Why do you like knives?

I am kind of parinoid. It's built into my personality. When I was about 5 I hid a bunch of money in the attic without telling anybody because I was afraid our family would run out of money and I wanted to have some in reserve. They wern't in any financial difficulty, I was just worried. I also used to hide food around the house in case of some kind of emergancy. My parents found all the money years later. I was older then so I could understand the flaw in my plan: I hid monopoly money instead of real money. At least I had good intentions.

Anyway I like having a knife because it means I'll have it around if I need to cut myself out of a seatbelt or something. That isn't the only reason though. It's one of the most useful things you can have around. There are a lot of things normal people use without realising they are just safer and weaker versions of knives. Nail clippers, sissors, paper cutters, normal kitchen knives. Last but not least at all a knife is a great work of art. So are swords. I love swords, but swords aren't very practical to have around, so I just have some toy swords that I played with when I was a kid. Knives are like swords you can use for things other than trimming hedges, and taking up precious space on the wall. I will probably buy some kind of sword someday though.
 
I started by working in a stockroom as a teenager and needing something to break boxes down. It started with the old timer I had at home, progressed to getting something bigger and ended with me buying spydercos, benchmades and god knows what else.

All of that elapsed over the course of about 2 weeks too.
 
Larry S. said:
Why Men Love Knives
Making hunters feel competent since 2 million B.C.
by Bill Heavey

There’s something about a good knife that speaks to you on a primal level. It’s been this way for about 21/2 million years, ever since David E. Petzal was just a gleam in his papa’s eye and some nameless hunter-gatherer first began pounding rocks together. Anthropologists say we first made tools for two purposes: pounding and cutting. Your pounding tool is simplicity itself; pretty much any rock will serve to crush a mastodon bone to get at the marrow. But you need something very specific—a sharp edge—to butcher an animal or scrape a hide. Imagine that first hominid flaking a piece of rock into a shaped edge that fit his paw. Imagine the delight in his face as he hefted it and discovered its powers. I bet you anything he smiled, elbowed the nearest guy, and showed off his creation. And the message—verbal or not—has remained unchanged from that day to this: Got me a nice little cutting rock here. Check it out.
I understand this feeling in its totality. Not long ago, I picked up a very nice “rock” indeed. Mine was a serious folder, an Emerson CQC-7. It’s more knife than anybody but a Special Operations guy could justify. But it’s not more knife than I wanted. I liked the way it felt in my hand. The Teflon-coated blade is just over 3 inches long and partially serrated for cutting rope or other fibrous material. It has a Tanto point that can punch through steel. Its handle is an epoxy-fiberglass laminate known in the trade as G-10 that almost seems to adhere to your hand. The knife comes with a clip that positions it head-down in your pocket so that it’s in the right position when you draw it, and there’s a little round thumb plate affixed to the blade for one-handed opening. The click of the blade locking into position is authoritative. It’s a sound that says, I can handle this.
The knife is pure function with no concession to appearance. Because of that, it is all the more beautiful. Like the Parthenon, there’s not a truly straight line in it. It cost...let’s just say, enough that you might be tempted to pay cash so your wife doesn’t see the figure on the credit-card bill. You could easily field dress an elephant with this thing. Heck, you could probably build a house. It makes me feel more competent than I actually am. A good knife will do this to you.
The only problem is that it’s sending me into a severe funk because there is nothing in my life that justifies a knife of this seriousness. I am not in the Special Forces. I am a middle-aged bald guy who lives in the suburbs with a wife and two kids, a big mortgage, and a 1991 Honda Civic. Last night, with my new knife in my pocket, my younger daughter and I fell asleep in her bed after reading The Poky Little Puppy. And not long ago, an attractive young woman held the door for me as I entered a store behind her. When I thanked her, she said, “You’re welcome, sir.” That “sir” said things that no man who still has his own teeth and knees should have to hear.
So maybe my acquiring this knife is a reminder to myself that beneath this veneer of normalcy there still lives a hunter-gatherer whose every day is a struggle against a world filled with sudden and unforeseen dangers. True, saber-toothed cats no longer tread in the night, waiting to pounce, but there are challenges nonetheless. Just last week, for example, I was setting out the garbage cans at the end of the driveway when I ran into my neighbor, Dave, who was doing the same. Dave is about my age and is suffering from the effects of having recently traded in a sweet little pocket-rocket convertible for a green minivan. There we were, two housebroken hominids with lawns full of dandelions, wrangling our garbage cans. Then Dave began stomping the cardboard box from a new baby gate, as the trash guys won’t pick up any container that hasn’t been flattened to under 6 inches. He was kicking it harder and harder, to little effect, when I said, “Let me give you a hand.” I slid my knife out of my pants pocket, and the blade clicked into place. With four quick strokes, I slit the cardboard seams. The box collapsed.
“Whoa,” said Dave. “That is one serious little blade.” “Yeah,” I said proudly, offering it handle-first. “Check it out.”
Article URL: http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/columnists/article/0,13199,659761,00.html
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It's all right here.
 
Givens: Collections are fun. Hobbies are fun.

