How big should the herd be?

cnote306 said:
hi guys, new to the forum. Avid collector myself, I’m curious what sort of limits or caps you guys put on your collection?

I keep my # of folders below 20, but man is it tough. Anyone else cap it? What’s your #?
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Why do you feel you have to have a cap? Do you feel like you'll lose control if you don't?

No caps, limits or theme, I want what I want and get the best I can afford, use what I get, (no safe queens) well maybe 3 or 4 I bought to resell and make a little money on.

As for how many? No idea, I figure somewhere between 325 and 425, always seems to float around there. I given away many, I bought many, I've been gifted many, won many in GAWs and traded for a few too. I find when I try to put an amount to what I have I don't enjoy them as much as when I just grab what I want and when I have choices.

I wish I could keep the herd small but I like so many and I like Traditional's which allows me to get lots of older 30-60 y/o knives in decent shape for very little money. The bulk of my collection accumulated over the last 45+ years was purchased at $10 and under.

So in an attempt to enjoy my knives I put no limits other than accumulating them can't impact my family or finances. In the long run it's cheaper than drugs, alcohol, gambling and much safer than chasing after women. ;)

Just a few of my favorites.

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I have a storage folder that holds a dozen knives and I said that when it's full, I'd stop buying knives. That was 20 knives ago. I am currently zeroing in on another purchase soon.

I also won't sell any, even ones that I rarely carry or use and will keep them all, which is kind of funny as I only rotate between 6 or 7. However, truth be told, even though they are technically "tools", I consider all of them as toys and play with all of them accordingly.
 
cnote306 said:
hi guys, new to the forum. Avid collector myself, I’m curious what sort of limits or caps you guys put on your collection?

I keep my # of folders below 20, but man is it tough. Anyone else cap it? What’s your #?
Click to expand...

How many are "they" going to make? I limit myself to that.

Seriously, when I started collecting traditional knives in the early 90s, I limited myself to American Made, natural handle materials, 2 blade trapper pattern knives in an attempt to limit the number of knives that would fit the bill.

When I found BF in 2009, it opened up the realm of clip knives, and I have since settled into collecting ZTs, the occasional Kershaw, JKs, Busses, Emersons, Victorinox, GEC, Canal Street, Robeson.

Does not sound like I have much of a limit now - hence the large number of knives in my collection.

Keeps me out of the bars anyway.

best

mqqn
 
T. Erdelyi said:
Why do you feel you have to have a cap? Do you feel like you'll lose control if you don't?

No caps, limits or theme, I want what I want and get the best I can afford, use what I get, (no safe queens) well maybe 3 or 4 I bought to resell and make a little money on.

As for how many? No idea, I figure somewhere between 325 and 425, always seems to float around there. I given away many, I bought many, I've been gifted many, won many in GAWs and traded for a few too. I find when I try to put an amount to what I have I don't enjoy them as much as when I just grab what I want and when I have choices.

I wish I could keep the herd small but I like so many and I like Traditional's which allows me to get lots of older 30-60 y/o knives in decent shape for very little money. The bulk of my collection accumulated over the last 45+ years was purchased at $10 and under.

So in an attempt to enjoy my knives I put no limits other than accumulating them can't impact my family or finances. In the long run it's cheaper than drugs, alcohol, gambling and much safer than chasing after women. ;)

Just a few of my favorites.

Celh9HG.jpg
030frWf.jpg
uMyAidE.jpg
gwx0XvF.jpg
iIO81eK.jpg
Cw07xXO.jpg
3D4B16i.jpg
xdnQhKX.jpg
24viWoV.jpg
Y0fP0dO.jpg
AiZdZMY.jpg
zySjP2c.jpg
219yViX.jpg
v8ODac4.jpg
Click to expand...
Women are in infinitely more expensive than knives. And you can’t put them away in a drawer.
 
Anytime I get over 10 I sell some off. Like some have already said, having too many becomes a burden to properly care for.
 
I have a large and small Spyderpac for EDCs. I'm willing to fill those to their combined 48 count capacity. They aren't full currently. I also allow myself to keep a small container of "safe queens" and a drawer with a few miscellaneous knives.
I don't like to endlessly accumulate. I go through phases of buying and selling.
 
augustus88 said:
I tell people to please not to buy me knives because I already have enough and I don’t want to be wasteful. As a result, I don’t end up with a box full of well intentioned, poor quality knives that I don’t use.
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If it wasn't for the poor quality knives, how would you be able to distinguish the good quality ones?

n2s
 
augustus88 said:
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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Fantastic looking cabinet by the way!

I am somewhere like this, I have a couple knives in work relates locations and a small group of about 7 that I use for EDC.
I listened to an audo book called "Rich dad, poor dad" by Robert Kiyosaki and his advice was not to spend all your wealth on
"DO-DADs". It does not make sense to have many thousands of dollars sitting in a safe, if we are paying interest rates on
credit cards, vehicles, mortgage etc...wait you have a safe, don't you? ;)

So, I started pairing down the collection, and am working to pay off things with interest rates. It has become a snowball effect
of financial responsibility, and I want to continue, even though it is hard at times. That is when I make the decision to buy
the "DO-DAD" with cash, or not, and generally sell something else not getting used.

This author's advice was to buy your toys/rewards etc. with money coming in from assets, like stock or property that you begin
to accumulate after paying off debt. Not something that I have yet accomplished yet, but more of a long term plan.
 
All of them.

Oh, wait. Somebody said that already? Okay. I'll just be over here, chewing on my shoe.
 
not2sharp said:
If it wasn't for the poor quality knives, how would you be able to distinguish the good quality ones?

n2s
Click to expand...
I’ve owned plenty of poor quality knives that I purchased then disposed of in the past. Through the years I’ve learned how to identify quality through trial and error.

I simply discourage people from giving me knives as gifts, so I can avoid feeling obligated to sharpen, store and carry bad knives. If I buy it, I feel no guilt when I sell it or throw it away.
 
It took a while, but I finally came up with the mathematical formula for calculating the number of knives I should own.

x + 1 = ?

The value of x is the current number of knives I own. In other words, I always need one more. Hahaha...;)
 
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