Entry.
First let me say, thanks for the opportunity you are giving BFC with this GAW, its very generous of you; and opportunities such as this is something that helps the community grow and come together.
My collection is in a way all over the place. I have some flea market specials, a few "its cool because it looks crazy" knives (cheapies), when i started getting more into knifes (gerber phase) i was buying a lot of gerbers and sub $25 knives. Then after getting my first job and joining bladeforums i started to learn about knives of better quality. I use to hate spydercos because of the lack of a thumbstud and now they are one of my favorite brands. I went from a majority of sub $30 knives (that i lost most of when our family's home got robbed twice), to sub $100 knives. For the most part I'm now shopping in the $50-$100 range. I have a ZT0561 and spyderco PM2 satin/digi those are my two plus $100 knives. For the near future I'm projecting me picking up a second benchmade and few beckers (love the looks of their clip point models). If i have to describe my collection in a few words its would be "quality knives ready for a working I would prefer a coated blade, but a coating is not a must. I have yet to have an acid wash knife but i do like the looks they produce. Satin,bead blast, stone wash are neither great or bad for me. For some reason i prefer a coating, but i have my fair share and an equal amount or great of uncoated blades as to my coated blade. Also for the most part I'm speaking of folders, for my fixed blade I'm not really concerned about coatings. i like the looks of a developed patina on carbon steel so strictly speaking carbon steel blades i would want an uncoated blade fixed blade or folder., that wont break the bank on a minimum wage income (such as my own)."
The knifes that got me started originally was a victorinox (don't know the model) and a one hand opening schrade. I was drawn to the vic at an early age because of the sheer functionality they possess, and the schrade came about for fishing for trout when we go camping. I got the schrade at about the age of 10-12 but being able to have those knives and screw around with them and see their benefits was really great. The schrade got stolen, it was replaced with the same model, the stolen again. Then i started carrying flea market knife, however they were always dull so they didn't provide much in the way of precise cutting, but i didn't respect the edge of a knife and still did stupid stuff like cut on the cement and throw the knife. Fast forward a few years I'm in frys and i see a gerber, and i member hear the army used gerber products so i thought "if the army uses them they must be the best knives" so there went that and now I'm here still refining my tastes and preferences.