The BIG BAD BURLY KNIFE obsession

jimh0220

jimh0220

Joined
Apr 15, 2008
Messages
3,010
So, I have a slew of knives. More than I need, honestly. Every shape, size, and most brands. Thinning the herd is in order, as watching some of these blades collecting more dust than wear marks is just wrong in my book. I like to use them, not display them. That's just me.

SO, I noticed how many of the biggest, burliest, MANLIEST, testosterone inducing knives in my collection seemed to be uber cool... and unused. Oof. So many dollars wasted, so much waste. My mid sized knives, small fixed blades, and folders didn't seem to have that issue. Sure, some were not very used, but for a variety of reasons. But the big boys, as I pondered it, seemed to have a common thread: no reason to use them, and less practical for EDC use than any others.

Why did I buy them? Because everybody and their brother, and a few of their hairier sisters (I live in WA. There would be more hairy women if I lived in Portland, but that's another nasty issue altogether) touted the wonder and amazement or wielding these behemoths to deforest, single handedly slaughter entire families of bears, kill a million zombies (yet to see one yet, btw. I sense a scam) with one swing, and various other amazing feats. I drank the koolaid! Pitchers full! So much so I began crashing through walls (large fixed blade attached to my belt), yelling 'Oh Yeah!'! You know what? I was an idiot. Too much koolaid. Got me nothing but repeated trips to the bathroom, and a box of large knives I've parted with for a fraction of their price.

So the hype sucked me in. Big blades, the holy grail of living. What's weird, though, is that, growing up, First Blood came out, and Holy Crap, Rambo used a MASSIVE knife. Today, folks would say, how cute! It matches Sly's height. Awww! REAL people used, well, average, normal knives. And they did everything they needed to with them. Now, you must not enter a forest with anything less than 9 inches (of steel, you sickos), or you will not come out alive!

What is the draw of these massive bars of metal that take arms the size of a small tree to yield? I look at them now and laugh. I know, it's your money, so why should I care. Truthfully, I don't. I just want to pick the brains of others who guzzle the koolaid (oh Yeah!), and see if you think this is knife fad or evolution. Well?
 
I like medium to large folders. Anything else just doesn't really get any use. Too small, too big, most fixed, etc just don't see the pocket time that a nice 3-4" flipper does.
 
I like to drink too much too.
Beer is more my thing though.
I used to have too many knives as well. Then I sold most of them and bought my wife a new car. :D
You really only need a couple of knives. Some folks don't really need any. It depends on what you do for a living, or what your hobbies have (not collecting knives) For instance, today I skinned some chickens. I used smallest blade on my buck creek whittler. It worked great.

My advice? Stop drinking the koolaid and start drinking Beer!


BTW. What part of Washington are you in?
 
Chris Pierce said:
I like to drink too much too.
Beer is more my thing though.
I used to have too many knives as well. Then I sold most of them and bought my wife a new car. :D
You really only need a couple of knives. Some folks don't really need any. It depends on what you do for a living, or what your hobbies have (not collecting knives) For instance, today I skinned some chickens. I used smallest blade on my buck creek whittler. It worked great.

My advice? Stop drinking the koolaid and start drinking Beer!


BTW. What part of Washington are you in?
Click to expand...

Beer is great! Even better if you brew it yourself.

I also pared down my collection recently, by about a third. Raised enough cash to buy my first suppressor, and then some :D
 
Don't drink alcohol, which is probably best for all humanity, but great advice. Yeah, I feel your spending pain. My wife suggests I open a knife site and sell them to make a living at it, so I can see the knives, fondle them, and then NOT lose money on them. I warned her it's like asking a heroin addict to make the deliveries.

I'm in Puyallup, home of Pierce County's most f'ed up traffic, and apparently home to a million 'medical' Pot dispensaries. Glaucoma must be rampant in this town. Of course, it's cheaper to sell closer to your growers....
 
