Why are you fascinated with knives?

Cheaper than guns and no registration required.

In just 2+ years, I think I've spent about 3x's as much buying knives that I have "invested" in guns but probably about the same amount "invested" in knives as I do in guns if you include ammo and accessories.

Obviously, I have too much $ and too much time on my hands.

LOL! ;)
 
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I offer you all a great quote from a great dude:

"When a man picks up a knife, there's an old memory from the collective unconscious that surfaces. A knife is an atavistic experience. It was man's first tool and weapon. Man was chipping flint into cutting edges before he invented the wheel. No matter how sophisticated we become, a knife takes us back to the cave."
-Mr Bob Loveless
 
Seems like every day everyone needs to cut something, lots of times.
So might as well have a knife that's handy, efficient, and do it in style.
Kind of like the time and a watch.
Although I don't own a watch.
Nevermind.
I guess I just like knives.
 
Outstanding quote! I have always been fascinated by all tools. Knives interest me because of the level of quality which they can be made, the materials that have been developed and most of all - how sharp of an edge the owner is able to produce on a stone (or not). What astounds me today is the number of guys I come across who buy a good knife and then toss it and buy a new one as soon as the knife becomes dull. Then I sharpen it for them they totally freak out. It's as if they had no idea you could do that.
 
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I like that such a basic object, maybe the oldest tool we have, can have so many little complexities once you start digging in. You start with a virtually endless number of variations on design, then you've got steel chemistry and blade geometry and the engineering that goes into locks and opening mechanisms and ergonomics. There are thousands of years worth of history to learn.

And, while I'm fond of anything that's well-made, knives tend to be cheaper than watches, guns and cars.
 
Growing up on a farm in rural north East Tennessee, a knife in the pocket was just a way of life. I still vividly remember my Grandfather calling me into the living room of their old block house to give me my first knife, a Camilus Boy Scout pattern knife. It had a lanyard ring and he had taken a shoe string and tied it to the lanyard with a loop on the other end. After girth hitching the looped end to my belt loop he told me to always carry it that way so I wouldn’t loose it. I went through several shoestrings and pieces of rope until I got a good bit older and then quit using the string. One day I looked at that knife and realized how much it meant to me so I quit carrying it and bought a case version in stainless. To this day I still have that old Camilus pocket knife and love it.

From that time til know, the only time I don’t have a knife in my pocket, or more commonly lately, a fixed blade on my belt is when I’m going somewhere they’re illegal or flying. Both of those are quite rare. In fact, I usually have a couple of knives on me, with more in the truck, my edc bag, my go bag, and several more at home.

To me knives represent a common thread to the past as one of the most ancient and necessary of tools. They represent survival, independence, and freedom. It honestly surprises me when I hear a man ask me to borrow a knife. “Why don’t you have a knife? Every man needs a knife on them at all times,” is my first thought. In fact I’ve given several knives to men who didn’t normally carry a knife. Sadly most of them still don’t carry a knife. Like others have said, it is a rare day that I don’t use one of those knives at least 2-3 times throughout the normal course of the day.
 
To add to my earlier post (I noticed it was getting kinda long), one of the other things that has always appealed to me about knives, and in particular carrying a knife, is the sense of preparedness that it has always given me. With a cutting tool in my pocket, or on my belt, I feel, and I am, much better prepared to deal with the difficulties that life might send my way. Carrying a knife gives me that peace of mind.

Even now, when I hardly have a need for a knife, I would never leave home without one. You never know what life might have in store for you.
 
I am always fascinated at the cutting edge.

Seriously, when I realized how sharp a knife can be, I was hooked.
I don't know why.
Maybe because I am a samurai descendant.

That was the start of the hobby and my OCD......
 
Greetings,
Fascination was there since childhood seeing my Father and Grandfather carried a knife everyday.

Collecting knives and trying to find out all about them is my hobby, and it brings happiness just as any collection.

Having knives of various patterns, in different
models, steels etc keeps this hobby fueled, knowing very well that these knives will be passed on to my children.
 
