- Joined
- Feb 28, 2011
- Messages
- 27,395
My knife wants have been going through a bit of an identity crisis recently. I've loved knives for as long as I can remember. I was the kid that, at ten years old, would empty my piggybank and walk to the hardware store to buy a cheap knife, any knife. I remember the clerk being deeply amused at a kid, alone, using loose change to buy, if I remember correctly, a Old Hickory knockoff kitchen knife. I never cooked at all, but it was a knife, and I loved knives.
My love waned a bit for awhile then, in my early teens I got deeply into martial arts. Started out yelling "Kiai!" in a strip mall dojo, moved to Tae Kwan Do, then boxing, and finally Jeet Kune Do (don't misunderstand, this was all kids stuff, I'm no karate master, registering his hands as deadly weapons). Then I met and befriended a Filipino kid a year or two younger than me. Thing was, he had been practicing FMA from the age of six. He was younger, shorter, lighter and weaker than me. He could also kick my tender butt six ways to Sunday. And he carried an Emerson Karambit.
That knife blew my mind. The wave, the price, the ergonomics, the price, the gorgeous stonewash and the price were all more than I'd ever imagined in a pocket knife. My love was rekindled with a passion. Thus began my love affair with the tactical folder, the more tacticool the better. I mall-ninjaed so hard it was unbelievable. Luckily, my father was a wiser man than I and so when I, with lust in my heart, asked for a super-badass ultra-tactical folder that Christmas he got me a Buck Strider 880. Carried that hunk of steel exclusively for years, but then I turned twenty and, still an idiot, married a girl I had been on-again-off-again with for 6 years. Well the off again happened and, to my everlasting sorrow, the knife was a casualty of divorce. So now I had to find a replacement.
Picked up a CRKT M21, but now I was working as an EMT and, even in the midst of a car wreck, patients get a bit nervous when you come at the with a knife like that. Went through a Gerber or two, some Jarbenza type things and even a push dagger (I'm an idiot and had no idea it was illegal). Then I started shopping on the internet and stumbled blindly across the G10 Kershaw Tyrade. Didn't know a thing about blade steel, lock strength, warranties or anything. Just stone dumb luck that I picked a knife that good, purely because it looked cool.
Well, it was all downhill from there. I transitioned from EMT to nursing and so I was wearing scrubs all day. And a knife that doesn't bother you at all in jeans is goddamn heavy in scrubs, so I went on the hunt once more.
Well, I was still training FMA with my friend and was still just young enough to have visions of knife duels with mysterious ninjas and ferocious muggers, so I went looking for an SD blade and stumbled across the Spyderco P'Kal. Small, (comparatively) lightweight and purpose built for FMA? This was the one! This was before I realized there would never be just a 'one'. I snagged a Cold Steel Talwar, the old, discontinued one, not the Demko redesign, then a machete for yard work and a Kabar because, well, knife fighting training.
Then I broke my Kabar (did I mention I'm an idiot?) and in my quest for a replacement found this place. At first I wanted everything BIGGER because that meant better! Bark River STS-8, Emerson Super CQC-8, Fox Deimos, SOG Spec Elite 2! But I couldn't carry any of those in my scrubs. And the steel afficianados were convincing me that mere VG-10 wasn't good enough! I might as well be cutting with tin foil! But now I had a little bit of knowledge and the good folks here steered me towards the classics. Picked up a Benchmade 710 in M390 from Knifeworks. Then a Paramilitary 2 because people just would NOT shut up about it and I figured something out. Those knives were a lot easier to use and generally better at cutting stuff.
Now, I still liked big knives and, honestly, overvalued toughness, but my research became a lot more painstaking. It now took more than Nutnfancy yelling, "THIS is an HOF blade!" for me to make a purchase. I was buying smarter, but my collection lacked direction (rhyming is fun).
And that long story brings us to the present. I realized that, among my folders, I honestly have three categories.
The first are my workhorses, the knives that spend the most time in my pocket and do the heavy cutting. They aren't particularly pretty, nary a bearing pivot to be found, and they tend to be free of flourishes that many collectors love.
