I've done two major downsizings in my life. When I was in my 50's I did a huge purge of my stuff. Knife collection, gun collection, duplicate tools, vehicles. Then in my 60's I downsized my knife and gun accumulation again to a bare minimum. Each time it felt totally liberating. I was being ruled by my possessions and I put a stop to it, especially the knife buying. It was like one day I woke up from what I can only call a form of temporary insanity, and now I keep my knife accumulation down to what I can hold in one hand without trying too hard.
Aside from the little SAK on my keyring, and a SAK or traditional slip joint pocket knife, I'm done. I still like to look, and keep informed, but evcerytime I feel the urge to buy a new knife, I ask myself one very important question; What will it do that the SAK or other pocket knife in my pocket can't?
So far the answer is nothing.
I'm a retired machinist from the Washington D.C. area, and we moved to Texas when the better half and I retired and went on the dole. I didn't want to own a snow shovel or ice scraper or long under wear. I do a lot of fishing and woods walking and we've been exploring the Texas country side. So far my tiny accumulation of pocket knives have been all I need. Since I never saw a knife as a defense weapon, I never got into the whole one hand locking thing. If I need to defend myself that's why a carry a gun. When out and about in D.C. I just carried a heavy duty Irish blackthorn walking stick and pepper spray. If the spray failed to work, I'll start breaking things with he blackthorn. My pocketknife is just for opening packages, cutting bait or fishing line, whittling a perfect hot dog stick for the grandkids, and other small cutting jobs.
The collection/buying thing can get out of hand if you aren't careful.