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i got an automatic during a holiday when I was young. An automatic side opening haircomb that is, italian style. I remember sitting by the sea and opening and closing that thing till the cheap trinket fell apart.
We had an arabic knife hanging on the wall, and a spanish sword. My first knife was a SAK from my brother and the one I'm fondest of is a fluorescent wichard knife for sailing. Sharpened it yesterday and brings back a lot of fond memories.
vintage-france-glow-wichard-inox_1_c7a9a06a9018f7a2bc19dea01a90ac94.jpg

For me it's the sharpness and the feeling of function, control and power that comes with it. It gradually evolved in appreciating the engineering behind it.
 
The knife is one of mankinds oldest tools.
The use of the iclined wedge to seperate and modify materials has had a profound influence on our evolution and develepment as a species.
It has amplified our ability to...
Create or destroy
Save a life or take one away
Carve a tool or a sculpture
Harvest or defend crops
Hunt food or repel enemies
It helped us change the world around us.
Most people use a knife everyday, it's how we prepare most food even now.
The continual research and improvements in materials and design and the artistry that can be expressed through that simpliest of objects, just appeals to me, and always has.
 
sgt1372 said:
Cheaper than guns and no registration required.

In just 2+ years, I think I've spent about 3x buying knives that I have "invested" in guns but probably about the same amount "invested" in knives as I do in guns if you include ammo and accessories.

Obviously, I have too much $ and too much time on my hands.

LOL! ;)
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It’s also way cheaper to invest in a decent sharpening system compared to stocking up on lots of ammo + magazines + gun cleaning equipment. Lol.
 
killgar said:
Even now, when I hardly have a need for a knife, I would never leave home without one. You never know what life might have in store for you.
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Killgar, you'r posts are almost exactly what both my father and our scout master told us as boys. That when you walk out the front door in the morning, you never know what will happen before you make it home again.

Like in January of 1991, I was driving with our 18 year old daughter Jessica, to the Toyota dealer in Frederick Maryland to pick up a couple year old corolla for her to use to go off to college with. An old Datsun B210 blew past us at a high rate of speed on RT 26 approaching the left hand curve under I15. VERY sharp 90 degree curve. She didn't make it. Spun three times, over turned and rolled and ended up against the guard rail. We pull over and go running and smoke is already coming from the engine compartment, and I look in and the battery has broken loose and is up agains the old greasy engine block shorting out. Black greasy smoke and lots of it.

Worst all is we hear a baby screaming, and I crawl in the upside down car, theres a infant in a car seat in the front passenger seat. Okay, push seat belt release and car seat with kid falls on me, and I push the whole thing out to Jess, and she gets the kid the other side of the guard rail a bit away. Driver is a whole other problem.

A very obese young lady is wildly thrashing around screaming hysterically, and while I am trying to push her seat belt release she actually backhands me in the nose a good one. I'm pushing with both thumbs, and its just not releasing. By this time the car is full of greasy choking smoke, an I dig out my pocket knife, an old well used Buck 301 stockman, and pull open the sheep foot blade. Sheepfoot blade because this lady is thrashing around so wildly I don't want anything pointy around her or me. Once the seat belt is cut she falls on her head and I get the hell out of there. By this time the fire department and police are arriving as this was all on the highway almost in downtown Frederick. We give a statement to the cops and leave. I go to a Roy Rogers for a coke to gargle with to get the oil taste out of my throat.

Moral of this; I didn't plan on playing rescue guy that morning. I was just driving to the Toyota dealer where we had wrangled a deal on a couple year old car for Jessica. But this happened right in front of us and there wasn't anyone else. It was early on a cold winter morning and there wasn't a lot of people lining up taking numbers for the job. Just me and Jess.

Everyone should be carrying something! Any little bit of sharp steel will do in a pinch as long as its sharp. Even a little SAK classic will cut a seat belt if need be. That old lady that choked to death in that Boston shopping mall didn't need to die like that. If just one person had a little knife, even the SAK classic, her scarf could have been cut loose from the escalator steps where she feel, to free her. Even a box cutter or a razor single edge razor blade in a wallet! But nobody had anything. That was a crime.

