So...When have you become a knife snob?

A lot of truth in this thread! I don't think you ever know till it's too late!
 
I don't think price need come into the equation. A proper knife snob (and of course there are different species of same) should, IMHO, appreciate a nice little Mora as well as a Randall. Should appreciate an Opinel as well as a Sebenza or a Hinderer. That is the species I am. Stays away from "Bear Grylls" products like they were the plague...but knows where a nice little Victorinox fits in the big picture.

To be a proper knife snob, one has to really "get it". I think a proper knive snob also needs to be able to sharpen his own knives properly. As a knife snob, the technology shouldn't matter. Now there are "sharpening snobs" of course and that's a different breed of cat. That's your water stone people there at the apex.

I think one needn't collect or even own a custom knife to be a proper knife snob...one simply has to be discerning enough to know to turn one's nose up at all manner of "inferior" products...and know what those products are.
 
I guess I've always respected a good blade. I never knew how many options there were until I got the internet. I would still buy garbage if I liked the way it looked when I was a teenager. Now I only buy quality, and I find myself checking out reviews, torture tests and the such on you tube before I make a buy. I guess I am a knife snob in a way because I definitely snub my nose at POS brands. But I'll buy a $30 sac stick it in the same pocket with my $300 super folder and think nothing of it. I guess what I'm trying to say is I respect quality and snub my nose at crap regardless of price, if that makes for a knife snob then I'm guilty as charged:D

I do hate when a friend tries to tell me that their $10 charming china cheapie is just as good as my knife:rolleyes:
 
HoosierQ said:
I don't think price need come into the equation. A proper knife snob (and of course there are different species of same) should, IMHO, appreciate a nice little Mora as well as a Randall. Should appreciate an Opinel as well as a Sebenza or a Hinderer. That is the species I am. Stays away from "Bear Grylls" products like they were the plague...but knows where a nice little Victorinox fits in the big picture.

To be a proper knife snob, one has to really "get it". I think a proper knive snob also needs to be able to sharpen his own knives properly. As a knife snob, the technology shouldn't matter. Now there are "sharpening snobs" of course and that's a different breed of cat. That's your water stone people there at the apex.

I think one needn't collect or even own a custom knife to be a proper knife snob...one simply has to be discerning enough to know to turn one's nose up at all manner of "inferior" products...and know what those products are.
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Lol--I see what you did there. ;)

I consider myself of the same breed you describe, but would add that perhaps "knife veteran" or similar might be a better term than "snob." I think that on the way to becoming a veteran one often goes through a snob phase where, for instance, one looks down on 440C or AUS8...but then eventually realizes that while they aren't the BEST steels they aren't bad steels. As the old saying goes "drink deep from the font of knowledge, because a little is a dangerous thing." :D
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I consider myself of the same breed you describe, but would add that perhaps "knife veteran" or similar might be a better term than "snob." I think that on the way to becoming a veteran one often goes through a snob phase where, for instance, one looks down on 440C or AUS8...but then eventually realizes that while they aren't the BEST steels they aren't bad steels. As the old saying goes "drink deep from the font of knowledge, because a little is a dangerous thing." :D
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Amen brother :thumbup:
 
I think it's a relatively gradual process.

I started out buying anything that looked 'cool'

Then I paid splurged and paid $40 for a folder. Yes! $40 for a folder, can you believe it?! Not gonna let my GF know or she'll throw a fit.

Hmmm... This $40 knife is pretty awesome. What is called? Who makes it? Kershaw? Is that even a brand name? Probably, not. I did buy this at WalMart after all...

I'll surf Amazon for some similar knives... Wow, look at this guy! Looks so cool! A SOG Seal Pup Elite? It's expensive though...80 bucks... But that tiger stripe coating looks so bad ass... I'm in need of a large blade for camping anyway, I'll pick it up.

I should read up on this knife though. Hmmm, AUS8... is that steel good? I'll look into steels and see.

