Which way to go with collecting?

jujigatame

jujigatame

Joined
Mar 21, 2005
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I feel, for some reason I can't fully explain, that I'm at a point where I should choose a direction for my knife collecting. To this point I've tried to sample a lot of different things in custom knives. If I didn't have a piece by a certain maker I might make it a priority to get something from them. Part of it was to see what was what among different makers. My sense of what I like and why I like it has developed quite a bit in the past few years, and while it will continue to develop with exposure to new things, I think I've set my taste in knives for the most part.

In my mind I see a choice between two paths.

#1 is to keep trying to acquire knives from as many makers as I can and to keep trying to look for stuff that I don't have an example of (for example, getting a Bob Terzuola knife because I think it would be a great knife and I don't have one yet, the same thing could go for Kit Carson and dozens more makers).

#2 is to set out the makers I already own and know that I like (Lightfoot, Mayo, Hinderer, Sibert, Chuck Gedraitis and others) and focus mainly on collecting more pieces from them. This wouldn't necessarily be done to the exclusion of getting pieces from makers that would be new to me, so to speak, but expanding on the makers I already have would take up the majority of the time and money devoted to knives.

Has anyone else ever made a choice like this or felt a similar way? Am I perhaps premature in feeling like I should make such a choice? Am I missing something with the two choices I've described? Are there options 3, 4 and 5 that I should think about?

I appreciate any comments anyone may offer.
 
To my mind, it should be whatever you most enjoy.
To me at least, knife collecting(or, any knid of collecing for that matter) is all about enjoyment or fun!
 
At one point I had thought that I would get one knife from as many bladesmiths as I could. That has now changed and I am more interested in just getting knives that I like.

There is no right or wrong way to collect (well, I guess there would be some wrong ways, including paying way too much for poorly made knives). In fact, as time goes by you may just find, as I have, that your collecting patterns change. I started out collecting one kind of knife and that has changed a couple of times. There was a time I stated that I would never pay more than $1000.00 for a knife. Boy, was I wrong. I'm just going to go where the currents take me, because that is the way I enjoy collecting.
 
This is a great question with no single best answer. When I'm faced with a problem like this one I find it useful to give myself some 'test questions' designed to shake up my thinking and help to discover what the key 'emotional drivers' are. As much as I respect logic, the truth is most decisions have a powerful emotional component that, when ignored increase the chance for a less than optimal outcome.

With this in mind you might try one of these, or make up your own:

1. Your house is on fire. All your knives will be destroyed and you will only be able to save 10. Go lay out all your knives and quickly pick your ten. Once you have laid them all out and handled each one, give yourself no more than three minutes to pick 10. Go!

2. Decide you will stretch financially and buy a knife more expensive than you've ever bought before. Start looking at the mags, on-line and/or at shows. Tell yourself you will pay 4 or more times as much as your most expensive knife, and that it will hurt. Who/what surfaces as the one you'd hurt for?

3. The above are mental exercises designed to break the log-jam in our thinking but here's a real practical suggestion. Start trying to trade with fellow collectors. What do you have that someone else might want? What do they have that you might want? You can even trade with certain dealers. I was at the PKA show here in Denver last weekend and Bob Glassman of Custom Knife Gallery of Colorado proposed a trade for the folder I was carrying at the show. I'd never even thought of such a thing. I didn't trade with him but it really got me thinking hard and I realized I needed to get my collection more organized and start looking critically at each piece. Certainly there are some I could and should trade.

A person gets good at what they do. Like you, I've gotten pretty good at buying knives but I want to get better at building a collection. At least for me, the way my head works, I have to make an end-run around my intellect and find those emotional drivers in order to experience the real pleasure of custom knife collecting as opposed to experiencing it as a weird kind of mental torture. Some collectors are really tortured about it. Ever met one of those? I've been that way at times in the past - much less these days by virtue of trying to sort it out in the ways I've described above.

Good luck!
 
I used to try and get a little bit of everything. I would buy a knife from one brand or maker, and then move on to another, and another. Variety was what I was after.

However, I have recently fallen in love with Bob Dozier's knives. I decided there was no point in buying anything else since Bob Dozier knives are the ones I liked the most, and only used them while everything else sat in a dresser collecting dust.

Now I only buy Doziers and am selling off most of my other knives to buy more Doziers.

I.e., I only buy what I really like, and am focusing on my favorite maker.

I am *MUCH* more happy now than I was when I was after variety. I am enjoying buying and using Bob Dozier knives more than I was enjoying buying and using 'knives in general'.

Buying variety is a good way to find what you like. Once you find, I would suggest sticking with it.

I am sure you are a far more experienced knife collector than me, but I know what has made me happy, so I would suggest you go that direction as well.

I was buying a lot of knives that I would play with for a day or two and then never use again. Now that I know what I really like, it is all I buy.
 
I think the best thing to do is to buy what you like. Why limit yourself to certain makers if you see something you really like from someone else, and why pass up pieces that appeal to you just because you have other knives from the same maker?
 
Well, I wouldn't intend to limit myself to only a certain set of makers and no others. Certainly, the list of one's favorite makers always seems to grow in the world of custom knives, never diminish, and different maker's interpretations of similar styles can be fun to compare.

As to why put rules on it...I don't fully know why I have that feeling. I don't see it as rules so much as an overall direction. I think that part of it may be that since knives are my primary hobby/interest (certainly the one that takes up the most time and disposable income) that it should perhaps have some larger purpose or plan. I understand that may come off as odd, but if I want my collection to be a reflection of my interests and tastes, then I see collecting multiple pieces from the makers I think are the best as a means of acheiving that. I appreciate the idea of "get what you like and make it fun" because that's mostly what I've done up to this point. But part of the fun for me would be having the collecting be somewhat more deliberate and focused, making it more goal oriented rather than buying knives A, B and C just because I like them right off the bat. I don't know if my explanation of this is coming across as well as I have it in my head, but that's the best way I can put it at the moment.
 
That makes sense.
Sometimes it is best to go back to the basic question to find the complex answers.
Add to that there is no right or wrong answer, just what works for you now.
Times change, tastes change and your collecting habits may change too.
It's all good :D
 
Ebbtide said:
Why put rules on your collection?
Click to expand...

Good question. A collector has to limit purchases somehow. There are more great knives out there than I can afford. Also, my OCD demands continuity.:eek:

Many choose knives for collections around a theme or rule: only knives from a particular maker or group of makers; only knives of a particular style; etc. I believe one member here collects knives with stag handles. Another collects knives made by makers who are no longer living, kind of as a tribute.

Scot
 
I would just buy one knife at a time, and your collection will take it's own path.
Think ZEN! :D
 
Walking Man said:
I would just buy one knife at a time, and your collection will take it's own path.
Think ZEN! :D
Click to expand...

I would have no problem following that advice, since I can only afford one knife at a time.
 
My collecting habits and collection have changed since finding BladeForums,especially though not exclusively,this forum. :thumbup:

I concentrated on "typical ABS MS and JS forged Bowie's" as Bowie's are my favorites as well as fighters, I sometimes have a hard time differentiating the fighters as a lot of them are so Bowie-like,at least to me.
I don't at all rule out the makers that didn't go the ABS route,I have found that these makers knives are among my favorites.

Tried to stay away from folders as I rationalized that was money I could use to acquire more and better Bowie's/Fighters but I've added some very nice folders,IMO, to my collection.
Best advice I've ever got here."Buy as nice as you can afford." And."Do the research."

Doug :)
 
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