Knives that are not used (long)

M

Moto54

Joined
Sep 21, 2015
Messages
16
Imagine what use it would take to literally reduce a good knife to dust. A lot.
Compare that to what use it takes to reduce a human to dust. People die and are
cremated by the thousands every day, so the answer is, 'not very much'.
On that cheerful note I wanted to bring up the subject of knife ownership in
terms of relative permanance.

Our guns and knives will be here long after we have gone. Whether its a safe queen
that looks the same as the day it was made or a modified pet project, either way,
someone else in the future will own them. My point in bringing this
up has to do with errors of psycology that happen when we forget our
weapons/toys are temporary (whether we like it or not.) I was reminded of this while
watching a YouTube knife video where the guy rants that Zero Tolerance owners are all
a bunch of superficial spec-whores and shopping mall commandos.

The healthiest version of weapons consumerism includes the awareness
that in a sense, our things are temporary to us right now- not just in some distant
future. To the degree we can accept this the less likely we become victim to the
hyper-ownership mentality as put forward by C. Heston for the NRA, 'from my cold dead hands!'
(as in: thats when the government can take my guns.) Hyper-ownership can also haunt those
who buy knives based on blade steel, knowing in advance they are not likely
to ever even use the knife. BTW: Charelton Heston is, in fact, dead- but I dont think
the government rushed in and took the gun from his cold hands.

To accept the idea of temporary ownership, right now, does not equal weakness.
Quite the opposite. I'm reminded of Robert DeNiro in the movie The Deer Hunter who
confronts his hunting buddies while they bicker amoung themselves like jackasses by
shouting, "you see this!?" (holding up a bullet) "this is THIS, its not something else!"
"this is THIS!"

It takes strength to accept everything is temporary 'right now', but that same
strength can support the reason we like owning weapons to begin with.
Make no mistake- it is as natural for a man to want to own a weapon as it is for a shark
to want sharp teeth. Man does not need to kill and devour his prey the way a shark does,
obviously, for survival. But weapons are natural for our species. For all species.

Are you a knife spec-whore who never uses them??
Its an irrelevant and meaningless question. Our knives will out-live us.
This is THIS, its not something else:

DSC00012.jpg
 
What?
I use my knives, and I really don't see how they are temporary.
Like you said, they will way outlast us.
When I got my Sebenza, it was $355.
I paid $355.
Therefore, it is mine. MINE.
KnifeArt isn't going to mail me an empty box and ask for it back.
So in that sense, its permanent.
It's also Titanium and Powder-Steel.
Those 2 things aren't going to melt if left outside.
Therefore, its permanent that way also.

So even if I threw it out the window at 85MPH on a back-road, into a pond, it will sit in the bottom of that pond for 500 years, maybe even forever. That pond gets filled in, but the knife is still under the dirt.

Permanent is also a relative term.
I view permanent as "forever".
In our case, forever is 100 years.
That's still forever for a humans standpoint.
 
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I have knives that are hundreds of years old. A dozen generations have handled and passed on the knife and then subsequentlly passed away. There is quite a history wrapped up in these artifacts. We as collectors are caretakers charged with preserving these relics for future generations.

n2s
 
not2sharp said:
I have knives that are hundreds of years old. A dozen generations have handled and passed on the knife and then subsequentlly passed away. There is quite a history wrapped up in these artifacts. We as collectors are caretakers charged with preserving these relics for future generations.

n2s
Click to expand...

That's really neat.

I only own a couple that are half a century old; if even that much.

Someday, a kid with a lightsaber will look at our knives and say: "that's not a knife; THIS is a knife!"... ;):rolleyes::D:thumbup:
 
Czechmate said:
That's really neat.

I only own a couple that are half a century old; if even that much.

Someday, a kid with a lightsaber will look at our knives and say: "that's not a knife; THIS is a knife!"... ;):rolleyes::D:thumbup:
Click to expand...

And someday that kids' grandkids will be trying to figure out how to make knives out of scrap metal, left behind by their ancestors.
 
Not all knives outlive us. I've buried a few POS knives thus far.

I'm sorta in agreement on the consumerism comment. But many here are collectors (or, at least, accumulators) who love knives and like variety. If everyone only owned what they needed there would be no cutlery industry making the variety of knives we see today. For that matter, if everyone only owned what they needed, there would only be one brand and type and model of everything because, after all, nobody "needs" all that stuff.
 
Just to be a PITA I would like to point out the fact that the human body is FAR more resilient and wear resistant than any knife ever made. Take a knife and drag it around on the ground 10 or 12 hours a day (like we do our feet). Use it all day everyday for up to a hundred years like we do our bodies and see what you are left with after a few years. The human body is a miracle. I guess I get the point of your thread op but I just wanted to be contrary. :p
 
Kind of a preachy write-up, not to mention, not all of us consider knife collecting to be "weapon consumerism". I own several firearms, which ARE weapons designed for a singular purpose. I haven't bought a new firearm in years because I have all I need. Knives? Knives are tools to be enjoyed in a nearly infinite variety of forms and materials. I reject your idea that we shouldn't discuss, argue, or bicker about materials just because we'll all be gone one day. That's actually a silly idea, if we take it apart. Secondly, I can't speak for others, but I don't go through life thinking "My ownership of this item is temporary" about anything I have. Of course it is, in the rational sense. I will die one day, as we all will, and my possessions will be for those I leave behind to take care of. That's not some big, new idea.