Why knives?

-Knives are a collection I can use. They serve a practical purpose while, say, baseball cards or stamps do not.

-I can enjoy knives anytime, and virtually anywhere. I can't play videogames at work, I can't go paintballing unless I can get a group together. Knives offer enjoyment 24/7. At home, at work, while running errands etc...

-Knives range from very cheap, to very special. If I have an extra 10 bucks at the end of the week, I can't buy a new guitar, or an aftermarket part for my car. But I can buy a new knife, even if it isn't a very special one. But if I crave something more special, I can also drop 600 bucks on a knife and get something just as high in quality as a high-end guitar (which costs a lot more). This means knives are both very accessable (making for an easy fix), but can also be very high-quality (making for a very good fix).

I have a lot of hobbies. I love playing guitar and am in a band. I love cars and motorcycles and enjoy driving my Dodge SRT-4 very much. I still play videogames from time to time. And I have no plans on selling my baseball cards or comic books. But knives are, for me, the overall best hobby I have tried. They go anywhere with me, help make my job (at a newspaper warehouse) easier, I can enjoy them at home anytime without needing anyone else with me, and they are addictive to collect.

I have as much fun just fondling my knives at home as I do playing videogames, guitar, or watching TV at home. But those things can't come with me to the store, or to work. I can't get a new guitar for 10 bucks if I need a fix, and videogames aren't addicted to collect.

A lot of my past hobbies have faded away because they were too inaccesable. For example, in order to play soccer I need to get a group together. I cannot play soccer after I get home from work at 3am. If I were as obsessed with soccer as I am am with knives, I would spend a lot of hours waiting and wanting. Knives don't leave me wanting- I just have to open the drawer and there they are. I used to buy a lot of guitars, but guitars cost a lot more than knives for the same quality. So I have to go longer inbetween guitar purchases, and there is no 10-dollar-fix for a guitar collector. I still love playing guitar, but knives are far more enjoyable to collect because they can be bought far more often. I used to love collecting baseball cards, but baseball cards are not man jewlery, and they don't serve a practical function (at least not in the way that knives can help me at work).
 
Dimit78 said:
A knife is an object-a bit scary- it has no mind, no soul.
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Knives aren't scary. It's that mind-set that creates oppresive laws. What a small minority of criminals do with them can be scary, but I'd be more scared if I didn't have my knife with me if I ever witness such an event.
 
A well-engineered knife is a convergence of such a wide variety of disciplines, like lights of different colors focused to a single white point. To get that little folder in your hand, there have been countless man-hours spent working: metallurgists perfected steel-making techniques, chemists formulated materials, engineers delineated optimal shapes and structures, a designer selected, from all the different options, the perfect combination of parts, then some manufacturer had to actually make the bloody thing! In the science and art behind them, knives are extremely complex.

And yet, they are simple. Unlike other marvels of modern technology, a knife will never have any trouble with insufficient memory, or finding a signal, or engaging the clutch.

A knife is rugged, beautiful humanity, forged not only of steel, but of history; tempered not only by heat, but by technology; and assembled not only by the human hand, but by the human spirit.


That's what I think, anyway.
 
For me, it's quite simple.

I like useful things.
I like technology.
When I find something that's useful and also employs technology, I'm interested and I want to hold it in my paws.
I like to spend time outdoors, so when I find such an item (a useful piece of technology) that I can use when I'm camping or hunting, I'm that much more interested.

Here, it gets a little more complicated. It's tough to explain instinctive gut feelings.
I don't like portable GPS units with a built-in weather-changer/coonskinner/electric can opener that comes with a ballistic nylon hairdryer attachment. I like to keep it simple. When I bumble around in the woods, I don't want to be connected to a satellite. I turn off the cell phone and leave it somewhere else.
A knife is one of the simplest, most basic tools (apart from a hammer, perhaps). So, while it may be technologically advanced, made of state-of-the-art materials, etc. (and this is one reason I'm intrigued), it's still essentially a simple tool (second reason I enjoy it).

Hope this makes sense...

Peace.
Alex.
 
Because I was taught by my dad and Uncle Sam that two is one and one is none.

So my wife and kids now know that about two to sixth power means never doing without in terms of knives.

Knives are addictive. I can actually use them. They come from around the world, so they are like traveling without leaving town. They can be passed on to the next generation or ten.
 
Walking Man said:
Knives aren't scary. It's that mind-set that creates oppresive laws. What a small minority of criminals do with them can be scary, but I'd be more scared if I didn't have my knife with me if I ever witness such an event.
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Knives aren't scary to us because we love them and play with them all day, and aren't afraid of getting a little cut nnow and then. However, a knife is a dangerous object in the wrong hands or even by itself in the right situations. A normal person looks at a knife and immediately thinks of getting cut, as they probably have at some point in their lives. Most people also think of all the movies they've seen where people get mutilated and killed with knife. In fact, there have been many serial killers and mass murders that have made those movies somewhat true.

Now, I'm not supporting oppressive knife laws, I think those are just as silly as any of the rest of you do, but to say a knife isn't or shouldn't be a scary object to people is kind of silly.
 
