iKnife Collector
The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel
In what direction is your knife collection expanding?
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?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on
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egad! I forgot that I have over 60 folding Fish knives, not including the 40 or so toothpicks!
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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on -
I collect three brands, Case, Colonial, and Rough Rider. I collect two patterns, fish knives and Case Mini Blackhorns. Of course the Mini Blackhorns also fall under the Case brand. I also collect Christian themed knives. These can be any brand with a Christian theme.
If I see a particular knife that I really want that fits in one of my collecting groups, I will pay the going price to get it. Otherwise I like to watch eBay and if I see something that fits my collection and has low bids I will bid on it. For example in the last two days on eBay I won a bid for a near mint Colonial stockman for $14 including shipping and a new Case Nascar Collectors edition Mini Blackhorn for $10.47 including shipping.
I also watch Shepherd Hills Cutlery for bargains on Case knives. I have gotten Case knives for as much as 60% off their regular price.
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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on
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Our collection has taken a turn that may have seemed obvious to others but I was never a fixed blade nut. Nothing scarier that a lady walking around with one strapped to her hip LOL
I have however become a great fan and gone back to my roots of loving high carbon
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Permalink Reply by Steve Scheuerman (Manx) on
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My collection has no direction. Lol. I grab whatever takes my fancy when I have cash on hand. It is all over the map.
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When I first started it really was all about military fixed blades and then Victorinox Swiss Army knives creeped in.
Then I came across Rough Riders and came to appreciate traditional pattern fixed blades and really came to like Toothpicks.
And then my knife collecting ran into my fishing. It was almost like why wasn't I looking fir fishing knives in the first place!
No regrets.
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Permalink Reply by Wally Guittard on
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I'm more in to replacing some of the knives that I used to have several years back. There are several Old Timers. Like the 1250T, 1230T and the 770T. I already have replaced the 1940T. I think because I used to have those particular knives that I feel the need to own them again.
Although I'm pretty much a Lockback knife collector. I've been looking at some of the newer knives. I really like what The Folks at Rough Rider have to offer and I've already picked out several that I'd like to add to my collection.
I been spending a lot of time just looking at all the different type styles trying to see witch ones I would like to have. There are very many and at times the choices are a bit diffcult as to which ones I want.
For me a knife that I have needs to be dependable. Some of the so called survival knives I've looked at would look nice in the display case but to me not very dependable if you needed it.
Knives are tools and that is how I look at them. It does not mean I won't collect them. I like collecting them but I'm somewhat paticular as to what kind I collect.
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KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by Andy Larrison on -
I've only been at this for maybe 4 or 5 years and don't have quite 100 knives. When I first started "collecting" I said my pattern would be the slimline trapper (Case Brand). About 2 years into it I picked up a mini trapper and fell in love with that pattern. I try to focus on these two patterns and mainly in Case. I have purchased many patterns over time due to "bargains" and age. I also recently started grabbing some of the new tribal locks from Case. I believe I'm hooked! I'm going off of memory, but, I'd venture to say 25% of my collection is slimline trappers followed closely by the mini trappers and now I have 4 of the tribal locks. I'd say 90% of my collection would be Case. I do have some Schrade, boker and rough riders floating around as well.
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I also seem to be intrigued by the specialty knives that are there. Many of these have been around for a long time but are relatively unknown among Knife collectors.
One such knife was the mushroom hunter's knife. I never heard of it until Rough Rider made one. ( now they have two!). This led to me getting around eight other mushroom knives and even making one!
It isn't enough to have just one of every pattern. I always end up with several of a pattern; especially when the knife is designed for a specific need.
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KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by Jon Linville on -
At the moment, I'm in the process of rebuilding my collection. I lost my last one in a house fire about 10 years ago. I'm picking up lots of parts and junk knives, repairing and restoring as I go, as well as building some customs out of the bits and parts. So, at the moment, I'm buying what I can afford and moving in that direction.
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Jon,
That is not a bad direction. It sounds like your having some fun and after a loss like that some fun is mandatory!
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KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by Jon Linville on -
It forces one to learn every aspect of the knife, not just collecting them. Knowing the knife as a whole is not the same as knowing the knife's parts and pieces, how they go together, and how they work. That's where the fun is for me.
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FeaturedPermalink Reply by dead_left_knife_guy on -
This is a great question! I've run into people who collect nothing but two or three types of knives -- these people know exactly the direction in which their collection is headed, & most likely have known this for a long, long time. It's really cool that they've become experts in those particular knives -- but this kind of collecting is not my style at all.
Like Tobias, my collection tastes have evolved over time. For example, I started out being lukewarm on kukris, then I tried a couple out & pretty much became repulsed by the blade angle & how difficult it was to deal with that canted blade, the curved edge sharpening -- & then there were the obtuse edges that accompany the thick (incredibly thick) blades of more authentic kukris. Now I totally dig them, & run the Kukri page here on iKC.
Like Manx, my collection very much is based on what I fancy at any given time & can come up with the money to purchase. This approach has made for a much more satisfying collecting experience for me. Some collectors find this approach chaotic, abhorrent, and antithetical to collecting; what this really means is that my collecting style is not their collecting style, & if they adapted my style they would likely hate the collecting process & might quit altogether -- so it's better that everyone stick to their own style.
Currently, my collection is expanding more into kukris (of course). But I've also been expanding into larger blades in general, including machetes. I've got a Kabar Cutlass Machete on the way (this is really a large knife, at 3/16" thick I believe).
But I've also been expanding into production folders that could at least ostensibly pass as gentleman's knives.
And there's the long-term collecting goals, the sub-collections I guess I'd call them: Buck Canoes; Large single-balded trappers (think Queen Mountain Man and Great Eastern Cutlery #42); tactical cleavers; multi-tools; carving knives; bushcrafters...
And finally, the grail knives! These are knives that I had a deep desire for since seeing them, many from early on in my knife collecting days. I have some of these: the UZI Defender HD (as featured in the movie "Doom"); the ESEE 6; the TOPS Pasayten Lite Traveller. Still plenty more to go here, including: the ESEE 6 HM; the TOPS 747 Magnum folder; the PKS Phantom II; the Daniel Koster Monster Nessie (this was to be the knife I bought for myself after quitting smoking for a year, but then we had a job loss about 7 years ago & never really recovered sufficiently to drop $400 on a knife).
Another directional aspect, I'm starting to sell off knives I bought when I first started collecting (mostly the cheap stuff), but I'm also starting to sell off some of my TOPS knives, & I plan to start selling off some of my tomahawk collection as well...
Thanks for posting this, Tobias -- it got me thinking about my collection on a larger scale. And I always like having an excuse to think about my collection!
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