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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

4 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Les Swalm on February 26, 2015 at 14:21

And where does this fit Shaw Leibowitz engraved knives are they their own sub topic?

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on February 26, 2015 at 14:37

Les, that easy, Scrimshaw knives!

A tricky one would be where does this fit in!

Permalink Reply by Lars Ray on February 26, 2015 at 15:39

Well, in Rock 'n Roll, it would fit under Golden Oldies with the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"...it's the guys in the background singing "A Leibowitz, a Leibowitz , a wee-o bum bum away" :-)

In all seriousness though....I see three or four categories from this, besides Leibowitz; there's scrimshaw as mentioned, there's etched blade, there's knife names with a Z in it, and four color etched. Add to that fixed blade or folder, with lanyard hole / without, and finally I can handle material - is it scrimshaw on ivory, bone, other?

Good stuff - and a most magnificent knife - thank you for sharing it!

Les Swalm said:

And where does this fit Shaw Leibowitz engraved knives are they their own sub topic?

Permalink Reply by Lars Ray on February 26, 2015 at 15:41

Gruesome and cool at the same time!

Tobias Gibson said:

Les, that easy, Scrimshaw knives!

A tricky one would be where does this fit in!

Permalink Reply by Shlomo ben Maved on February 26, 2015 at 16:00

That would be Art Knives.

The only bone of contention that I have is there are no such things as "Survival" or "Tactical" knives...They are strictly marketing ploys by the advertising agencies and we as collectors/users should refrain from their usage.

Permalink Reply by Lars Ray on February 26, 2015 at 16:12

No argument there... but could be said about any of them really...except maybe a pig sticker. Here in Texas and some of our neighboring states, some actually hunt pig with a knife. That makes it both tactical, and if you don't get gored by a tusk, a survival.

Art knives is good...I like that one. That opens the door to ...dare I say it...Franklin Mint knives and those like them? Nah - forget I mentioned that... that's more of a discussion about "Collectible Knives" vs knives that are collected.

Permalink Reply by Shlomo ben Maved on February 26, 2015 at 16:36

An inanimate object can not be tactical -- there are no such things as tactical pants, sunglasses etc. and just about any knife can be used to survive with -- think the Saami with their huge 2¾" puukko knives.

Pig stickers is actually a meat cutting term for a specific knife [blade] design.

Permalink Reply by Lars Ray on February 26, 2015 at 17:00

Point made - thank you. Like I said - no argument there...or debate...or counter comment...or nothin' !

Shlomo ben Maved said:

An inanimate object can not be tactical -- there are no such things as tactical pants, sunglasses etc. and just about any knife can be used to survive with -- think the Saami with their huge 2¾" puukko knives.

Pig stickers is actually a meat cutting term for a specific knife [blade] design.

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on February 26, 2015 at 17:12

Early French settlers hunted pigs in the Caribbean. They often would cut down the blades of swords and cutlasses so as to make it easier to handle when chasing the pigs downs. These men would then smoke the pigs over open fires. They were taught how to do this by the local natives. The natives called this method of cooking "boucan" The word was adopted into the French language. The Europeans who practiced this method of cooking became known as "boucaniers". Many of these men would later be recruited as privateers in the British and French navies but the label of boucanier would follow them to sea. Today, boucanier is more often spelled "buccaneer" and is synonymous with "pirate" but originally they were just men who ran down wild pigs with big knife!

Permalink Reply by Steve Scheuerman (Manx) on February 26, 2015 at 17:15

Bacon-eers!!!

Mwahahahahahahaha....

Sorry.

Permalink Reply by Lars Ray on February 26, 2015 at 17:32

Nice one Tobias...so do you have a boucan knife?

Tobias Gibson said:

Early French settlers hunted pigs in the Caribbean. They often would cut down the blades of swords and cutlasses so as to make it easier to handle when chasing the pigs downs. These men would then smoke the pigs over open fires. They were taught how to do this by the local natives. The natives called this method of cooking "boucan" The word was adopted into the French language. The Europeans who practiced this method of cooking became known as "boucaniers". Many of these men would later be recruited as privateers in the British and French navies but the label of boucanier would follow them to sea. Today, boucanier is more often spelled "buccaneer" and is synonymous with "pirate" but originally they were just men who ran down wild pigs with big knife!

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on February 26, 2015 at 17:34