How big should the herd be?

Dadpool said:
I love the range of responses in this thread! It's fun to see how differently everyone looks at our shared hobby.
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I agree. I do subscribe to some of the same ideologies on the thread. If I wouldn’t carry it or use it, I won’t keep it.

What I do like about the self discipline of a cap is that it forces you to make tough decisions about what you REALLY value. It makes for a curated collection. I’ve easily bought and sold 100 but the rule of 20 is easy for me to make peace with and keeps the old lady guessing!

Now every time I think about buying one, I decide which one goes... next on the kill list is the Manix 2 in favour of a BM Valet, or Adamas, or Mini Crooked River....DECISIONS!

Having said all that, I still have 5 fixed blades sitting around, and a small leatherman collection.
 
jc57 said:
However many I have right now, minus about 130.
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I think you are going the wrong direction- it should be "however many I have right now plus 50".

I don't think there should be a prescribed limit. Depending on your own circumstances you can have 1 or 10 or 1,000. You have to set your own limit, but I don't believe a person should set a hard limit to the point where it becomes a burden to meet it or reduces your enjoyment of the hobby.

In folders I have about 10 in my EDC rotation, about 4 more that I might carry on weekends, at least a half dozen other misc. folders that I might use at various times, and another dozen or so of misc. knives that are in my possession but I don't typically use them. I used to collect custom fixed blade hunting knives so I still have a lot of those, 20-30, and I have another batch, at least 10, that I might actually use for various things. And I don't know how many old fixed blade knives that I have that are again, in my possession, but I likely won't ever be using them. If I gathered up everything in my house that could be called knife, skipping everything that is in the kitchen, I would probably get close to 100.
 
Oh, the other aspect of a cap I was going to mention that I really take interest in is the effect a new piece can have on your existing collection. For example, once I got the OD green bugout, it completely changed my view on my native5, pm2, and mini-grip. All subsequently left the collection because the bugout filled all of those roles for me. BOOM, new slots are open! When I got my xm-18, I lost all attachment to the manix2 because they are so similar.

Then the love lost effect, I do miss the PM2 and will buy another, but because I know I dig it, I’ll go for a higher end version like s35vn. Nothing like losing something to know if you truly appreciated it. Haven’t even thought about the native5 or mini since they left.
 
:) The "herd" might need culling :

When you're forced to to either move to a bigger house or rent a storage unit ? :confused:

When your SO seriously threatens to use your knives upon your poor old defenseless sleeping personal bodily self ? :eek:
 
bdmicarta said:
I think you are going the wrong direction- it should be "however many I have right now plus 50".
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Nah, not really. I know about how many I have (somewhere in the range of 150) and about how many I realistically ever get around to carrying (about 20) and that's where my random math came from. I went a bit overboard in my knife buying days. No need to have money tied up in stuff that's just sitting on a shelf.
 
DocJD said:
:) The "herd" might need culling :

When you're forced to to either move to a bigger house or rent a storage unit ? :confused:

When your SO seriously threatens to use your knives upon your poor old defenseless sleeping personal bodily self ? :eek:
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I already rent two storage units, so knife storage is not a problem.
 
No hard cap. I have pretty narrow/specific tastes at this point (essentially only 2 manufacturers and certain specifics as to what I collect from those 2), so it is self limiting based on availability of the knives I like.
 
To keep things in control I made this small 2-drawer oak cabinet for my nightstand. It holds three watches and about 15 folders. If it doesn't fit in the cabinet and get carried/used, it goes. When the cabinet is full, one knife in... one knife out. Really makes me think about my purchases. Do I really want the new knife more than those I already have in my rotation?

My fixed blades, toolbox, truck and garage knives don't count. One fixed blades is in my boat the other two are attached to hiking packs. I have a Rat #1 in my toolbox, a Buck 112 in my garage and a beat up, old Spyderco Pacific Salt in my truck for fishing.

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As long as you can pay the mortgage and dont dip into the kids college fund the herd can be as big as you like. I do try to limit it to whatever number that prevents them from gathering dust because I don’t have collector items. I buy CRK knives and throw away the boxes because I will use them.
 
Never wanted to count them, as didn't care to lie if asked. I'm sure I had well over 100, but it varied constantly. The fever has passed; pretty well down to semi-necessary ones. More content this way.
 
Dadpool said:
I hit about 35 a couple years ago, realized I was carrying the same couple of knives every day and wondered why I had all these others, and sold off most of them. Now I keep it to about a half-dozen in my knife chest and another 10 or so stashed in specific places (truck, backpacks, etc.).
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I’m going through that right now. I have somewhere around 30, about a half dozen see most of my carry. The problem is, I like them all so much that I’m not ready to downsize.

I don’t have a pre-determined cap, but my purchasing has slowed to a crawl. If I buy something new, it has to fill a niche I don’t already have or be a convincing improvement on something already in my collection.
 
After downsizing a few times and selling and using the funds to buy one knife I’d say I’m sitting around 12. Try to stay under 20 bc my tastes have gotten rather expensive
 
I have no desire to own more than ten. Right now I own three after a recent purchase and that seems one too many to me to be honest. But I’m testing out the new knife first for a little bit before I make a decision on keeping all three or not.
 
I found myself with 50ish awhile ago and then I realized I had some that were never even carried. I now am down to 10 that all see a fair amount of pocket time. I am continuously buying and selling though ( I find its part of the fun) but am trying to stay at 10 at a time. Its hard to do with companies releasing so many new knives.
 
I have waaay too many, especially for my budget....around 50 ZT’s and probly 100 kershaws Lol I think 100 total would’ve been plenty, I do regret some of the cheap-Kershaw purchases like the starter, manifold, intellect, shuffle, injection etc...I use about 80% of the kershaws and 10-20% of the ZT’s so I have a lot of safe queens.
 
4mer_FMF said:
....I don’t have a pre-determined cap, but my purchasing has slowed to a crawl. If I buy something new, it has to fill a niche I don’t already have or be a convincing improvement on something already in my collection.
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I slowed things down too, but a bit more than a crawl from my point of view as I have purchased the same number of new knives this year as last year and we're in August. The fill a niche or convincing improvement concepts are great, but that doesn't really work for me. I simply don't buy anything that I will not use; no museum pieces. The reality is that I use about 10 knives and all the other ones sit idle.
 
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