Your Knife Collection...

uberfastman

uberfastman

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2014
Messages
82
Hey folks,

So I realized recently that despite having lurked here on BladeForums for a long time, and then being a member but mostly using only the exchange, that I ought to get a little more involved in the actual forum side of things. I do all my knife forum activity on reddit typically, but I want to expand my repertoire.

Anyway, with that in mind, I was hoping to start a discussion topic about how you all grow, manage, and thin out your knife collections. I've had a lot of knives over the years, but I always find myself hitting a point where I suddenly start to feel I have too many, then I go on selling kicks, or "upgrading" by selling several lower end knives to then buy a single higher end knife. It's very cyclic, but I always find myself having a harder and harder time getting rid of knives when I hit the point I feel I have too many... there are alway some that have sentimental value and were gifts that I want to keep, some that I use for specific purposes only (like for camping, or flipping, etc.), and then of course the ones that are my favorites and I EDC.

So my big question for discussion is, how do you manage your knife collection? Do you just let it grow? Do you set limits? Do you sell stuff a lot or trade? What are your collection goals?

Thanks folks, I hope to start participating more on here as time progresses!

-uberfastman
 
I thin my collection in a cycle. New knives are carried after work. Older one carried for work. I use the heck out of my work knives to the point that after one year they are torn up. Some break, get thrown away. Some get cleaned up and given away. Then i rotate in new ones and go at it again.
 
Solid system you've got there.... unfortunately my work doesn't really require any hard knife use so I just get to carry them and cut my sandwich and fruit at lunch, but I still try haha.
 
If I like it I buy it and my collection just grows and grows I do do some trading and I do give some away and I have my safe queens and my edcs. my wife says I no longer have a knife collection but a knife hoard .
 
Mine keeps growing, I don't sell knives often and when I do I usually regret it. I have given away knives as gifts more than I have sold them. The wife don't know because she does not have a key for the closet in my knife room.
 
Haha, I keep mine in a display case so it becomes painfully obvious to my gf when the collection gets "too large"...
 
I have a bunch of display cases also but I just change the knives I display and the wife does not know the difference.
 
Sneaky. I've always gone on a selling purge whenever my collection threatened to exceed what my case can hold so I've just got the one case.
 
If I won't use it I lose it. Half of my collection is used to the point where they aren't worth selling. I posted on a related topic about this, but I went from a rotation of 35+ folders to 8. After warranty work, I will be selling one more, making room for a $900-$1000 custom I have being built. My wife gave me a ten folding knife storage case, and that's as many as I'm allowed to have. No more fixed blades. I'm fine with that. The amount of knives get lower, but the median cost/value gets higher, with less production and more unique/limited edition/custom knives.
 
For me, it just happens. I've told myself a few times 'no more knives!'. But here I am, keep buying knives haha.
 
Yeah quality over quantity has been something I try to foster, but sometimes extra knives just creep in. Very hard to resist!
 
I just started. I mean, I had knives tucked away here and there but then something clicked and I decided to start collecting them. I've still finding places to stash them for different uses. I was always digging the folder out of my survival bag or out of the emergency kit in my Jeep to open a package or slice some cord so I bought a bunch of inexpensive folders that I liked. Now I've got one on my desk, added one to my fishing bag, another on my work bench, etc. But I can see the point where I have more knives that I need at anyone time.

I've been wondering how to organize and store them. I'll probably pawn off the ones I don't like on my son but the good ones, I'm not sure what to do with them long term.
 
I don't really put that much thought into it.

It's kinda spontaneous actually.

I buy knives I like, play with them, use them, and when I see others that I want to try, I sell them and buy those...and repeat. I would say that I go through this cycle two or three times a year.
The only thing I try hard to do, is to fund the hobby through the hobby, but that's not always fully possible.

At a certain price point, it gets way too expensive to keep every knife you buy, unless of course you can afford to do that.
 
I've only been really collecting knives for about three years, but a few times I found that I had some knives that just weren't getting used, or that I didn't really care for so I sold them. I don't have any rules though as far as how many I can own at once. I do however have a perpetual list of blades that I want to get eventually, and sometimes I look at it and think I'm being ridiculous, and that if I ever acquired all of them I would have too many knives. Then a sly grin forms on my face and remind myself that there's no such thing as too many knives ;)
 
I use a rolling toolbox....fits neatly in the corner of my bedroom and holds all my knives.....only I have the keys =o)

Once I can no longer fit anything in it.....I'll get another one and fill it too....

 
That rolling toolbox looks like it sure would hold a lot... unlimited growth! Also JR88FAN, I always tried to to the whole "fund my collection by selling other part of my collection", but as you say sometimes that isn't very viable haha.
 
In the past 2 years I've gone from 2 kershaw and a couple of cheaper knives to 20ish folders and fixed blades. I started by trying out all the different cheaper brands (opinel, victorinox, Becker) and I just purchased my first Sebenza last week. At this point, I'm like the cheaper knives I still have, and I've gotten rid of any knives I don't regularly use and carry. I don't see my collection growing over 30 or so total, but I'm definitely at a point where I'm more interested in quality over quantity. Aside from knives purchased specifically for gifts, I'm probably going to stick with spyderco, crk, and I'd like to try a couple of ZT's.

I've been in love with shirogorovs for a while, so I see myself going in the direction of nicer more expensive pieces, with more time in between purchases spent saving for the next one.

I won't purchase any knife I don't see myself using though. I love putting my own edge on a knife, I hesitated Sharpening my crk but I don't regret it now!
 
flyfishnevada said:
I just started. I mean, I had knives tucked away here and there but then something clicked and I decided to start collecting them. I've still finding places to stash them for different uses. I was always digging the folder out of my survival bag or out of the emergency kit in my Jeep to open a package or slice some cord so I bought a bunch of inexpensive folders that I liked. Now I've got one on my desk, added one to my fishing bag, another on my work bench, etc. But I can see the point where I have more knives that I need at anyone time.

I've been wondering how to organize and store them. I'll probably pawn off the ones I don't like on my son but the good ones, I'm not sure what to do with them long term.
Click to expand...
This sounds exactly like me, and what I've been wondering too. My collection is starting to overgrow it's allotted space. I do put the high value ones in the gun safe, but I'm still running out of space in my closet.

Fortunately, I'm a custom furniture maker. My plan (when I get some free time) is to build a storage cabinet specially designed (to fit in my existing closet system) for knives with drawers that are only 1” deep. I forget what the overall dimensions are, but I should be able to fit about 16, one inch drawers and a couple 2" drawers for fixed blades. On paper, it is supposed to hold ~400 blades, which should give me plenty of room to grow... [emoji48] I'll definitely document it when it's done.

I wish I had room for a rolling tool cabinet, it would make things so much easier...
 
I've got the issue of moving out of my 2400 sqft, three car garage house into a motorhome sometime next year. Part of the reason I decided to collect knives. They are small and lightweight. I'm thinking of investing in some organizers, like Sack-Up's and then keeping those in a Rubbermaid container. I'll probably start to focus on quality instead of quantity so I don't end up with seven bins full of inexpensive knives. Just like my guns, I'll have to sort my knives by where they are legal and where they aren't and store the ones, if any, that are illegal where we plan to travel. But, I can go to all kinds of flea markets, knife shows, etc.
 
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