Secrets of the Sorting Hat

 

I've moved, which forced me to confront my knife collection with the certainty that all good things end.  My previous dwelling had plentiful storage, but the new digs, well, not so much.  I’ll add cabinets, shelves, and drawers for storage, but I need to deal with limited storage and the need to put things away.

The move has also prompted a confrontation with my mortality.  Do I want to continue to curate knives I have for no apparent reason?  As much as I wish it, I do not have a Harry Potter sorting hat to make determinations for me.

I realized that all my possessions could be categorized into two distinct classes and a third, more nebulous one.  The first two are obviously "Keep" and "Discard.”  The third is “Maybe.”

Don't let this fool you.  There are only two options.  Maybe is actually a Discard.  If a knife doesn't create enough passion to become a Keep instantly, it's a Discard you're trying to be polite to.  Ditch it.

The original Tigersharp

Here’s a couple of examples.  I picked up a Tigersharp at the SHOT Show.  The company later sold the design to Camillus.  The novelty is the replacement blade eliminating the need to resharpen the knife; just use a new blade.  It's going.

Boot dagger from S&W

Years ago, at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot, I bought a S&W H.R.T. dagger boot knife.  I am still trying to understand why.  The handle is too small, the blade is sharp on one side but not the other, and I don't typically wear the proper boots.  Bye-bye boot knife.

Boker's Pocket Knife by Mickey Yurco

I bought a knife from Boker, designed by Mickey Yurco, called the Pocket Knife.  Mickey told me he thinks of it as a self-defense tool, but Boker, fearful of public backlash (What!  You mean to tell me you could hurt someone with a knife?) calls it a camping or survival knife.  I wore this on my pack for years.  It's a keeper.

So, there you have it.  When you start thinking about that great collector's meeting in the sky and can't decide what knives need to find a new home, remember, Maybes are just polite Discards.  You really didn't care for them in the first place.

 

Pro-Tech Steam Punk

Every once and awhile, you come across hidden treasures.  Sometimes neither the buyer nor seller realizes how much that gem is worth. 

When you’re the seller you may never find out.  Smart buyers will not tell the seller he has made a foolish move.  They will not rub it in or humiliate the seller.  It’s enough to get a silent win. 

Then too, you don't know what they paid for the treasure; they could be laughing all the way to the bank.

I didn't gamble on this!

I recently bought a Pro-Tech Godson with Bruce Shaw’s Steam Punk motif in bright metal.

I really like the Godson.  For me, the size is Goldilocks, that is, just right.  The knife is easy to Google, try: https://www.bladehq.com/item--Protech-Godson-Steampunk-Automatic--67879

But all the websites I visited say they are out of stock.   They also say the knife they had was some number of 200.  Mine says 72 of 100.  What’s going on?

I called Pro-Tech and asked.  Here’s what they told me.  Pro-Tech makes a special run of 100 knives called prototypes, sold only at shows.  The regular limited edition has 200 members, making a total of 300 Steam Punk Godsons in existence.

My new Steam Punk claims to be a prototype 72 of 100 while my older copper one is from a run of 200 .  What is going on? 

Pro-Tech has no plans to make any more.  I don't know why.  Perhaps it was a limited edition, as the artist Bruce Shaw specified.  Bruce got his training at Cal-State University of Los Angeles.  Bruce is better known for his firearm engraving, but his Steam Punks are icey! 

When they were introduced in 2014, Blade Magazine listed them as "Investor/Collector Knife of the Year."  I don't know about the investor part of that claim, but it is very collectible.

I’ve always been cynical about knives as investments.  It’s counterintuitive, but many custom knife makers experience a drop in value when they die.  They are, after all, done.  There will be no new creative work to keep their name in the public eye.  As their collectors pass on and leave their collection to people who don't care, the custom maker becomes increasingly a closed chapter.

It doesn't always happen that way.   Randall Knife is one example of a knifemaker going strong after their death.  Bob Loveless is another.  The corporation with his name marches on.

Despite those two examples, I am reminded of the joke:  How do you make a small fortune by investing in knives?  Start with a large one. 

I'll share what I learned about stamp and coin collecting.  If you want your collection to have great value, put great value into it.

I also have the copper version of the Godson Steam Punk with a bright blade.  It is part of the regular limited run of 200, but I'm thrilled to have it.  I also assume there is a prototype run of 100 somewhere.

There might be more prototypes and limited run consisting of only bright of black blades.  I don't know.

