How does your Significant Other coexist with your knife collecting syndrome?

[archangel]

Simple: for each Spydie I buy, she probably buys or gets gifted 10 books or more.

[Team Sick]

She has definite gotten better with it over time and through explanation and experience. She actually is a good buffer for me not getting too crazy with it and buying knives on impulse or FOMO. She knows how much I spend and is helping save for "Grail" knives.

[VooDooChild]

Single, lonely, loving it.

[Dan In MI]

2. as she actually knows what they cost... Also because I typically buy 2...

When you say you typically buy two, is that one to display and one to use (as I sometimes do)?

Probably about a 3.5, +/- 0.25, in my case. I started collecting knives just this year, and have been asked how much money I've spent on them. I've also heard that some of them are pretty. The jury is still out on how she'll react to Spydercos.

[bearrowland]

At first, she was baffled, then acceptance, and now she is an active contributor!

[Superflex]

Mine's a 3
She spends more on plants and planters.
At least the Spydies hold their value unlike an annual.
I do use her flowers and plants as backdrops for knife photos though

[Menipo]

At first, she was baffled, then acceptance, and now she is an active contributor!

In fact, my hope was that mine would have the same progression as yours. But not. :rolleyes:

When we were dating she gave me a Victorinox Swiss Champ. And I thought it was a great start. When she began to show me her little empathy with my addiction and I reminded her of the Victorinox gift, she said: if I gave you a 25-function knife, it was precisely so that you wouldn't have to buy any other ... :eek: :D

[rabbitanarchy14]

my girl hates that i buy anything expensive are my knives she says are very expensive.
so i would say a 1 = have to hide the orders and shipments of knives. if she sees one i just tell her i have had it awhile. i did buy her a boker cocobola plunge lock knife and a dragonfly that she carries but says she would use them even if they were 10 bucks (which they were not and i would not tell her anyway the cost of them.)

[Cambertree]

Mine’s at least a 5 or 6... :)

She likes good knives for her work and hobbies, but she’s not as afflicted with accumulating them as most of us here are.

She’s pretty happy with the CF Chaparral, which replaced a walnut handled Opinel No 8 I gave her years ago, that she made a neck sheath for. She prefers the Chap to a Dragonfly I gave her.

She uses a Mora in the garden and a Damascus clad VG10 Santoku in the kitchen.

I offered to sharpen the Santoku for her after I bought it for her as a birthday present. She asked me to teach her how to sharpen her knives instead.

She’s now the best sharpener out of all the people I’ve taught. :)

She gets offended if I use my pocket knives for food prep in her kitchen. ‘What, my sharpening’s not good enough?!’ :D

I’m not sure if I’ll get my Naniwa Chosera benchstones back again...

She examines my new knives and tries them in different holds, asking questions about their purpose, and asks me to explain about the steels, before pronouncing whether she likes them or not.

I lent her a cane knife to clear up some weeds and brush in the garden, and she gave it back to me with a awesome, razor sharp edge she painstakingly crafted with a three stone progression. I said since she found the knife useful that she could keep it. She said ‘I sharpened it so you could have a knife I’ve sharpened for you’.

I had the latest Spyderco catalogue sent to her and was kind of surprised how excited she was after getting it.

I asked her if she saw anything she liked in it. She said ‘Yeah’ and showed me the SzaboHawk. :D

We decided to get some Spydie throwers to play with together.

She’s deciding what Spydie models to give her sisters. (A PE Salt 2 for one, who works on fishing charter boats, and she still hasn’t decided what model to give her other sis.)

So yeah, definitely a 5 or 6 by Menipo’s scale. Maybe a 7 or 8. :D :p

But an 11 to me... :) :cool:

[Menipo]

[...]

So yeah, definitely a 5 or 6 by Menipo’s scale. Maybe a 7 or 8. :D :p

But an 11 to me... :) :cool:

Nein, nein, nein! 6 at most.