They are:
The Manix 2 XL. Pure function. Plenty of toughness with great cutting geometry.
Cold Steel AK-47. A utilitarian beast hiding in tacticool clothing.
Spyderco Pacific Salt. Featherweight, chainsaw serrations and a bright, friendly yellow. Rust proof is a plus, too.
Spyderco Native 5 FRN. No blades over 3 inches? No problem.
Spyderco Kahr Arms Delica (notice a trend?). You're killing me Chicago, 2.5" limit? Screw you, I've still got enough knife to get some real work done.
Second category. This one was the epiphany. FUN knives. Knives you can flip and flick and admire and play with on the couch. Sure, they're damn good cutting tools, and I'll happily use them as hard as the workhorses, but the real satisfaction they bring me is, essentially, as man toys that are tools incidentally.
They are:
Freeman 451 BLF. Holy mother of smooth, Batman!
Buck Marksman. If you can't have fun fiddling with this knife you are a joyless robot piloting a human suit.
Benchmade 860. Looks cool, feels great, smoothest Axis lock I've ever owned. And a gift from my now fiancée.
Kershaw Spec Bump. Some locks are strong. Some locks are reliable. Some locks are easy to use. And then some locks are just funky and awesome to play with. Particularly if you make a friend try to figure out how to close it.
Real Steel E775. Is there a better way to say, "Open and close me a million times in a row," than combining a bearing pivot with a buttonlock? And with 14c28n blade steel. And weighing 3.5oz. And for under $50 shipped.
The Kershaw Induction has a 99% chance of making this list, but it's not out yet so gotta wait.
The last category is smallest and least exciting, though it might be the most useful. Multi-tools.
Boker Plus Tech Tool 2.
Victorinox Tourist
Leatherman Surge
And finally the Gerber Crucial
Apologies for the long post, but insomnia and weird meds inspire me.
Now, to the point, what's your story? I doubt y'all want to take the time to type the novella I ended up rambling through, but I'd love to hear your history, where your collection is going and why you carried what you carried when you carried it.
PS I left out fixed blades/camping because I don't think any of you want to read the only thing I typed, let alone another 13 pages.
My love waned a bit for awhile then, in my early teens I got deeply into martial arts. Started out yelling "Kiai!" in a strip mall dojo, moved to Tae Kwan Do, then boxing, and finally Jeet Kune Do (don't misunderstand, this was all kids stuff, I'm no karate master, registering his hands as deadly weapons). Then I met and befriended a Filipino kid a year or two younger than me. Thing was, he had been practicing FMA from the age of six. He was younger, shorter, lighter and weaker than me. He could also kick my tender butt six ways to Sunday. And he carried an Emerson Karambit.
That knife blew my mind. The wave, the price, the ergonomics, the price, the gorgeous stonewash and the price were all more than I'd ever imagined in a pocket knife. My love was rekindled with a passion. Thus began my love affair with the tactical folder, the more tacticool the better. I mall-ninjaed so hard it was unbelievable. Luckily, my father was a wiser man than I and so when I, with lust in my heart, asked for a super-badass ultra-tactical folder that Christmas he got me a Buck Strider 880. Carried that hunk of steel exclusively for years, but then I turned twenty and, still an idiot, married a girl I had been on-again-off-again with for 6 years. Well the off again happened and, to my everlasting sorrow, the knife was a casualty of divorce. So now I had to find a replacement.
Picked up a CRKT M21, but now I was working as an EMT and, even in the midst of a car wreck, patients get a bit nervous when you come at the with a knife like that. Went through a Gerber or two, some Jarbenza type things and even a push dagger (I'm an idiot and had no idea it was illegal). Then I started shopping on the internet and stumbled blindly across the G10 Kershaw Tyrade. Didn't know a thing about blade steel, lock strength, warranties or anything. Just stone dumb luck that I picked a knife that good, purely because it looked cool.
Well, it was all downhill from there. I transitioned from EMT to nursing and so I was wearing scrubs all day. And a knife that doesn't bother you at all in jeans is goddamn heavy in scrubs, so I went on the hunt once more.
