- Joined
- Apr 9, 2026
- Messages
- 62
Something I've been thinking of lately is the practical value of my collection in use. Do you remember a time when you got your first special knife and it was the only one you had at the time? How special that felt to have that one. And as the years go on, many knifes added to the collection, there is a sense of loss of that specialness as the collection grows to higher numbers. Some stay on the shelf forever, maybe 3 get rotated in and out of the pocket and on and off the belt.
Often, there are too many to practically train with (if defensive) or use (if utilitarian). I started thinking to myself, what is a truly manageable number for my collection to where I could reasonably use and train with each knife and really form a bond with?
In defensive applications, the blade can be thought of like a pro athletes gear. The tennis player is going to play real rounds with his own racket that he has trained with and knows the grip and balance of the most. He's not gonna grab one that he rarely trains with off the shelf and go try to win a tourney. Same with a golf pro etc. So this idea gave me a baseline for numbers- how many defensive leaning blades can I train with during the week and actually put time in to form a bond with? Maybe 2 If I incorporate blade movement into my weight training sessions.
And for utilitarian pocket knives, I recently had 10 total. All bangers I might add. My older pal Bryan taught me something though- a few years back my buddies and I pooled our money and bought him the knife he wanted- the benchmade auto osbourne in green aluminum for Christmas. This is the only pocket knife he carries, and he's got a junky Ganzo in the bottom of some drawer somewhere too. But he only uses the benchmade, its basically his 1 knife.
That got me thinking- Can i get back to that feeling, of just one knife? Can I get rid of some of the great pieces I have in the defensive department too?
I laid out everything on my floor and divided the pile into 2- Negotiable and Non Negotiable (can not sell) and the mission has been set.
Choosing to own just 1 single pocket knife is interesting. It's always gonna be some kind of "settling" for some tradeoff- and for me currently it just so happens to be a Microtech LUDT gen 3 tanto serrated with an aftermarket deep carry clip. My only other pocket knife I own is the Combat Troodon OTF that is currently up for grabs here to a lucky buyer (its incredible).
I am SO CLOSE to owning just one single pocket knife. A huge full circle.
Next I need to work on this fixed blade collection.
I am inverse collecting, to make my remaining blades feel more special to me and create far more time in hand.
If you could only have ONE pocket knife and have that be your only one- which one would you keep? 1. Which one pocket knife is your non negotiable in your collection?
If you could only keep 1-3 fixed blades, 2. Which 1-3 fixed blades in your collection are your Non Negotiables?
Answering this could reduce your total collection to just 4 blades. 1 pocket knife, and 3 varying purpose fixed blades. Hypothetically very manageable and very portable.
To me its not minimalism, its more functionalism. I am really interested to hear your personal answers!
Often, there are too many to practically train with (if defensive) or use (if utilitarian). I started thinking to myself, what is a truly manageable number for my collection to where I could reasonably use and train with each knife and really form a bond with?
In defensive applications, the blade can be thought of like a pro athletes gear. The tennis player is going to play real rounds with his own racket that he has trained with and knows the grip and balance of the most. He's not gonna grab one that he rarely trains with off the shelf and go try to win a tourney. Same with a golf pro etc. So this idea gave me a baseline for numbers- how many defensive leaning blades can I train with during the week and actually put time in to form a bond with? Maybe 2 If I incorporate blade movement into my weight training sessions.
And for utilitarian pocket knives, I recently had 10 total. All bangers I might add. My older pal Bryan taught me something though- a few years back my buddies and I pooled our money and bought him the knife he wanted- the benchmade auto osbourne in green aluminum for Christmas. This is the only pocket knife he carries, and he's got a junky Ganzo in the bottom of some drawer somewhere too. But he only uses the benchmade, its basically his 1 knife.
That got me thinking- Can i get back to that feeling, of just one knife? Can I get rid of some of the great pieces I have in the defensive department too?
I laid out everything on my floor and divided the pile into 2- Negotiable and Non Negotiable (can not sell) and the mission has been set.
Choosing to own just 1 single pocket knife is interesting. It's always gonna be some kind of "settling" for some tradeoff- and for me currently it just so happens to be a Microtech LUDT gen 3 tanto serrated with an aftermarket deep carry clip. My only other pocket knife I own is the Combat Troodon OTF that is currently up for grabs here to a lucky buyer (its incredible).
I am SO CLOSE to owning just one single pocket knife. A huge full circle.
Next I need to work on this fixed blade collection.
I am inverse collecting, to make my remaining blades feel more special to me and create far more time in hand.
If you could only have ONE pocket knife and have that be your only one- which one would you keep? 1. Which one pocket knife is your non negotiable in your collection?
If you could only keep 1-3 fixed blades, 2. Which 1-3 fixed blades in your collection are your Non Negotiables?
Answering this could reduce your total collection to just 4 blades. 1 pocket knife, and 3 varying purpose fixed blades. Hypothetically very manageable and very portable.
To me its not minimalism, its more functionalism. I am really interested to hear your personal answers!
