The Price Threshold

You know, a member here once helped me with this problem. I have a collection full of new knives that are just to nice to use, to me. the late bigbiscuit gifted me a clip 15 in ebony, one of my favorite patterns. The knife is free, however the sentimental value is much to great to carry since it is literally irreplaceable. However, i have some 15s due me as this will be one of the few times I actually catch a 15 run and not have to resort to the secondary.
 
I learned long that I derive more pleasure from using my stuff, much more than mere ownership. That's not to say that I don't have minty knives, because I do. But if I am unwilling to put a knife to use, it is more likely than not that knife will eventually find itself in someone else's hands.

There's a certain satisfaction that comes with uglying up a beautiful knife through use.

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I can ruin a shirt and or a pair of pants on any given day. Therefore the only time I am not dressed like an indigent is when entertaining guests or away from home. In the course of a day I will reach for my knife at least a couple to many times. There is always something to cut, scrape, carve, shave, split, peel, pry ( i know), and so forth… The SAME mudbug is in a scabbard on my side at all times even when away if the shirt tail is out. It is always sharp and ready. This is the only knife I am willing to carry regularly for the same reason I change clothes the moment I arrive home. It WILL be called into service in ways that a civilized knife would find unseemly.:eek: If I know for certain the day will be casual and easy I will carry an additional knife such as a vintage Wolstenholm or a F.P. Laguoile for pure enjoyment but "I ain't gonna use it". :D
 
kamagong kamagong , you know, one of the few knives that I could see myself spending a lot of money on, and then using hard, would be a hand forged puukko like the one in your picture. There is a knife that was MADE for working! It is a tool that you invest in and care for, and it would be a travesty if it spent its whole life never being USED for anything!
 
As others have said, it is more about replaceability than cost. I can replace my Leatherman with a drive into town. Heck GEC is still around and making knives so those are fair game. But my grandfathers old hunting knives cannot be replaced. I still use them around the house butchering pigs or I even did a moose with them a couple years ago. But for me to set it down in the grass or fall from its sheath while in the boat would really kill me. I use them when I know they won't go missing and enjoy them very much.

As for dollars, as I said a Leatherman Wave is about 130 bucks here locally and it takes a beating. My traditional folders and fixed blades are almost all bought second hand and previously used so it makes it easier as they already gave that first scratch. 10 dollars here, 12 dollars there, 60 dollars for a new Case Trapper in yellow delrin even my GEC 72 Cody Jack that I ended up busting,use em!! I have enough knives to last the rest if my life and i haven't hit 30 years as of yet. Use em, be heartbroken when you lose em and get excited when you get a new one. If it doesn't speak to me and never gets carried, off she goes to someone who can appreciate it.
 
The short answer for me is no. To varying degrees I use all the knives that I keep except one. That said, for me traditional knives are primarily backup and leisure use pocket jewelry. My perfect knife in all terms of form, function, cost, quality...everything is the CRK small Inkosi and I use the snot outta both of mine. It is actually the knife that brought me to traditionals. I have zero desire for modern folders because the Inkosi to me is so perfect. I have one with standard and one with insingo blade. That said, sometimes on the weekend or while just hanging around the house I'll only have a traditional in my pocket. I don't use them too hard really. But as far as worrying about the cost. No. I have 3 stainless traditional knives. Two are Case Bose collabs and one is a custom and they are getting all the carry and use in these hot summer months. I also have a couple GEC and one custom traditional that are carbon and I haven't carried any of them for a least a month because I don't want to be conscious of rust all the time when it's hot and humid. I have far less invested into my carbon knives than my stainless. Go figure! I'm really looking forward to the ebony #44 GEC is releasing this summer. I love the gunstock pattern and so I think I'm gonna push the hard use boundary with that one as a carbon steel heavy user when I get it. I have an ebony #68 that I just got in a trade and I'm honestly too nervous to carry and use that one right now. To me it is my favorite GEC pattern by far and I don't want to muck it up. Maybe I'll use one of the clip #15's I have on reserve to coax another trade for one? If I had two it'd be hard for me not to carry and really use one of those daily. That's a fantastic pattern IMO. Anyway, lot of ramblin' there on my part. Trout Hound Trout Hound you can score an ebony #66 fairly easy. I know on the cash part it's easier said than done. But your worth the hundred or so bucks my friend. Get one to use, keep one for good and see where life takes ya. At the end of the day just do what makes you happy and try not to dwell on the money aspect. Most of us don't have any anyway and we can't take it with us when we die. ;)
 
I took great delight in carrying a Tony Bose Wharncliffe Trapper for about three years! I wouldn't pry with it, nor hand it to someone else, but anything else; I used it! Then someone bought it from me, probably because I started using other knives, to prove their worth. Right now I am finding the second iteration of my SFO Diamond Jack to be a great knife for nearly everything!!
T.Bose ~ $2500
DJ ~ $150
The Bose brought more than I paid for it, plus it was way fun to use!!! Tony used it for a year before he sold it!
The DJ is just as useful . . . . . . . . A great slicer, and personal steak knife!
 
