Mr. Knife's Neverending Giveaway #85 (Poll Included)

[chevyrulez1]

The never ending giveaway continues!

The Rules:
• Be a member of the Porch (minimum 50 posts to the (“Traditional") forum.
• Post "I'm in”
• Paying members of BF only.

If You Win The Box:
• When you receive the box, take any number of knives and replace them with knives of equivalent (or greater) value.
• Then, hold your own GAW to keep this fun Porch tradition going. Take and post photos!!!
• Post a link to your new GAW thread in this thread.
• Pick a new winner and mail them the box.
Post if you want to be added to the list!!

above copied and pasted from previous round.

The box arrived today and i have been going through evaluating the contents. Here is the box as it arrived




There are some cool knives in here, some that appear to have been riding for a while. Honestly though quite a few of these knives are of lower quality or in rough shape. I was looking back through Bladeforums and searching trying to see some of the history on who added what, I can find round #70 from July 2023, and then no other activity until Round #82 in March of 2024. Not sure if the posts were deleted, not named properly or what happened there but I suspect that somewhere in there is when the quality of the box dropped off.
There are some "junk" knives that have been thrown in here somewhere along the way, and I feel pretty sure that is why people have lost interest as there were only two entries when I won.

So that being said, I am contemplating how to proceed. I thought about just making my picks and replacing it with something of "equal or greater" value (I do not think this has been happening judging by the current state of the box) and passing it along. I am also considering purging the box of some of the "junk" and maybe adding a few better items to see if we can get this turned back around.
I want to be clear, that this is not a negative reflection on the last few members who participated, because they have contributed some nice and cool stuff, so kudos to them!

Before I make my choices, I would like some feedback from the porch here on how is best to proceed. Then I will reach out for entries once the dust settles. If the porch agrees with me purging some stuff, I can send the offending items to whomever would like them for the cost of shipping. If the porch is opposed to me removing some of the items then I will leave it as is and pass it along.
Please vote, and let me know in the comments if you do support cleaning it up, what items you think should go.

I will be posting my choices to keep soon.

 

[r8shell]

I remember at some point, there was an effort to pare things down to keep it shippable in a small or medium flat-rate priority box. I'm not sure, but I think someone split the items into two GAWs, but I didn't follow what became of the second box.

Maybe select items for the "take something/add something" pass-around, and put the rest into a "Ah, just keep it" giveaway.

 

[seas165]

I was thinking the same thing, i vote purge the box, id be happy to send a few more to you to add in

 

[Will Power]

I'm void as I'm outside the US..fancy that shipping bill But I'd purge it of obvious rubbish and I must say that the spirit of the whole thing is broken if people a) don't put back something or things of equal value to what they took out and b) do it in a timely manner, not waiting for "life to get in the way"

This event should be a nice altruistic event that benefits all equally, and gives the rest of us the opportunity to mull over various knives

 

[chevyrulez1]

Ok, what I am keeping...
The Watchman Anchor Knife
The Le Sabot (I have been looking at these for a while)
The Antonninni
And the little import Buck 379


Now, what I am adding to the box
For the Watchman I am replacing it with a Brother 1510 in VG10 Steel
For the Le Sabot I am adding a George Wolstenholm Barlow with Pearl Handles (this is one of the Japanese IXL's)
For the Antonninni, I am replacing it with a Boker razor jack with the bottle opener blade
For the little Buck I am replacing it with the Marbles bullet lockback
And for good measure, I am throwing in a Chinese made Camillus Trench knife. With 12C27N steel blade



If anyone is interested go ahead and enter for the giveaway. I will let the poll run for a few days before I decide what to do with the other stuff. I may just reach out to the winner about the questionable items to see if they want them included or not.
I may yet include an additional bonus item or two.

 

[Hickory n steel]

I'm gonna enter again because I think I've got some knives I'm not using.

 

[chevyrulez1]

A couple of more of the IXL because the pearl didn't really show in the other pic

 

[akguy59]

I won the box a couple of years ago. At that time it wasn't a requirement to be a paying member. I think that may be what has killed off some of the interest. JMO.

 

[Tyson A Wright]

Basic membership costs $10.

 

[AdamFuzzyballs]

Now that I’ve finally renewed my gold, I’d love to try my luck in this giveaway again. I’ve followed it for this long, I don’t want to see it disappear yet! I have some cool ones to add that might rekindle interest,

Im in!

 

[holo07]

Please put my name in

I won a few draws back it was fun. I kept a couple patterns I didn't have to try them out. I also have a few extra to add. Would like to give the Benchmade Proper some pocket time.