A rigorous classification is based on the use of well-defined categories. The first 5 were described in the OP. For the avoidance of doubt let's complete the 10 grades:

6. When the SO starts to demonstrate a devotion to knives similar or even superior to the affection he/she feels for his wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/"friend with touching rights"

7. When the SO applies for a full time position at the Spyderco SFO

8. When the SO publishes articles in specialized knife magazines

9. When the SO becomes part of the list of designers who have collaborated with Spyderco and have managed to have one of their designs manufactured by Spyderco (for instance, the Cambertreena Faca*)

10. When the SO becomes the designer of Fysh, the third brand of Spyderco knifes (if the second was Byrd, the third could well be Fysh). :D

*Faca in Portuguese means knife and in Spanish describes a curved big knife

[aicolainen]

I have many syndromes, just to get that out of the way. Perhaps that’s part of the reason knives isn’t much of an issue, but I think it has more to do with me turning the issue on its head; as long as I’m the one with the syndrome, I consider it my responsibility to coexist with my SO.
Basically the only thing she notices of my syndrome is knives scattered around the house, in cars and bags and backpacks.
I don’t force my interests on anyone, I don’t play with knives around people, with very few exceptions I don’t spend time on my screens when I’m with my family and I’m not irresponsible with my spending. I don’t actively try to inform her what my hobbies costs, and honestly I don’t think she wants to know. It doesn’t in any way affect our lives or opportunities, and that’s the important part.
I guess that positions her somewhere 3 to 5 on the scale. I’m sure she rises an eyebrow from time to time, but in general she doesn’t mind.
She is quite happy to always have well maintained knives in the kitchen and to always be able to borrow a knife when she needs one.

The main reason I found this topic interesting is a small discovery I made yesterday. So tiny indeed, that it’s almost embarrassing how big a smile it put on my face. A few months ago I gave my girlfriend a Victorinox classic together with some other items for her birthday, and I haven’t seen it since. I was pretty sure it went in a drawer somewhere to collect dust. So back to yesterday; I was in a hurry and couldn’t find my car keys. Being kind of urgent I had to put privacy aside for a minute and look everywhere. I did eventually find the keys, but what I also found was the Victorinox in the right hand pocket of her favorite jacket. I couldn’t know if she has used it at all, but there’s a pretty big chance she has at least realized the potential usefulness of easy access to dedicated matter separators.

[Naperville]

To those who have a significant other who does not care one way or the other what the other adult in the relationship does responsibly with their income, CONGRATS.

It does not work that way for others and I was in a bad situation, so when it ended it was the best thing for me. We literally had "everything" but it was never enough.

[Cambertree]

[...]

So yeah, definitely a 5 or 6 by Menipo’s scale. Maybe a 7 or 8. :D :p

But an 11 to me... :) :cool:

Nein, nein, nein! 6 at most.

A rigorous classification is based on the use of well-defined categories. The first 5 were described in the OP. For the avoidance of doubt let's complete the 10 grades:

6. When the SO starts to demonstrate a devotion to knives similar or even superior to the affection he/she feels for his wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/"friend with touching rights"

7. When the SO applies for a full time position at the Spyderco SFO

8. When the SO publishes articles in specialized knife magazines

9. When the SO becomes part of the list of designers who have collaborated with Spyderco and have managed to have one of their designs manufactured by Spyderco (for instance, the Cambertreena Faca*)

10. When the SO becomes the designer of Fysh, the third brand of Spyderco knifes (if the second was Byrd, the third could well be Fysh). :D

*Faca in Portuguese means knife and in Spanish describes a curved big knife

Ha ha ha! :D

Fair enough then, mi amigo. I accept that 6 will do for now, and advancing further on the scale may take a little more time. :)

But I’m pretty happy with 6, when even Gail Glesser only attains a 7, as far as I know... :D :)

[Netherend]