For me it comes down to my intent when I purchase. I buy knives to use, and I buy knives to keep just because they're pretty. Regardless of price, if I buy one to use, I use it.

Having said that, I would find it really hard to talk myself into spending more than $150 for a user. Just too afraid I'd lose it somewhere.
 
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I commented something similar back when I first joined here, and was quickly told I had stuck my foot in my mouth. I have some expensive knives, but I could never bring myself to use them for dirty hard work that would ruin them. And I couldn't believe that some others would possibly use a $500 knife with an exotic handle material to break down cardboard boxes, or whittle a hotdog stick. But I learned that everyone is different, and in fact many people do use expensive knives for all their everyday work. To each their own, but I agree with the OP. It's hard to go scuff up a knife that cost over $100.
 
Bartleby said:
A part of the question is how much would you spend on a knife that you would lend without a second thought?
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First question ... I'll use a $200 knife for hard work so long as it's designed for it. But I'm the guy who goes and gets a screwdriver or a shovel or a crowbar if he really needs one. Second question ... $15 or less. Which means a Rough Rider or a Mora. Actually I'll loan a SAK without a second thought if I think the borrower is smart enough to know the difference between a screwdriver and a knife.
 
gaj999 said:
Actually I'll loan a SAK without a second thought if I think the borrower is smart enough to know the difference between a screwdriver and a knife.
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LOL, good choice! The SAK usually has the screwdriver option for those that are not sure....
 
Trout Hound said:
So, what’s your price threshold for a user?
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My problem is that as my knife hobby evolved, I ended up with more knives than I need or will ever get around to using. I view this in retrospect as a mistake in the way I approached things. Had I taken it slower, and instead of buying four $30-50 knives in a single month because they were under my price threshold, I could have bought a single $100-$200 knife. At the end of a year, I'd have 12 really nice knives, instead of 50 decent knives.

It was a flawed logic - comparing each individual purchase against a price threshold without looking at the overall bigger picture. I could drop $45 on a knife purchase without batting an eye, while a $100 purchase seemed too much to spend. Hindsight is always 20-20, and maybe there was no way for me to learn that lesson without going through that process.

That's how I got where I am, with lots of knives to choose from. So if I already have a Case knife I paid about $40 for that I have carried and used, why should I take one of my GEC knives that I have never used out of its tube and decrease its eventual resale value? Obviously, I should never have bought the GEC if that was my plan. And every time I bought one, it was in my mind that "This time, I'm going to carry that nice knife."

The only 3 GECs in my collection that I regularly carry are the very first one I ever bought (#68 Pony Jack), and two that I bought used (a #12 and a #15), and at the time I bought them none were over $80 if I recall.

*IF* I had been thinking it through, and had the wisdom to take it slow in the beginning, I might very well be carrying a nice $150 folder out of my collection of 15 knives, rather than a $35 folder out of my collection of 150.
 
black mamba said:
I won't hand a knife to someone I don't KNOW is a knife person. If I trust them, it doesn't matter how expensive the knife is. If I don't trust them, I just volunteer to do the cutting for them.
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This is sound advice for a surprising segment of the population. Amazing how many folks take it for granted that all folders lock. A segment of these have no idea how to unlock a knife that does lock. Not a judgement, just a fact.
 
black mamba said:
I won't hand a knife to someone I don't KNOW is a knife person. If I trust them, it doesn't matter how expensive the knife is. If I don't trust them, I just volunteer to do the cutting for them.
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To add to this - a lot of people aren't used to the concept of sharp knives. They would be careful about touching the edges of a razor blade, but not a pocket knife blade. Or they expect to have to use a lot of force and sawing action to cut something, because they are used to relatively dull edges.

I know how to sharpen and maintain an edge, and if I am carrying a knife, it's sharp. So unless they are comfortable using sharp knives, it can actually be dangerous for them to use one since they only know how to operate dull ones.
 
jc57 said:
*IF* I had been thinking it through, and had the wisdom to take it slow in the beginning, I might very well be carrying a nice $150 folder out of my collection of 15 knives, rather than a $35 folder out of my collection of 150.
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LOL, If it was just a matter of applying logical thought, one would be able to just buy one knife that ideally suits one's needs and carry it forever until it wears out like my dad and grandfathers did. I haven't been able to achieve this level of logical clarity, but I collect knives (my dad used to laugh at me for having "more pocket knives than pockets").
 
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