Specialty collecting... it's all about focus

Codger_64

Codger_64

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A while back I read a magazine article about knife collecting, I think it was by Bruce Voyles. The gist of the article was that a collector should focus on a specialty. Since reading it, I have given it a lot of thought. There are as many ways to specialize as there are people involved in collecting. One could say that trying to acquire a "one-of-each" collection of Schrade knives is specializing. But that leads to literally thousands of patterns and editions. So maybe collecting just one brand isn't focusing as Voyles intended with his advice.

Collecting only the varients of one pattern might be a better choice. Think of all the handle materials and special etches, shields offered for just the Schrade fillet knives.

Then there are the "private issue" knives. Think of all the various Ducks Unlimited issues since they took them as a client. Or NRA, Rocky Mountain Elk, National Wild Turkey Federation, Whitetails Unlimited, Quail Unlimited.

The tobacco company issues, beginning with the Prince Albert offer 58OT etc., and on through the Copenhagen, Skoal, Beech-Nut, Marlboro offerings. Heck, back further than these if you looked.

And the commemoratives. I won't even try to list those or the "personality" knives like Franklin, Carson, Bowie, etc.

Special events knives like the Olympics, Calgary Stampede, World's fairs etc.

Scrimshaws, beautiful art and not too rare yet for the most part.

I am trying to focus on a few "firsts" and different tangstamps on high production fixed blade Old Timers like the 15OT Deerslayer, and 165OT Woodsman, both named well after their introduction for charactors of James Fennimore Coopers' Natty Bumppo, the Leather Stocking Tales. An engrossing series of tales following the life of a ficticious longhunter from the early 1700's.

In some instances, the knives are too expensive, so just the tangstamp photos are kept for cataloguing and reference. Sometimes a deal for real presents itself and I buy the real McCoy. Since these patterns, while for the most part were retired from open stock in the late '90's, you would think they would be rare, but they were produced for so many years that there is a fair stock of them out there in just about any condition you care to name. An exception is that they were revived up to the end in stainless for special limited editions, some even unreleased by the closing. I just keep pictures of those too. Investor/collectors seem to be driving their price (not to be confused with value) too high for this farmboy to consider.

Since some of these early Walden OT's were serialized, and some were marked Patent Pending, I am looking for earlier and earlier examples of them. And the placement of the tangstamps varied, as did the early sheaths they tried. The search is proving even more rewarding than the finding. For one thing, searching is free. Finding and getting is not. Particularly if the knife is in pristine condition and someone is trying to buy it for investment resale. Maybe I am fooling myself by thinking I am collecting them for some higher altruistic motive like preservation and disimination of knowledge, not possible monitary gain. But it gives me the sword of rightous indignation when a known resaler stomps me with his wallet!

Anyone else picked out a favorite pattern to specialize in? I know LT has in the switchblades and also the different tangstamps from the NY bladesmiths. Anyone specialize in the sharpfingers? A particular pattern of stockman? Someone have a special yen for the ill-fated 100th Anniversary editions?

Codger

Codger
 
Gee, what else? I 'specialize' in Texas Toothpicks, of course. Preferably five inchers, although I have a handmade monster that is 6" closed, over 11" open. Handles of Pearl, Stag, well-done bone, Abalone celluloid. Lets me get very familiar with lots and lots of brands, old and new. Come to think of it, I think it was a 'Old Lunker' that brought me here to this forum.

And here, among the best of the bfc membership, I found a new collecting passion.

phil
 
I disagree that a knife collector must have a specialized focus. Why should they? I guess that's why I'm more of an accumulator than a collector.

Still, within my accumulation are a couple of small actual collections. One is my 'micro' collections of OldTimers with the brown Delrin handles - 22 different patterns so far. Still, that's only a small portion of the overall accumulation, and there's no way I'd abandon my practice of buying all sorts of interesting knives to focus on it.

Best Wishes,
Bob
 
I've got so many knives I'm looking for, I can't focus on one type of brand, let alone a specific series of one brand. All the knives I get from now on have to be used, at least once in a while. I have a 34ot, two 7ot Cavebears, a 12OT, an 897 UH and I'm looking for a 18OT. I do not like the linerlocks out there from Schrade, I do really like the stockmen and lockbacks out there. I don't think I would have gotten the 12OT if it hadn't've been on clearance at Walmart for 2 freakin bucks!
 
Flee before you suffer my fate this disease only gets worse. Here are some pics of one pile that I laid out just to show you the amounts a true addict collects. Like I said I have tried to own them all. LT
 
I'm looking for a 18OT.
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These were among the low-price closeouts from SMKW, $9.99 seemed like a fair price. I think there's still in stock at the local ACE Hardware or K-Mart, but they're twenty bucks. Here's a guy selling a one on eBay for $13 with Buy-It-Now.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=48820&item=6507685170&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V

I do not like the linerlocks out there from Schrade, I do really like the stockmen and lockbacks out there. I don't think I would have gotten the 12OT if it hadn't've been on clearance at Walmart for 2 freakin bucks!
Click to expand...
The 18OT has the brass liner lock, or as Schrade calls it, a Blade Lock.

Best Wishes,
Bob
 
Maybe I'm wrong, I'm looking for the smaller slipjoint stockman, smaller than the 34OT. I saw it at a True Value in Hampstead MD(didn't pick it up) and the blade looked like it said 18ot.
 