I doubt I'll buy another Godson Steam Punk for my collection.  I'm not interested in having some unique number sequence or group of numbers.  But if the price is right, you could see it on my table.

Pilgrimage of Steel

  As much as I love knife companies, I admit they would not be my pilgrimage of the faithful.  I instead would bow down and face Smokey Mountain Knife Works.

 

You might consider it as well.  Right now SMKW estimates that 1.5 million pilgrims will make the journey this year.  There were two school buses in the parking lot when we arrived.

 

Walk in and you notice knives and more knives.  The doors are numbered and you’re reminded to note your entry.  That was a clue how big the place is.  You’ll find people buying $3 POS knives, but you’ll also find top shelf Benchmade, Case, SOG and all the rest.  Wander around and look at all the mounted animals, everywhere.  They were collected by one man who hunted every continent in the 50s and 60s.  The walls are lined with cases and displays of old knives and knife collectables.  These wasn’t a plan, it grew (as much as I hate the expression) organically.  The staff squeezed in a display here and there and then someone decided this display would look good near some other display.  And it just kept going.

We walked in door number 2 and found ....

One of many....

Esee fixed blades

Mr. Pipes started as a seller of arrowheads and civil war memorabilia and a friend suggested why don’t you try selling a few knives?  It didn’t take too long before the knives out sold the relics.  The original store wasn’t big enough, so they moved, then they added on and it’s still crowded.   But everything is laid out nicely and well labeled.

More collection



Shanks.  Who collects shanks?

 

But when you get there, make sure you see everything and then go down into the Relic Room.  Here you find fossils from China and the warm seas that covered Chicago.  You’ll find bullets from the revolutionary war as well as the civil war.  Oh, there is some crystal non-sense about spirit guide stone animals and how a stone with a certain shape will focus your attention and balance your chi.  But you’ll also find Russian coat buttons from the Cold War, binoculars from our western expansion, fired pistol cases from WWI among books listing the local men who enlisted in the Civil War.  How about a commemorative belt buckle from the first reunion of Teddy’s Rough Riders?  I don’t know if anyone knows all the treasures in that room.  I found an issue of Popular Science from March of my birth year.  Guess what the cover story was about?  How to convert your basement to a shelter for the anticipated atomic wars.

One of dozen or more selections of historic relics

The owner of the Relic Room, Chase, is a Pipes family member and is a prodigy for history, both natural and human.  He spoke to us of records and university archeology digs that confirm the existence of a Spanish rendezvous from the 1500s a couple 100 yards from where we stood.  I had no idea the Spanish were ever in this part of the country, but I heard him teach several children (and myself) that the Spanish court required a notary under the control of the Church to travel with their explorers.  Everyday the explorers would diary about the day and the entry would be notarized.  These extensive records are now matched to current digs which confirm the veracity of the findings.

 

Old, beyond my comprehension

 bought a chunk of the oldest original rock available on planet earth.  It’s Acasta Gneiss from the Hadean Age.  There’s still some of this rock showing on the Acasta River in Canada.  It doesn’t look like much.  It is 4.2 billon years old.  And I can touch it with my fingertips.

 

That’s beyond cool.

 

A Baker’s Dozen

My friend Aron was telling me he found a successful way of reducing the clutter he’s accumulated.  He asks one question of each item: Does this make me happy?  If the answer is no, it’s gone.  Here’s a bakers’ dozen of some of my favorite folding knives.  

In no particular order:

1:  Benchmade Griptilian  
It was a Christmas present from Karen and I’ve always liked the shape and feel of the Griptilian.  The 3.5 inch blades is 154CM steel and it sports what might be considered Benchmade’s most distinguishing feature, the Axis Lock.

2:  Twerp by Phil Booth
The sub-2 inch blade is anchored between steel liners with a moon glow plastic spacer.  Moon glow has quantum mechanical forbidden energy transitions.  I just love that.  Coming off the lanyard hole is a small noose, but unfortunately it is a 12 turn and not the traditional 13 turns of lynchings everywhere.

3:  Kershaw ET
It is one of the strangest knives I’ve seen or owned.  While the design is alien, ET really stands for External Toggle.  It was Knife Magazine’s 2005 winner for the “Most Innovative American Design.”  Also the scariest.  Opening the knife is not for the timid; if the blade doesn’t have sufficient momentum it will stall half-way open and close regardless of what you have in the way.  It came with a CD to show you how to open it.  Now that’s scary!

