Individual Threshold for a User vs. Safe Queen

[Glenn Goodlett]

I use my sub 1k knives without regard. The 1k+ I tend to baby and some I don't carry at all. I think this is changing as I get older and care less about the money. I don't abuse any of my knives so they seem to wear really well.

 

[mrfields]

i don’t have any knives that i won’t carry due to monetary value. i do have a few that stay at home for sentimental reasons. there’s a couple fixed blades that my wife bought me, a crkt fossil my boys got me for christmas one year, and a few, mostly slip joints, that i received when my dad passed away.

my most expensive knife is a bm auto rift, and i have several more, also benchmade’s, right around that price range. and they all get carried and used. i bought them for their quality, why use a lesser knife when i have them available?

 

[Lapedog]

Absolutely. Some have lots of wear from once being my EDC until a new shiny thing came along.

Others less so but they still get kept because something about them really appeals to me. The reason for the appeal can be very different from knife to knife.

For example, I have a Solo SO05. This is a terrible knife! But it was such a clever idea (that was badly, badly implemented) that I still somehow admire it. I could probably sell it to a Spyderco completist or someone else like me who just loves knife mechanisms but I'd just be selling them a terrible knife for not all that much money. It's not like it's valuable. So I keep it. Every once in a blue moon I find someone who knows what it is and is impressed that I have one.

I’m impressed! I like that old Spyderco Jes horn that looks like a traditional too.

Or how about the Spydie Laguiole?

 

[eugenechia1989]

If it's so expensive that I wouldn't dare to carry it, much less use it, I won't even buy it in the first place. I'd rather not set a specific price range as it has changed over the past couple of years. Basically, it has been going up with each successive knife purchase being more expensive than the last. My most expensive knife at the moment is my Cold Steel Code 4 in CTS-XHP and it's my primary EDC knife at the moment. Still quite humble indeed! It has been the trend so far, when my Benchmade Griptilian and Spyderco Endura 4 were the top of my collection, they too served as my primary EDC knives.

 

[SpySmasher]

I’m impressed! I like that old Spyderco Jes horn that looks like a traditional too.

Or how about the Spydie Laguiole?

I wish!

 

[Petunia D. Feeble]

My threshold for use is the same as my threshold for purchase... what I can afford. I'd happily break down a box with a Rexford if I could afford to buy one at all.

 

[Lapedog]

I wish!

I’m like you. I love those weird knives. I am an absolute sucker for new gimmicks. A locking system I haven’t tried for example.

When they come out with a new flavour of chips I HAVE to try it. This is despite the fact I never eat chips otherwise. My best friend has told me that I always fall for it, often to be disappointed. But how else am I supposed to find those ones that I love!?

 

[midnight flyer]

I'm in the group that uses all my knives. I am old enough to realize family members and the people around me don't have the passion for cutlery that I do. I don't blame them, it's just the way it is. That being said it would break my heart to see some fantastic knives be sold at a garage sale for a few dollars upon my demise simply because no one wanted them.

This thread/topic subject seems to come up about once a year. About 5 years ago there was a particularly pointed thread that really cut to the core of the matter. You buy the knives because you like them, and that's the reason you buy them, period. you don't buy a knife hoping someone down the line will really like it as much as you do. Nice to share, but hard to justify buying a nice Sebenza hoping your then three-year-old will really appreciate it when he is an adult.

That thread started me to thinking about all manner of things that I was hanging on to. After that, I now smoke my good cigars when I want to, rather than hang on to them for a special occasion that never seems to come as they aren't special enough. I noticed the longer I waited for the most special occasion, none seem to qualify so I had cigars for years waiting for the perfect event. Likewise with my whiskey. Same thing with my most expensive shotgun. Likewise with my LNIB Colt Python.

I am old enough now to see my friends face the fact that their progeny doesn't care nearly as much about their treasured possessions as they do. There are a lot of hurt feelings, and sorry to say it, I don't blame the kids. You can't expect them to inherit your personal taste.

So the upshot is, everything is a user!

Robert

 

[mauiblue]

I have several knives in my collection that I would not carry/use and are just safe queens. They are one of a kind, limited edition, or just expensive. The most expensive EDC knives I carry are Chris Reeve Sebenza knives and I don't care if I put them through some hard use.

 

[MMS375]

Yet most of us don't bat an eye carrying a $700-$1000 cell phone, or driving a five figure car every day.

It's a curious thing, I have reservations carrying a $200 + knife but wear a $10,000+ watch almost everyday without a second thought. Go figure.

 

[DB_Cruiser]

I have started getting more and more into sharp and pointy things over the years, but I only have about 5, not counting the Shuns in the kitchen. As time progresses, the ones I want get more expensive (can't tell if it is my tastes or just that these things cost more these days). That said, my most expensive knife is about $150. I use them all. Some are suited to EDC in NYC where I work (I live upstate), but some are not. The ones that are get used every day.
I find that when they are brand new, I tend to hold off on that first use a while and enjoy it as a new thing. One day, I say, "time to gut some fish with this knife", and its off to the races. At that time, it stops being that new thing I admire and starts life as the tool bought to use. I don't think I would ever buy a knife so expensive I could not bring myself to use it. I am not a wealthy man and a $150 knife is not cheap for me. But if I wasn't going to use it, I'd do something else with that $150.

 

[Petunia D. Feeble]

IWhen they come out with a new flavour of chips I HAVE to try it. This is despite the fact I never eat chips otherwise. My best friend has told me that I always fall for it, often to be disappointed. But how else am I supposed to find those ones that I love!?

