What knife tunred you into a collector

Piper Maru

Piper Maru

Joined
Mar 11, 2012
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I know someone of you grew up with it and have always collected knives, but was their one knife that once you bought it changed your entire out look on knives and you started collecting them. I have always liked knives, but until I got into balisongs I never really considered collecting them big time.

Also while I am at it, why do you collect knives.
 
I wouldnt call myself a collector. I would say Im a knife buyer. I dont use most of my knives all that much although its nice to have one when you do need it for something, and I dont worry about keeping them in pristine condition or have them on display in one place. They're all over the place and they move around depending on which one Im playing with and what Im doing. I just like them.

Anyway, the knife that really got me going (relatively recently) was the spyderco caly 3.5 super blue. For some reason, getting a knife a really, really liked just made me want more when you'd think the opposite would happen - found the knife/knives I like so I dont need anymore. Ive liked a few other knives just as much since then for various reasons but the more knives I get that I really like, the more I seem to buy.

One thing Ive noticed is that Im getting better and better at telling which knives Ill enjoy the most. Im buying fewer and fewer lemons as time goes on. I dont mean buying better knives from better manufacturers, just getting better at picking the models Ill like and use the most (only have a single small local knife shop so most purchases are made sight unseen over the internet).
 
Emerson HD-7.

As for why I collect, I don't know. A bit of obsessive personality, a bit of personal style, a bit of short attention span, perhaps.
 
Smith & Wesson #CKG104GS, that I bought from Big 5 Sporting Goods in 2005. That one got the ball rolling again for me. Inexpensive, made well enough that it could do most regular cutting chores, and got me to thinking about better quality knives. (I have 200+ knives now.)

~Chris
 
I've been collecting knives, on some scale, since i was 9 but i bought a mini grip a few months ago and that woke the addiction up. I've spent literally every spare dollar i have on knives recently.
 
my grandfathers vic sak (maybe champ?) and my brothers case mako growing up till i was about 10... in my teen years dozens of chinese junk knives, cheap balisongs and mall ninja crap. my first quality/name brand knife was a crkt m16 when it was made of decent steel and didnt have any of the lawks/auto-lawks crap on it. everything after that m16 is a blur lol :)

why do i collect? its fun first and foremost... its a hobby after all. on top of that, i carry and use my knives everyday and find great joy/pride doing so.
 
I mail ordered a Montana boot knife with a 4" blade from Popular Mechanics when I was 9 after begging my dad to write me a check to order it. The leather sheath had a clip on it too, dont see that much nowadays.

This was 30 years ago, and in hindsight I'm surprised he actually wrote me that check. You cant have 9 year olds running around with dagger boot knives :)
 
The high quality Puma Stag folders from the 70's & early 80's that came in the green & yellow plastic boxes. Man those knives had such a great fit and finish with killer stag.

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Well believe it or not the knife that got me started on this disease was a SOG Flash I I purchased maybe seven-eight years ago.
My dad was an outdoorsman so knives were always a part of life that I was exposed to at an early age. When I was a kid my thing was usually a buck knife or a swiss army knife. They were always just tools to me like a screwdriver or hammer, it's how pops taught me. He always loved his fixed blades and he taught me how to freehand sharpen on a stone, old school with spit an all. He loved his carbon steel blades and swore by them even our kitchen knives were all carbon steel, all with a patina and all friggin' scary sharp. My and my sisters knew all to well to stay away from the knife drawer as we would get cut to hell, we all did get cut one time or another...
When I got the SOG I thought holy smokes dad never had anything like this! With it's different style and steel I was like 'whoa' this is cool. That began my "hobby" in collecting knives, years later and I now have a ton of knives and see no end in sight. I love the new technologies involved with the different steels, locks and styles it also plays a little homage to pops in a sense since he's no longer with us..
I enjoy the hobby and enjoy all the things that I have learned here lurking all these years.
PS: I don't really care much for the SOG Flash any longer as I'd like to think I've 'matured' a tad, but it did get me going.
 
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A Buck 110 started things off for me many moons ago. The lines, the quality and the ergonomics to me, still haven't been bettered to this day. A 110 or a Buck Alpha Dorado are constant EDC for me and other knives simply supplement, but don't replace these knives. Why collect? Because I can.
 
being paranoid of the all the disasters that have happened recently, i wanted to put together a bug out bag. i started doing research on what knives to put in/on my bob. i started out with some esee's then from lurking on this site, i found out about infi and its relatives. now i'm obsessed with busse and busse kin.

also being on this site has changed my perspective of folders. i thought they were ALL pointless and weak. god was i wrong about that... lol

i have forgotten about buying my stuff for the bob; compasses, medical kit, food rations, etc... now i just keep buying knives.
every time i save up enough for a kifaru pack, i end up getting a busse.

my girlfriend hates this ......ooh well.
 
Delica i got in 2004
wasn't my first knife or even start of collection. i had bucks, gerbers,colonials,vics bought traded and hand me downs as a teen during the 90's. i had a lot of junk too bunch of friends got $ together for one of those shop at home frosts bundles back in like 2000. beat , gave away, broke, and lost those and by then finally done with school and got good job where i could spend some coin on something with more quality.
 
This one. Spyderco Valloton. Imo, the most beautiful knife Spyderco has ever made and my first big money folder. I traded it off but it was the first needle in my veins.

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Well believe it or not the knife that got me started on this disease was a SOG Flash I I purchased maybe seven-eight years ago.
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I've always been into knives in a kind of unselfconscious way but maybe seven years ago I picked up a benchmade opportunist that got my gears turning. Next stop, Fontenille Pataud. Sold both of those early knives off, but replaced my stainless FP with corkscrew with a carbon blade sans corkscrew.

I collect knives because i am curious and knife acquisition is kind of like play. Trying out different steels and locking systems is fun. I just like it.
 
I carried a knife for last 18 years. One day I realized that I need a knife for special occasions and bought Kopa cocobolo. I liked it so much and decided to collect entire set. Spyderco had plans for 18 variants. The rest of the knives came along.
 
The first folder that got me hooked was a SAK Spartan and the first fixed blade was a Fallkniven F1.

If you don't know how many knives you got do you still count as a collector?
 
Started with kershaw kai/onion actually if it wasnt for ken onions solid affordable knives i would not be a "knife person".
 
My wife bought me a Kabar USMC commemorative knife about ten years ago to honor my father's service in the Marine Corps. That sealed the deal. Of course, I worked with knives quite a bit in the Army, but it wasn't for collecting. Then, I viewed them the same as I viewed my sidearm.
 
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