4:  Spyderco Citadel
It was first automatic knife from Spyderco I heard of.  In fact they often denied they made autos.  Sal didn’t like ‘em and the violence he associated with them.  They would make them when a government organization requested them, but as soon as the overrun was sold that was the end.  The Citadel sports a 3.25 inch blade of CPM S30V steel.  Sal is getting on in age and his son, Eric seems to be more involved with the company and more states are legalizing automatic knives, so we’ll see what happens.  I was assured at the last Blade Show (2017) their policy on autos would remain the same.  Like they would tell me.

5:  Buck Lighting II
I like the look of the mottled green aluminum handle and the ease of one hand opening. 

The 420HC steel blade is 3 inches long and despite the tip down carry, I bought a second in all tactical black.

6:  Blackjack’s Mamba
I bought this from the original Blackjack Company.  I don’t know what speaks to me, the 3 inch curved blade, the shapely handle or the cool-dagger-in-cards logo, but I had to have one.  Maybe its fixed blade big brother convinced me to buy the folder.  That’s a story for another time.

7:  Spyderco Delica
My first of many Delicas was a green plastic clip made in Seki City, Japan.  The blade doesn’t bear the Spyderco trademark.  The type of steel wasn’t stamped into the blade and remains an unknown. 

I was drawn to the ease of one handed opening, a clip to make it easy to find and of course the lock.  It was the beginning of the tactical blade movement and cops were picking up fast on Delicas and its big brother, Endura.  Pronounce it  ‘dee-leak-a’ and you’ll get a grin out of me every time.

8:  Schatt and Morgan
This is a red bone jigged slimline Trapper made by Queen.  It’s a non-locking folder, typically called a slip-joint.  The American history of slip joints is an incestualized weave of father, brothers and uncles, buying, selling and taking over names and designs.  Even today you’ll find company X making knives for company Y.  Raymond gave me this knife.  He wasn’t young when I met him and he used to come by my table and we would talk blades.  Later he’d sit behind the table catching his breath and regathering his stamina before finishing the show.  He died on a New Year’s day and now I have this knife to remember him by and that makes me smile.

9:  Gerber’s Paul Knife
Yeah, it’s not the original Paul Knife, but it’s still pretty damn cool.  Gerber was, (and still is) owned by FISKERS, an English company that apparently knew nothing about America or American knives.  The blade is a 2.5 inch-long piece of 400 series stainless.  I read it was originally designed for ranch hands who needed a folding knife that could open one-handed while riding a horse.

10:  Spyderco Howard Viele
There are few of us that don’t need a dress knife.  The Viele, with its elegant blade and lines fills that requirement for me.  It’s not a perfect knife; the opening hole is small and hard to access and it’s almost impossible to open left handed.   The blade is 3.5 inches of AUS-8 steel.  I’ve had it for over 20 years and it still reminds me of Connery’s Bond standing at a roulette wheel.  

11:  Benchmade Mini-DeJavoo
It’s a Bob Lum design sporting 3.25 inches of S30V steel inside steel lined scales of black, cloth micarta.  It is a liner lock and its good looks give it an everyman’s elegance.  It’s set-up for left hand carry and despite the fact it’s carried tip down, I use it for my left hand dress knife.

12:   Spyderco Chinese Folder
This Bob Lum designed knife has a special spot in my heart.  This was the knife I published my first article about.  It also had an early innovation, the clip was reversible so you could carry right side, tip up or down.  

The Chinese green curved handle makes the knife feel like an extension of my hand.  I liked it so much I bought a second one in a steely gray Spyderco calls blue.  I have these as my back-up formal wear knives.

Luckly number 13:  Gerber Multi-Plier 600
My Father left me many things, mostly memories, but I found a Gerber multi-plier and the belt case in his salt-water tackle box.  When I did community theatre in the 80s, the union stage hands were crazy for Gerber multi-tools.  You could depress the locking button with one hand and the tool would open.  This was invaluable when you were on an the last wrung of an A-frame extension ladder 35 feet in the air hanging on to a flood light with one hand and needing to loosen a bolt with the other.  It took me a while to erase the rust and oil it up, but it has straight and serrated blades as well as screwdrivers and the all-important coffee can and beer bottle openers.  Most importantly, it was my Dad’s.

Could I have found more knives? 

I have one with scales composed of clear epoxy resin filled with eggshells.  Eggshells are a semipermeable membrane made of calcium carbonate but not, I believe, the common calcite.  It’s a biological form called aragonite, a different crystal arrangement.  That is just too cool!

I have a fixed blade from a day long bonding trip with my new in-laws that I purchased to let them know I’m a little off center.

So yeah, I have other knives that make me smile.