I know my sweet spot for folder blade length is 3-4" but I sometimes stray above that range. For example, I now own an Ontario Hossom Retribution One. It's freaking unnecessarily huge. I laughed when I tried to put it in my completely empty pocket - felt like I was packing a collapsible baton or something. A lot of times if I can get a good enough price on a knife where I think I can resell it in the near future for little to no loss, I'll just buy it to see how it is. I think that's what I did with the Retribution One. I can't justify keeping it when I could sell it and free up a decent chunk of change to buy something I'll actually use. :o
 
I've never had a really large knife, I never even knew they existed until I started reading this forum a few years back. I grew up with the woods philosophy of a small-medium fixed blade and a hatchet. This always got the job done well, and I never saw a reason to look for anything else. I recently bought a kukhuri on the exchange -not really a knife- out of curiosity and due to the positive reviews I've seen online. My first trip with the thing made me see the error of my decision. The kukhuri was heavy, bulky, and chopped no better than my trusty hatchet. Ever since, my kukhuri has taken a back seat as a work project, I need to completely re-handle it and make a new sheath for it, so I can try it out again in the woods. Unfortunately, I don't have much time to spare, and I don't know if it would be a wise investment of time if I did commit to it.

Overall, I feel that if I go on a day hike, I wouldn't bring a very large blade because I simply wouldn't need its function, and if I go backpacking, the weight would deter me from lugging it around. Maybe I'm just still looking for the right system and the right blade, but I'm just not seeing the extra large chopper as something that would come out with me outside of something like a 3 day hike.

I would also appreciate the opinion of people who do use large blades for backpacking instead of hatchets, and be interested to hear how the performance compares / what knives they carry.
 
Good post, I've posted before that my dream knife is an Opinel#8 in plain g-10 with a M-4 blade. Now though I might change my mind and go with K390 from what Ankerson has posted.
 
jimh0220 said:
Don't drink alcohol, which is probably best for all humanity, but great advice. Yeah, I feel your spending pain. My wife suggests I open a knife site and sell them to make a living at it, so I can see the knives, fondle them, and then NOT lose money on them. I warned her it's like asking a heroin addict to make the deliveries.

I'm in Puyallup, home of Pierce County's most f'ed up traffic, and apparently home to a million 'medical' Pot dispensaries. Glaucoma must be rampant in this town. Of course, it's cheaper to sell closer to your growers....
Click to expand...

Alcohol, proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy!
 
it seems like, on average, the people with the least need of hard use knives are the ones buying these oversized, overbuilt, sharpened pry bars. whether this is because they never learned how to properly use a reasonable knife, or just sheer boredom, I'm not sure.
 
Once upon a time, most people carried a weapon. Now that's uncommon, so some of us try to make up for it by at least owning a bunch of cool weapons. For some it's guns, for us it's swords and giant knives. :p
 
I own several larger knives like the Junglas and the Condor Hudson Bay. I grew up with machetes rather than axes, so it's comfortable for me. My favorite woods tool is probably a Tramontina 14" trail machete. Lightweight, cuts deep, doesn't wear you out. When I want to bring an axe, I'll just exchange the long blade for it, but I am proficient with both and would say it's all about preference.

I'd add that some people feel more secure with a large blade/small handle than a small axe head/large handle.
 
jimh0220 said:
So, I have a slew of knives. More than I need, honestly. Every shape, size, and most brands. Thinning the herd is in order, as watching some of these blades collecting more dust than wear marks is just wrong in my book. I like to use them, not display them. That's just me.

SO, I noticed how many of the biggest, burliest, MANLIEST, testosterone inducing knives in my collection seemed to be uber cool... and unused. Oof. So many dollars wasted, so much waste. My mid sized knives, small fixed blades, and folders didn't seem to have that issue. Sure, some were not very used, but for a variety of reasons. But the big boys, as I pondered it, seemed to have a common thread: no reason to use them, and less practical for EDC use than any others.

Why did I buy them? Because everybody and their brother, and a few of their hairier sisters (I live in WA. There would be more hairy women if I lived in Portland, but that's another nasty issue altogether) touted the wonder and amazement or wielding these behemoths to deforest, single handedly slaughter entire families of bears, kill a million zombies (yet to see one yet, btw. I sense a scam) with one swing, and various other amazing feats. I drank the koolaid! Pitchers full! So much so I began crashing through walls (large fixed blade attached to my belt), yelling 'Oh Yeah!'! You know what? I was an idiot. Too much koolaid. Got me nothing but repeated trips to the bathroom, and a box of large knives I've parted with for a fraction of their price.

