How have your tastes changed?

Comeuppance

Comeuppance

Fixed Blade EDC Emisssary
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
4,765
I'm sure I'm not alone in this - what I look for in knives, and especially what knives I've begun to look at/own, has changed a huge amount in a reasonably short amount of time.

For example, I started looking into knives because an acquaintance lost a finger to a cheap linerlock. I then, of course, looked at Cold Steel and thought that was the pinnacle of knives. Cheap, sturdy, well-made - and, most importantly, they all lock up like tanks. Wow! He just stabbed that through a car door! Look at him smack the spine against a 2x4! My fingers will be safe!

I looked at other knives and balked at their ridiculous prices, and, most damning for them, so many had liner and frame locks. The fools! They're just asking to lose fingers!

In fact, it wasn't too long into my knife... journey? that the Spyderco Southard came out. I looked at the specs on Spyderco's website and laughed. What, $400 MSRP for a small flipper? What a short blade! And a framelock! That's insane. What a dumb knife. I'll just stick to my Cold Steels. AUS8 is a supersteel, right? The best money can buy! Besides, all of those tool steels and crap will just rust right away. Not worth it. Why would anyone spend more than $40 for a knife anyway?

...So, here I am now. The Southard has been my mainstay for quite some time, my remaining Cold Steel knives are now relegated to kitchen duty or loaners (the Kudu really is great for cutting fruit, and a large clip point voyager is a knife you can loan and not have to worry that they'll forget it's in their pocket), and most of my knives are liner/framelocks. Almost everything I carry costs more than $100, none of them except my Tenacious have steels akin to 8Cr13MoV, and I have a Gayle Bradley en route.

Good lord. What's next?
(I won't even let myself look at customs, for my wallet's sake.)
 
Indeed they have.
I used to have a LARGE collection of cheap knives.
Then I found Kershaw and Spyderco.
I had a LARGE Collection of Kershaw there for a while because they were pretty well priced and good knives.
Then I traded for my first Benchmade...
Then I tried ZT.
Then I got a Super Blue Caly 3.5... then I traded for a CTS-XHP Manix 2....
Then I had to sell them all.
Then I started trading up.
Then I traded into a bunch of SAK's and a cheap Ka-Bar Dozier.
Then I started trading up again lol.
I have gone through the waves.
Now I have quite a few high end knives, rarely carry anything less than $100, am a sucker for Titanium, and love Frame Locks.
I still have a few SAK's and a Multi-Tool.
And some cheaper knives, because I do like to have a few around.

But a Kershaw JYD 2 at one point was an expensive folder for me. And I was a sucker for big beefy knives.
Now I EDC a CRK Large Sebenza 21 and like all around EDC folders and smaller tanks.

Tastes and views do change over time.
 
The "old" Cold Steel was actually a top dog when i was younger...until the mall ninja became their mascot. Now they're just for entertainment. IMO ;)
I used to think Spyderco knives were ugly because of the hole...and now they are some of my favorite EDC's.
I used to brush off slipjoints and considered them to be "grandpa knives" and now i own and carry more traditional slipjoints than my grandfather ever owned in his life....i think.
These things have changed for me within he past 15 years, but my love for knives only grows stronger.
 
I think the biggest thing that changed my taste was my actual knowledge of knives.....before I was on blade forums, I couldn't tell the difference between AUS8 and S30V.....or G10 vs injection molded plastic.... basically I've started to know what is quality and what is not (I still have allot to learn though:p).....also iv learned that that's just because it looks cool doesn't me it's good hahaha
 
I went from huge to large to medium to medium-small. :-) Also developed a taste for better materials such as s30v, micarta etc. Also a taste for 1095. Nothing any longer than a 4 or 5 in' blade now a days, and thats coming down from 10 and 9 in. lol. Came to laugh at larger blades and develop a respect toward small knives.
 
Tastes definitely changed with knowledge and maturity.

