The Gentrification of Knives

It is interesting to compare that to the Japanese custom knife scene, which is pretty much still in a Gerber-Loveless era.
 
I think that new designs and innovations are refreshing and keep the hobby interesting, but it also has made the knife industry more of fashion industry than tool industry.

Everyone wants quality but all of it barely ever gets used - if not by the fact that many are afraid to use their pretty knives but then at least because they want the new fad and the knife you got month ago is not cool anymore.

I think I have developed a love / hate relationship with the whole knife scene recently. I don't think it would be that bad without the social media and "influencers".
 
A.L. said:
Japanese aesthetics, culture and traditionalism I suppose.
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To some extent, yes.
But I think the lack of new young makers and the dominance of old (really old) makers are the main reasons.
I am surprised to see mostly names of the makers I saw 30 years ago still praised and very few new knife makers mentioned.
It is inevitable from the very tight knife law in Japan, I guess.

But, thanks to the internet era, I can easily purchase a wide variety of knives online.
Good time for a knife lover.
 
I like to see the progresses done in design, machining and engineering in modern folders

but as it as been said it is not about choosing old vs new, but about to have options ... and to enjoy it

i EDC a SAK and a modern folder... still a big fan of the mc Gyver SAK tricks ;)
 
Here's my theory: 50 years ago and longer people felt more free....there were less regulations, restrictions, and less people. They focused on actually doing things and if they needed a knife to do it they simply bought a tool which was locally available and didn't obsess over that purchase. Today we are more regulated and live in a more crowded society. In many ways we are not as free. The knife is now a symbol of freedom. We spend hours on line researching, watching videos, looking at pictures of, then eventually buying knives we most likely do not need. The knife is now more than just a tool...it's symbolic. Some of us go outside sometimes and pretend to be rugged mountain men or adventurers and hack a few things and some don't even do that. Now I know there are still people who live and use knives like our ancestors, but they are probably too busy to post about it here. Meanwhile, we are living that fantasy by fixating on cutlery. I am speaking from the perspective of a middle-class 52 year old guy who's lived in the U.S. his whole life. YMMV.
 
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Gentrification suggests the old is getting bulldozed away to make room for something newer, shinier, more expensive. I think knives are getting sprawl - the old stuff is still there, plus new stuff is growing off to the side, the other side, and the other other side.

a lot of the new ones have taken some steps away from being tools. look at the Reate Jack 2 or the We Eschaton, these are more about showing off weird designs and fancy manufacturing than they are about practical cutting (as an own of the Eschaton, i can vouch for it not being much to cut with). they are works of art you can carry around with you, toys, collectibles. some of them can be used as functional pocket knives, but it is not a requirement over in those new knife neighborhoods.
 
Stelth said:
Here's my theory: 50 years ago and longer people felt more free....there were less regulations, restrictions, and less people. They focused on actually doing things and if they needed a knife to do it they simply bought a tool which was locally available and didn't obsess over that purchase. Today we are more regulated and live in a more crowded society. In many ways we are not as free. The knife is now a symbol of freedom. We spend hours on line researching, watching videos, looking at pictures of, then eventually buying knives we most likely do not need. The knife is now more than just a tool...it's symbolic. Some of us go outside sometimes and pretend to be rugged mountain men or adventurers and hack a few things and some don't even do that. Now I know there are still people who live and use knives like our ancestors, but they are probably too busy to post about it here. Meanwhile, we are living that fantasy by fixating on cutlery. I am speaking from the perspective of a middle-class 52 year old guy who's lived in the U.S. his whole life. YMMV.
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This is one of the problems with society in the current day; your knife, car, gun etc. are not symbols of anything.
 
Lack_of_Response said:
Gentrification suggests the old is getting bulldozed away to make room for something newer, shinier, more expensive. I think knives are getting sprawl - the old stuff is still there, plus new stuff is growing off to the side, the other side, and the other other side.

a lot of the new ones have taken some steps away from being tools. look at the Reate Jack 2 or the We Eschaton, these are more about showing off weird designs and fancy manufacturing than they are about practical cutting (as an own of the Eschaton, i can vouch for it not being much to cut with). they are works of art you can carry around with you, toys, collectibles. some of them can be used as functional pocket knives, but it is not a requirement over in those new knife neighborhoods.
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Elijah Isham comes up with some crazy designs, and I respect that, but almost none of them look like they can even be used to cut with. I think the ones he has designed for Civivi are actually more useful than his expensive crazy designs! I have a Plethiros and that thing is a slicing machine. The handle can be a little uncomfortable if you use it for extended periods I imagine, but overall its a good design and a useful blade. So he can go both ways and that's cool.

Some knives are definitely not designed with actual use in mind, and it is blatantly obvious. Something for everyone!
 
Steely_Gunz said:
You made me smile with that story. I lost my grandpa almost a year ago this month. Good life, 92 years, went out on his own terms by his own hand even if it made it hard on us to shoulder his choice.

