How long in the knife game?

I miss the days when you could carry all your knives onto the plane — there were a couple of international flights I had to give them to the captain. But overall, no worries about checking them or shipping them.
 
I've been carrying a pocket knife for 30 years or so. My grandpa gave me an old Buck when I was a teenager and said "every man should carry a pocket knife." My dad always had one on him too.
 
Got my first knife when i was 5. Got it from ace hardware. It was a sabre jack knife. Had a collection by 6 of various cheap knives. That was 31 years ago. And ive actually been a member of this and other forums before 2007 but i lost my log in info and started fresh about a decade ago online.
 
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I've had a collection since I was 10 or so (30 yrs old now). It wasn't till I hit 16 or 17 when I had a job that I began regularly hunting for that nonexistent perfect knife. I had to take a break during college but several years later now and well over a thousand knives passing through my hands I've found a good balance.
 
I've had pocket knives all my life and usually had one nearby or on me. It's only in the last 10-12 years that I've started buying and collecting knives. I guess I got enough spare money for it to become a problem ;).

I think knife addiction has a very similar progression as drug addiction...

Experimentation -------> User -------> Dealer -------> Maker -------> You die and wife's new husband gets all your knives...
 
Charlie Mike said:
Like any good addiction, it can be progressive.

Buying --> Dealing --> Manufacturing for sale

Ha! :D
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HAHAHA! I dunno if it's the cannabis talking right now, but you just got me laughing pretty good with this one brotherman!

Pretty sure you just won the Internet with this bit of wit, Matt :cool: :thumbup:



To answer OP's question, some of my earlier memories are of me and my friend Ricky trying to go to the biggest knife booth (which happened to be Recon1 in its earlier stages) at our local swap meet to score knives at the ages of 7 and 8 years old. Bought my first bad ass Chinese shit-tanto around 13 or 14, it closed on my fingers at around 15 or 16 years old, which lead to me buying an Axis-lock benchmade 720(or 722?) shortly there after which I carried for years until it disappeared into the ether. Enjoyed a couple more benchmades before moving on my first ZT0350 and then I started exploring tough fixed blades which brought me to Busse where I lurked the forums for about a year before finally joining bf to get in on a Ganzaaa' back in February 2011...it all went down hill from there.

My love for knives was such that even amidst a fairly heavy opiate habit, I still managed to put drug money aside to buy and sell new knives...

I can't see myself EVER leaving this hobby.

Knives are one of our oldest and most useful tools - it amazes me that they don't deeply fascinate everybody with how deeply embedded into our epigenetics they are...
 
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Charlie Mike said:
My mom would eventually confiscate (poof) any knife I obtained until I was 18... I found Bladeforums shortly before turning 19. Now I'm 35 and I've been making them for years.

Like any good addiction, it can be progressive.

Buying --> Dealing --> Manufacturing for sale

Ha! :D
Click to expand...

I got into trouble when i was a young teen. I think it was 6th grade i bought a gerber knife from my friend who was allowed to have it. I ended up getting caught with it and got into a little bit of trouble. My mom didn't think people just like knives. Anyways 15 years later i built up a nice collection and my mom sees why i like them. She likes a few herself! See don't deny you're kids hobbies that they might like. You never know! *i still have that little gerber knife
 
Since about 2013 I think. It started with a Buck 110 and a Buck 119 in 2012. Didn't really have the knife bug until 2013 when I got a Cold Steel Natchez Bowie. That caused a severe case of bowie knife fever. I lost count after about a hundred knives.
 
As many around here already know, I'm a 62 y/o hillbilly from southern WV. I've carried a pocket knife since I can remember. To school even and never thought twice about it. Dad taught me how to work up a burr when I was about 10. Lot's of times my brother and I would carry two knives each.
Life was good until about 2005ish when I found this place. That's when I found out what it was like to live in poverty. :)
 
Got my first knife at 8, lost it tryin' to stick it in a tree from 10 paces the same day. Somehow I managed to convince my Old Man to get me another, it was a German made SAK. I hung onto that one for about a year before I lost that one or maybe broke it. I managed to go through cheap knives fairly quickly, at least till I bought my first Schrade Old Tower at 15 so form then till now I'd say over 40 years.

One of my milestones was my first big knife show, the ECCKS (East Coast Custom Knife Show) in Jersey back in 1990, also when I bought my first custom and spent more than $200 on a knife. In fact I just happened across the first custom with the original box and papers, here's the knife and box. Also here's an article in Fighting Knives magazine with an article about the first ECCKS and a picture of Bud and Toni Nealy from the same show the article was about and the same show I bought the knife from Bud. It was 1 of 7 of the only knives he brought to sell, also was the show and year he became a full time maker. This knife was #553 in succession from his first. He's currently past 10K IIRC.

That was so many years ago, since then I've become good friends with Bud as well as many other makers, smiths and owners like Sal and AG.

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I've been carrying a knife for most of my life, but I got seriously into the hobby for about six years.
 
I was gifted a Canadian centennial knife by my grandparents in 1967. So a very long time. I have gone through a few stretches when I didn't have enough money to buy a knife but I kept my interest.
 
I know many have prolly heard this before but, they'll be some lucky sucker out there that ends up getting my knives when I die and my wife sells them for what I told her I paid for them. :)
 
Kootaga13 said:
I know many have prolly heard this before but, they'll be some lucky sucker out there that ends up getting my knives when I die and my wife sells them for what I told her I paid for them. :)
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My daughter, Rebekah, enjoys a good folder so I am leaving mine behind for her and my wife to share. My guess is that that my daughter will get most of them because my wife really could not care any less. Unless it is a SAK. She likes those.

I am planning to scale back some so who knows how many knives I will own when I die. I requested to be buried with one of my Kershaws. Time will tell if that happens.
 
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Otto Carpenter said:
People's interests don't always last.
(...)
Undeniably, there's something compelling about a well-designed knife, and new people come into the hobby all the time, but I believe people leave the hobby just as regularly, as practicality and money play a role in continuation.

I still admire them - just unsure whether I'm going to buy any more of them.
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Like you mentioned in the first sentence of this thread, people change. Their interests change. Some more than others, to be sure. I'm one of those who is more "promiscuous" with his hobbies. I take up a hobby as long as I enjoy engaging with it. Then, when my enjoyment fades, I disengage. "Disengage" does not mean "discard". It just gets pushed into the background, for the time being.

I've acquired far more knives than I could possibly use, even if I was a knife-wielding-octopus. I have a knife for just about any conceivable scenario or situation. Most of these will probably go unused, at least in the short-term. Many people would consider that wasteful. They're not wrong, but that's not the point. Falling in and out of love is part of being human, even when it comes to a knife collection.
For now, my immediate, tactile, utilitarian interest in knives is fading. I still love reading about them, ogling pictures, fantasizing about customs, and so on. But I may only buy one knife in the next 10 years... we'll see.
 
My buying fluctuates but my love and interest in knives stay the same. Twenty plus years, an evolution, learning, buying, using and slightly abusing
 
I'm 54 now, and have carried a knife or knives since age 13.

I remember in the '70s lots of boys and male teachers carried pocketknives at school.

In my late teens I lost interest for a few years. Then started carrying strictly for utility again at 20, but did not really get into buying knives again until about age 34. I was getting a LOT of knives for a while. Nowadays I've narrowed things down considerably and am very picky about what knives I'll buy. I rarely purchase anymore. I can go a long time (even years) without purchasing any new knives. At least it isn't a drug or gambling addiction. I mostly just carry and use a few of my favorites that really work for me now.

I have many interests that I'm passionate about in my life.

Jim
 
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