
I was tact-t cool only before...

Now its still tact-ts mixed with a few slippies, mixed with EDC sized fixed blades.....and the list goes on. From $25-$1000 and all in between I like them ALL. :cool:
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I have many types of knives. My interest is now in puukkos, and japanese made knives.
 
Progression since I was five years old...inexpensive camping slipjoints, small fixed blades, Buck lockbacks, Swiss Army knives, Randall Made hunting, Spyderco EDC folders


Blade Steel- I grew up with 420hc blades, only recently got into 8Cr13Mov, Aus8, VG-10.
 
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