Identical knives, two different feelings... ever have this happen to you?

[T. Erdelyi]

Alright, I'm sure most of you folks have been here before, you buy/acquire a knife (for arguments sake keys just say a Case Swayback Jack) it's everything you hoped for it becomes your favorite knife. For that first few weeks even months maybe you baby it, take care not to ding it, scratch it or let it lose that initial luster.
Eventually though that day comes, maybe it slips outta your pocket and falls to the ground or you slip while sharpening it and scratch the blade, a spot of rust/patina crops up on the blade or backspring whatever it is it happens and you finally allow yourself to use the knife instead of just showing it off.

Over time the knife develops character, scratches to the blade, marks on the scales and if you're lucky, a nice even patina to a high carbon steel blade. The knife becomes a reflection of you and what you used it for, a chronicle of you're journey with the blade, the trials and tribulations you weathered together. You become so comfortable with that knife, it becomes an extension of you , of your hand, something you don't even don't even have to think to use it. You just know, know where the tip is, which side is sharp, where the sweet spot is on the blade, you just know.

Then one day an opportunity comes to get another one, brand new, still crisp, no scratches, no dings, no marks... pristine, mint, pure as the driven snow so you get it. Now this is where I may differ from many but if I get a new knife I gotta carry it, it has to go into my pocket so I can use it, I mean after all that's the primary reason I buy/get a knife, to use it. No matter how hard I try I succumb to the need to feel it in my pocket and feel that perfect edge separate anything it comes in contact with and here's where my problem starts...

It's same knife as the one I currently carry, it feels good, it feels right but the love is missing, I feel it in my pocket and all I can think of is how much better the other one feels. I run my fingers over it and even though it feels familiar its alien, the little nuances I've come to recognize, the defects/character that comfort my worried fingers is absent, leading to increased anxiety and a feeling of disconnect from the object that normally comforts.

I know in time we'll develop our own familiar feeling and it won't seem so alien. Still for now it does and I think I'll put it away for awhile and put my old friend back where it belongs, at the bottom of my pocket where I can find it and feel that comfort I've been missing. Anyone else feel that way?

 

[jakemex]

Yup! +1 Well said!

 

[jc57]

Welll - somewhat similar experience here. My favorite knife for a while was the Case Small Texas Jack. Carried it and used it but kept the blade polished and free of patina. So I decided to pick up a second copy to use as a patina experiment knife, The first one had nicer looking handles and better overall fit and finish. So I put the original back in the box and carried and used the experimental knife.

I put on an artificial patina using vinegar. Polished that off. Put on an "honest" patina by using it to cut up fruit whenever I could find an excuse to. Polished that off. Then just used it regularly, day in, day out as my primary carry for about 5 months to let it develop a just regular old natural patina from use with no special attention to it, though I did keep it regularly oiled and clean so it really didn't get much of what you guys consider a patina, it's just a shiny gray rather than being shiny silver.

Anyway, point of the story is, I never get the "good" one out to use. It's the experimental knife with it's not-quite-as-pretty scales and slight gaps and not-quite-flush-open backsprings and modest patina that sits on the top level of the knife drawer and gets carried once in a while. The original is stacked away somewhere among other knives in their boxes, generally forgotten, while the second-stringer gets the pocket time.

That is not the only time I have done something like that - get a knife that is too pretty to carry, so I get another one in the same pattern (though usually different scales) and I end up carrying and bonding with the "average" knife.

 

[Railsplitter]

It has happened to me but only with knives that I used to own and I wanted to own them again in hopes of rekindling the flame. In my younger years I was a die hard Buck fan. I'm still a fan but as much of a die hard as I was back then.

I had a Buck 703 in the mid 80's that I really bonded with. That was back in the days when I only owned one pocket knife and carried it all the time. I lost it and then replaced it nearly 25 years later with a like new 703 from the same era. It's still a great knife but it's just not the same.

The same thing happened with a Buck 560 XLTI that I used to own. My "newer" one is the same knife from the same era but the charm just isn't there like before.

 

[kamagong]

I'very never owned a knife so flawless that I wanted to pick up an exact duplicate. There's always something I'd change -- blade shape, steel, covers, even something as minor as swedges.

I do get what you're trying to say though. There's something about an item that's broken in and comfortable. Could be a knife, a gun, a pair of shoes. The knife I carry most isn't my favorite, or objectively even my best. But it goes in my pocket more than any other because I've bonded to it over time. I've gotten the edge tuned just the way I like. There's a smoothness to its opening and closing. The stag covers are starting to get that warm color they do over time. You explained it perfectly when you characterized it as becoming an extension of your hand.

Here's another thing to consider. Knives like you described have proven their worth. People don't usually keep things around that don't work.

 

[tongueriver]

Blues helped me find a CASE/BOSE dogleg jack which became my EDC for two or three years. I laid it down on a fender of a trailer and ....sigh.......... I found another one. The love isn't there, but it is EXACTLY the same and one day it will have my heart as well. In the meantime I have fallen in love with another CASE/BOSE lockback whittler instead. Gotta love them thar collab's.

 

[Bigfattyt]

Yup.

I bought a set of 23 and 73 fire and ice trappers (GEC made Schrade branded).

I liked them so much, I wanted both of my boys to have one. I ordered more.

Mine are Mine. They have their own character (opening and closing a lot does that).

 

[arizonaranchman]

Just because it's the physically the same, it's just not The One. That trusty old knife, or favorite bird gun or deer rifle, hat, etc is something you form a bond with. It's intangible, so cannot be measured or duplicated - nor explained to someone who has never experienced this. Yes, it's a tool, but it becomes a part of you in a unique way. Everything about it just "fits" you. You know it so well that it's a part of you. Without it you feel incomplete, disorganized, out of sync. Yes, there may be many that are much nicer or prettier and higher quality, but they remain sitting unused. This one gets the nod day in and day out.

Yes it's a special thing indeed!

 

[Student762]

Been there before, for me it was my two different SAK campers, same knife but one was just too perfect. The other is now my trusted friend, it has pits in the celluloid and the blade is scratched from when I was still learning to sharpen. The pen blade rubs a little on the main, but she's mine all mine, she's my knife and none a them thar shiny ones are ever gonna take her from me. She's my baby.
James.

 

[R.c.s]

It's that feeling you get when it's worn in . you will always go back to it and use it until you can't use it any more . I.e it breaks . as analogy its like a good pair of boots all the creases are in the right places . the boots are comfortable and have Character . you can get a brand new pair exactly them same . but you will never where them until your old ones fall of your feet