The Story of My Collection

[terryl308]

Nice to say the least! Now the search begins! thanks a lot ole buddy. Terry

[glennbad]

Great story of your collecting, and that display is great also!!!

[zoogirl]

Ok guys, slightly off topic, but I have a question.
I’ve been collecting a lot of celluloid Richards lately. I’ve been told to keep them out of the light but also to keep them exposed to the air.
As I understand it, outgassing is going to happen or not, anyway. There’s not much to be done about it. I do want to keep my knife scales bright though and I know sunlight is probably a bad idea.
What’s the best way to store celluloid? Thanks!

[rugmar]

So glad this little story inspired some of you. Trust me when I say it’s unreal how much more enjoyment this hobby is bringing now that I get to look at it every day.

Thanks for all the nice comments and don’t forget to let me see your displays.

Thanks!!

[petesknives]

WOW...

[btrwtr]

That display is awesome. I can see they why are even more enjoyable now.

[r redden]

I've been away for a while and missed this thread but just have to say that your story of your knife journey was fantastic and that display is simply beautiful. Is there a thread here somewhere that folks knife story I'd love to read it and if not we need to start one.

[rugmar]

Thank you. I can’t begin to say how much more I am enjoying my collection now that I have it displayed. I too would love to hear stories behind other’s collections. I invite anyone who is willing to tell their story in this thread. It’s very entertaining to me to hear what got others interested in collecting.

[knife7knut]

A great story and a great display as well.
My knife accumulation started a long time ago;at the age of ten to be exact. It continued in junior high school when I started collecting switchblades(which were just about to be outlawed). Through the 1960's I started getting into other knives while in the Navy. It wasn't until the 1970's that it really started to take off when I found knife magazines and joined the NKC&DA(changed to the NKCA). I also found that other people collected knives as well including a co-worker and another friend who worked at a sporting goods store and eventually opened his own cutlery shop.
My storage of knives comprised old briefcases and another friend who had been in the wallpaper business donated a bunch of salesman's sample cases(for wallpaper)that made great cases for larger knives. Ripped out the insides and lined them with foam rubber covered in cotton from cut up old T-shirts. Couldn't really display them as we had a lot of young children around.
My move to Michigan and a new marriage brought me a great present from my bride:an antique typographer's cabinet that she figured would hold all my knives.WRONG! My brother-in-law donated an old cigar store case with drawers and that now holds a lot of my smaller knives(about 700 at last count).
I then started acquiring wooden machinists' too chests which make great containers for knives. Most I would re-line with felt and drop in a couple of dessicant bags which helped with the moisture problem. I also located some old drawing cabinets for blueprints that are good for larger knives as well.
If I want to display any knives I have several magnetic tool strips affixed to the walls in my computer room and change them when I feel the urge. I still use briefcases for letter openers and kitchen cutlery that isn't being used and several rifle cases for some of my swords. Not sure how many knives I have;maybe someday I will get the urge to count them.

[rugmar]

Knife7knut, nice story. I enjoyed reading that! Thanks for sharing. I have a question for you. Did you know what you wanted to collect from the start or did you change it up somewhere along the line or did you just decide to collect all different kinds?

Thanks again for sharing!

[knife7knut]

Knife7knut, nice story. I enjoyed reading that! Thanks for sharing. I have a question for you. Did you know what you wanted to collect from the start or did you change it up somewhere along the line or did you just decide to collect all different kinds?

Thanks again for sharing!

I first started collecting switchblades because I liked the way they snapped out whenever you wanted to use them.....and for a ten year old that was in the term of the day:"cool". As I grew older my tastes would always change;I started to collect knives with pearl handles and then switched to stag. Miniature knives always fascinated me but they were usually pretty hard to find. Then I started with multi-blade knives and then there was a time when good knives became hard to find so I started collecting straight razors and then letter opener knives and then letter openers.
That is when I realized that knife "accumulation"(collecting doesn't fit properly)had become an addiction but as the venerable Red Green always says,"I can quit......any time....if I HAVE to". Now I collect what I refer to as unusual knives;those that do not look like knives or have unusual blades or shapes.

[zzyzzogeton]

I received my first knife at age 6 from my grandfather
------("Now that you've started school, you need your own knife. We can't have you barrying one from some one else.") Ye's, he always said borrow like "barry".

Over the next 12 years, all my knives were either well-worn users from my father or grandfather or birthday/Christmas gifts. I bought my first knife using my own money at 18 in 1972 - a Buck 110.

The next "knife" was an M1902 Army saber with Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets etchings. I was just a freshman and wouldn't NEED one until my senior year, but it was only $75 for the saber/scabbard and Sam Browne belt. Just about broke me but it was a hell of a deal.

The next knife I bought was 2-1/2 years later (1975) - one of those 7" blade Bowie-like dive knives when I went through SCUBA certification.

The next purchase was actually 3 knives. This purchase is where I consider my collecting/accumulation began. While on my Midshipman 1st Class cruise during the summer of 1976 on board USS Dixie (AD-14) over in Yokosuka, Japan I read in Navy Regs that small boat crewmen should carry either a USN-MK1 Crew Knife or a USN-MK2 Fighting/Utility knife.