Why Is A Penny Like A Knife?

I had hoped to shoot a Saturday evening match, but I started working on my father’s coin collection and lost track of time.  Most of his coins are from circulation so they have little collection value other than face value.  It was the excess coins that troubled me.

What’s a lot of pennies from 1949 to 1960 worth?  Let’s start off with the fact they are ‘wheat backs’ which are no longer minted.  Also understand they minted millions of each wheat penny each year.  Nobody knows if they will be worth anything for at least 150 years.  I base that on a large penny I have from 1848 in good condition that might be worth $3 bucks.   

Current pennies are a copper clad zinc coin, but these are solid copper.  I checked the selling price of copper, the weight of a penny and 158 pennies could earn you around 2 bucks.  I suspect many US metal recyclers will not want to handle pennies, afraid of laws about defacing US currency.  Factor in the cost of a trip to Canada where a US penny just is a disk of copper, and I suspect you need to take tons to come out ahead.

Many of the coins in circulation have features raised above the coin’s rim and are quickly eroded way along with their value.  Most Indian head nickels have lost their date and you might be able to sell such a worn coin for 8 to 10 cents.  It seems during the Depression, hobos would carve an Indian head nickel to resemble some other figure and would try to trade their handy work for a meal or shot of Ol’Red Eye.  So there is still a small market for the coin as artistic media.

So it goes with most coins in circulation, a dime without silver is worth 10 cents.  A Kennedy post 1964 half dollar might be worth a few cents more to a collector or someone who want to imitate George Raff flipping a coin.

The only real way to make money on most circulated coins, other than to spend ‘em is to sell them to other new collectors who can no longer find a 1941-S penny.  From my knife selling experience, forget ebay.  You could rent tables at coin, hobby, and flea markets, spending a lot of weekends to make peanuts.  You should prepare to spend years to sell circulated coins with a face value of $100.

So what does this have to do with knives?

Knife collectors are kind of in the same situation.  If your heirs aren’t interested in your collection, they will want to sell it.  So what’s a fair price?  There aren’t that many people willing to plunk down bucks for used Case knife.  If you have one from the 1930s, it may be valuable to the right person, but you’ve got to find that person.  Even custom and semi-custom knives go out of style and drop in price as the maker becomes more obscure.

Yes, there are exceptions.  Loveless, Randall and others are still in demand, partially because the organizations still exist and are still making knives.  Others aren’t so lucky.  Most factory made knives only drop in appreciation as newer design and more sophisticated steels are introduced. 

It is a nice little knife in its own right.  Does the blade engraving make it more valuable or less valuable?
I think more to me, less to everyone else.

As knife collectors we are told to list or provide documentation to our heirs to help them understand what we believe the knife is worth.  We are often guilty of over-evaluating our collection.  We would like to believe the club knife or special event knife should be worth more, especially if only a few were made and it’s old.  The same with knife lines no longer manufactured.  Scarcity and age do not determine price.  Price is determined by the transaction between seller and buyer.  And it can be different on any single day depending on who’s at the table and how much each wants to buy and sell.

So, do I have a solution to the coin and knife collector?  Of course I do!

It’s a two part solution.  The first is selling your collection yourself.  You enjoyed putting it together; now enjoy haggling and selling it.  You’ll make, lose or break even on the deal, but at least you’ll have fun doing it.  The second part is don’t worry about it.  Enjoy your collection while you can and let the heirs deal with it.  So what if the kids sell your custom made ivory handled Fairbairn-Sykes combat dagger for 50 bucks and threw in a sharpening stone. 

It isn’t like you can use the money, is it?

Collecting

The recent (Dec 2015) stabbing in London by some Other Dickless Asshole (ODA) will surely result in a call to de-fang the British citizenry even more.  There has already been a call by English doctors to eliminate pointy kitchen knives.  Even the presence of a Stanley utility knife in your work belt can land you in an English jail until you can explain to the judge’s satisfaction why you needed one.  I hope your employer feels like appearing in court to bolster your claims you have to cut up cardboard boxes as part of your job.

It’s hard to understand how anyone could think they can eliminate pointed knives.  Fleming’s James Bond pauses in “Dr. No” to sharpen a purloined dinner knife into a sharp point before escaping from his cell.  It just took a concrete surface and a little time.  This is a basic prison skill known to, unfortunately, millions.

Here in America we also have our share of ODAs and the incidents they create.  While the anti-knife people are present, so far they haven’t made too much of an impact.  Part of our protection is granted by the 2^nd Amendment.  This amendment isn’t only about guns, which aren’t mentioned.  It talks about arms, which can be guns, knives, spears, axes, clubs, canes, bow and arrow and other material objects.

