New To Collecting..Many Questions

fairhaven

fairhaven

Joined
May 22, 2013
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513
Hello to all. I recently retired and have decided to start collecting pocket knives. I plan to buy 2-3 each month. Some I will use. I have carried a pocket knife most of my life but have never really paid much attention to quality. I currently own only 1 knife that I carry. It is a 16 year old Case peanut. I have been watching to shows on tv. They are Cutlery Corner and Smoky Mountain Knife Works. Cutlery Corner has some extremely good prices. They have many sets of 6-20 knives that end up costing less than $10 per knife. Brands include Steel Warrior, Double Warrior, Frost Cutlery, Trophy Stag, Mustang, as well as many more. Know anything about this company and their knifes? SMKW cost quite a bit more and include brands such as Case, Colt, Buck, Marbles, Schrade, and many more. I would appreciate any info you might have on either company. Where is the best place to buy pocket knifes? Amazon seems to have good prices with free shipping. Again, I am new at this so don't know if they are best to buy from. Anyway, any direction/advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
If it has anything to do with Frost cutlery, run away. Run far, far away. They are, for the most part, junk.
 
Don't buy cheap knives. It is difficult to get quality at low cost. A good quality knife, even if it costs $50 + will retain its value better and give you better service, even if that means just playing with it at home, or looking at it in a case. Also consider custom knives. They have the advantage of being well crafted and unique. YMMV
 
To revise my previous statement, they are good if you are only intending for them to sit in a case. If you are intending to actually use them, seek out better options. Buck makes some fairly nice and affordable slipjoints, as does CRKT.
 
yeah bladehq, knifeworks and gpknives are usually my go to stores to check prices and such. go for quality not quantity instead of buying 2-3 a month get 1 really nice one a month or every other month spending the extra coin on a collection is totally worth it in the long run.
 
All the brands you mention with the exception of Case and some Bucks are made in Pakistan,Taiwan and China and are considered poor quality in many cases practically useless and have no value nor ever will. You CAN get good knives at $10 but not many, some Opinel's and smaller SAK's (Swiss army knife). You should consider buying one nice knife per month rather than a few poor ones. Or one every 2 months...
 
Stay away from those TV specials. They will be worth less than what you pay for them. If you buy a quality knife, it will be worth the money.
 
Welcome to Blade Forums, this is a great place.

I would hang around here on BF for a while and learn a little bit about knives.
Think about how you want to spend your money. Do you want a shoe box full of $20 knives or a hand full of quality blades?

Rather than three per a month, you could buy a nice quality blade every month or two and build you collection that way.
Believe me, they add up fast and you will have more pride of ownership with nicer knives.
 
All good advice up above. And if you want to focus on traditionals, there's a Traditional and Fixed Blade subforum here on BF that can give you some excellent guidance.
 
fairhaven said:
Hello to all. I recently retired and have decided to start collecting pocket knives. I plan to buy 2-3 each month. Some I will use. I have carried a pocket knife most of my life but have never really paid much attention to quality. I currently own only 1 knife that I carry. It is a 16 year old Case peanut. I have been watching to shows on tv. They are Cutlery Corner and Smoky Mountain Knife Works. Cutlery Corner has some extremely good prices. They have many sets of 6-20 knives that end up costing less than $10 per knife. Brands include Steel Warrior, Double Warrior, Frost Cutlery, Trophy Stag, Mustang, as well as many more. Know anything about this company and their knifes? SMKW cost quite a bit more and include brands such as Case, Colt, Buck, Marbles, Schrade, and many more. I would appreciate any info you might have on either company. Where is the best place to buy pocket knifes? Amazon seems to have good prices with free shipping. Again, I am new at this so don't know if they are best to buy from. Anyway, any direction/advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

As others have said, those cheap knives are mostly junk. Case and Buck make some good knives, Marbles are fine for machetes, not so much for knives. If you really want a cheap knife that doesn't suck, look at what Kershaw offers, they have a lot of good knives in the $20 range, I believe Buck has some decent ones in that range as well, Enlan has some decent offerings too. The Ontario Rat 1 is also a low budget but high value knife.

Generally speaking, most knives from these companies should be at the very least decent knives that are worth looking at:
Kershaw/Zero Tolerance
Spyderco
Benchmade
Cold Steel
Buck
Ka-Bar
Case
Condor Tool and Knife
Mora
Opinel
Victorinox
CRKT has had some spotty knives in the past, but they seem to be improving and are worth a look as well. There are also companies with much more expensive knives, CRK, William Henry, etc, which are good, but probably not what you are looking for.

