Why are you fascinated with knives?

I was considering my hobbies / obsessions this morning (graffiti, music, hi fi, whisky, knives etc) and so googled 'why do humans collect things', the wiki article about the psychology behind collecting iss interesting and resonates with me.

I find I especially obsess over hobbies when I'm feeling anxious, it goes beyond enjoyable and into damaging (the amount of money I spend on them, keeping me awake thinking about them). I'm aware of this as it happens and yet still find it difficult to stop - when I exercise it's less of an issue and therefore conclude that my mental health is directly related to self-sabotaging behaviours.

I have an obsession about control and perfection in my life and use my hobbies as a way of practicing mastery; with hi fi, what's the best stereo I can build, whisky - what's the rarest and most interesting whiskies I can find to add to the collection etc?

Knives as a hobby is interesting as it's the first of them that involves physical mastery (apart from graffiti); learning and mastering the skill of sharpening, discovering how I can customise and make them the 'best' (in my eyes) I can. Collecting what I perceive to be the best steels and models within the budget I allocate.

I hope to chill with the whole knife collecting part as it can no doubt be just as much of a money sink as my other interests.
 
I discovered at a very early age that if I had a knife.

I wasn't alone.

Having a knife gave me a sense of well being. A sense that I could, if need be, provide for myself.

Sorry if this sounds too off the wall or something like that.
 
powernoodle said:
Knives, guns, flashlights, and multitools let us think that we have a little bit of control over our circumstances in this cold, dark world. Whether that is true is open to debate.

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Not to sidetrack, but it always bothered me how he finger fks that rifle's trigger.

Back on topic. I have been obsessed with knives since I found my first pocket knife as a little boy. I was maybe 7 or 8?
 
I too have been into knives for as long as I can remember. Since early childhood.

I remember sitting in my little workshop as a 5-year old, trying to cut the longest possible shavings, just for the sake of doing so.
And I always had a knife with me, in the woods.

I guess it has just been in me. Maybe printed in my genome.
 
killgar said:
I know exactly where my fascination with knives came from-

1. My grandfather carried a pocket knife and used it for all manner of tasks. I once saw him fix a neighbors car with his pocket knife. I was fascinated with the idea of carrying a little tool around in ones pocket that could be used to fix and make things. I saw a knife as something "powerful", a means to change the world around me in ways that could make my life better and easier (isn't that exactly what any tool is).

I would have been thrilled beyond description if I could of had a Leatherman Squirt P4 when I was a kid (they didn't exist back then). This is something I think about every time I handle mine.

2. My uncle was the epitome of "cool" in my young eyes. He was a hard-core biker who ran with a rough crowd. During the time I knew him he carried a few different Italian stiletto switchblades. Those knives were the first knives specifically designed as weapons that I ever saw. I was fascinated with the idea of knives designed exclusively as weapons, particularly folding knives because they could be carried in ones pocket. I saw my uncles knives as dark, sinister, and taboo. And what little boy isn't drawn to the "dark" things in life.

I was allowed to have knives as a kid, but my mother didn't want me to have any that she considered to be "weapons". So naturally when mom didn't want me to have something it made it even more taboo, and made me want it even more.

As a child I carried my "treasures" around in my pockets. My pockets were a place to keep my secrets. So pocket knives, knives that could be carried in ones pocket, were especially fascinating to me. A pocket knife was always one of the treasures I carried in my pocket, and I liked the idea that other people didn't know I had it, my little secret.

I'm 51 now, and my grandfather and uncle are both long dead. But my childhood memories of those two men are still two of the strongest influences in my interest in knives today.

The other influence is the mischievous and adventurous little boy that I was, the one who just thought knives were cool, liked to carry them, and looked for any reason to use one.
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This right here mirrors my sentiments exactly in every line!!!
I can remember ordering one of those switchblade combs and then trying to swap the comb with a Swiss Army knock off blade!!!! Worked for about a week then the blade flew off n down the sewer grate!!!
The biggest takeaway from that was don't play with ANYTHING you value by a sewer!!!
 
I have very little idea of why I was a knife nut. Maybe something in the gene pool, or that growing up after WW2, I was surrounded by men who had gone off to fight and were real life heroes to a little boy. They were the kind of guys they made movies or TV shows about.

Uncle Charlie was a GI who waded ashore in Normandy, and walked most the way to Berlin. Uncle Sony was a young man who enlisted after Pearl Harbor, and flew B17's out of England bombing sites in Germany. Uncle Mike was a Navy guy, and survived having a PT boat blow out from under him when they tangled with a couple of German S-Boats in the English Channel. Dad was a lower key kind of guy who was a Intelligence spook out of one of the D.C. departments of skullduggery. But they all carried a knife of some sort, and set great store of having a knife of some sort on them. And I wanted to be like them. They were independent, self reliant, and set about life that way. They had lived through a great depression, then went off to fight a world war, then came home and went about a normal life working a job, raising a family in the new phenomenon of the American suburbs.

And I wanted to be like them. I watched these guys fix things with a pocket knife, a Sear's 4-way keychain screw driver, a P-38, and maybe some string, a rubber band, a paper clip, and get it functional again. So I carried what they did, and when something happened, I tried to do what I thought they would do.

