I was a Gun Nut. Now I like knives. As you get older tastes change and different things become a center of interest.
My recent interest in knives I think is because I can buy something that is art and functional still. My hankering for handmades has revealed to me that I can appreciate art, the work that goes into a knife, and the skill it takes to make one. This appreciation is something that one grows into with age. Some knives can be like Diamonds or Opals, you can stare at them forever, eternally lost in the beauty of what it is, and never tire of its perfection. This is an appreciation that grow with age I think. It is an aquired taste, but I think it never grows old. Each time I pick up a knife there is a still a feeling of awe.
There is something about the mating of maching steel and and art that creates almost a new lifeform. Look at Ralph Turnbull's knives, or Darrel Ralph's, or any of a whole plethora of other makers who have a gift that is sometimes beyond words.
The work in a knife is beyond what the maker actually put into that particular knife, it is a culmination of everything he has done up to that point. I only wish that I could afford more of these knives. My collection is meager, but not with out heart. Guns do not offer this to me. they are impersonal and cold objects that require too much care and time to do what they do. I have alot of them, but I do not cherish them like my knives. That and knifeknuts are more of an all inclusive type of people. It seems that many have reached a state of enlightenment.
Another thing:
Keep close to your Girlfriend's family, her father must like you if he took you out with 1) His Daughter, 2)his Guns(and was not planning on shooting you). I am a lucky man in that My fiance's father likes to go shooting, and lets me take his guns hunting. It is hard to find a girl that would go shooting. It is hard to find a girl that would tolerate guns in the house these days.
YeK
