Segments of the hobby

NPT

NPT

Joined
Nov 3, 2018
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So obviously, there are a couple areas of knife interest. I'd imagine the biggest being the collectors. There are also the guys who build knives, and deal knives. Are there any guys who fix knives?
 
I've seen sharpening and reprofiling services.

I imagine their would be a market for serration removal and also the changing of a blade shape or even shortening a blade.

Take a drop point and make it a spear point for example. Or turn a blade into a dagger profile and have both edges sharpened.
 
Short answer, yes.

But it's not a formal thing, like the Knifemaker's forum.
 
Yes. Many like to fix up old knives. Some modify them. Some make frankenknifes out of parts of old knives
 
As far as the overall "knife community" I'd say the largest segment would be "users", people's whose interest in knives is based on their actual need for a knife, whether it be for work, or activities like hunting/fishing/camping/etc.

On a knife forum like this you will get a lot of people whose interest in knives extends far beyond the practical need for a knife. I refer to them/me as "knife enthusiasts" rather than "collectors". I consider "collectors" to be a different subset of "enthusiasts" all their own. It's only natural that such people (enthusiasts and collectors) would gravitate to an online knife forum.

But there are multitudes of "users" out there who would never think of joining a knife forum. To them a knife is just a tool, and they have none, or little interest in knives beyond that.

As far as people who do knife repair, I can think of one guy who repairs knives professionally, and is actually certified by several manufacturers to fix and restore their knives. His online/business name is Bill DeShivs. He is highly regarded throughout the knife community (and Bladeforums) and specializes in switchblades. His website is billdeshivs.com.
 
killgar said:
As far as the overall "knife community" I'd say the largest segment would be "users"
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I would disagree and say that “users” are probably the smallest segment of the community. Look at Instagram, the exchange here, and the “what are you carrying today” threads and you’ll see thousands of knives that have only ever sliced paper or been kept in a safe. If that was the case sales descriptions wouldn’t be be filled with “tiny scratch on the clip” or “never sharpened or carried, only taken out of the box for pictures”.

There are four major types of knife enthusiasts, but each has tons of subsets.

- “Pocket jewelry knife bros”, the guys that have $10,000 of Steel Flame jewelry on and spend thousands of dollars on knives with mokuti, timascus, and zirconium all over them.

- “Knife influencers/collectors”, the truly biggest segment of knife enthusiasts. The former are the ones that set the hype, the latter are the ones that follow the hype. These are the ones that care a lot about “buttery action”, “drop-shuttyness”, “fidget factor” and won’t buy a knife with “less than S35VN”. They are also the ones that lose their minds over the same knife with a different color G10/steel combo or a knife named after a city in California.

- “Steel nerds”, people that are super into steels and their various properties. Love sharpening their Vanax Superclean to 15 degrees inclusive to whittle hairs. Also known to test the edge retention of steels for fun. This group often has true users that love seeing how their steel performs in real world applications like Pete from Cedric & Ada. Make no mistake though, their biggest focus is the steel

- “Users”, people that don’t care what steel the knife has, what it cost, or who the manufacturer is. Usually loyal to a few brands and use them for every task they come up against throughout the day whether it’s big or small. They truly enjoy putting a knife to work and try to find every excuse to use it.

I’m jokingly exaggerating a little bit here, but I bet everyone reading this falls into one of those categories.
 
I would guess that the huge silent of knife interest majority are "accumulators" .

Not really formal collectors , but fascinated with blades beyond basic tool utility .
 
NPT said:
So obviously, there are a couple areas of knife interest. I'd imagine the biggest being the collectors. There are also the guys who build knives, and deal knives. Are there any guys who fix knives?
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Depends what you mean by fix. There are makers who can repair broken vintage switchblades for example. If folks have problems with modern factory knives then they usually just get sent back to the manufacturer or dealer that it was purchased from.
 
Getting anything that's seriously broken , repaired these days is very expensive and thankless , IMO .

Plus , a knife that busts once is suspect unless seriously abused .

I return stuff when possible and DIY repairs otherwise . Beyond that is not worthwhile for my purposes .
 