Lol, I do the same thing and they're ALWAYS terrible. I tend to order the oddest thing on the menu. Bleu cheese ice cream? Yes please!

 

[colin.p]

Bleu cheese ice cream? Yes please!

Good lord!!

 

[unwisefool]

I don't keep insurance on my phone, it's not really worth it I neither break nor lose stuff but I do understand why folks do.

I break stuff all the time, I'm just clumsy

 

[Quiet]

I'm in the group that uses all my knives. I am old enough to realize family members and the people around me don't have the passion for cutlery that I do. I don't blame them, it's just the way it is. That being said it would break my heart to see some fantastic knives be sold at a garage sale for a few dollars upon my demise simply because no one wanted them.

This thread/topic subject seems to come up about once a year. About 5 years ago there was a particularly pointed thread that really cut to the core of the matter. You buy the knives because you like them, and that's the reason you buy them, period. you don't buy a knife hoping someone down the line will really like it as much as you do. Nice to share, but hard to justify buying a nice Sebenza hoping your then three-year-old will really appreciate it when he is an adult.

the thread started me to thinking about all manner of things that I was hanging on to. After that, I now smoke my good cigars when I want to, rather than hang on to them for a special occasion that never seems to come as they aren't special enough. I noticed the longer I waited for the most special occasion, none seem to qualify so I had cigars for years waiting for the perfect event. Likewise with my whiskey. Same thing with my most expensive shotgun. Likewise with my LNIB Colt Python.

I am old enough now to see my friends face the fact that their progeny doesn't care nearly as much about their treasured possessions as they do. There are a lot of hurt feelings, and sorry to say it, I don't blame the kids. You can't expect them to inherit your personal taste.

So the upshot is, everything is a user!

Robert

This is actually an excellent and accurate way to look at it. I had such an epiphany earlier this year myself. My beer, cigar, and whiskey collection has finally started to get smaller as a result. Like you, I had a ton of different things saved for special occasions, and I'd either forget when such an occasion came along, or else the occasion wasn't "special" enough to break out "the good stuff". Nowadays, a Friday night spent with friends is good enough to break out the good stuff.

 

[SharpieB]

The only knives I own that don’t get carried are ones that I plan to sell. Not for a profit, just because I don’t like them or need them.

I wouldn’t buy a knife just to keep in a safe.

 

[bambam99]

I'm in the same boat if I can afford to buy it I carry it.
My duty knife is a ZT 620cf, for the one handed draw opening and tanto blade.

On days off, all my knifes get carried and used: CKF, Olamic, CRK, ZTs, customs and the likes. That said I usually have a beater nearby incase of a possible abuse to an expensive knife

 

[22-rimfire]

Yet most of us don't bat an eye carrying a $700-$1000 cell phone, or driving a five figure car every day.

That's an excellent point my friend. I think it's the perception of how we view these things. I was having a discussion with my mother a few days ago about having my car detailed and her response was "it's a car...as long as it runs and drives who cares?". She does have a point to a certain extent.

I bat an eye, but that five figure car or $1K cell phone are the only ones I have. So, you have to use them I guess. The same would apply to a knife but it is a matter of scale. You can buy a $10 knife or you can buy a $1,000 knife. Both cut. A good chunk of me agrees with your Mother with regard to the car. The knife knut in me wants the $1,000 knife and then I'm hesitant to use it..... round and round we go....

Each other own. But I figure it like this; our family and friends think we're nuts anyways because of our knife obsession. When I bought a Randall model 14 in 1968 for 175 dollars, they all thought I should be committed. So they don't think any knife is worth more than the 5.99 they will buy one for at the kitchen implements isle at the grocery store.

So, when we keel over with the big one, they will have a yard sale and some guy will buy it for a song, or some relative will got break down boxes with it because to him there's no difference from a gas station knife. So, I use my stuff like I stole it.

When I was younger, I certainly got to experience the "should be committed" perspective first hand when my future brother-in-law started showing us his Randall's and custom Bill Moran knives. I had no conception of what I was looking at, but I knew they were "expensive". I thought a Case slip joint was expensive then.

So, what do I do? Safe queens? All users? First thing I did was buy some Randall's at shows. (But that was a few years later.) I didn't know who Bill Moran was then. I bought knives that interested me. At first the cost troubled my miserly sense of financial perspective. I lived. There was a thread here that mentioned they bought something like 90 knives in three years..... never had it that bad, but I enjoy messing with knives. So, NOW I only buy knives that I might be willing to use. I have one safe queen and a few others by default. That's how my gun collection started by the way.... But I WILL NOT COLLECT KNIVES like I did guns. I don't want that money pit. As Jackknife said, I have made some money from sales from my collection. Need to sell more of them.... I don't want the people I care about having to worry about how to sell a bunch of guns or knives regardless of how nice they are. With knives, I don't really care (much). They can go to the scrap yard or landfill. But I would rather most of them go to people who appreciate them and possibly use them.

So, I try to use them. But I don't go out of my way to use a knife just for the sake of using it. I have my favorites and continue to use them and bring others into the mix from time to time. Some get used and some don't. It doesn't really matter to me as I like to just fondle them too.

 

[bambam99]

The best part of knives unlike certain other things people collect is that with proper care they will out live all of us and generations to come. I play on passing down some to my son.

You can't say that about some of these cell phones and junk that's outdated by its release

 

[HCrum87hc]

I don't own safe queens. If I don't use it I sell it to buy something I will use. This keeps my collection rather small, but it gives me an opportunity to try out different things and stick with the ones I really love. My two most expensive knives are $950, and I carry them both. Obviously I'm not going to deliberately go beating them up, but I wouldn't hesitate to use them in normal day to day cutting.