Lets talk GEC!

When you think about it, the word 'user' could be somewhat misleading. Might suggest somebody who uses knives in a very cavalier abusive fashion, not caring what the knife really looks like, its intended purpose, the quality of the steels or other materials. "It's a knife, I use it for whatever....." the kind of nightmare of a person you would never 'lend' a knife to else it comes back broken, covered in paint or been through a dishwasher...:eek: We may be annoyed by the quality of table knives when dining out, might keep a knife with us for that purpose, but we don't have much attachment or feeling towards tableware, we just 'use' it, if we can;) This is what most people feel about most knives, irrespective.

Talk of the old days or vintage years can be a misleading avenue to go down too. Most people in the past were not always that careful with their knives or interested in them, they were something to use, lots of people had little idea how to sharpen efficiently despite what we might like to tell ourselves. For the most part, people just had a knife or two knocking about the place or else had to use them in their work and they got 'used' used up very often and new ones had to be got in replacement-like electronics or batteries today?

Nevertheless, at all times certain people (us) have respected, revered and enjoyed knives, they likely had more than what they actually needed and might have arranged them into 'collections' ! Paradox being that in the past knives were used more; due to different times and occupations, you could buy them at a local source; BUT that local source was unlikely to be carrying knives from all over the country, just one or two marques. Currently, we have the internet to access knives, images and others' reflections on them en masse even if conventional knife/agricultural shops are rapidly becoming extinct. Thus we can have a global collection of knives given time, patience and money.

The terms collector/user are certainly not mutually exclusive but there is a difference in types of collector, their aims and approach. Those who think little of frequently spending large sums of money in pursuit of certain knives, who keep them locked away seldom to see daylight-living in dread of corrosion or corruption of their beauty:eek: Others who relentlessly pursue 'rarity' or one pattern to the exclusion of all else, those who wish to compete with others to beat them to it or who never actually carry and cut things with their possessions. Compare this to the Enthusiast who is proud of their knives. Uses many as often as they can, takes good care of knives , enjoys exchanging knives and knife knowledge with others great & small, new and experienced without condescension. I think the vast majority of us here on this Forum and those who value GEC are in the latter more benign categories :D

Consider the extremely wealthy art-collector. Who gains most respect and contributes more to the appreciation of art & culture? The collector who spends a fortune to keep art hidden away in some deathly tomb or the connoisseur- enthusiast who donates works to public museums for the public to be able to experience and be inspired by? That is the knife collector and user or knife enthusiast if you like.:thumbsup:
 
Will Power said:
Consider the extremely wealthy art-collector. Who gains most respect and contributes more to the appreciation of art & culture? The collector who spends a fortune to keep art hidden away in some deathly tomb or the connoisseur- enthusiast who donates works to public museums for the public to be able to experience and be inspired by? That is the knife collector and user or knife enthusiast if you like.:thumbsup:
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I'm not sure it's all as cut and dry as that. Many collections (of many varieties of things) that now reside in public museums began their lives as private "never-see-the-light-of-day" type collections. It doesn't seem particularly useful to me to apply value judgments to the different ways in which different people enjoy and appreciate their hobbies.
 
User, accumulator, collector or horder, whatever . . . I'm all of those. And like Dylan, being fortunate enough to have many nice knives, I don't feel compelled to use them all. I'm getting up in years and without the best health, so thinking of the future I deem it prudent to keep some of the more desirable/valuable ones unused safe queens. My kids aren't interested in them, so I'll be selling them off sometime, hopefully not soon! I just love finding a 20, 30, or 50 year old knife in unused condition, so it will be nice to provide that same kick for someone else along the line. I've used almost every pattern out there, and know what I prefer, so my "trying them out" stage is over.
 
The user/accumulator/collector discussion is interesting. I'm not sure why anyone would be offended by those terms, nor why anyone would mean to offend by using them.

For myself, I'm just a tool user; I want the best tool, of the highest affordable quality, that I can get for the job. Once I have that I have no need for any more. In the case of traditionals, I bought a bunch to find the pattern that worked best for me and, once I found it, I stopped accumulating (and in fact divested myself of my accumulation.)

One may rightly ask why I'm still here. Well, I like looking at nice things, and the accumulators/collectors oblige me by posting pictures of theirs. I no longer have any desire to own more myself, but I'm glad there are those who do; otherwise, I'd never get to see some great examples!
 
PythonDR said:
The user/accumulator/collector discussion is interesting. I'm not sure why anyone would be offended by those terms, nor why anyone would mean to offend by using them.

For myself, I'm just a tool user; I want the best tool, of the highest affordable quality, that I can get for the job. Once I have that I have no need for any more. In the case of traditionals, I bought a bunch to find the pattern that worked best for me and, once I found it, I stopped accumulating (and in fact divested myself of my accumulation.)

