Really awesome reading all the different views. I think Daniel has a very valid point... maybe that its such a primal tool, its an instinctive passion for (we would think) all of humankind!. Maybe its a kind of fetish and we all need psychotherapy!?.
I remember as a kid always wanting a simple Swiss Army Knife with just a single blade... I was never allowed one cos I would stab myself... Maybe its rebellion that made me want knives? Eventually I was given a tiny little folder of dodgy quality, with the handles moulded in the shape of a mealie (Corn cob). It was clearly cheap, but at that stage I was in Utopia... I remember visiting the the bog one morning and when pulling my pants up, the knife popped out of my pocket and into the toilet pan.. I remember balling my eyes out thinking life was no longer worth living, and my mom was my new hero after fishing it out with barbeque tongs!!. After starting my first job I bought a simple Swiss Army Knife (SAK), and admiring the quality of the steel and fabrication, used to shine up the blade just about every night. Then I bought another... and another .... and another. Often I bought two of the same so that I could use one and keep the other in pristine condition. (?) (This takes me back to the fetishism concept)
Then came the time when I got obsessed not only on the pretty shinyness, but also on the sherpness of the edge... So I bought a lansky sharpening set... and ran around sharpening every edge I could find till I could shave the hair off the back of my hand! And eventually I am now at the stage where I am making my first knives... I think this is probably a similar story to most people here, and... I THINK ITS A DISEASE!!!!. What will come after I have made a few knives??... Is the next step to make a Knife Manufacturing Machine???
