What will become of your collection...when you are gone

My knife accumulation after I die?? Who knows? My suggestion is that the survivors provide them to an auction house for quick liquidation. Anything that doesn't merit such treatment, can go to the trash or for scrap metal.

Added: Another approach is to sell the ones that aren't really valuable in bulk (basically sub $100 stuff) to a flea market "guy" who regularly sets up. I personally find little joy in visiting flea markets, but obviously many love them. Then somebody down the road can talk about all the great knife finds they made. I think this approach makes a lot of sense.

 

It would be great to bury my collection in a forest, and after 200 years some archaeologist finds it and displays it in a museum.

 

That's funny ! And I totally believe the art of knife making (at least pocket knives) could be almost forgotten in 200 years (give or take some hundreds). So yeah, hurrah for the knife time capsule !

 

I used to joke back before I was married and only had a cat that I had set up a meow mix annuity in case of my passing.

 

Meow mix annuity ? Must definitely think about it (and organize). I have lovely and loving cats, what happens to them when I'm gone ? The knives... I don't give much of a flying bird's shit, eventually.

 

I don't view this as a moral question, it is more akin to a logical one. Our collections (the derivative of our insatiable lust for feeding an addiction) will outlast all of us. I believe that some of the knives, probably the ones fashioned from beta Titanium, will last until we have three colony encampments on Mars. At that time, we will no longer need such implements as cutting technology will have morphed to reveal something unrecognizable by current standards.

My personal stash will be traded or sold to someone I have probably never met. A few of the knives will be given away to personal friends or donated. Some may be converted to cash to fund other more pressing concerns. There may be a few blades that are sold by an individual who is bereft of their actual market value. Imagine that! And sadly, some blades will suffer from the horrendous scourge of rust having been wrested from the protective cushion of safe life. Others may find themselves in a museum or thrown in a sock drawer.

The utter delight of the search (and all that entails) is the basic reason we collect! We don't need the knives, but we acquire them in an effort to rekindle the past while making new friends and watering old, tried and true relationships in the process.

 

If all else fails, maybe they can all be delivered to the Armed Services via a recruitment location. I know they would snap them up in a heart beat.

 

Hi Uncle Sonny! You may not remember me, but I'm a long lost nephew! I was raised by Sasquatch and we sure could use one of them there knives you're passing out.
ps. Say hey to Uncle Roscoe!

 

My biggest concern is that loved ones won't know the value of the knives. That is why I have a close friend who knows the value of everything I have and they will go to him to dispose of (or keep) as he seems fit.

The only other way around this is to take pics and list the value with each knife and put on a memory stick and give it to your wife and tell them to be sure not to sell these knives for less.

Basically you need someone that is familiar with BF to sell the knives. A wife or child is not going to take the time to research all that and will end up selling some and getting taken advantage of.

 

A problem is that none of us know when we are going to die. A young girl (16 ) who lives nearby just got killed in a car accident yesterday near my house. Another friend I know slipped in the kitchen and hit his head on the counter and was in a coma and died 2 weeks later.


Unless you are proactive now . You probably have not prepared anyone close to you as to the value of each knife.

 

"Taken advantage of".... I feel that way with firearms; not with knives. For me it would be better to just dump a large proportion of my lesser priced stuff to a flea market and from there, they will find new homes. I don't care if somebody makes a few hundred bucks off of the deal. The alternative is the landfill. My Dad's knives pretty much got trashed when he died. He didn't have very many and nobody wanted any of them.

 

I just don't think about it. My brothers might take a couple guns or knives, but most of the knives will probably go to Goodwill with most of the things in my home, and the guns will probably be sold off at a loss to the nearest gun shop. I have no children of my own and my niece and nephew have never shown any interest in knives, guns, or the outdoors.

 

Well at least then my knives will finally see some use.

n2s

 

When I decide to deal with the exercise, probably sell most of them. Then give most of the remaining to family. I'll try to make sure the handful left at the end are assigned to the proper recipients before hand.

 

Sounds like a political statement

 

My plan it to not die.
If that fails, then a coffin made of knives.

 

I enjoy knives a little differently than most... I am a woodworker, so, "my" knives are the ones I have put handles on.



I got all my passion for woodworking from my dad and grandfather. My most cherished possessions are some pieces of furniture they made for me and my wife.

I plan to pass on some specific pieces that I personally made. The matching ironwood set, for exame... the little GMF1 is my daughter's knife, and it is from the same bock of wood the Mule Team came from. I hope what I pass on reminds her of me as much as my favorite chair reminds me of my grandpa.

The rest are simply buy/sell/trade stock to support the addiction while I am still here...

 

They likely will be stolen by whoever finds my body and responds to the call, or, stolen shortly thereafter when word gets around the guy died, and while whoever tries to track down non-existent family. If not by THOSE guys, then whoever cleans out the house while trying to figure out a legal way to charge my estate for services.

Before then, hopefully will have given away most everything to anybody i thought deserving and unlikely to ever afford such things, such as the kid at the sporting goods counter at wally world who got a Randall #14, or the 12yr old altar server at the church every weekday getting a Randall Trout and Bird, or the poorest kid in one of my religious education classes getting an etc etc etc etc.

We don't own them, we only lease them. Family means nothing, the only thing with meaning being the knives and guns end up with someone to whom the knife or gun has meaning. Which truthfully excludes most folks' family members.

 

Since I have no family that will likely outlive me, and most of my blades are one-off customs from makers I consider friends, I'll probably have them auctioned for charity or the like.

 

IDK man. Best to thin the collection out before moving on. The less burden the better.