One may rightly ask why I'm still here. Well, I like looking at nice things, and the accumulators/collectors oblige me by posting pictures of theirs. I no longer have any desire to own more myself, but I'm glad there are those who do; otherwise, I'd never get to see some great examples!
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Wow, that describes me exactly!
 
EngrSorenson said:
I’m not really sure anyone is taking offense to being called a collector, or perhaps I’m misreading something.
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I would. And not too long ago. And I will tell you why.

It was all about not loosing my face with myself. I fancy myself (often very wrongly) to be a man of reason, practical, thrifty, rational. I value nature and I believe in threading softly, leaving not too big of a footprint. I would like to believe I lean towards minimalism and that I have risen above consumerism, that I can see beyond 'earthly possessions' and dedicate my attention, energy and time to things that really matter. And I do act accordingly, for the most part.

Enter this passion for knives in general and even worse, that GEC addiction I developed lately. This collides with and defies everything that I would like to believe I am. And so, not to loose my face, I had to convince myself, that every next knife, I want to buy, is something I really need, that there is a practical purpose for it. I would protest to being called a collector, as that would imply, that I hoard more than I need, more than is reasonable and thus that image of myself i hold is fraud. Deeds speak much more louder than words, after all.

I stopped fooling myself since, but I still haven't worked out how this all falls together.
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My name is Peter and I have a problem...
 
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SnailOffTheTrail said:
I would. And not too long ago. And I will tell you why.

It was all about not loosing my face with myself. I fancy myself (more often very wrongly) to be a man of reason, practical, thrifty, rational. I value nature and I believe in threading softly, leaving not too big of a footprint. I would like to believe I lean towards minimalism and that I have risen above consumerism, that I can see beyond 'earthly possessions' and dedicate my attention, energy and time to things that really matter. And I do act accordingly, for the most part.

In comes this passion for knives in general and even worse, that GEC addiction I developed lately. This collides and defies everything that I would like to believe I am. And so, not to loose my face I had to convince myself, that every next knife, I want to buy, is something I really need, that there is a practical purpose for it. I would protest to being called a collector, as that would imply, that I hoard more than I need, more than is reasonable and thus that image of myself is a fraud. Deeds speak much more louder than words, after all.

I stopped fooling myself since, but I still haven't worked out how this all falls together.
...
My name is Peter and I have a problem...
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Oh God,I think I just looked into the mirror.
 
Shurke said:
I'm not sure it's all as cut and dry as that. Many collections (of many varieties of things) that now reside in public museums began their lives as private "never-see-the-light-of-day" type collections. It doesn't seem particularly useful to me to apply value judgments to the different ways in which different people enjoy and appreciate their hobbies.
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Well, no nothing ever is cut and dried in an evolving sphere. I do think there are types of collector, and the rationale behind collecting might also be described as bizarre, at times. Value judgements only came into play when the word 'offended' got unleashed, there are negative types of behaviour associated with collecting to the detriment of others. For instance, there is a connexion between the activities of flippers and obsessive collectors. The flipper uses money, know how, technical advantage to buy up as much of a limited SFO as they can to sell on at considerable profit to clamorous, obsessive collectors who must have something whatever the cost. There is considerable hypocrisy surrounding this. The flipper dons the garb of 'helper' or the person who just so happens to have bought up too many knives at once, but these are the costs guys..:rolleyes: The must have collector may be caught up in a trend storm, this bus is going to nirvana (Knivarna;)) I must get on it! Or, attracted by alleged rarity their greed is enhanced by thinking values must inevitably rise. They want not the knife as such, but the feeling that they have something somebody else cannot have. Just conceit.

In my area there is what I call an old car club, I think they prefer the term 'vintage'. I'm quite interested in old cars as aesthetic objects and spirits of an era. I don't want to own one as I have limited mechanical competence and lack of money;) But I can talk freely to these collectors as I have enough knowledge and they are glad to talk to me as a neutral, but they very seldom talk to each other...:D They seem to view other 'proper' collectors with an unpleasant mix of envy, disdain and fear-fear that somebody might outshine them! I find this amusing but also rather sinister, this too would be what I regard as a negative collector, and they certainly do exist. And there may be parallels in the knife world.

Value judgements have to come into all things, eventually. Otherwise we have no point of view or taste, after all if we can't judge a knife what are we doing here?;) GEC being the current benchmark for production Traditional pocket-knives will attract a myriad of collector types, and this is satisfying and good. GEC's production policies will attract a wide spectrum of views as well, this too is healthy as it prevents uncritical worship and delusion taking root, very unhelpful things. I'm certainly not telling other people how to enjoy their knives, any more than I would enter a restaurant and dictate to others how to enjoy their meal. But, I might think about their choice of food, and table-manners :D I strongly believe that you are what you think, not what you pretend to say or do or what you think is going t go down well. Collecting's the same, you are what you collect and how:)
 
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