When I got home from Japan, I took some of that "Navy Pay" and went down to the army surplus store in Bryan, TX. In that little store, among all the other Amy/Navy surplus stuff, they had a 30 gallon barrel full of MK1s and another barrel full of MK2s and a 20 foot long table piled with all kinds of tools and bayonets. Oh, if I'd known then what I know now.... I'd have bought both barrels and the table.

I ended up buying both a MK1 and a MK2, along with a really cool looking sword bayonet. I didn't have a clue what it was, but the serial numbers matched on the scabbard and the bayonet. The store wanted $10 apiece. I ended up getting the MK1 and MK2 for $15, but they wouldn't come down on the sword bayo so that's what I paid. Turns out the bayo was a French M1866 Chassepot made in 1868.

After that, my collecting was essentially buying new dive knives to try them out, and any old bayonets and military knives. Later I added Western and Kabar fixed blades to my horde.

98% of my knives are fixed blades - military, Western, Kabar, sabers, swords and bayonets, with a few other brands thrown in for "giggles and grins". I probably have fewer than 200 folding knives tucked away.

I have accumulated "the horde" as my niece calls (she also calls me a "Steel Dragon" ) it via garage sales, estate sales, junk stores, antique shops, knife forums, Craig's List, ebay, FB offers and word of mouth. It's amazing what I have been offered because "I heard you were a knife guy. I got some stuff you may be interested in."

The most interesting manner in which I acquired some of my knives/swords/bayonets was while I was on active duty. On my first ship in San DIego CA. - USS Denver (LPD-), somehow via the "mess cook grapevine" word got out that "Mr. Z collects knives." Probably because I lived on the ship and was observed late one night in the wardroom cleaning "the day's catch" before putting taking them to my storage locker off base the next day.

I started getting asked questions about my collection, so I showed some pics to my division - OI/OW - radar and electronic warfare equipment operators. The next week end, one of my men showed up with a nice M6 bayonet he found in a pawn shop for $5 and wanted to know if I wanted it. I told him "Sure." and gave him $10. He said he didn't have any change. I told him to keep the change as a finder's fee and that if he found some other good bayonets or nice military knives, to bring them to me.

UH-OH.

Word quickly got out that

"Mr. Z will pay you $5 more than you paid for a bayonet. Just bring him the receipt." Good thing we were underway a lot - within 6 months I had nearly 100 bayonets, ranging from 1800s spikes to relatively new M7s - - I'm not sure where those came from and I never asked since they were not yet considered "surplus".

On subsequent ships, I told the men in my divisions/departments that I would pay a $10 finder's fee for .... and gave them specific lists. Some times they brought me really bad condition stuff, sometimes really nice pieces.

One night I was the duty OPS officer on USS CONSTELLATION (CV-64) in San DIego. Around 0200 I got a call that I was needed on the Quarterdeck ASAP. When I arrived at the QD, there was a somewhat inebriated EW2 (Electronic Warfare Tech 2nd class - aka E5) from my old ship under escort by a pair of marines - USMC Corporal and a Lance Corporal. The EW2 was holding a then-unknown sword bayonet in its scabbard hilt up in both hands.

The EW2 had been an EW3 who worked for me on the Denver. He had been "on the town" and saw this bayonet hanging in the window of a pawn shop. He knew that the Connie had just returned from a deployment and remembered that I liked swords and I liked bayonets so surely I would like a sword-bayonet. He bought the bayonet, carried it around San Diego all night drinking with his buddies and then took a cab over the Coronado Bridge to North Island Naval Station.

The EW2 showed up at the main gate and would only say that "I need to give this to Mr. Z on the Connie." So the Marine gate guards had the SP wagon bring him to the Connie.

The EW2 immediately handed me the bayonet with a receipt and started apologizing that he was afraid that he had paid too much for it

"Sir, the pawn shop wanted $25 for it and I tried real hard, but I couldn't get him below $20."

I unsheathed the bayonet, looked at it, resheathed it, pulled out my wallet and gave him $50. He said

"That's too much sir. I only paid $20."

"You paid $20, the new finder's fee is $10, $10 is for your taxi over here and the $10 for your taxi ride back to 32nd Street."

"Oh, OK." and started down the gangway.

And to the Marines,

"Would y'all please put PO XXXXX in a cab and send him home to the Denver?"

The Lance Corporal escorted the EW2 down to the SP wagon and the Corporal asked me

"What the hell is all that about? .... Uh, Sir?"

"He's was one of my guys on my last ship and I haven't seen him in nearly a year and a half. I had an arrangement where if they brought me a knife or sword or bayonet with a receipt, I'd give them a $10 finder's fee. The more eyes out looking for stuff I collect the better. And if they were dickering on knives, they weren't drinking as much. I win both ways."

"Damn, sir. That's just sneaky."

And the sword bayonet turned out to be an M1891 Argentinian Mauser bayonet made in Germany.

[knife7knut]

GREAT STORY! ::tu

[rugmar]

I agree, great story!!! Thanks for posting that!! I read it twice and enjoyed it both times!!