I remember showing him some years ago a Kershaw folder, back when pretty much all Kershaw folders were US made, i think it may have been my Junkyard Dog II I bought at Gander Mountain for $75. He looked at it, and told me that it was a "hellova knife" and he wanted to show me something. He opened the kitchen drawer next to where he kept his whetstone that had kept his traditional trapper minute of finger-splinter sharp my entire life and pulled out...6 piece of crap Chinese made tactical folders.

"I got these on sale! They were $4 each or 6 for $20. You can have one if you want."

Graciously I grabbed the least goofy one of the bunch and slid it into my pocket and pretended to oo and ah over it and congratulate my grandpa on such a good deal he found.

See, I think we put a bit too much stock in "the good ol days" and look at things through the most nostalgic of lenses. My grandfather was a depression era guy, lied about his age and fought in WWII, had times so lean he fed his daughter (my mom) rabbit he shot out back on the property and told her it was chicken so she wouldn't cry and eat it. To him, a tool was a tool. A deal was a deal. An edge was and edge and all the fanfare of passing things down that we all wax poetic about and whatnot wasn't even on his radar. His knives were for cutting.

Funny thing. Not too long ago, after he passed, I broke out that piece of crap gas station knife he gave me just out of remembrance. It was cleaner than when he got it. Not a speck of grease on it. It had been honed by his hand on a 65 year old stone. It would take the hair off the devil's stones without him missing a note on his fiddle;) Mystery steel that was made sharp enough to cut a god. Everything about this knife was cared for. My grandfather full intended for a throw away pocket sticker to last him a generation.

It was then that I really grew to appreciate what he was. He was a survivor. He was given nothing, expected nothing, and used what he had at hand to get ahead. That stupid knife that was a rip off at $6 personified his personal tenacity of making due with what he had.

I know lots of folks that will go on about the good old days and knives their grandpappy carried, and I love hearing those stories. They warm my heart because I know what they mean to folks. I just like to toss in a bit of perspective as to what my grandpa valued. Buying what you can afford, using it to getting the job done, and caring for your tools be they heirlooms or gas stations.
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Sorry for your loss
 
Steely_Gunz said:
You made me smile with that story. I lost my grandpa almost a year ago this month. Good life, 92 years, went out on his own terms by his own hand even if it made it hard on us to shoulder his choice.

I remember showing him some years ago a Kershaw folder, back when pretty much all Kershaw folders were US made, i think it may have been my Junkyard Dog II I bought at Gander Mountain for $75. He looked at it, and told me that it was a "hellova knife" and he wanted to show me something. He opened the kitchen drawer next to where he kept his whetstone that had kept his traditional trapper minute of finger-splinter sharp my entire life and pulled out...6 piece of crap Chinese made tactical folders.

"I got these on sale! They were $4 each or 6 for $20. You can have one if you want."

Graciously I grabbed the least goofy one of the bunch and slid it into my pocket and pretended to oo and ah over it and congratulate my grandpa on such a good deal he found.

See, I think we put a bit too much stock in "the good ol days" and look at things through the most nostalgic of lenses. My grandfather was a depression era guy, lied about his age and fought in WWII, had times so lean he fed his daughter (my mom) rabbit he shot out back on the property and told her it was chicken so she wouldn't cry and eat it. To him, a tool was a tool. A deal was a deal. An edge was and edge and all the fanfare of passing things down that we all wax poetic about and whatnot wasn't even on his radar. His knives were for cutting.

Funny thing. Not too long ago, after he passed, I broke out that piece of crap gas station knife he gave me just out of remembrance. It was cleaner than when he got it. Not a speck of grease on it. It had been honed by his hand on a 65 year old stone. It would take the hair off the devil's stones without him missing a note on his fiddle;) Mystery steel that was made sharp enough to cut a god. Everything about this knife was cared for. My grandfather full intended for a throw away pocket sticker to last him a generation.

It was then that I really grew to appreciate what he was. He was a survivor. He was given nothing, expected nothing, and used what he had at hand to get ahead. That stupid knife that was a rip off at $6 personified his personal tenacity of making due with what he had.

I know lots of folks that will go on about the good old days and knives their grandpappy carried, and I love hearing those stories. They warm my heart because I know what they mean to folks. I just like to toss in a bit of perspective as to what my grandpa valued. Buying what you can afford, using it to getting the job done, and caring for your tools be they heirlooms or gas stations.
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What a wonderful story and thank you for sharing!
 
It's all pop culture. As a kid watching Macgyver on TV in the 80's a SAK seemed like a super knife. Same with the Rambo knife.
Suddenly a knife had to be something a little more then just a plain old regular knife to gain my interest as a kid. And I think that's what's happening now with collecting. People want something that's just a "little more" then what everyone else has. Which has created the current steel of the week craze, and exotic handle materials.
 
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