So the hype sucked me in. Big blades, the holy grail of living. What's weird, though, is that, growing up, First Blood came out, and Holy Crap, Rambo used a MASSIVE knife. Today, folks would say, how cute! It matches Sly's height. Awww! REAL people used, well, average, normal knives. And they did everything they needed to with them. Now, you must not enter a forest with anything less than 9 inches (of steel, you sickos), or you will not come out alive!

What is the draw of these massive bars of metal that take arms the size of a small tree to yield? I look at them now and laugh. I know, it's your money, so why should I care. Truthfully, I don't. I just want to pick the brains of others who guzzle the koolaid (oh Yeah!), and see if you think this is knife fad or evolution. Well?
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with you to a point. I have many more folders and smaller legal edc fixed blades that "get more use" because I EDC them. I don't EDC a chopping blade........

I also have one large chopper that I use for a chopper around camp. I use it.

I have an ESEE-6 that is a great knife, but I never use it. Been tossing around the idea of getting rid of it because it's useless IMHO. a 6" knife doesn't give me enough length or weight to chop like I do with my kukri, but it's too long to EDC legally. I'd carry this blade if it were legal to do so, but it's "forest-only" and outclassed in every way by my kukri for that type of environment and task.

However, I have a pretty outdoor-centric life.....I spend a lot of time in the woods compared to most. (ecologist)

"Use the right tool for the right job" is my mantra, and it's saved me lots of tools (not just knives) since I stopped trying to make a tool do a job it wasn't meant to do.
 
goodeyesniper said:
it seems like, on average, the people with the least need of hard use knives are the ones buying these oversized, overbuilt, sharpened pry bars. whether this is because they never learned how to properly use a reasonable knife, or just sheer boredom, I'm not sure.
Click to expand...

It is a chicken or the egg thing. The guys who buy big heavy knives exclusively probably don't carry them because they are big and heavy. I have a few large fixed-blades but I have dozens of folders because that is what I carry every day. The big knife really excels in certain things, but those happen to be things very few people (at least in the First World) do every day.

In my experience, though, the small fixed blades get the least carry or use of all of my knives.
 
jimh0220 said:
So, I have a slew of knives. More than I need, honestly. Every shape, size, and most brands. Thinning the herd is in order, as watching some of these blades collecting more dust than wear marks is just wrong in my book. I like to use them, not display them. That's just me.

SO, I noticed how many of the biggest, burliest, MANLIEST, testosterone inducing knives in my collection seemed to be uber cool... and unused. Oof. So many dollars wasted, so much waste. My mid sized knives, small fixed blades, and folders didn't seem to have that issue. Sure, some were not very used, but for a variety of reasons. But the big boys, as I pondered it, seemed to have a common thread: no reason to use them, and less practical for EDC use than any others.

Why did I buy them? Because everybody and their brother, and a few of their hairier sisters (I live in WA. There would be more hairy women if I lived in Portland, but that's another nasty issue altogether) touted the wonder and amazement or wielding these behemoths to deforest, single handedly slaughter entire families of bears, kill a million zombies (yet to see one yet, btw. I sense a scam) with one swing, and various other amazing feats. I drank the koolaid! Pitchers full! So much so I began crashing through walls (large fixed blade attached to my belt), yelling 'Oh Yeah!'! You know what? I was an idiot. Too much koolaid. Got me nothing but repeated trips to the bathroom, and a box of large knives I've parted with for a fraction of their price.

So the hype sucked me in. Big blades, the holy grail of living. What's weird, though, is that, growing up, First Blood came out, and Holy Crap, Rambo used a MASSIVE knife. Today, folks would say, how cute! It matches Sly's height. Awww! REAL people used, well, average, normal knives. And they did everything they needed to with them. Now, you must not enter a forest with anything less than 9 inches (of steel, you sickos), or you will not come out alive!

What is the draw of these massive bars of metal that take arms the size of a small tree to yield? I look at them now and laugh. I know, it's your money, so why should I care. Truthfully, I don't. I just want to pick the brains of others who guzzle the koolaid (oh Yeah!), and see if you think this is knife fad or evolution. Well?
Click to expand...