She is supportive. She herself is not a knife enthusiast but she recognizes and appreciates the quality of my Spyderco knives. This year she got me a sprint run pm2 for my birthday so I think I am in good shape. I think that it helps that it was her brother who introduced me to spyderco. He used to work as a dive medic in the Gulf of Mexico for oil rigs. He bought her an Atlantic salt one year for the holidays. He said that they only use salt knives out there and raved about the H1 steel. Fast forward a few years and now we can rave together about LC200N.
My SO recognizes the quality of the builds and regularly borrows my spydercos. In a few years she can write a post on this forum about me :)

[Menipo]

Ha ha ha! :D

Fair enough then, mi amigo. I accept that 6 will do for now, and advancing further on the scale may take a little more time. :)

But I’m pretty happy with 6, when even Gail Glesser only attains a 7, as far as I know... :D :)

Precisely, mate! And that gives us a good benchmark to measure others.

It is said that a medieval king asked his advisers how much his life was valued. They all fell silent in terror for fear of offending him with whatever amount they said. Then a bishop said: 29 pieces of silver. The king was furious and said: - Only 29? And silver? Not even gold? If you don't give me a good reason, I'll have you beheaded!

And the bishop replied: the life of our Lord Jesus Christ was valued at 30 pieces of silver and the life of His Majesty must be worth almost the same, but no more than His ... :D

[Ngati Pom]

Bemused tolerance.
She has her own users.

[Pickmansmodel82]

Normally the wifey accepts my hobby with little more than an eye roll during mail call. “You got another pointy thing...”

[bearrowland]

If it were only that simple, my Swisschamp would have saved me long ago!!

At first, she was baffled, then acceptance, and now she is an active contributor!

In fact, my hope was that mine would have the same progression as yours. But not. :rolleyes:

When we were dating she gave me a Victorinox Swiss Champ. And I thought it was a great start. When she began to show me her little empathy with my addiction and I reminded her of the Victorinox gift, she said: if I gave you a 25-function knife, it was precisely so that you wouldn't have to buy any other ... :eek: :D

[Cambertree]

Ha ha ha! :D

Fair enough then, mi amigo. I accept that 6 will do for now, and advancing further on the scale may take a little more time. :)

But I’m pretty happy with 6, when even Gail Glesser only attains a 7, as far as I know... :D :)

Precisely, mate! And that gives us a good benchmark to measure others.

It is said that a medieval king asked his advisers how much his life was valued. They all fell silent in terror for fear of offending him with whatever amount they said. Then a bishop said: 29 pieces of silver. The king was furious and said: - Only 29? And silver? Not even gold? If you don't give me a good reason, I'll have you beheaded!

And the bishop replied: the life of our Lord Jesus Christ was valued at 30 pieces of silver and the life of His Majesty must be worth almost the same, but no more than His ... :D

He must have been a good king. :)

I’m guessing if some kings and queens of the past asked their subjects for an honest and accurate assessment of their worth, they would have been lucky to have been rated at two copper pennies! :D

[Menipo]

Precisely, mate! And that gives us a good benchmark to measure others.

It is said that a medieval king asked his advisers how much his life was valued. They all fell silent in terror for fear of offending him with whatever amount they said. Then a bishop said: 29 pieces of silver. The king was furious and said: - Only 29? And silver? Not even gold? If you don't give me a good reason, I'll have you beheaded!

And the bishop replied: the life of our Lord Jesus Christ was valued at 30 pieces of silver and the life of His Majesty must be worth almost the same, but no more than His ... :D

He must have been a good king. :)

I’m guessing if some kings and queens of the past asked their subjects for an honest and accurate assessment of their worth, they would have been lucky to have been rated at two copper pennies! :D

A good king? I don't think so. Probably what he had was an executioner standing behind him with a drawn 5-foot sword ready to be used against anyone who proved not to hold His Majesty in the high regard that he thought he deserved. :D