I guess I could say that I do it because they appeal to my aesthetic sense, or that I admire the craftsmanship, but that could apply equally well to anything from coffee tables to Ferraris. The above reasons are true, but I will go out on a limb and say that I collect knives because they have POWER, and probably the most ancient power there is. James Mattis just said somewhere else on this forum that knives are primal (I think it was in a discussion of the Spyderco Cricket....) and he is so right. Think about it. In exchange for grasping hands and an upright stance (along with the brain to handle those enhancements) humans gave up much of their physical animal qualities. However, we are still too new a species to have totally divorced themselves from our animal natures. A knife returns that sharp claw and toothy grin that we gave up. Who among you has not held a knife and felt that rush of power and excitement, especially a well made knife, one that fits the hand and stirs the soul? One might suspect that a lion feels the same power as it awakens from a nap and extends its claws that we feel slicing air with our favourite fighters, or feels the same satisfaction in the use of its tools to bring down an antelope that we feel when we perfectly carve a roast or whittle a great whistle. A knife is a symbol of what we have lost, and thus the collecting of knives is bittersweet, for those who understand can never stop the search for more........