But given the right circumstances an anti-knife backlash is possible.  One only has to recall The Woman’s Home Companion’s article about switch blade knives, “The Toy That Kills.”  Following movies and plays like “Rebel without a Cause” and “West Side Story” the media published stories about violent youths and changing sexual mores and conservative America demanded to be protected.  The politicians of that era responded by making Switchblades illegal.  How a switchblade is more deadlier than any locking knife or fixed blade was never explained. 

Politicians, fearful of exhausting their political power and prestige by addressing the real causes of crime, did/will scapegoat inanimate objects as a way of placating the voters.  That object could be your knife collection.  What’s a collector to do?

Pick up a copy of Knife Laws of the U.S. by attorney Evan Napper.  It’s worth $25 and a couple hours of your time.

One of his interesting ideas is to join a knife collecting club.  I suspect it would be better to join a physical one with meetings you can attend rather than an e-club.  Another valuable step is creating a listing, either spreadsheet or index cards with each knife entered, date obtained, value and written description.  This extra effort could help validate your claim that you are an active trader/purchaser and a “official knife collector” as well as make collecting more enjoyable.

One word of advice.  Use a ‘scientific’ description of your knife.  It is an early Vietnam era, serialized, survival knife by Gerber and not just Gerber seven-inch stabby thing.

Speaking of stabby things, did you know the classic KA-BAR fighting knife was made in Cleveland, among other places?  At the last knife gun show I ran into a fellow who told me how he built up stacked leather washer handles on KA-BARS working his way through college.  Since he was my age that ruled out WWII and Korea.  He indicated he had quite a few seconds at home, as a nick or chipped blade couldn’t be sold.

I don’t know if it’s a true story, but it would be interesting to see what he considers ‘quite a few.’

I just attended a local knife club meeting and one fellow denied he was a knife collector, but was rather a knife gatherer. That description fits me much better than collector. 

Knife Expo

I'm flogging WRCA's Warther Memorial Knife Expo pretty hard for a variety of reasons.

One: I liked Dale Warther.  I didn't know him as well as some club members did, but I was always happy to see him.

Two: It's a good knife show.  I'd like to see more custom builders, but we're working on that and have asked several new ones to attend.  This show will give collectors a chance to see some really great knives.

Three: A number of club members think the club will fall flat on it's collective face.  We've had trouble with the last couple of places and we are trying to find a permanent home.  Everything is expensive as compared to times when gasoline was a $1.25 a gallion.  This location is no exception.

The knife show will be May 16 and 17 at the Buckeye Expo center in Dalton, Ohio just off of route 30.  Admission is $5 per person but we'll wave the fee for scouts and military in uniform.

 I suspect you'll find just about any kind of knife you're interested in at the show.

We are also running a great raffle with prizes over $1000.  Second price is a ZT 350STTS AND a Benchmade 531 Pardue AXIS.  I sell Benchmade and I can't get this one!

Here's the raffle flyer and I hope to see you there!!!

If i win first prize, I'll offer to trade with the second prize winner!!

Collecting

The WRCA had their January 2015 monthly meeting recently.  We’re moving closer to the big Expo Knife Show May 16 and 17 at the Buckeye Event Center.  We still have tables available.  See my side pages for an application for table rental.  An 8 foot table for two days for $50 is a great deal.

It will be a great opportunity to buy as well.  We’ll have factory, custom and collectable vendors displaying their knives.

Each club meeting is also an opportunity to buy/sell/trade knives.  In the past, the club has bought estate collections and resold them and we currently have a retired club member in Arizona who wants us to sell his knives for him at a set commission.  That brought up an interesting topic.  Namely buying and selling collections, or at least the ethics of buying and selling collections.

Here’s the scenario:  A club member dies and leaves their spouse with an unwanted knife collection of unknown value.   You respond to information that they want to sell the entire collection and you make them a fair and honest offer for the entire collection.  They accept.

Later you sell the collection for a lot more money.  I mean 2 and 3 or more times what you paid for it.

So what do you think is the ethical thing to do.

During the discussion we found out some people felt we hypothetically cheated that seller, we should have paid them more.  Others thought that because we made so much money we should give some of it to the seller.  Things got a little excited for a while, but no chairs were thrown!