Silvanus said:
I would disagree and say that “users” are probably the smallest segment of the community. Look at Instagram, the exchange here, and the “what are you carrying today” threads and you’ll see thousands of knives that have only ever sliced paper or been kept in a safe. If that was the case sales descriptions wouldn’t be be filled with “tiny scratch on the clip” or “never sharpened or carried, only taken out of the box for pictures”.

There are four major types of knife enthusiasts, but each has tons of subsets.

- “Pocket jewelry knife bros”, the guys that have $10,000 of Steel Flame jewelry on and spend thousands of dollars on knives with mokuti, timascus, and zirconium all over them.

- “Knife influencers/collectors”, the truly biggest segment of knife enthusiasts. The former are the ones that set the hype, the latter are the ones that follow the hype. These are the ones that care a lot about “buttery action”, “drop-shuttyness”, “fidget factor” and won’t buy a knife with “less than S35VN”. They are also the ones that lose their minds over the same knife with a different color G10/steel combo or a knife named after a city in California.

- “Steel nerds”, people that are super into steels and their various properties. Love sharpening their Vanax Superclean to 15 degrees inclusive to whittle hairs. Also known to test the edge retention of steels for fun. This group often has true users that love seeing how their steel performs in real world applications like Pete from Cedric & Ada. Make no mistake though, their biggest focus is the steel

- “Users”, people that don’t care what steel the knife has, what it cost, or who the manufacturer is. Usually loyal to a few brands and use them for every task they come up against throughout the day whether it’s big or small. They truly enjoy putting a knife to work and try to find every excuse to use it.

I’m jokingly exaggerating a little bit here, but I bet everyone reading this falls into one of those categories.
Click to expand...

Definately some hyperbole, but it gave me a chuckle nonetheless. :) Thanks for that.
 
Silvanus said:
I would disagree and say that “users” are probably the smallest segment of the community. Look at Instagram, the exchange here, and the “what are you carrying today” threads and you’ll see thousands of knives that have only ever sliced paper or been kept in a safe. If that was the case sales descriptions wouldn’t be be filled with “tiny scratch on the clip” or “never sharpened or carried, only taken out of the box for pictures”.
Click to expand...

When I referred to the "knife community" I wasn't just referring to people who participate on knife forums or post on Instagram, I was referring to ALL people who buy, own, and use knives. I feel safe in my belief that the vast majority of people who buy, own, and use knives (work/hunting/fishing/camping knives) look upon a knife as nothing more than a tool to be used and/or abused, and they have no interest in knife forums, the topics we discuss, or posting knife pics on Instagram.

I do not believe that Bladeforums or Instagram represent the majority of knife owners on this planet. Last time I checked there were less than 367k members here, and I'm sure many of those are no longer active. There are a lot more than 367k knife owners/users on this planet. I would imagine that just about every member of this forum knows one or a few people who own/carry/use knives but have no interest in knives beyond using one for a particular task, and have no interest in talking about or posting knives on social media.
 
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I can see OP's points being generally right.

I fall into the nerd category, but it's more than just a steel nerd. It's more a knife nerd overall.

I love super slick actions in folders. I like nerdy steel stuff, I like blade design, handle design.

I also like value, but not in the cheap way...more that I'll pay well for performance related items but not "bling." I don't even wear my wedding ring, and it's tungsten carbide. For that matter, I don't wear jewelry at all. Even my watch is just a garmin gps watch.

If it doesn't improve upon what I already have, I won't buy it. Better steel, better design, or something like that....I'll pass right on by.

And yes, I am a steel and edge snob. I really really like the better steels with better heat treats. I like polished edges, microbevels, all that stuff.
 
killgar said:
When I referred to the "knife community" I wasn't just referring to people who participate on knife forums or post on Instagram, I was referring to ALL people who buy, own, and use knives. I feel safe in my belief that the vast majority of people who buy, own, and use knives (work/hunting/fishing/camping knives) look upon a knife as nothing more than a tool to be used and/or abused, and they have no interest in knife forums, the topics we discuss, or posting knife pics on Instagram.