Steel choice:
1045 high carbon German surgical stainless steel omgwtfbbq --> 8Cr13MoV / 1095 --> S30V / VG-10 / Damascus

Handle choice:
High traction G-10 with jimping in case I have to stab somebody --> Titanium everything --> Wood / Smooth(er) G-10

Preferred blade length:
As long as legally possible in case I have to stab somebody --> Long enough to cut through my food with out getting the handles dirty
 
Started as a young boy with SAK. Them went to gerber and buck. Now I am a CRK and spyderco folder guy (and a zt0550). As for fixed blades it is Becker and ESEE. Tastes definitely change. 95% of my currently carried folders are titanium frame locks :D. I think (amd hope) I have found my mainstay with my knife preferences right now!
 
In fixed blades I was all about heavy thick knives because I didn't want them to break. After owning a mora companion mg and seeing what a beating a cheap, mass produced, so-so steel, thin bladed, stick tanged, and plastic handled knife can take and I'm all about thin knives that are actually good at cutting stuff.

But wait...:D

Then I had Scott Gossman thin the edge on my 711 and now it slices and dices just fine. So now I pick the knives that are comfy, cut well, and I like the looks of. Could be thin and light, could be heavy and thick. But it definitely has to be cool looking. :D
 
I used to buy the monster slayer fixed blades, all tacticooled out. Stainless steel, of course. For folders, it had to be a portable machete. Now, I am very happy with 1095, 3-5 inch blade, wood or micarta scales. My EDC is a Becker BK24, in the stock sheath, in my front pocket. I got an appreciation for carbon steels as user knives. ESEE, Becker, Condor are my favorite knives now. Spear point or drop point are now my preferred blade styles, flat grind if possible. Used to be saber ground tanto tipped blades.
 
My tastes have evolved as I learned more and tried new things.

At first I used to think carbon steels were useless (I live in a very humid coastal town) and bought only stainless knives. Then a bladesmith (who later became a good friend) educated me and showed me how great simple carbon steels like 1095 can be when properly heat treated.

For a little while some survival instructor convinced me that slipjoints were a deadly trap, so I started getting into locking folders. I then went back to slipjoints.

I used to hate Spyderco designs, and thought Moras were crap and having no guard was insane. Now I know better.

A few years ago, I wouldn't touch a knife that had plastic, G-10 or micarta handles, much less a synthetic sheath. I still don't find those materials aesthetically appealing, but I appreciate their practical value.

My current collection has a bit of everything. If it's well made and it cuts, I'm willing to give it a try.

So, in a nutshell, my tastes have changed a lot. I think that the biggest change is that nowadays I'm not so narrow minded and I'm willing to try new things. Ten years ago I thought I knew everything there's to know about knives, I was quite wrong.
 
The biggest change I noticed was the weight that I'm comfortable carrying. At first I was strictly only interested in knives that were sub 3 ounces. (which is odd because I'm 6'1", 240)

In my pocket today is a Spyderco Persian that weighs in at 5.4 oz. As long as the profile is on the slimmer side, I really don't mind weight anymore. Many of my knives are around the 5 ounce mark.
 
I wish I had pics of what I had then, and what I have now.

I do believe my current tastes are staying the same though.
However, I do find myself wanting a tank lol.
 
My tastes have varied just a little bit. I'm a big fan of Kershaw, and that's what my entire collection consists of. I knew of companies like Spyderco, Benchmade, and CRK. I knew of knives like the Southard, XM-18/24, and the Sebenza, but I never really got to looking at them to appreciate them. I always looked at Kershaw's. I now see myself appreciating what other companies have to offer and I even see myself purchasing my first Spyderco in a little bit (right after my first ZT of course :D). The biggest reason why I haven't really paid much attention to other companies is familiarity. I wasn't familiar with the SpyderHole and would think "Why in the hell would anyone like that?". Now I've come to realize things like that, and that's a big contributor to why I'm starting to branch out just a little bit.
 
Mine changed from production knives to customs. I went from this will work to I will have some build something that I WANT. The number of knives I have has gone down the number of knives I have and use has gone up. Nothing will ever be as nice as a knife that someone made just for you.
 
I have always liked knives, starting with my SAK from childhood. My first expensive knives were bought together when I got my first "big boy job"- a small Sebenza and an Emerson 7. From these my collection went from large locking folders to small locking folders. Now almost half of my knives are slip joints. I still have that Emerson and the big knives that followed it, but they rarely gets carried now. I hang on to my pricier or more rare larger knives even though they don't get used just in case my taste swings back towards their direction!
 
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