Part of this, I think, was because each member is internalizing their passing and the sale of their collection by their surviving spouse.  We all want to think our fellow club members wouldn’t take advantage of our widow (it’s a mostly male club).  Widows always remind me a of thin, gaunt women dressed in black unable to pay the bills.

Of course, our imaginary spouse might be sitting on a beach sipping mimosas because hubby left her well off and she wants nothing to do with her dead husband’s collection.  Before you showed up, she was 10 minutes from dumping the whole damn thing in the trash!

There is a second side to this story.  What if it turns out the collection isn’t worth the money you paid for it?  What do you do?  Do you go back to the widow and tell her she cheated you and you want some of your money back?  Is your name Simon Legree?

Here’s part of the dilemma, ethical behavior isn’t the same as moral behavior.  That seems odd, doesn’t it?  A professor of ethics once explained to me that ethical behavior wasn’t difficult.   

“Say what you mean, do what you say you’ll do and treat everyone the same.”  Of course the details are what makes ethics a challenging topic.

Since I will not be going back to the widow and asking for money back, I will not be sending her more money either.  There is nothing wrong with making money, especially in an honest, ethical manner.

Of course that all changes if I had agreed to sell the knives for her at some percentage to myself.  But that’s a different premise. 

I’d like to suggest that most of us think our collections are worth more than they are.  I know an elderly fellow who collected stamps.  He had maybe a million stamps counting canceled and first day of issue.  The collection was only worth the value of the relatively few uncanceled stamps he had.  First day of issue, not worth the paper they were printed on.  Canceled stamps, a drag on the market.  Foreign stamps, not much interest.  

If you want your collection to increase in value you need to buy things already valuable.  Even that depends on what people want to buy when you’re selling.  Ditch the beanie babies now.

If you think your collection is valuable, hire someone who makes a living at it and get an appraisal.  Document the knives and the purchase history.  Don’t attempt to appraise your collection yourself, as this activity is self deluding.  Don’t be too surprised if your WWII British Navy issue lifeboat knife collection isn’t as valuable as you thought.

One last thought experiment.  Imagine you are sorting though a tray of old foreign coins marked 25 cents each.  You find, because of your specialized knowledge and training, a rare Icelandic Krona worth significantly more to the right collector.  You:
A Buy it and resell it,
B Tell the owner and convince him to charge more for it,
C Walk away empty-handed and say nothing,
D “Look!  It’s Elvis!”  and steal the coin when he looks away. 

Why would buying a knife collection be different?

We also got to see the 2015 WRCA Expo knife.  It’s a Victorinox Sentinel.  And it’s a left-handed knife!  

2015 WRCA Expo Knife (hasn't been blade etched yet)

The serrations are on the front half of the stainless steel blade and located on the right side of the blade.  The knife can be easily opened with either hand, but one-handed closing works best with the left hand.

I want one.  I don’t care if the blade is etched or not.  It’s very cool, but I don’t see any real potential increase in value over the years.  So that’s one less worry my estate has!

knife club

Most of us belong to a knife club of some sort.  It may be local or a national organization like the Kershaw Collectors.  If you collect a specific type of knife or brand you will find a club that caters to your refined taste.

I’m a generalist and the best fit I could find was Western Reserve Cutlery Association.  We just had our November meeting and the topic was carving knives.   Before I go any further I’d like point out I’m this year’s vice-president, so I have a bit of a bias.

I will say the best part of the monthly topic is not the knives, but the personalized translation of the topic.  One member changed carving knives into carved knives and brought out a pile of knives carved out of wood.  Denny also a nice collection of pliers carved out of wood by Mooney Warther. 

You're right the knife at 12 o'clock is real, but the rest are wooden.

You can still find them on EBay.  They are rather simple, but Mooney used to sit and with nothing but a pre-cut length of bass wood (I think it was bass) and a carving knife make these pliers to the delight of visitors to his shop.

We’re also getting ready for our Knife Expo May 16 and 17 2015 at the Buckeye Event Center off of route 30 in Dalton, Ohio.  It’s a nice place.  I’ve been there for gun shows and have always been impressed with the clean facilities, wide aisles, large parking area and general professionalism of the staff.

Here’s a link to the form.  Just fill it out and mail it in.  We’ll do the rest.

If you’re a knife maker or dealer, you should attend this show.  An 8-foot table for two days with optional setup on Friday evening costs just $50.  I’ll be there with my knives.  If you’re a collector this is also the show for you.  It’s $5 to get in and the food service is worth the price of admittance.

What's a Collection?

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. 

 

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!)

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.

There may be a database out there somewhere, but I’d hazard a guess it doesn’t exist.