How do you know they're "clearly not used often"? Do you need to see extreme wear to be convinced that they are being carried and used?
And even if they're not, I see no issue there. I like using all of my knives, but I don't have a problem with anyone who chooses to just be a collector. That's just their thing.
Sure they COULD have bought some nice customs for the same money........but they didn't. Maybe it's because they didn't want custom knives. Maybe 10+ ZTs or Spydercos or hinderers or CRKs sitting around doing nothing is EXACTLY what they wanted.
More power to them.
And IMO, that terzola looks pretty bad. I know, I know..... heresy! Stone him!
But I've seen many nicer terzolas on this forum. That terrible centering and the cheap looking thumb disc make it reminiscent of some of the 10 dollar gas station mall ninja specials I used to carry. Also not a fan of the blade shape. Sorry if I'm offending anyone here. I can't remember if it was the owner that posted it in this thread.
When I see clean factory edges, pristine coatings / blade finishes, no apparent wear on scales or frames... that tells me they're not used often. If one owns knives to just sit around and do nothing with, why not own something really special?
Yes, the newer Terzuolas are much better, the one in that photo is from the late 80s. Even on that knife in the picture, you can see that he's no slouch when it comes to making knives, even if some of the design elements are cheap looking. You can find CRKs with centering that's just as off, or more drastically off, or ones that are perfectly centered too. Keep in mind that those older Terzuolas were made completely by hand without the help of modern power tools and certainly not extensive NC machine work.
My ATCF was produced in 1994/5, and it had machine-like perfect F&F all around. The newer customs are even more precise. Yes, they're expensive, but it's a similar question, would you rather have 2 or 3 Sebenzas or would you rather have a Terzuola? Terzuolas, like Sebenzas, retain their value well, and often even increase in value - by hundreds or thousands of dollars. They're handmade knives that, in terms of fit & finish, rival or exceed knives produced with advanced numerical-control machinery, like CRKs and Microtechs.
The topic at hand is "Would you rather have 4 really decent knives or one excellent knife". Well, what if the scale was moved up from Benchmade/ZT/Spyderco vs. CRK (the original topic of this thread) to CRK/Hinderer/Strider/Microtech etc. vs. custom knives? Many custom makers are able to achieve amazing levels of quality meeting or exceeding expensive production knives - and they work all or mostly by hand, and all by themselves. Beyond quality, there's also the considerations of uniqueness, provenance, and materials.
Would you rather own two regular large Sebenza 21s, or one "H" Sebenza, handmade & handground by Chris Reeve?
Would you rather have two production Hinderer XM18s or one custom XM18, with a blade handground by Rick?
Would you rather have two production SMFs, or a DDC SMF with a cobalt damascus blade & hand carved frames?
Would you rather have a bunch of Spydercos, ZTs and Benchmades that rarely see use and sit around to be played with & looked at anyway, or have a couple of amazing Careys, Mayos or Boguszewskis?