To me, those things I own that are precious to me, I WILL own them forever, even if only for my forever. And really, that's all that concerns me.
 
Throw it in a pond for 500 years, the only thing left will be the Ti handle, the blade will rust away. That's sort of a weird thing to worry about anyway, Sort of like saying your bones will be here long after the rest is rotted away. Can't see where it should matter about a knife in 500 years anyway. How many knives that old do you see?
 
OP, I've read your post several times, and I'm still not sure of your point. But then I didn't major in philosophy so maybe it's just 'way over my head. BTW, you misspelled psychology. At 71, I'm well aware that most of my possessions, including a pair of Filson wool pants and possibly several sets of underwear, will probably outlive me and be discarded, sold, or passed on to someone else. Not sure what all that has to do with the price of tea in China, but if posts like this keep you amused, so be it.
 
Here's a few that laid underground about 800 years. They fared a lot better than anything made of metal.

vzyn14.jpg
 
Coyote3855 said:
OP, I've read your post several times, and I'm still not sure of your point. But then I didn't major in philosophy so maybe it's just 'way over my head. BTW, you misspelled psychology. At 71, I'm well aware that most of my possessions, including a pair of Filson wool pants and possibly several sets of underwear, will probably outlive me and be discarded, sold, or passed on to someone else. Not sure what all that has to do with the price of tea in China, but if posts like this keep you amused, so be it.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking - and the point is what???

If my knives are temporary, then who do I see about the refund?
 
I'm not really sure of the OP point, but I do know that knives and guns and similar stuff will outlive us. I have a knife that has been through three generations of users. In about 1943, a German POW that was working on the Moran farm in Lime Liln Maryland had worked before ethe war in the Solingen cutlery trade. A young teenage Bill Moran who was already a budding knife nut and maker pressed him to teach him how to make folders. The German, named Albert Wurtz, showed the young Moran how to construct a folder. Bill used that knife and treasured it for 40 years before retire ring it for a Bertram made. Hen and Rooster stockman. Bill then gave me the knife when I admired it, and I used it for many years on and off. A wonderful knife with a great edge holding blade made from a file.

My younger son is slated to get it when my time her is done. He will be the forth to use it. Wurtz, Moran, Me, and then my son Matt. Not bad for a piece of steel and stag horn.

15959998118_188b343966_c.jpg

Wurtz showed a young Moran how to split a piece of crown stag and to construct the knife to fit the stag. Spring in the slip joint action is getting a bit easy, but it still cuts like the dickens. Blade has list about 30% from use and sharpening.
 
Surfingringo said:
Just to be a PITA I would like to point out the fact that the human body is FAR more resilient and wear resistant than any knife ever made. Take a knife and drag it around on the ground 10 or 12 hours a day (like we do our feet). Use it all day everyday for up to a hundred years like we do our bodies and see what you are left with after a few years. The human body is a miracle. I guess I get the point of your thread op but I just wanted to be contrary. :p
Click to expand...

To be a counter-PITA, I will say that's arguably a poor analogy. The human body fixes itself through a constant supply of food, water, and air. If you do what you described to both and treated them both as tools, the human would have run out of skin, bone, and muscle from abrasion long before the knife had run out of blade and handle (unless it's a neck knife, or something, but you get my point)

It's an unfair analogy, as both would be just fine if you treated them the same. If, after 12 hours of being dragged on the ground, you then welded more steel onto it until it had the same mass, then... You'd never run out of knife, just like you don't run out of human when you keep feeding it.
 
My knives are gonna be buried with me, get your own 😀 . not sure what OP meant but interesting anyways.
 
Compared to my collection of knives I feel very temporary. With some care and luck I may be here for another 25 years give or take. I sometimes wonder where my knives will be in 100 or 200 years. What will the world be like then? Will an early 21st century Sebenza still be useful and valued? Thats just me after reading speculative fiction since my early teens.
 
I see a very small part of each of my knives turn to dust each time they visit Wicked Edge land.

Speaking for myself, none of my knives are weapons. They are all very useful tools.

Temporary ownership? I temporarily owned a BM943, 'til some rissole stole it (negative temporarily ownership). I have temporarily owned quite a few folders, then gifted them to someone else (positive temporarily ownership). This is ownership from my own personal perspective.

Other knives I still own, will own more over time, and those I still own when I die will cease to exist to me in the sense that my consciousness, and therefore my awareness of them, will cease to exist. To someone else, they will exist as inherited items.

Seems pretty straight forward really.
 
Sorry for the confusion and for misspelling 'psychology'.

If you were on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg, its not a good time to
complain to your wife that the steak you just ate was overpriced and overcooked.
I used the idea of 'temporary ownership' to leverage against making trivial
knife concerns or arguments seem important.. trivial in this case had to do with
a knife video on youtube. But it would also apply to someone saying something
like 'Elmax sucks' -which I have seen said on this forum.

For sure I am not trying to be right at all costs. I dont even have 10 posts yet. I
just got here. I havent even ate breakfast yet! Maybe you can view my op as a way of
stopping by to say hello. That would be great, even if you just view it that way temporarily.
 
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