I could have written that 30 years ago. And there wasn't even any knife magazines around back then! When I was in my 20's, I somehow got into the large sheath knives. Collected some Randall's, and a number 14 was my backpacking knife. Sometimes if I was going 'light' a Buck General was used.

By my late 30's I realized I had not been carrying let alone using them for anything. I got by just fine with a good knife in my pocket. By age 40, I took a real long look a them, and couldn't remember using them for a darn thing. I sold off all the Randall's, the big Buck's and all of them. Kept some of my more used pocket knives and two 4 inch bladed sheath knives for small game and fish and utility. Used the money from the Randall collection for the better half and I to take a month long around the country road trip. Went camping and hiking in Yellowstone, Bryce, Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, and had a ball. I treasure the memories and photo album of that trip much more than I treasure the memory of those over sized and over priced knives.

I still love knives, but just keep to the more practical for edc than any Walter Mitty fantasy stuff. Modern 21st century America doesn't have much hostile injun's or enemy paratroopers dropping out of the sky. But I do need a knife for the retired gentleman of leisure that I am living now. Being retired, I find I actually need a knife more, due to the fishing, woods rambling, and camping we have the time for now. But my pocket knife of the day takes care of it. A couple inches of sharp is all I seem to need to gut a pan fish, work in the garden out back, sharpen a hot dog stick for the grandkids.

Carl.
 
I've drooled over my share of large fixed blades, even bought a few. Luckily I've been able to convince myself most of the time that I have no use for them. I'm still drawn to them like a moth to a flame though, wish I could figure it out. I was in a large knife store in TN a month ago, and I must have circled back by the ESEE knives half a dozen times, but was able to leave without buying one. I wish I understood my fascination with them.
 
watertower said:
I've drooled over my share of large fixed blades, even bought a few. Luckily I've been able to convince myself most of the time that I have no use for them. I'm still drawn to them like a moth to a flame though, wish I could figure it out. I was in a large knife store in TN a month ago, and I must have circled back by the ESEE knives half a dozen times, but was able to leave without buying one. I wish I understood my fascination with them.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's a sub conscious draw from our not to distant past. Look at it this way; only up to about 150 years ago, we, as human beings had to carry some sort of weapon because it just wasn't Mr. Rodgers neighborhood. It was mean, low down and cut throat in many places just to stay alive. If there wasn't some two legged varmints around, then there was large carnivorous creatures that wanted to find out if we tasted like chicken. From the bronze age on, man carried some sort of large blade both as protection and a tool. Mr. Colt only invented the first practical repeating handgun in the 1830's. Before that is one shot then you went for the cold steel.

I think we carry some sort of genetic memory with us, and we've only been really civilized in the last 1/10th of human history. From the bronze age on, it was pretty lawless, so a man had to armed. Not so much now, depending on where you live. Baring parts of Rwanda or East L.A. we can get by with a small SAK to take care of the little cutting jobs that come up now and then. But our history goes back such a very long way.

I still look at the big ones. I'll stand there looking in the case and have thoughts of "Yeah, I'd like that big mutha" but I don't buy it. I know it's it's only a activistic urge from some unconscious sub conscious thing, and I just look. I've got knives that will handle what I'm likey to run into in the savage wilds of American suburbia. But I still look.

We can't help it, we're knife knuts. We're different than the rest of society anyways. Best we can do is keep it down to a manageable mob by sticking to things we can justify. Any folding knife can be a nice practical thing to have on you. A large bowie or Gladius? Maybe not so much. I know I was glad to have a sharp knife in my pocket in January of 1991. An idiot friver rolled her old Datsun B210 in front of us, and I ended up crawling into the upside down wreck and I couldn't unlatch the seat belt. Pushing with both thumbs, it was a no-go. I was glad I had a nice sharp pocket knife to cut the belt. The fire from the engine compartment was giving off a thick greasy black smoke that was choking, and lady driver wold have died by the time the rescue people had got there. I think a nice sharp knife should be part of everyones daily wardrobe. But I'll leave the over size stuff for Hollyweird.
 
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