But I have no idea how my knife obsession got so out of hand. They all had that "one" pocket knife, while I started to collect numbers of them. To this day I have no idea why, but I did finally go on a downsize mission. Looking back on it all, its a mystery to me. While I am down to just a small handful of knives, I still come to the knife forums to just 'look". Its like a semi reformed drunk stopping by the bar and getting a club soda with a twist of lime to see old friends and find out whats going on.

Addictions are weird.
 
I’ve been interested in knives since I can remember. I also can’t remember a time I didn’t have one, even as a child.

My entire lineage is made up of outdoorsmen. Rangers in provincial parks, superintendents of parks, homesteaders...all outdoors people. That tracked over and into my dna. My father was always taking me and the rest of his family camping or on outdoor adventures. Hunting is also a huge part of our lives.

It doesn’t help that I have a creative brain, and like to create or improve on things.

For some strange reason, knives are beautiful to me...whether I’m drawn to the aesthetically pleasing lines, the tolerances, the beauty of the embellishments or the simplicity/complicated locking or opening mechanisms. I’m not afraid to disassemble something to see how it works. And I like to do so. :)

I received my first SAK when I was maybe 5, thanks to an uncle who’s wedding I was in...maybe the fascination started there, or maybe with seeing my father using his knife since I was born?

It’s correct that we don’t need a huge collection of knives, but as my wife says, “I’m glad you don’t drink a lot, and don’t do drugs. I’m ok with your knife collection, yes I’ll marry you.” Haha.
She supports my collecting if it doesn’t get out of control. :)

This is the knife my dad carried his whole life...until I gifted him a few newer knives. Then he gifted it to me, and it is MY jewel, in my collection. He used this for everything, skinning, gutting, filleting fish, making wood shavings for firestarter, kitchen duties, and even at work in the construction trade. Lots of good memories when I look at and hold his knife.
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A Ruko...his knife, back when they were made in Japan, with great heat treat and precision.

Keep ‘em Sharp
 
When I was 14, I was attacked by an angry chipmunk. I backed away slowly, and made it out alive, but I have never been without a knife since that day.

But seriously, a knife is something that belongs to me personally. It functions as possibly the most important tool that exists. I can have it on me at all times. There is just a connection.

Shapes, geometry, steel, etc. Its just addictive.
 
no explanation....possible past life carryover....perhaps we were all samurai, knights or pirates in past lives and that lil primitive bit still exists deep within our subconsciousness....knives are an amazing thing....a tool that almost every human uses every day yet rarely uses properly...how many people do you see using a knife like its a hacksaw or some other ridiculous poor technique that makes you cringe...it amazes me that its a tool used by almost everyone yet we few actually know something about it
 
Besides having an appeal for the looks and the folding blades I admired my dad’s and grandpa’s stockman knives when I was 5 years old. I think I liked seeing them cut wood and other strong materials that seemed to hard or strong to damage with bare hands. My first recollections of discipline were from cutting or carving on a chair and table. I wanted to try making decorative designs but I really butchered it.
After cutting myself at age 5 a few times my mom got involved and barred me from any sharp knife or scissors. Lol the punishment and discipline didn’t seem to make much of an impact on my fascination with knives though as I would always make a b-line to the knife display cabinet at the local hardware and lumber stores. Lol.
From age 7 on I don’t recall being without a pocket knife much, maybe a few weeks after losing one. That’s always seemed to be a natural need like clothes, food and water.
 
Hal said:
I discovered at a very early age that if I had a knife.

I wasn't alone.

Having a knife gave me a sense of well being. A sense that I could, if need be, provide for myself.

Sorry if this sounds too off the wall or something like that.
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This. My dad brought home one of those cheap, hollow handle rambo knives in the early '80's. Some guy at his work was selling them out of the trunk of his car. The kind with fishing line and hooks, a wire saw, and matches in the handle and a big globe compass in the pommel. It had a cheap sheath with a sharpening stone. That knife never left my side for months.

Being an only child in a single parent home, while dad worked in the summer, and I was free to do as I pleased. This sounds like a dream scenario, but for 9-10 year old kid, the woods can get scary and intimidating and watching something as benign as The Road Warrior on TV can convince you that post apocalyptic hordes are on the road heading straight for you.

That cheap "survival" knife gave a little boy just a smidgen of comfort on those long, lonely summer days. From there I had to have a boot knife like in "Big trouble in Little China", then a butterfly knife like I saw in "The Outsiders" to go along with some ninja stars, and the rest is history. 30 years later and I still have almost every knife I bought or was given as a kid.
 
powernoodle said:
Knives, guns, flashlights, and multitools let us think that we have a little bit of control over our circumstances in this cold, dark world. Whether that is true is open to debate.

vALzI71.jpg
Click to expand...


This and that I like stabbing people.
 
I've been into martial arts since childhood. Adding a blade was a natural evolution. I can't recall a time where I didn't have a locking blade in my pocket or fixed blade on my hip. They make opening packages easier, too, and chicks seem to dig 'em. What more does a man need?


Plus swords are cool. Don't let anyone tell you they're not.
 
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