About a year ago I wrote about box cutters. I had bought an older box cutter from W.T. Rogers
Co. It cleaned up nice and I also had a box
cutter I used in high school so I figured the two of them were worth a few
hundred words.
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| Rogers box cutter, the start of my collection |
While I was attempting,
much in vain, to discover a little bit about the Rogers box cutter I remembered
a cutter I had gotten at Lincoln Electric.
That made three. That left me with a nagging suspicion I had a collection of
box cutters.
We’ve all read about people
with the collecting bug that can’t seem to find a niche. One day their heirs find that they had 2 of
these and 7 of those and a couple of everything else, but not one complete set
of anything.
So how many of anything makes a collection?
Can we assume it takes more than one? How about two? Two is just a pair at best so it’s got to be
more than two. Three is right at the edge
of collecting, especially if there is some geographical or chronological
difference among all three members of the proto-collection.
Four. It takes four
objects with something in common to start a collection.
It’s official! I took
the plunge and bought a fourth box opener.
I’ve transitioned from being an accidental collector to purposefully
collecting box openers.
I was at a flea market and saw one in a box of stuff. It said Jim Beam on it. The red coloration on the sleeve was in good
shape, no nicks from being carried with pocket change or being dropped, and the
metal blade holder had a small touch of rust that cleaned up nicely. (See, I’m already using jargon like sleeve
and blade holder, a sure sign of collecting!)
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| Jim Beam box opener. Now my collection is on firm ground. |
Unfortunately the Beam box opener is completely
sterile. The box opener is completely
void of the name of the distributor, manufacturer or any other identifying
marks. Zip! Nada! Nothing! Clearly a covert box opener! If it was black it would be tactical.
