Where Is Everybody?

Jon Brand

Jon Brand

Joined
May 28, 2007
Messages
4,412
I am also guilty of stepping away from the forums for a while, and even collecting. But now that I've been browsing again, I find myself wondering what happened to this and other forums? Seems like a HUGE decline in activity since I was active some years ago. Hardly recognize any of the names here these days. Has instagram pretty much taken over the knife world or am I missing something? I have heard the market is down as well. I am not exactly sure what I am asking, but I am curious on everyones thoughts? Are there other avenues I am missing? When I joined this was a great place to talk about ABS and forged blades, now I can't help but wonder what has happened to the market. Thanks in advance!
 
Jon, hi! I don't typically have much to say on this subforum these days, but still lurk. I'll leave it to others to hypothesize about the pressures on the market..............
 
Good to hear from you Bob, hope you are well! Thanks lorien. Good to be back. I dont my collction anymore but been itching to get back into it. I just have 3 or 4 customs at this point but sold my big ones at the right timing as the market is off.
 
You have been invading my thoughts Jon.
My wife and I are both retired now so I have plenty of time and no money for custom knives. I still appreciate the art so I peruse the forums and thanks to Coop and Caleb have great photos to enjoy. The market seems less active to me. That can certainly be partially attributed to my lack of purchases.
I don't feel old due to chronology, but it seems I know more dead guys here than active members.
Glad to see you three gentleman still here.
Happy holidays to you all and thanks for your contributions. Kevin
 
Instagram and facebook are a big competitor to online forums. People who want to sell their knives will find an easy tool to position their products via hashtags to the right market. Now Instagram and Facebook have their advantages, but are very fugacious, a few days after posting, nobody will look at. Here the forums are great as over time, they convert to a kind of encyclopedia about knives :D and it's another kind of conversation you have with it's members.
You can assume, that people who will register in a forum, wich taked a few moments, are really interested in, so it's more focused on the colector and makers market, with social media you reach everybody, get hundrets of likes but very few people are actually interested in or knew about knives.
I have seen loads of forums getting down the last years, but they still have their place and are more fun to use.

A few weeks ago a knife collector called me (landline) and wanted to tell me, what kind of knives he likes and wanted to show his collection. I asked him to send me some pics via WhatsApp or Mail - Sorry Sir, I'm not into these modern tecnologies (he was in his late 50ies), so he sent me pictures in an envelope :D There are loads of people that don't use social media.

Regards
Nicolas
 
Hi Jon! Shows are still active and doing well. Come to the NYCKS and see for yourself. It's 45 mins away from you. Real handshakes, complicated and interesting metal objects. :cool:

Technology and platforms evolve. I have heard from a number of makers that "Forums are not effective for them. Instagram, Facebook, Etsy, Pinterest, and Youtube are happening." (Paraphrasing)

I see what you see. Lots of WORLD makers knives here, not as USA dominant or familiar. Not a bad thing.

I have only so much time I can focus on posts. The slower upload/writing process for my Gallery has been supplanted by my 100,000 plus followers on Instagram. It's what is driving the market now, and it's VERY phone friendly. The forum (for me) is sit-at-a-desktop friendly. We live in a fast-paced world.

Even a personal website is not mandatory for makers. See above. (Although I still highly recommend it.)

I like the commentary here and there is more in-depth discussion. However, I'm 65. What's that now phrase? "OK, Boomer."

Good thread.
 
wrt comparisons with fb and ig, this particular corner of Bladeforums is not about direct sales at all, and I work to keep it that way

in my opinion, this is a great place to expose your work and receive credible feedback, display your collection for other's enjoyment and where someone like Coop can help keep us up to date with the broad cross section of contemporary work and historical pieces. This is a good place to form relationships over time and tends to be a little less anonymous than social media sites

C&H is a forum where people can get a more meta sense of where things are at, and provides endless context, (through the search function) which really adds depth of knowledge for anyone who actually wants to learn about things

most of what I've learned about custom and handmade knives, I learned in this here forum
 
Coop, you are right about shows. I havent attended in a few years but ive seen videos and photos... on instagram =) and the attendance looks great. Also very true that forums are more of a sit down at the desk type of thing, and instagram is more on-the-go friendly

Something that turns me off is all the bid up knives and lotteries. I would rather try to get to a show on time and try my luck scoring something nice then to put my name in a box.. but that may be because I don't have alot of money and usually if I can afford anything, its one piece. So the waiting and lotterys don't work for me. Words are not my thing so its a bit hard for me to articulate what I mean exactly. Understandably lotteries make it more fair for everyone. But just not my thing.

Personally, I sold everything that I would not be using/carrying. With the exception of a DH3 folding dagger and a Carey flipper. When I was a kid I started collecting coins just before knives. The coin collecting bug hit my hard the last 5 years and I turned my knife collection into a coin collection. Now I find myself dearly missing some of those knives that are not replaceable. I have been carrying a lower end crawford folder and a nice gedraitis flipper.
 
Jon, your thoughts mimic mine as well. Seems many of the regulars have moved on. I still drop in to see what's going on from time to time. Good thread as good seeing posts here.
 
I am a maker, not a collector, so I don't keep up with all the names and models. But I watch/read/listen and try absorb any information that doesn't run back out of the holes in my head. I have noticed the decline in participation of the older established members of this forum too. I suppose it is always the way of things. But newer guys like me need the old guard from whom to learn. And speaking for myself, while you gentlemen are under no obligation to be here or teach anything I certainly enjoy hearing your insights and stories.

Jon, I hope you and others like you will find your way back to these forums on a more regular basis.
 
It’s a different World ‘out there’ these days....

I’m with you, Jon, when it comes to the damn auction venue at shows and even on-line with all that BS.

I am fortunate enough to still know a few Makers that will actually make me a knife that I want and I don’t have to bid on it! WooHoo!!!!

Since I’m retired, I have time to peruse the various Social Media sites and still get a good laugh from all the shenanigans and debauchery...
 
I know j go in waves. I get burned out, and don't post as much. I also spend all my money on knives for a bit, then, when I'm not shopping for new knives, I spend less time for a while, until I feel I have more knife money!!
 
TBH once it got to the point that bringing up an old thread and commenting on it got the thread locked (too much traffic here?), I stopped posting in the Custom forum
 
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I've been here since it's inception, had a different screen name early on. I enjoy custom knives and am OK with the way this area keeps maturing. You can see from my post count that I'm not a huge contributor but I'm knife guy that has learned a lot here. A few years ago I cut way back on purchases, getting old, but love seeing what makers keep coming up with.
 
Chefget said:
TBH once it got to the point that bringing up an old thread and commenting on it got the thread locked (too much traffic here?), I stopped posting in the Custom forum
Click to expand...

that's an easy problem to solve ;)
 
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