I do not believe that Bladeforums or Instagram represent the majority of knife owners on this planet. Last time I checked there were less than 367k members here, and I'm sure many of those are no longer active. There are a lot more than 367k knife owners/users on this planet. I would imagine that just about every member of this forum knows one or a few people who own/carry/use knives but have no interest in knives beyond using one for a particular task, and have no interest in talking about or posting knives on social media.
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I agree.
 
killgar said:
When I referred to the "knife community" I wasn't just referring to people who participate on knife forums or post on Instagram, I was referring to ALL people who buy, own, and use knives.
Click to expand...

There is a difference though between someone who uses a tool and an enthusiast that’s part of a community. You wouldn’t call everyone on earth who drives a car part of the “car community”. The extreme majority of people buy a car to get to work and simply travel from point A to point B. Someone in the “car community” is an enthusiast that goes deeper into the hobby of cars. Whether it be an interest in high performance parts, racing, or whatever.
 
Silvanus said:
There is a difference though between someone who uses a tool and an enthusiast that’s part of a community. You wouldn’t call everyone on earth who drives a car part of the “car community”. The extreme majority of people buy a car to get to work and simply travel from point A to point B. Someone in the “car community” is an enthusiast that goes deeper into the hobby of cars. Whether it be an interest in high performance parts, racing, or whatever.
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I certainly agree that there is a difference between "users" and "enthusiasts" (although many people are both). I drew that distinction in my first post.

I regard the "knife community" as being more than just "enthusiasts". I'd say it all comes down to how one defines "community". I've stated in the past on this forum that I feel a sense of shared values with everyone I see carrying a knife. The fact that someone recognizes the value of a knife means we have something in common. Even more so if they recognize the value of actually carrying a knife around with them. I regard people with shared values as a "community".

In my personal definition of "knife community" I include people who buy/carry/use knives for work, recreational activities, or carry one just in case they need to cut something. Not so much people who grab any old knife in the kitchen for food prep. But then again, based on how particular some people are about their kitchen knives, I would definitely consider them to be part of the "knife community".

I see two big differences between knives and automobiles. There is no stigma attached to driving a car, but there often is for carrying a knife. And everyone recognizes the value of motorized transportation, but not everyone recognizes the value of carrying a knife. I think the prejudice towards carrying a knife that any knife carrier might face increases the sense of "community".

To use a vehicle comparison, I've been a biker for the past 35 years. In the "motorcycle community" we have a thing called "the wave". Whether it's an actual wave, a few fingers raised (peace sign) or a nod of the head, it's a gesture of camaraderie and an act of acknowledgment of our shared love of motorcycles. I "wave" to everyone I pass on a motorcycle, or on a scooter, and I stop to inquire and help if I see a fellow rider broken down on the side of the road.

Whether someone is a hard-core dedicated biker like me, or just likes to go for a ride on weekends for fun, or a college kid who buys a scooter for transportation because it's cheap and all they can afford, I consider them/us to all be a part of the same "community", regardless of their wheels, their level of interest, or their motivation.

Like I said, we all have our own definition of "community". Admittedly, mine might be a bit broader than others :).
 
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All interesting replies. For me, personally, this post is closest to how I think of it;


'I fall into the nerd category, but it's more than just a steel nerd. It's more a knife nerd overall.

I love super slick actions in folders. I like nerdy steel stuff, I like blade design, handle design.

I also like value, but not in the cheap way...more that I'll pay well for performance related items but not "bling." I don't even wear my wedding ring, and it's tungsten carbide. For that matter, I don't wear jewelry at all. Even my watch is just a garmin gps watch.

If it doesn't improve upon what I already have, I won't buy it. Better steel, better design, or something like that....I'll pass right on by.

And yes, I am a steel and edge snob. I really really like the better steels with better heat treats. I like polished edges, microbevels, all that stuff."

I do have a small switchblade that I would like repaired. It could probably be classed as a gentleman's knife, and came from family. Not something I could do, and I don't think it's a throwaway, either. I'll give Bill Deshiv's site a look.
 
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