After joining iKnife Collector a while back, I started looking for better ways to record information and images related to my small but growing collection of knives and knife making supplies. I had previously kept some records in a combination of Microsoft Word, and Excel, with general images and PDF documents in the same directory on my computer.

I turned to Microsoft Access and began creating, and came up with a database solution that basically meets my needs, though I am still adding some features every now and then. Some time later I found a review of NM Collector in one of the posts here, took a look and tested a bit. I've been in IT for over 30 years and done a lot of programming and operating systems work so I have the skills, and what I have created suits me much better. The only requirement is either the free Microsoft Access 2010 runtime, or a full copy of Access be already installed on your computer.

If you're interested in looking at what I have done, you can see some screenshots (box.com screenshots here) and you can download the complete database / application in a single file, box.com database download here. If it is any use to you, it is free to use, and it always will be. I'm open to suggestions for enhancements, for fields to add to the database, or features, reports etc to make it more useful.

If anyone wants to use this, I'm happy to take suggestions here, or by email, which you will find in the 'About' form of the database. If you give this a try, don't enter too much information at this point, any updates I make will overwrite any new data entered in the database. I'm planning to split the database tables apart from the application components (forms, queries etc.) at which time data will be safe as long as no additional fields or tables are suggested.

Notice in the download links that I have three .accdb files. All are identical but for the color, all have the same sample test data. The default color theme is red based, I also saved it with blue and green themes. I'm trying to find a way I can store a theme configuration in the settings, and have the forms change without me needing to save different color themes but so far have not managed to do that.

There is one guarantee - there is no malware of any form in this. I created all the code myself, it is clean. There is nothing to harm your computer in any way. Any data entered in the database should always be safe, but you should also make backups for yourself. Nothing in here reads or writes anything on your computer other than the database, or import / export data and images under your control if you click the appropriate options in the application.

box.com database download

box.com screenshots

Microsoft Access 2010 runtime free download (for Windows)