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Knife Collection Genres

Have a simple discussion with another collector and one topic is always bound to occur - someone will ask, "what do you collect?" Sometimes the answer is simple - Folders or Fixed blades. Spend more than 5 minutes anywhere in iKC, and you will discover that it is never that simple.

There are as many knife collecting genre's as there are in Rock 'n Roll music. With Rock 'n Roll, we have American Traditional, Bar Band, Garage Band, Heavy Rock, Acid Rock, Metal, Bubble Gum, Hip Hop, Heartland Rock, Pop, Latin Rock, Retro Rock, Classic Rock, Folk Rock, Swamp Pop, and Rockabilly Revival (whatever that is) just to name a few.

With knives, yes we have the folders and the fixed blades. These then break down in to types of folders and fixes blades. With folders you have your Congress, Whittler, Toothpick, Camp, Swiss Army, Saddle horns, Canoes, Lock backs, and Switchblades, to name a few. With fixed blades we have our Bowies, Skinners, Survival, Combat/Military/Fighters, Hunting, Trackers, and Daggers.

Add to this all the flavors and options one can have - Production vs Bench made, Damascus vs Stainless Steel, Cross-overs, USA vs Everyone else made, New vs Vintage....you get the idea.

All of this is the easy stuff. but what about these collectible genres:

- Marketing knives

- Reproductions

- Rip-offs (a collection of intentionally made rip-offs can be quite a collection!)

- Wooden

- With tang stamps only

- Knives with the letter "Z" in its name

- Knives with 17 blades or more

- Knives with broken tips

- Knives once owned by Presidents

- Trench-made (referring to knives made or modified by soldiers in the theater of battle)

What are some of the Off Center collection genres that you have or interest you? Let's see what you have!

Tags: Collecting, Collection, Collections, Genres, Staring, a

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on February 26, 2015 at 17:49

I will politely disagree with Shlomo concerning the term "survival" knife. While I agree the term is over used, in my book the term means a knife that has been designed or specifically chosen for use in a government issued emergency survival kit used by the military. That would rule out about 99% of the crap (as well as some very expensive quality knives) marketed as a survival knife, today; but I think those can legitimately be called "survival knives" regardless of how cool or tough they are.

The most famous of these are the E1 Air Force Survival knife followed by Knife, Hunting, Survival Pilots (commonly called Jet pilot knife or Aircrew Survival knife), and now the ASEK or Aircrew Survival and Egress knife!

Original Boker 155 E1-AF Survival Knife:

Ontario 499 Aircrew Survival knife

Permalink Reply by Steve Scheuerman (Manx) on February 26, 2015 at 17:57

I think the purpose of this thread is a more light hearted approach to collecting, as opposed to a terminology discussion. Mind you, that would make a great topic if someone were to start it. :-)

What about a Zombie Apocalypse collection?? Or does that fall under the "Z" collection?

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by John McCain on February 26, 2015 at 18:09

Oh, Lordy-don't get me started-- A few more categories-- Military knives, figurative knives, Miniature knives, knives with unusual opening and closing mechanisms, (my brother collects these) ,knives in between a production and a custom (ala a Tony Bose/Case collaboration, and the WTF category that is hard to compare to another. In order of appearance-

1- Cattaurgus 225 Q and a Kinfolks WW2 issue

2- Rough Rider leg knife

3-Minis- The bottom knife is an old Imperial--qualifies for unusual opening too-Red frame swings sideways, then the pearl swings upwards to reveal the blade

4-Spanish style Navaja with a unusual lever opening

5- Tony Bose/ Case saddlehorn

6-Spyerco Spydercard-- Only knife I own 2 identical knives of and my usual EDC

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on February 26, 2015 at 18:11

Incidentally despite these ASEK and Jet Pilot knives often be referred to as Air Force knives, the knives actually entered into service for use with Army Air Crews and the Air Force later adopted them as there own. The current ASEK or the older 499 survival knife are used by air crews in all US Military branches. I know for a fact that the ASEK is currently being used at the Air Force SERE school as I know someone who completed SERE training about two years ago.. The 499 Air Srew Knife is featured on the Navy's SERE patch. I think they qualify for the title of Genuine Survival Knives.

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on February 26, 2015 at 18:24

Lighthearted thread you say?!?? There ain't nothing lighthearted when it comes to assigning some knives to genres! I mean Sasquatch Slasher defies genres! http://iknifecollector.com/group/odds-ends/forum/topics/the-improve...

Permalink Reply by Steve Scheuerman (Manx) on February 26, 2015 at 19:20

I still SO want one of those when you go production, Tobias!!

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on February 26, 2015 at 19:45

How about a sharp stick?

Permalink Reply by Lars Ray on February 26, 2015 at 20:05

Bang on correct Manx - Thank you. Make no mistake, Shlomo has a good point, as does Tobias. And I also agree with you in that a discussion should be started to provide a space to air out opinions. That's what the Blog is for....I'll use that.

In the meantime, my intention in the Beginner's Collector club thread is to illustrate to Beginner's how far and wide collecting can be. Bottom line - it's the collector who defines the category - it only becomes a genre when others label their collections with the same cat.

Steve Scheuerman (Manx) said:

I think the purpose of this thread is a more light hearted approach to collecting, as opposed to a terminology discussion. Mind you, that would make a great topic if someone were to start it. :-)

What about a Zombie Apocalypse collection?? Or does that fall under the "Z" collection?

Permalink Reply by Lars Ray on February 26, 2015 at 20:14

Sticks work...if you sharpen the ends on the sidewalk!

Jan Carter said:

How about a sharp stick?

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on February 26, 2015 at 20:37

In my online "A Pocket Guide to Knives" I break it down to eight broad categories. See: http://apg2k.hegewisch.net/categories.html

Permalink Reply by Lars Ray on February 27, 2015 at 16:53

Way Cool Tobias...gonna have to take a read. You know...you could probably own this thread if you commented on each of your categories!

I bookmarked your link - will read it in [anxious} detail this weekend. Thanks for sharing it -

Permalink Reply by Lars Ray on February 27, 2015 at 18:24

I collect across several genres, and one of them sort of created itself...the "Got it from Well-Meaning Family" genre.

These are pieces I would never purchase myself, but others either wanted me to have them, or they thought they were sincerely contributing to my collection - and I will always love them for that.

As part of my Bowie collection, I have this Bear wildlife hunter. It's a hydro-graphic wonder! (And very sharp!). The last photo shows it with it's sheath.