Carry SOMETHING! Even a Spyderco grasshopper or a Buck mini buck. And make sure its sharp.
 
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jackknife said:
Killgar, you'r posts are almost exactly what both my father and our scout master told us as boys. That when you walk out the front door in the morning, you never know what will happen before you make it home again.

Like in January of 1991, I was driving with our 18 year old daughter Jessica, to the Toyota dealer in Frederick Maryland to pick up a couple year old corolla for her to use to go off to college with. An old Datsun B210 blew past us at a high rate of speed on RT 26 approaching the left hand curve under I15. VERY sharp 90 degree curve. She didn't make it. Spun three times, over turned and rolled and ended up against the guard rail. We pull over and go running and smoke is already coming from the engine compartment, and I look in and the battery has broken loose and is up agains the old greasy engine block shorting out. Black greasy smoke and lots of it.

Worst all is we hear a baby screaming, and I crawl in the upside down car, theres a infant in a car seat in the front passenger seat. Okay, push seat belt release and car seat with kid falls on me, and I push the whole thing out to Jess, and she gets the kid the other side of the guard rail a bit away. Driver is a whole other problem.

A very obese young lady is wildly thrashing around screaming hysterically, and while I am trying to push her seat belt release she actually backhands me in the nose a good one. I'm pushing with both thumbs, and its just not releasing. By this time the car is full of greasy choking smoke, an I dig out my pocket knife, an old well used Buck 301 stockman, and pull open the sheep foot blade. Sheepfoot blade because this lady is thrashing around so wildly I don't want anything pointy around her or me. Once the seat belt is cut she falls on her head and I get the hell out of there. By this time the fire department and police are arriving as this was all on the highway almost in downtown Frederick. We give a statement to the cops and leave. I go to a Roy Rogers for a coke to gargle with to get the oil taste out of my throat.

Moral of this; I didn't plan on playing rescue guy that morning. I was just driving to the Toyota dealer where we had wrangled a deal on a couple year old car for Jessica. But this happened right in front of us and there wasn't anyone else. It was early on a cold winter morning and there wasn't a lot of people lining up taking numbers for the job. Just me and Jess.

Everyone should be carrying something! Any little bit of sharp steel will do in a pinch as long as its sharp. Even a little SAK classic will cut a seat belt if need be. That old lady that choked to death in that Boston shopping mall didn't need to die like that. If just one person had a little knife, even the SAK classic, her scarf could have been cut loose from the escalator steps where she feel, to free her. Even a box cutter or a razor single edge razor blade in a wallet! But nobody had anything. That was a crime.

Carry SOMETHING! Even a Spyderco grasshopper or a Buck mini buck. And make sure its sharp.
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Well done, sir! (Also, someday, hopefully not but the life you save may be your own!)
 
I've tried to figure it out, and I can come up with reasons that are part of why they interest me but don't explain the primal root of my enjoyment of knives. But at the end of the day, one of my favorite memes really says it best. :D

D62CoLK.jpg
 
I blame Rambo

Seriously though, I can't say exactly why I'm fascinated (let's face it, obsessed) with knives. However the fact is that the edged tool, aside from perhaps fire, was one of the most significant breakthroughs in human history, even to the extent that it is widely believed to have shaped our evolution. With that being the case, it's no wonder why so many of us are fascinated by them. Hell, I find it more baffling that so many people don't carry knives these days, even more so when they have negative opinions of people who carry knives, when in reality the edged tool has been vital to our species up until the last blink of an eye in our existence.
 
DangerZone98 said:
It’s also way cheaper to invest in a decent sharpening system compared to stocking up on lots of ammo + magazines + gun cleaning equipment. Lol.
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I have lots of sharpening devices, including a Spyderco Sharpmaker and lots of extra rods, too but they weren't/aren't near as expensive as all of the ammo (especially the ammo) and the accessories that I've stockpiled over the years. ;)
 
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