 

[KentuckyBlackBird]

I’ve never entered in this, as I’ve only been around for a few months. I have interest in keeping this alive. I think it would be fun to see this thing take flight again! For that, please put me in! Thanks

 

[screened porch]

I won the other one once (Box o' Knives Giveaway?). I found it a little stressful.

Somebody could take a bunch of the less desirable ones and replace them with one nicer one.

 

[chevyrulez1]

Since the poll is kinda split, I have decided I will just leave the box "as is" with the exception of the exchanges already listed. I will ship everything to the next winner so they can decide what to keep and leave. Maybe someone would like the broken, rusty, crusty stuff for a project.
I really thought hard about the Benchmade, the Otter knife, the Buck 309, the Cattaraugus, and the Schrade E.H. Best & Co Advertising knife as they were all especially cool to me, but I decided to leave them for future box winners.
I liked some of the others too, but they were redundant with stuff I already own.

For the drawing, so far I have:
Hickory n steel
AdamFuzzyballs
holo07
KentuckyBlackBird

I will leave it up this week to give others a chance to enter, and maybe do the drawing next weekend.

 

[abbydaddy]

Some time ago 315 culled a lot of the rougher knives. The box had gotten huge, and he pulled all the stinkers and sent them out to a number of people (I was one) along with a selection of nicer knives for each of the recipients of the purge boxes.

I think it is a good idea to purge the box periodically. My personal preference is for the purged items to be made into gifts if possible. But the key is getting nice items into the box. When people put desirable knives into the box, the box gets popular. When the box is full of meh-to-ick knives, there is very little interest. I wish that I had more nice knives that I didn't feel a strong sentimental attachment to, but I just don't have a lot I am willing to part with that is also desirable right now.

 

[Tyson A Wright]

Some time ago 315 culled a lot of the rougher knives. The box had gotten huge, and he pulled all the stinkers and sent them out to a number of people (I was one) along with a selection of nicer knives for each of the recipients of the purge boxes.

I think it is a good idea to purge the box periodically. My personal preference is for the purged items to be made into gifts if possible. But the key is getting nice items into the box. When people put desirable knives into the box, the box gets popular. When the box is full of meh-to-ick knives, there is very little interest. I wish that I had more nice knives that I didn't feel a strong sentimental attachment to, but I just don't have a lot I am willing to part with that is also desirable right now.

I won the box a couple of rounds back, and got a couple of good knives out of it (AG Russell "Cattaraugus" and a Robeson) but there were very few sign-ups for when I won.

Then I put in a few nice things, including a GEC, but there were very few sign-ups again.

The next person put some nice things, including a Trestle Pines knife that looked pretty good, but there were very few sign-ups yet again.

At this point I don't think the participation limits are only based on not having decent knives in the box. Maybe this has run its course after 80+ rounds. I hope not, because I really enjoy this tradition, but I tried really hard to get more sign-ups (posting multiple times in the thread, posting in The Lounge, putting good things in) and there were only a few takers.

 

[AZCoyote]

We have to push this to 100 rounds at least. We are pretty close! I've won this GAW twice I believe, first time I won it was as a non paying member and it acted as a good introduction to the community and now I'm a paying member so I'd recommend opening it up to everyone to get more traffic. Also that's the way mrknife first started the GAW.

 

[AZCoyote]

I'll also take a look at what I have in the collection. Maybe I'll enter to keep the giveaway alive.

 

[scattershot]

I won the box a couple of rounds back, and got a couple of good knives out of it (AG Russell "Cattaraugus" and a Robeson) but there were very few sign-ups for when I won.

Then I put in a few nice things, including a GEC, but there were very few sign-ups again.

The next person put some nice things, including a Trestle Pines knife that looked pretty good, but there were very few sign-ups yet again.

At this point I don't think the participation limits are only based on not having decent knives in the box. Maybe this has run its course after 80+ rounds. I hope not, because I really enjoy this tradition, but I tried really hard to get more sign-ups (posting multiple times in the thread, posting in The Lounge, putting good things in) and there were only a few takers.

If you opened the GAW to all members, you would get a lot more participation. That’s the way it was when it first started, and there were plenty of signups.

 

[Tyson A Wright]

If you opened the GAW to all members, you would get a lot more participation. That’s the way it was when it first started, and there were plenty of signups.

Having recently won this, I can report on the costs of winning:
1. Whatever you're going to put in the box
2. About $18 for shipping
3. $10 for a Basic membership

If you want to be in on this, but can't or won't pay $10 for an annual membership, then you probably can't (or won't - this GAW has gone missing at least once, and come close to that other times) pay the other costs.

Just sign up and then say you're in for this box. It's easy.