- Joined
- Aug 17, 2014
- Messages
- 4,914
I know it's an experience that many of us share: the ebb and flow of the collection, the editing, the curating, the trimming, the expanding. Over the last couple years my collection has shifted and undulated in all sorts of ways, swinging heavily towards a couple brands or makers and then away again, acquiring multiple variations of one knife model and then selling all but one --- the cycle is the cycle. Love the ride for the ride. Seek not the end, dear reader, but the journey.
Anyways, with the new year now upon us, I've been feeling that it'd be a good experience for me to document how exactly my collection evolves, devolves, changes, and remains the same over the course of this year. My plan is to do monthly collection updates, talk about what has left the collection, what has come in, and why. I think it'll be fun for me to work through my knife collecting and using process, and hopefully it'll be fun for anyone who wants to follow along and comment along the way.
Over the last couple years I've tried to keep my collection down to something relatively small, at least be some standards around here. I do want to have a number of knives that I can realistically carry somewhat regularly and all of which I am comfortable using for normal cutting tasks. I think the most pieces I've ever had (thinking primarily of single bladed, locking folders here) was around 40-50. Over the last couple years I've been more in the range of 20-30. Last year I was trying to trim down to around 10-15 primary knives. That's kinda where I'm at, and we'll see where I end up.
To give you some idea of how things have changed for me over the last year, here's what my collection was in August, 2018:
At the time I had been kinda trying to round up what I thought were some the quintessential, the best of the brands and makers I have kinda settled into (CRK, Hinderer, Giant Mouse, Spyderco, Benchmade, ZT). And I was also trying out some budget blades, etc.
After that summer some big sell-offs and re-buys began, and have continued at varied paces since. Since then I've tried to boil things down even more within the brands I've been most into, trying to get down to just one or two from each that I really most enjoy carrying and using. And at the same time I've been trying to use that reduction in volume to diversify the makers and manufacturers I have in my collection. Which brings me to where things stand today:
A few big changes have gone into what I'm carrying these days. First is the addition of EDC fixed blades, especially Bradford Knives. While I don't carry them usually for workdays, they have basically kicked out a whole class of folding knives that I've used for years, namely the more budget friendly high-performance knives. I'm thinking here of things like Spyderco's S110V LW Manix, or other knives that come in at lower price points but still feature very high performing steels. These would be my go to for outdoor stuff, hiking, yard work, etc. But since getting into carrying fixed blades more regularly for that sort of role, a pretty big swath of my collection felt less necessary.
Another big change has been trimming down my main folding knife carries to knives I feel are truly unique or have that special something that holds my interest. The focus has been on what is the one (or two!) knives from a given maker or manufacturer that I really want to experience and use. Further to that has been getting my set of "mini" knives dialed in a bit, and coming to think of them as a whole sort of separate element of my collection and carry.
So, all that being said, here is the January 2019 collection inventory:
Primary Folders:
Anyways, with the new year now upon us, I've been feeling that it'd be a good experience for me to document how exactly my collection evolves, devolves, changes, and remains the same over the course of this year. My plan is to do monthly collection updates, talk about what has left the collection, what has come in, and why. I think it'll be fun for me to work through my knife collecting and using process, and hopefully it'll be fun for anyone who wants to follow along and comment along the way.
Over the last couple years I've tried to keep my collection down to something relatively small, at least be some standards around here. I do want to have a number of knives that I can realistically carry somewhat regularly and all of which I am comfortable using for normal cutting tasks. I think the most pieces I've ever had (thinking primarily of single bladed, locking folders here) was around 40-50. Over the last couple years I've been more in the range of 20-30. Last year I was trying to trim down to around 10-15 primary knives. That's kinda where I'm at, and we'll see where I end up.
To give you some idea of how things have changed for me over the last year, here's what my collection was in August, 2018:
At the time I had been kinda trying to round up what I thought were some the quintessential, the best of the brands and makers I have kinda settled into (CRK, Hinderer, Giant Mouse, Spyderco, Benchmade, ZT). And I was also trying out some budget blades, etc.
After that summer some big sell-offs and re-buys began, and have continued at varied paces since. Since then I've tried to boil things down even more within the brands I've been most into, trying to get down to just one or two from each that I really most enjoy carrying and using. And at the same time I've been trying to use that reduction in volume to diversify the makers and manufacturers I have in my collection. Which brings me to where things stand today:
A few big changes have gone into what I'm carrying these days. First is the addition of EDC fixed blades, especially Bradford Knives. While I don't carry them usually for workdays, they have basically kicked out a whole class of folding knives that I've used for years, namely the more budget friendly high-performance knives. I'm thinking here of things like Spyderco's S110V LW Manix, or other knives that come in at lower price points but still feature very high performing steels. These would be my go to for outdoor stuff, hiking, yard work, etc. But since getting into carrying fixed blades more regularly for that sort of role, a pretty big swath of my collection felt less necessary.
Another big change has been trimming down my main folding knife carries to knives I feel are truly unique or have that special something that holds my interest. The focus has been on what is the one (or two!) knives from a given maker or manufacturer that I really want to experience and use. Further to that has been getting my set of "mini" knives dialed in a bit, and coming to think of them as a whole sort of separate element of my collection and carry.
So, all that being said, here is the January 2019 collection inventory:
Primary Folders:
- CRK Large Sebenza 21 (double silver lugs)
- CRK Large Inkosi
- Hinderer XM-18 Skinny (slicer grind)
- Koenig Arius
- Les George VECP
- Giant Mouse GM5
- Spyderco Advocate (CQI)
- Laconico/Massdrop Keen
- Boos Blades Smoke
- Benchmade Bugout
- Spyderco McBee
- Spyderco Manbug (V-Toku2)
- Spyderco Dragonfly (V-Toku2)
- Olamic Busker
- Bradford Guardian 3
- Bradford Guardian 3.5
- Esee Izula 2
- Fenix PD32
- EagleTac DC25A
- FourSevens Mini MKII
- Olight I3EOS
- Tiscribe Bolt
- Hinderer Investigator
- Brass Fisher Space Pen
- Alox Cadet
- Alox Classic SD
- Alox Minichamp
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