I generally hang on to all of my knives. All have been carried and most of them still see pocket time. They all have something that speaks to me. Something unique about the design and I carry them to remind myself of that feature.
Occasionally an exception comes up. My brother-in-law fell in love with a large Camillus-Remington and I gave it to him. But on the whole, the mound continues to grow, albeit more slowly than it has in the past.
Kids will just have to deal with it when I depart. It will likely not be one of their major concerns.
@knarfeng and
JTB_5
may not know it, but they speak for me.
Often, I go through my knives and wonder just how I could break my collection to a certain number- and I just dont think I could do this, I am in the minor league and know other and have seen collections that are mind staggering- and I suspect heavily they too feel the exact same way- it's a hard road building a collection, I think even harder breaking down one.
Knives gifted to me are extremely precious for many reasons...
1, The meaning behind the Knife
2, the thanks and thought i send out when pulling out that gifted knife to my friend whom gifted me the knife- I often say " Thank you my friend- I love this Knife"..and get to work with it.
3, also usually the Knife gifted to me is a darned nice knife anyway- that is actually the smallest part of a gift knife- but also counts because we are the Knife nuts that we are and appreciate that particular Knife for- the Bone, or Blade selections etc, for example Charlie gifted me a Case 40 to 64 Red Bone Barlow that I carried on my Wedding day- although I have bought other Red Bone Barlows fro the same era and the knives are near a perfect match- Charlie's one is the one I have kept and will forever- this goes with every gifted knife that I have.
Gee, I don't have to post anymore, I'll just quote you folks from here on out.
With 40 years of accumulating I have gifted maybe 30-40 knives to family, friends and strangers who either admired one of my blades or never carried an edc knife before I've amassed a substantial accumulation and they all have a story to tell, subsequently they all have meaning behind them.
Any knife I've been gifted regardless of what kind I keep, I kinda look at my knives like baseball card collecting. I don't sell many but I've traded a bunch to get something else I wanted and had no money for. Funny thing was 90% of my accumulation were bought for $10 and under at auctions, flea markets and yard sales.
Considerin' how I don't really get rid of knives like the fine folks I quoted above, here are a few of my favorites.
South African maker, JD Ellis' 2016 Lanny's Clip done with a blue G-10 frame, red linen micarta liners, natural canvas micarta scales capped off with maroon linen micarta bolsters. All this surrounding a Sandvik 12C27 blade.
R. Cover Drop Point in Snake wood scales ATS 34 blade and hardware
Lone Wolf/Loveless collaboration called the City Knife with what's supposed to be green canvas micarta IIRC. I love this little knife and wish someone would do a remake. It makes the perfect little pocket knife, a little bigger handle to blade ratio, a thin, high, full hollow grind makes this a fantastic slicer. (Can ya tell I like this knife a lot?
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OK more than a few
I got lots of knives I carry and won't get rid of, I have a feeling I'm gonna be a major contributor to this thread.
1911-12 Union Knifeworks from NYC Moose pattern with jigged brown bone scales and iron bolsters. This was a rescue knife with a broken blade. A lot of elbow grease and TLC and this was the result.
Most of my SAK collection, there are about a half a dozen not shown.
None of these will go, 1 of 2 or 3 complete BFC's Traditional Forum's knives. This is the only one I won't write out the names, it's just easier to add a pic that's labeled already.
Mid 80s early 90s Case Mini Coke Bottle with 512 layer Parker/Edwards Damascus
1920s-40s Grief Schmidt Jack Knife in smooth bone covers I found coated in a half an inch of white latex paint, broken and abused I rescued it and this was the end result.
Case Swayback Jack and Sodbuster Jr. In jigged Brown Chestnut bone scales. Funny thing, the SBJ is a Tony Bose collaboration and the SB Jr. isn't but they compliment each other so nicely.
1960s Kutmaster Coca Cola Jack Knife wrapped in brown jigged bone. My father in law worked for Coca Cola for 30+ years so I always loved all types of Coke paraphernalia .
ETA ... A pet peve of mine and often a gripe I have is when people don't put the knife info in if they know what it is. It only takes a moment or 2, just a line or a few words at least. Well I didn't do that here and in order to be able to continue to have something to gripe about I have to right my wrong. I woulda tried the 2 wrongs don't make a right but 3 lefts do subterfuge but I'd still know so I just wanted to correct my wrong and put up the info for the knives in the pics.
(Now I feel better)