Good golly Lt!!.....that looks like a "Farmer's Market" for cutlery.... :eek:
You could probably dig in to those knives and never come up with the same one ONCE...er..twice... :D

SHS,

I think you might be looking for a 108 OT....that's the 2 3/4" stock pattern, with a pen blade instead of a spey blade.

I am highly specialized in my collecting. I collect anything I really like and can afford.....well, most of the time I can afford what I get...... :D

Bill
 
Perhaps it was a 108 OT. The 108 is similar to the 34 in that it also has three blades, of very similar shapes. Overall, the 108 is a slightly different pattern though - a gentle S-shape with more rounded bolsters.

...or perhaps it was packaged in such a way that the BladeLock wasn't visible.

If you like the stockman pattern, you might like the 33OT. The handle is nearly identical to the 34, but with two blades instead of three. The 36OT is also identical to the 34, but with a hoof-cleaning tool (at least I think that's what it is) instead of the small blade.

I don't care for the Schrade lockbacks as much as Buck's. But I do have a 6OT, 7OT, 3OT, and 5OT. The 6 is my favorite.

I normally don't care for liner locks, but I do sort-of like the Scrade BladLock design, especially the 125OT and the 194OT.

No, I don't have any of this memorized. I had to pull out my OldTimer collection in order to make an informed post. :)

-Bob
 
lt632ret said:
Flee before you suffer my fate this disease only gets worse. Here are some pics of one pile that I laid out just to show you the amounts a true addict collects. Like I said I have tried to own them all. LT
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He's holding out guys. One pile? That is, I think, one corner of one pile in one area of his compound. He is too shy to show us the whole single pile. I think the cat is to blame for some of them though. I tried to blame my cat for new knives once and it didn't work. The dog ratted me out. Now I try to get my wife a new Schrade kitchen knife occasionally. Maybe she would prefer the real kitchen stuff, but her 140OT Trail Boss guts a mean chicken and beef fajita. I haven't gotten her to carry her 47OT Beast yet. Too big for her pocket, so she lets me keep it in the display case. I am not up to metal tubs yet, but the cardboard boxes under my desk are growing.

Codger

Codger
 
LT,

I think I just got wood....

Nah just kidding, but holy cow!

BTW, I prefer the stockman pattern, but I will collect just about anything.

Glenn
 
I'm mostly just an accumlulator but I'm learning how to focus.

For example, I have a Butter and Mollasses 896K stockman and I'm patiently waiting to pounce on a Coffee and Cream 896K to round out "the collection". Are there any more color variations of this knife that I should be aware of?

........ and let's not forget my dear '49ers :cool:.

With so many cool knives out there I find focusing very difficult but it's a discipline that adds value and meaning to an otherwise unstructured hobby.
 
El Lobo said:
I am highly specialized in my collecting. I collect anything I really like and can afford.....well, most of the time I can afford what I get...... :D Bill
Click to expand...

Drum roll.....symbol crash!!!

Well, heck, you can't take it with you. Might as well have some good stuff to pass on.
 
The result of no focus, an accumulation of knives, yea I have many small collections within the accumulation, like my Spydercos, CRKTs, Schrades, Cases, SAKs, Autos, Advertizers, Pearl Scales, Celluloid Scales, even Custom Folders and Fixed Blades, but no real focus, it's just so hard, there's so many to chose from.

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See what I mean, no real focus, just a loosely based accumulation of knives.
 
I did not mean to imply that any of the other forms of knife collecting were wrong, or less personally satisfying. Personal satisfaction, after all, is the number one goal in knife collecting for most of us.

Like most of you, my collection, so far at least, is a lot of smaller collections. One of those is the Schrade products of new millenium. I don't particularly love them, but they do represent the last efforts of one of the greatest cutlery companies in America.

Another is the Safe-T-Grip series. Not my favorites either, but they do represent Schrade's attempt to modernize their Old Timer line (sounds of teeth grinding!).

Yet another is the grouping of Old Timer and Uncle Henry lockbacks and slipjoints (including the "ancient" Ulster Old Timer 58OT predecessor here), representing what I feel is a high point of their late 20th century marketing to my generation.

Then the fixed blade Old Timers from the "ancient" 15OT of 1964 through all of the last surviving spin-off models of brown sawcut Delrin and Staglon handles.

Those gave rise to my own "specialty collection", the various ages, tangmarks and embodiments of the 15OT Deerslayer and 165OT Woodsman. These two were my first loves as long time users, and the more I learn the more I like them. A 165OT will be my first custom undertaking sometime this summer. And a 15OT will be next.

Yet another sidenote group is comprised of the limited edition varients of the fixed blade Old Timers and Uncle Henry's. These were, as is spoken in the military terminology, "targets of opportunity and collateral damage"!

While I am a dyed in the wool Schradeophile and they make up the majority of my efforts, I do have a few Case (small Eisenhower, black zytel lockback, etc.), Camillus (old navy knife, three military "camp" knives), Colonial, and other brand knives. So you can see how "specialized" my own efforts have been!

Codger

P.S.- Almost forgot the Schrade and George Schrade fixed blades going back to the forties, fifties, and sixties before Old Timer was new! LT may yet entice me to delve further back in history for earlier examples of New York cutlery arts.
 
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