Hit 100 knives in my collection and realized I had a problem

Last month I finally broke the 100 mark on custom pocket knives and it hit me that quantity doesn't equal quality. I was buying cheap blades from places like BladeHQ just to fill space, but a buddy in Portland showed me his collection of 12 really nice pieces and I understood the difference. Now I'm selling off 40 of the lower-end ones to fund a proper mid-tech from a maker out of Oregon. Has anyone else done a big collection purge and regretted losing the variety?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbarac671mo ago

Yeah I read somewhere that a lot of guys end up with a box full of cheap knives and then realize they could've just bought a few really good ones instead. Something about "the cost per knife goes down but the satisfaction per knife goes up" once you focus. I did a purge a couple years back and honestly I only miss maybe 2 of the ones I sold, the rest were just taking up space.

mason.mark1mo ago

My rotation got down to a dozen before I admitted I had a problem, and now I'm sitting at 4 folders and a fixed blade... feels a lot cleaner. That whole "satisfaction per knife" thing really hits home when you realize you spent $400 on a pile of gas station specials and flea market finds. I sold off 30-something knives last spring, and the only one I kind of regret is this old Kershaw Leek I beat to hell but somehow still miss. The rest of them I barely remember owning, which says a lot about how little I actually used them.