As for where to get them, Amazon, BladeHQ, Knifecenter...all good places for knife buying.
 
Listen to the good advice our friends here told.
I want to say something myself, and what I'm going to say is valid not only to knives, but to any kind of item you want to collect.

It is not just any item that can be considered a collectible. For it to be one, it must bear some kind of quality that makes it unique. The uniqueness might be on the quality, history behind it, sentimental value to you, beauty, and so on.
Imagine you are the owner of a museum, and you must write a placard of every knife telling it's story and why is it worth being there. If it is a $2000 dollar knife, you are going to write about the superb craftsmanship put into making it. If it is an antique item, you are going to tell where it was probably made, by whom, what were the techniques used in its construction or whatever interesting feature it bears. You can have that $2 dollar knife in your collection, if it is the first knife you ever had in your life, and in this case that is the uniqueness of the item. Or you can have one knife from a smith, another one from this other one with that style, and so on, in a way that your collection will actually tell a story about how cutlery in your time was. 50 years from now your collection will be worth thousands or even hundreds of thousands depending of the smiths you choose, exactly because they are not simply knives, but pieces of history.

A $4.99 dollar knife made in taiwan will be worth less than you paid for later, because they are the kind of knife that you would only use if you didn't have a better option available (much less pay for it!), and they don't have any uniqueness on them (there are millions of those everywhere).

Pay attention to this: If you pick a bunch of unique items and put them together, it is called a collection. If you pick a bunch of cheap worthless items, it is called junk. It is that simple. But sometimes it is hard to tell the difference, and that's why we can never loose focus.

A collection is as good as the items in it. A large collection of junk, is simply a big pile of junk. I personally would rather have one single good knife than have a huge pile of junk taking space out of my home.

And last but not least, try and watch that show called "Pawn Stars" that goes on air on History Channel. After the first season you will get what I'm trying to say.

Regards
 
buy high tech

make sure you add a custom or semi custom, a $3000 micro tech is semi custom

a $400 ZT is an investment when only 1000 are made.

by high tech design
by high tech Ti mechs
by high tech scales... nano carbon graphite hybrids

buy what the kids can not afford today! they will pay tomorrow! always works,
erdoc8921 said:
Don't buy cheap knives. It is difficult to get quality at low cost. A good quality knife, even if it costs $50 + will retain its value better and give you better service, even if that means just playing with it at home, or looking at it in a case. Also consider custom knives. They have the advantage of being well crafted and unique. YMMV
Click to expand...

dragons are old and smart!


true for all knives and most collectibles - knives have a dual adavangte use and future collectiblity.

if the SHTF - give me a ZT 0560 CBCF - mine!
or my voorhis subhilt
or my ruffin johnson 7" fighter
or my boot.....my....... i keep 7 for me.
 
fairhaven said:
Hello to all. I recently retired and have decided to start collecting pocket knives. I plan to buy 2-3 each month. Some I will use. I have carried a pocket knife most of my life but have never really paid much attention to quality. I currently own only 1 knife that I carry. It is a 16 year old Case peanut. I have been watching to shows on tv. They are Cutlery Corner and Smoky Mountain Knife Works. Cutlery Corner has some extremely good prices. They have many sets of 6-20 knives that end up costing less than $10 per knife. Brands include Steel Warrior, Double Warrior, Frost Cutlery, Trophy Stag, Mustang, as well as many more. Know anything about this company and their knifes? SMKW cost quite a bit more and include brands such as Case, Colt, Buck, Marbles, Schrade, and many more. I would appreciate any info you might have on either company. Where is the best place to buy pocket knifes? Amazon seems to have good prices with free shipping. Again, I am new at this so don't know if they are best to buy from. Anyway, any direction/advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

People collect different knives for different reasons. What distinguishes a collection from a pile of stuff is whatever underlying theme links the items together. Yes, you can collect a particular maker's knives, or a type of knife (such as frame locks, or stag handled knives), or a particular period (how about U.S. knives of WWII or "survival" knives of the 1980s?). It sounds like you have taken a particular fancy to that Case peanut. You might want to consider collecting Case knives or collecting examples of peanut-style knives.

n2s
 
Hello fairhaven. Welcome to the forum. Along with the good advice already stated, remember to stay true to your own eye. If a knife fills a void in your taste, go for it. After all You are the one Your collecting for. Have fun with it, and good luck.
 
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