Pamela, Welcome to Bladeforums. Everybody here is proud of your cousin Ken too. How could anybody not be ? He certainly does make exceptionally fine Traditional pattern knives. They are among the best made by anybody in the world today, so that's a lot to admire and be proud of.
Pretty well everybody would like to own one (or more) of your cousin's knives ! I think that must put a lot of pressure on Ken because he knows he cannot possibly make enough knives to keep all of us happy and each knife must take a lot of effort and concentration to make. This also means that it takes quite a bit of time to make each one and therefore that he needs to sell each one for the high price that they and he deserve so as to be able to make a living and to buy more materials to make the next one.
Perhaps if you saved up some money, cousin Ken would cut you a deal so you wouldn't have to pay quite as much as the knife's full market value.
I'm sure you agree it would be worth it to own one of his knives.
I hope you continue to hang around here on BF. There's a great deal one can learn about many different kinds of knives.
If you want to start knife collecting, ebay is a great source for older, well made knives that often can be picked up for very little money. That's what i do and i now have a large and varied collection that i find very rewarding and interesting.
Good luck saving up for that special Ken Erickson knife and i hope you read lots on these forums and become a regular poster.
roland