Well, I was still training FMA with my friend and was still just young enough to have visions of knife duels with mysterious ninjas and ferocious muggers, so I went looking for an SD blade and stumbled across the Spyderco P'Kal. Small, (comparatively) lightweight and purpose built for FMA? This was the one! This was before I realized there would never be just a 'one'. I snagged a Cold Steel Talwar, the old, discontinued one, not the Demko redesign, then a machete for yard work and a Kabar because, well, knife fighting training.
Then I broke my Kabar (did I mention I'm an idiot?) and in my quest for a replacement found this place. At first I wanted everything BIGGER because that meant better! Bark River STS-8, Emerson Super CQC-8, Fox Deimos, SOG Spec Elite 2! But I couldn't carry any of those in my scrubs. And the steel afficianados were convincing me that mere VG-10 wasn't good enough! I might as well be cutting with tin foil! But now I had a little bit of knowledge and the good folks here steered me towards the classics. Picked up a Benchmade 710 in M390 from Knifeworks. Then a Paramilitary 2 because people just would NOT shut up about it and I figured something out. Those knives were a lot easier to use and generally better at cutting stuff.
Now, I still liked big knives and, honestly, overvalued toughness, but my research became a lot more painstaking. It now took more than Nutnfancy yelling, "THIS is an HOF blade!" for me to make a purchase. I was buying smarter, but my collection lacked direction (rhyming is fun).
And that long story brings us to the present. I realized that, among my folders, I honestly have three categories.
The first are my workhorses, the knives that spend the most time in my pocket and do the heavy cutting. They aren't particularly pretty, nary a bearing pivot to be found, and they tend to be free of flourishes that many collectors love.
They are:
The Manix 2 XL. Pure function. Plenty of toughness with great cutting geometry.
Cold Steel AK-47. A utilitarian beast hiding in tacticool clothing.
Spyderco Pacific Salt. Featherweight, chainsaw serrations and a bright, friendly yellow. Rust proof is a plus, too.
Spyderco Native 5 FRN. No blades over 3 inches? No problem.
Spyderco Kahr Arms Delica (notice a trend?). You're killing me Chicago, 2.5" limit? Screw you, I've still got enough knife to get some real work done.
Second category. This one was the epiphany. FUN knives. Knives you can flip and flick and admire and play with on the couch. Sure, they're damn good cutting tools, and I'll happily use them as hard as the workhorses, but the real satisfaction they bring me is, essentially, as man toys that are tools incidentally.
They are:
Freeman 451 BLF. Holy mother of smooth, Batman!
Buck Marksman. If you can't have fun fiddling with this knife you are a joyless robot piloting a human suit.
Benchmade 860. Looks cool, feels great, smoothest Axis lock I've ever owned. And a gift from my now fiancée.
Kershaw Spec Bump. Some locks are strong. Some locks are reliable. Some locks are easy to use. And then some locks are just funky and awesome to play with. Particularly if you make a friend try to figure out how to close it.
Real Steel E775. Is there a better way to say, "Open and close me a million times in a row," than combining a bearing pivot with a buttonlock? And with 14c28n blade steel. And weighing 3.5oz. And for under $50 shipped.
The Kershaw Induction has a 99% chance of making this list, but it's not out yet so gotta wait.
The last category is smallest and least exciting, though it might be the most useful. Multi-tools.
Boker Plus Tech Tool 2.
Victorinox Tourist
Leatherman Surge
And finally the Gerber Crucial
Apologies for the long post, but insomnia and weird meds inspire me.
Now, to the point, what's your story? I doubt y'all want to take the time to type the novella I ended up rambling through, but I'd love to hear your history, where your collection is going and why you carried what you carried when you carried it.
PS I left out fixed blades/camping because I don't think any of you want to read the only thing I typed, let alone another 13 pages.
Last edited:
. I now value ease of sharpening as a key consideration so folders are fine in 154CM, VG10, or traditionals in 1095. Carbon steels dominate my fixed blade choices with A2, O1 and 1095 mixed in there.
