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In what direction is your knife collection expanding?

I inventoried my knife collection the last few days. I've got a little over 500 knives in the collection ( and about 200 knives that aren't really in the collection).

What I discovered. About 1/6 of the collection is fixed blades. Of the fixed blades at least half of them are knives made for anglers (fish knives) if you include bird and trout knives it goes even higher!

Overall 1/5 of the collection, over 100 knives are fishing knives of some kind. If you include five inch toothpicks the number is closer to 140! I do not consider toothpicks a fish knife.

The most collected single pattern is the 4 blade camp knife or Boy Scout knife. Around 120.

Next in line are Marlin spike knives and toothpicks. Both around 40-45.

As for money spent on a single pattern
1 large toothpicks
2 marlinspikes
3 scout knives

Which brands I have the most of:
1 Rough Rider
2 Victorinox
3 Case

As for the direction that my collection is going
1 fishing related knives
2 issued military fixed blades, particularly bayonets
3 Swiss Army Knives.

I can expect my return on invest to be in the negative column!

What direction is your collection going?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Wally Guittard on May 11, 2017 at 11:12

So many knives but a bit of a limited number of patterns. Since I came in a small amount of extra income. I've been purchasing a knives and looking at many plus doing quite a bit of reasearch. Tobais your well written artical has been a life saver for me and is highly recommended reading for anyone who is new to the knife collecting hobby before purchasing any knives.

I looked at Case knives for sometime and spent several hours going thru pages and pages of the same style knives with different style/color shards used and many with the etched blades and came to the conclusion that Case has gone to making knives for collectors.

No doubt that Case knives are one of the longest surviving US knife company's plus have a excellent rep as a knife maker. For me however they do not have what I want as a knife collector and their prices are more that I'm willing to pay.

What I have found is that the type knives that I'm inclined to collect are the folding hunter, muskrat, trapper. The different style lockbacks. I also like the Barlow style knives. Maybe I just need more exposure to the many different knives.

I did find one thing and as I remember I have purchased a Rite Edge trapper that looks like an exact clone of the OldTimer Bearhead Trapper with the tweezers/pick. I went to the schrade website and found and purchased the Oldtimer Bearhead trapper that Schrade makes. It will be an interesting comparison between the two as they both look like the same knife.

The knives that I have purchased should be here in the next couple of days so there will be more pics.

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Permalink Reply by J.J. Smith III on May 11, 2017 at 13:01

What would be a better test would be to add an original Schrade Bearhead to the mix.
I have an original Schrade gunstock and a Taylor gunstock. Very similar, but they just don't "feel" the same.

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Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on May 11, 2017 at 13:17

I have schrade's Boy Scout 100th anniversary buzzsaw trapper. Nice knife but getting the straight pin/toothpick out of the handle is a pain! But the saw blade is awesome. Need to find a picture of it.

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Permalink Reply by Wally Guittard on May 12, 2017 at 15:38

Some of the knives I bought have started arriving in the mail. The Schrade old Timers are the first so I was very excited to open the box and have a look see.

They are the same but not the same as they just don't feel right. I'm not sure if that's the right way to say that. Maybe its just that they are new. However they seem to feel a bit lighter than I remember. The 1250T looks a bit more narrow that I remember. I remember it being a bit more hefty.. I have big hands and I seem to remember it fitting my hand pretty well but this new one feels smaller although it measures out to the right demenisons.

Ah well I'll know more in the next few days when the rest get here and I can sit down and enjoy my additions to the collection

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Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on May 12, 2017 at 15:51

Wally, my bet is if you were to measure the knife using a micrometer you'd find the blade as well as the brass liners a little thinner. Also the handle materials might be using lighter, lowered quality material. The new Schrades are out of China.

While the outward appearance may seem the same their are significant differences. A key one is the blade steel just isn't going to be same.

I've got a few of the Taylor made Schrades and I do like them. But they are not the same as the old USA made Schrades.

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Permalink Reply by Wally Guittard on May 15, 2017 at 8:24

More pictures coming soon, just waiting for the mail to run today. I've had a very good time looking at and purchasing knives. Some are replacements of what I had before and others are new to me and brand new. A few Buck knives. I wanted to use Bucks forever warrenty but a couple of the knives I have are not covered buy it. So I opted to replace them with replacements from ebay.

Needless to say I am a bit disappointed as to the no warrenty but all worked out in the end. I'm also somewhat surprised at the direction my knife collecting has taken. Although I like the lockback style. I found I a couple of other patterns that I like as well.

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Permalink Reply by Wally Guittard on May 15, 2017 at 17:07

And still a few more the showup. I think about 4 or 5 and then that's it for a while. Earlier I was saying that Case was going the way of making collector knives, well so is Rite Edge but not quite as much as Case is. Anyway guess who's caught up in the buying of collector knives.......... LOL.

The first knives I took pictures of are the folding hunters. Then the Rough Riders. The Rite Edge The Taylor Brand Schrade Old Timers and the few Buck knives that I have. There are also a couple of Kutmaster lock backs, a Kershaw LB plus one small Case stockman. I won't post the very blurry pictures and will reshoot those at a later date

Attachments:

Knives 030.JPG, 2.6 MB
Knives 031.JPG, 2.6 MB
Knives 033.JPG, 2.6 MB

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Permalink Reply by Wally Guittard on May 15, 2017 at 17:09

and a few more

Attachments:

Knives 034.JPG, 2.6 MB
Knives 035.JPG, 2.5 MB
Knives 036.JPG, 2.6 MB

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Permalink Reply by Wally Guittard on May 15, 2017 at 17:11

and a few more

Attachments:

Knives 037.JPG, 2.6 MB
Knives 038.JPG, 2.6 MB
Knives 039.JPG, 2.6 MB

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Permalink Reply by Wally Guittard on May 15, 2017 at 17:14

just a few more and thats it until I can reshoot a few of the pics

Attachments:

Knives 040.JPG, 2.6 MB
Knives 041.JPG, 2.6 MB
Knives 042.JPG, 2.5 MB

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Permalink Reply by J.J. Smith III on May 15, 2017 at 17:29

The postman deserves a bonus, Wally.
Nice ones.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 15, 2017 at 19:31

You did very well! I think Tobias is on to something with the thickness of the materials. Handle material on some knoves is getting much too thin for my taste. I love the manufactures that keep the scales just bulky enough that that they feel like a part of the knife, not just a cover