Why do you like knives?

osvcap

osvcap

Joined
Oct 25, 2011
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116
My life, like a lot of people, is sort of ordinary. I go to work, I go home. Home life has certain family demands that does not allow for hobbies that would command a lot of time or commitment, along with little interest in; hunting, fishing, building a hot rod or other things of that sort.

I work with a few people that know I like knives. I never claimed to be an expert or some type of steel snob that would ridicule someone for their choice of what knife they use. I'm usually asked the same questions each hitch.
Did you order any knives this week?
How many knives do you have?
Why so many?
How many do you carry at one time?

Well, I guess my hobby is knives. I only have about 40, though my wife is convinced I have more. I like that this tool has been around for so long and is not obselete. Sure it's changed through the centuries from a jagged stone to the many choices we have today, but it remains to be a basic simple tool. There is a satisfaction to using them for everything from cutting down boxes to cutting mooring lines to splice new eyes.

When I was a kid, my uncle was into making handmade fixed blade knives. I asked him if he ever made any folders. His answer was that I could not afford one of his. That sort of stunned a 10 year old kid. I was not asking for one, just asking if he ever made any or tried. I decided then that if there was a knife I wanted, eventually I would have it.

I have purchased several knives in my mediocre, short existence in this world. I have given some away, mostly to deck hands. I have broken, lost, & abused a few. I will continue to buy what I like until I can no longer afford to or lose interest. What happens to them when I am longer here is beyond my control.

Some of you may consider this an awkward post, but it's sort a therapeutic rant for me.
 
I have knives because they cut things that need to be cut, but I don't exactly know why I like them.

Most people probably like knives because they need them, and since there is such a vast variety it causes interest beyond simple function. I think it's just human nature.
 
It's precious when you get the old "anybody have a knife" and you show them what a real one is.
 
Man's first tool.

It's what makes us human.

Modifying the world around us and it all started with cutting
 
I like tools in general. I like knives in particular, because they are particularly well made tools.
 
A knife is one of the very basic, ancient tools. Don't need moving parts, just a business end and another to hold on to. The design can express a need and/or a style and execution ranges from utilitarian to high art.

I have a bunch of knives I've accumulated in my 62 years. Mostly nothing fancy, but I probably have a hundred or so. I have also a buttload of hammers. Much like knives that don't need sharpening. There was one guy somewhere on the east cost U.S. that collected many thousands of hammers. Every shape and variant he could find. I don't think he had any fancy hammers, but they are around.

hammer-0036.jpg


Many years ago in Thailand, we had a flood in a small town where I lived for a time. My mother-in-law decided to slaughter a pig for food. The guy butchering it needed a knife. I said I had one and he promptly laughed that off (silly foreigner). Reached in my backpack and pulled out a Hmong hill tribe knife with about a 12" blade, shaving sharp. The pointy kind. Made short work of that hog, for sure. Pork fried rice for everybody!
 
I like knives because they are incredibly useful, got fantastic designs, are the 1st tool of mankind and we still make them with very advanced materials but their design and intent has not changed.
 
I appreciate/like a quality made knife. Doesn't matter what kind. Just that it has quality, and craftsmanship built into it. I also like the simplicity of a fixed blade knife. Its just a sharp pointy piece of steel, that's used to cut, and or stab. Its a tool, and if need be....a weapon. A good knife gives me comfort. I feel safer when I'm carrying a blade. I never leave the house with out one. I've been that way since I was a boy. Idk......I just like knives.
 
I like knives just because I enjoy using them everyday I walk this earth. It relaxes me when I sit down to sharpen them. I get a familiar feeling from my youth when a new knife arrives in the mail, kind of like Christmas morning when I was 5 or 6 years old...:D. Each knife has its own story to tell; where you were, whom you were with, what you were doing etc. Losing a knife is painful, giving a knife to someone is a joy. Lots of reason why I like knives.
 
They are just that, tools. On my garage wall, I have a tool hanger for all my commonly used tools including a pocket knife that I always use to cut open packages and boxes and such.
I love knives because in every day life, I find comfort in carrying one and using it for various tasks including emergency situations should they unfortunately come up.
 
I have always liked high quality tools of sorts, carried over very naturally into knives.
 
FullMetalJackass said:
You need a knife to make a pointy stick :D
Click to expand...

I beg to differ, rubbing the stick on a rock or other hard rough surface will create a point. If you can't get your stick pointed by rubbing it you need to work on technique. :D
 
As the son of an engineer and the second child, I had a strong drive to gain acceptance from my dad and in the process gained a lot of appreciation for quality tools. Folding knives got me initially with the gadget factor, and I was much more focused on the "tactical" nature of knives when I was but a knife pup.

Over the years, I've come to appreciate the utility more than anything else. My tastes have broadened considerably and there are fewer and fewer varieties of knives that I dislike as time goes on. I would have assumed my tastes would narrow over time - and they seemed to for a short while - but I now carry practically every style of knife, often all at once: slipjoint, locking, fixed, and automatic.

It's a luxury I afford myself through careful trades, purchases, and sales. I'll wait for just the right price, trade towards something more desirable so I can sell it and get what I actually want, scour eBay with my seventy-eight saved eBay searches, scan Amazon to see if the price has taken a sudden plunge ($120 Master Tanto in 3V! Miracles do happen), etc

Not having a local knife store of any worth, it's all I can do to get knives in my hand to see if I actually like them. The upside of that predicament is that I have new stuff coming to me all the time which makes for about a hundred Christmases a year!

On a day-to-day basis, I use knives for general EDC tasks, and have more robust knives for work (retail) - I now have dedicated self-defense knives for the very first time for when I am walking my dog. Lots of aggressive strays - I had to pick one up and throw one to the ground to get it to stop attacking my dog, but a larger dog or a more relentless one would require more severe measures...

I don't spend nearly as much time fondling knives as I used to now that I'm on anxiety medication (buspirone is legit) so I don't need them as worry-stones like I used to, but I still have well more than I need and have no inclination to stop. I honestly am struggling to pinpoint what it is I like about knives, to be honest. I have a use for them, and I like them, but the specifics are nebulous to me as you can tell by my meandering post.
 
for what they allow me to do with them as tools, and the enjoyment I get from them as works of art.
 
I like a prop. I was fascinated with them as a kid, that combined with my need to fiddle with something almost 100 % of the time and their general usefulness makes the knife, folding in my case, the perfect EDC thingamajig.
 
I'll bite, I've been using a knife as long as I can remember. Bein' of european decent eating utensils and the correct use of all the utensils including the knife and carving knives.

Now being a mechanic/tradesman most of my life I've used a knife as part of my work, having been a machinist the fit, finish and tight tolerances also drew me in but bottom line is I just like knives and everything about them, their history, evolution, lineage, I can spend all day talking about, working with, sharpening or just cleaning my knives and it makes me happy.
 
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