Wow, look at this company, Cold Steel. They make lots of knives in AUS8 and they look so bad ass! What's this? They have a youtube channel. I'll check it out. Holy shit they just used that knife to cut 3 ropes at once! I'm getting that!

Wow, they're kinda expensive... But I need a good quality folder, my other one is good and all, but this one looks cooler, I love its blade shape... Wonder what it's called.... I'll wiki it.

Clip point huh? Cool. Oh, and that ones a drop point... What's this? They also have different grinds? Hallow...and FFG...? What's FFG? Oooooh... full flat grind... cool! What's a recurve? Oh, that's a recurve... neat!

Hmmm, I don't really like the look of this knife. What's with that large hole? But multiple people on youtube are singing its praises... Guess I'll try out this Tenacious.

Holy shit! This Tenacious is awesome! What a smooth knife! And it was only 40 bucks! Wow, this company rocks. Spyderco, huh. I'm going to try out this Endura next, it's a bit more expensive, but it's made with VG10 steel, which I hear is awesome.

This blue handled Endura4 is so sweet. And it's light too! Great knife... I'm going to stick with this knife for the rest of my life. I don't even need another one.

Fast forward 8 months later and here I am sitting on a $2.5k knife collection and EDCing $300-500 blades.
 
HoosierQ said:
I don't think price need come into the equation. A proper knife snob (and of course there are different species of same) should, IMHO, appreciate a nice little Mora as well as a Randall. Should appreciate an Opinel as well as a Sebenza or a Hinderer. That is the species I am. Stays away from "Bear Grylls" products like they were the plague...but knows where a nice little Victorinox fits in the big picture.

To be a proper knife snob, one has to really "get it". I think a proper knive snob also needs to be able to sharpen his own knives properly. As a knife snob, the technology shouldn't matter. Now there are "sharpening snobs" of course and that's a different breed of cat. That's your water stone people there at the apex.

I think one needn't collect or even own a custom knife to be a proper knife snob...one simply has to be discerning enough to know to turn one's nose up at all manner of "inferior" products...and know what those products are.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I'll bet Lycosa's $18 Buck is about the best value you can get for $18.

I see people at work with Winchester and the like and I tell them that Boker+, Kershaw, and Buck make some nice knives for about the same money and they think I'm a knife snob.
 
My first knife was one of those black plastic handled pieces of garbage that Walmart sells for 99 cents in the camping section. They nearly fall apart in your hand. My dad came back from a gun show with it for me and I thought it was just awesome because of the serrations and all of that. I also thought it locked up solid (lol). Pretty soon my Grandpa gave me a few of his old Schrade/Remington Slipjoints... and I got into whittling and stuff. Then my tactical knife phase began and I thought Smith and Wesson Knives were just about as good as you can get. Then the Kershaw's were what I mainly had. Kershaws are awesome, and that's when I found this forum...the gateway to hundreds and hundreds of dollars spent on knives better than Kershaws.

That's my knife story...hehehe.
 
i think it happens when you can appreceate a reasonably high quality knife, as well as a low quality one. you start to realie that expensive or not, they all pretty much do the same thing, which is cut things.

i like CRK, spyderco, benchmade, and hinderer, but i can carry cold steel and CRKT all the same.
 
When you only buy name brand or from a trusted maker, I think. And when you can tell the difference between a crap China knife and something that was crafted by skilled hands.
 
PitbullShogun said:
i think it happens when you can appreceate a reasonably high quality knife, as well as a low quality one. you start to realie that expensive or not, they all pretty much do the same thing, which is cut things.

i like CRK, spyderco, benchmade, and hinderer, but i can carry cold steel and CRKT all the same.
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^That's when you STOP being a knife snob. ;):thumbup:
 
When I was at a knife shop in 2002 and picked up a user Microtech Socom elite and fell in love with how thick and well made it was. I still buy cheap, but my heart is in Elite level knives.
 
when i decided to collect only the metro-sexual version of the spyderco military: titanium framelock in s30v.
 
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