Unlike some of the hard core folks, I can easily move between both sides of the "I have found my knife and I have carried it with great satisfaction for a few years" and "I like to rotate my knives depending on what I am doing and what I will be using the knife to do" camps.
When I was flat busted broke in the mid 70s, I saved and bought the knife I really wanted for work, a large CASE Copperhead. I am embarrassed at how many knives I have now compared to what I had then. But I carried and used what I had then, not because I was making a political statement, advocating for a brand, not boasting I had found the perfect knife, and not showing off at how much money I had spent to get a knife (which was considered a tool back then). So I carried that knife with no other options for about 6+ years until I started to make enough money to be able to buy another knife just because I wanted another knife.
I still have that knife by the way and it is still a great knife. It stayed in the construction sites and went hunting, fishing and hiking, sharing pocket time with no other blades. It doesn't snap like it did, the scales are a brown/chocolate color when they were deep ruby red in their prime, the CASE emblem is worn off smooth on one half, and a couple of scale rivet heads are gone (no doubt the scales are held on by embedded grime/sweat/construction grit). Still, when winter comes and I won't sweat it to rust in a day or two on the job, it makes me smile like no other knife I own to use that knife. I would easily get rid of my Spydercos, Benchmades, (probably keep a couple of the Cold Steels for work) before I would get rid of that one. Too many miles together, too many completed projects and wayyyy too much pocket time for me not to be appreciative of what that little pile of metal has done for me over the decades.
As it is, If I lived a hundred more years, even staying in as a working contractor I doubt I could wear out half the knives I own. I bought a lot of knives because I like knives and I like to own knives. Nothing more to it than that. It is a luxury to be able to tell myself "well, since you are doing rough framing today you should drop the CS SR1 in your pocket". Another day "since you are trimming out the project, how about that CASE Stockman today?" Now I take it for granted, but at one time I couldn't have imagined a 150 knife collection being mine.
If I had to, I could easily do (and did) all aspects of my construction work with my CASE Copperhead in my pocket. But one of the fun things about having a little spare change is to buy things you like because you want to. I enjoy switching from knife to knife. I carry one knife for about a month or so straight, then go to the next one. Get tired of that one, then go to another. Finally in rotation, I came back full circle and think, "why did I quit carrying this one? I love this knife!", until I don't.