Dimit78 said:
A knife is an object-a bit scary- it has no mind, no soul.
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i don't find knives "scary" and cannot understand that mindset, to me, a knife, at it's essence, is an inanimate object, a sharpened piece of metal with a handle, the simplest, yet most enduring *tool* created by man.

i can leave any of my knives opened, sitting on the table, and they won't do anything, they need to be picked up and held to work, even then, the purpose of this tool depends on the mindset of the person using it, in other words, it's not the *knife* you have to worry about, it's the intent of the person *holding* the knife you have to worry about....

as far as a "soul" is concerned, i actually think that some of the best knifes have, if not a "soul", they at least allow you to see the thought process of the knife designer, you can see that care and love went into the craftsmanship of the blade, a craftsmanship that implies, if not a conciousness, at the very least, a personality

i know i'm not describing my idea very well, but bear with me here, lets use the following example;

knife 1 is a CCC knockoff of a reputable manufacturer's design, for example, a taylor cutlery CKRT M-16 knockoff

knife #2 is a standard Vic. SAK (the Tinker, for example)

knife #3 is a Spyderco Dodo, a Chris Reeve Sebenza, a Buck 110, a Benchmade 700-900 series (insert your favorite knife here)....

knife #1 exudes mediocrity, cheap metals, poor design, an obvious lack of creativity, you can tell it's a cheap, mass produced blade

knife #2 is a good, solid knife, reliable, well constructed, able to withstand a lifetime of abuse and come back for more, a solid, well made example of the knifemaker's art, however, nothing makes it stand out, it's a simple, well made knife (no offense meant to SAK fans, i love SAK's and have 2, but they *are* rather mundane)

knife #3 has a very similar feeling of quality as knife #2, you can tell it's a good, solid blade, the manufacturer agonized over every curve, corner, and shape, the blade itself is designed to serve a distinct purpose, however, there's something *different* about this knife, it feels almost like it was handcrafted by the manufacturer, just for you, you can feel the thought, love, and time that went into tweaking every facet of it's design, every curve has a purpose, the materials were chosen not only for their durability and reliability, but for their asthetic properties as well, this knife feels more "alive", more like a piece of sharp, pointy art that's designed to work, and enhance enjoyment

maybe it's not a "soul" per se, but it's *something* the more mundane blades *don't* have...
 
beseides my cheap DDR ripoff balisong collection in a little shaddow box i cant say i collect knives for asthetic purposes.

every knife i have usually gets carried. i have more than one knife cuz... well, when it comes to "stuff" i can have just one. guitars, wallets, watches, flashlights... you get the picture.
 
I just like the reliability of having a good tuff, sharp piece of steal at my side, something I can rely on when I need it. Steel has long been my favorite material to work with and have, and in knife form its extremely versatile. I use my EDC every day.

Plus, I want to be a mountain man!
 
I cant explain it, but its my link to the outdoors 24/7. Also being a boy scout im sure had something to do with it.
 
I'm like Hair. Hobbies are fun and that usually leads to collections:) When I get tired of one, another usually jumps in to fill the spot. The knives thing, though, has snagged me longer than most:D My "hobbies", if you want to call it that, tend to last a year and then the novelty wears off. I don't think I've opened the cases to my guitars in years (I've got an acoustic, and a Fender Jazz Bass that went thru the Custom Shop). Golf has pretty well vanished off my radar - for some reason, the time just isn't there, any more. I thought that as you got older, you would get more time - ha!!! I've been in knives/leatherwork and related now for close to 3 or 4 years and I'm still there.

Another passion of mine is pool. At one time, I had 10 playing cues, plus a couple of break cues. I still love playing pool (only two leagues this year:) ), but I'm down to one playing cue, a break cue and my jump cue. I may add a second shaft to my playing cue, but you know - I don't have a real urge to acquire another one, which is scary - I'm finally at the point in my life where buying another one wouldn't really be an issue.

Interestingly, I was off knives for a couple of months, jumped into flashlights (I think I've got about 10 now), and now I'm back into knives again:D

And of course, movies - I have a bunch of those too.

We won't go into tools - you always "need" tools so that isn't really collecting, is it???? On the other hand, if knives don't break me, Lee Valley, Home Depot and Rona probably will. I recently started to acquire some revenue property (another "collection:) ) and I'm finding all sorts of reasons to acquire tools suited to renovation work instead of my shop stuff.

Why knives? They've been part of my life forever, it seems, but more from the tool aspect. I'm guessing it's just the gain in knowledge or perhaps the fact that's it just plain fascinating that keeps me coming back. Understanding what goes into making one just makes you appreciate one all the more when you buy the next one - or two. BTW - my Delica 4 and Centofante 4 finally shipped:D About a week late, but at least I'm getting 'em:D

Toys......it's all about the toys.......:D

- gord
 
it has no mind, no soul
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Well...THAT...did it. Do you have any IDEA how long it is going to take me to console my knives now?

I ...KNEW.... I should have skipped this thread.
:)
 
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