How picky are you with your knives re. finish

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Mathew J

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do you buy them to use or collect?

Just curious as I am relatively new to the scene and have yet to buy a knife, before finding this board I was of the belief that most were bought to use and abuse but now it seems much like the high end watch/pen boards I frequent where alot care greatly about detail work and finish overall.
 
I buy my knives to use-if they aren't practical users in everything from knife design to blade material, I don't pay money for them. If they get scratched up with use, I don't care, as long as I can see myself in the edge :D
 
I have 'users' and 'future heirlooms'.
The users get used...altho' I go along with Payette's "mirror edge" statement.
The future-heirlooms are stored...carefully...and treated like fine jewelry or antiques, for the day when my sons get them, and hopefully their value has increased substantially.
 
All users for me. I do expect the more expensive ones to be built solid though. Cosmetic stuff I can live with, functional problems or poor fit are less tolerable.
 
I tend to use my knives, although not to fight off grizzly bears, javalina, coyote, or mountain lions. I do collect a few as well. I do like to have my knives not look like I just dug them out of a gravel pit though or if I dragged them from the back of my car while driving cross country. Something about an extremely beat up knife (visually) does not appeal to me much.
 
Any knives I have owned have been used and worked. Befor joining this forum I was using mostly slip joint knives and some other locking knives like my buck 110 now while i wont buy anything to just look at, im more picky about the apperance and overall quality of the knife.
 
PayetteRucker said:
I buy my knives to use-if they aren't practical users in everything from knife design to blade material, I don't pay money for them. If they get scratched up with use, I don't care, as long as I can see myself in the edge :D
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I really like this one! :thumbup::D

I still don't have enough $$$ to buy all the knives I want to use. That means I won't be buying any art knives or collectibles in the foreseeable future.
 
i keep mine very shiny , all well most are high polished to 2500 grit, they do clean up much easier afterwards. plus there are cupa cabras here and they are afraid of shiny things. i usually start off at 400. finish at 2500. and when they do get scratched i simply re-polish them. thats just the way i like them.but they do lose the original look. and often times you can no longer see a trademark.

fried
 
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Anything worth less than about $200 or so is a user, and I don't worry about it too much. The ones that are worth more than that are almost all safe queens.
 
For me personally, all of my (admittedly small) collection get used at least occassionally, but I've never really had the occassion to use them hard enough to mess up their looks. Also, I won't buy a knife that I don't find visually appealling, whether it's an EDC or bushcraft or beater knife. However, sometimes a little bit of use looks good on the right kind of knife.
 
I collect users but I own more knives than I use. Still, it's nice to have options -- and having covered almost all the bases in the user department, I'm considering aesthetics a lot now.
 
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Mathew J said:
do you buy them to use or collect?

Just curious as I am relatively new to the scene and have yet to buy a knife, before finding this board I was of the belief that most were bought to use and abuse but now it seems much like the high end watch/pen boards I frequent where alot care greatly about detail work and finish overall.
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It's fun to have a knife that is perfectly finished, with the scales just so and the grinds exactly even, and everything exactly centered.

But that's a nice-to-have, not a gotta-have.
Gotta-have is a design that meets my usage.

In short, if it works good, it is good.

.
 
I only ever buy knives that I am interested in using, but if I had tons of money to throw around I guess I will admit the possibility that I could see myself buying a safe queen. Actually, if I had that much money, I'd probably just buy two safe queens and store one and abuse one. Yeah, that's what I'd do.
 
I have 3 small sebenzas, all of which are users. You buy an expensive tool to appreciate the craftsmanship. What better way to appreciate it then to use it for what it is intended for?
 
Mathew J said:
do you buy them to use or collect?

Just curious as I am relatively new to the scene and have yet to buy a knife, before finding this board I was of the belief that most were bought to use and abuse but now it seems much like the high end watch/pen boards I frequent where alot care greatly about detail work and finish overall.
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You've been registered here for 8 years and you haven't bought a knife??? :eek:

I don't think I lasted 8 minutes... :o
 
I have some that are users and some that will never be used.
I get the "I won't buy a knife I couldn't use" crowd. I agree, I wouldn't either. I can use every knife I own, I just choose not to. Some of the knives I bought were purchased as an investment- pristine examples of discontinued models.
 
DennisStrickland said:
ditto to flashlife.
dennis
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+1


OTOH, I ordered/commissioned a custom a few days ago and specifically asked the maker to take it out and scratch it up prior to sending it to me. I want to use it, and I would rather not have any reservations about putting the first scratches on it.
 
All users. But, at work I use Moras and sodbusters. Use my nicer or as some say pretty ones when I'm not at work. All work for hubby too, except for one from his deceased fiancee, once in a while he will carry that one on Christmas or for dress.
 
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