"Why not more knife fans?" revisited.

[JD Spydo]

OK I guess my earlier post sounded a bit self-righteous and somewhat negative but it is extremely frustrating to see how literally "Dumbed Down" many of the younger people have become in this great country. But on the other hand it is sad to see a growing trend of people who no longer care about "quality" at all. To me I would rather have just one really good knife rather than have a dozen pot metal, dime store knock offs.

But my dad and my uncles instilled that in me from the time I was little. Because "Quality" is actually cheaper and more efficient in the long run. Not to mention that it lasts you so much longer than do "Rip-Mart" cheapies do.

I don't even hardly see many high quality knives even in well known sporting good stores like BASS PRO or Cabelas. It seems like BUCK, SOG, and Gerber are about as good as you can get in the Brick & Mortar stores here in KC unfortunately.

So I guess I've come to this final conclusion>> Why would anyone even want to get interested in knives ( or anything else for that matter) if all you have access to is low grade or a "Use Once And Throw Away" grade items? What I see available here in the stores wouldn't intrigue anyone from my viewpoint.

[Crux]

Do you drink cheap liquor?

[demoncase]

Why aren't more people into knives?

Not everyone can be as cool as us. :)

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Why aren't more people into knives?

Not everyone can be as cool as us. :)

That's a good point :)

When it comes to "everyday people" in the UK, namely in Britain, do most still have any knowledge about the history of the great Sheffield knife and blade and steel makers or has that mostly passed away except for people like you and others who are interested in knives?

For example, if one were to poll the average British citizen on the street in London or the outlying areas today, and asked them "Are you aware of the great history of the fine Sheffield steel and knife makers?" how would most respond?

[demoncase]

Why aren't more people into knives?

Not everyone can be as cool as us. :)

That's a good point :)

When it comes to "everyday people" in the UK, namely in Britain, do most still have any knowledge about the history of the great Sheffield knife and blade and steel makers or has that mostly passed away except for people like you and others who are interested in knives?

For example, if one were to poll the average British citizen on the street in London or the outlying areas today, and asked them "Are you aware of the great history of the fine Sheffield steel and knife makers?" how would most respond?

Does the average person in the street have a grasp of any basic history?

Let alone of a specific part of history called the industrial revolution?

Let alone a specific product in a specific city as a result of the industrial revolution?

Of course they don't. Why should they?

I learned early in my teens that my interests and hobbies are probably not shared by most folks- and that doesn't make those folks any lesser people than me.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Why aren't more people into knives?

Not everyone can be as cool as us. :)

That's a good point :)

When it comes to "everyday people" in the UK, namely in Britain, do most still have any knowledge about the history of the great Sheffield knife and blade and steel makers or has that mostly passed away except for people like you and others who are interested in knives?

For example, if one were to poll the average British citizen on the street in London or the outlying areas today, and asked them "Are you aware of the great history of the fine Sheffield steel and knife makers?" how would most respond?

Does the average person in the street have a grasp of any basic history?

Let alone of a specific part of history called the industrial revolution?

Let alone a specific product in a specific city as a result of the industrial revolution?

Of course they don't. Why should they?

I learned early in my teens that my interests and hobbies are probably not shared by most folks- and that doesn't make those folks any lesser people than me.

I understand your position on this but it just seems to me that when it comes to the history of production of things as foundational and fundamental to the national spirit as steel and cutlery, more people ought to be interested and proud of their heritage and history. Consider Sweden and Swedish steel. I have spoken with Swedes and when I mention the extreme quality and notoriety of Swedish blades, both male and female have acknowledged this. Could it be that different nations school their people in these areas to greater or lesser degrees ?

What is interesting, is that in my studies of Sheffield steel and knifemaking, I found that some of the early Sheffield makers and the early American knife makers understood that Swedish iron was of great quality and imported it.

[Naperville]

I have 85 knives at an invested value just under $20,000. To me it is not a very large collection and I'd like to have at least 3 times as many knives. There are so many good knives, I just keep picking them up.

I'm willing to bet there are a lot of people with 5 or fewer knives that consider what they have to be a "collection" and are not willing to go beyond that number significantly because they do not see the use in doing so. On BladeForum there are many users, some with Gold and Platinum accts, that have fewer than 10 knives, and they have 10,000 posts. What they have to add to the conversation is up for debate, but there you go.

Before I got in to seriously collecting knives, I had a Randall. I bought my Model #14 around 1994, and it was the only knife that I had up until 2016. Back in 1994 though, I had approx 10 firearms, a compound bow and was very active in shooting and archery. Now I only have knives. I've gotten rid of everything else.

Not sure why I caught the knife bug.

[demoncase]

Why aren't more people into knives?

Not everyone can be as cool as us. :)

That's a good point :)

When it comes to "everyday people" in the UK, namely in Britain, do most still have any knowledge about the history of the great Sheffield knife and blade and steel makers or has that mostly passed away except for people like you and others who are interested in knives?

For example, if one were to poll the average British citizen on the street in London or the outlying areas today, and asked them "Are you aware of the great history of the fine Sheffield steel and knife makers?" how would most respond?

Does the average person in the street have a grasp of any basic history?

Let alone of a specific part of history called the industrial revolution?

Let alone a specific product in a specific city as a result of the industrial revolution?

Of course they don't. Why should they?

I learned early in my teens that my interests and hobbies are probably not shared by most folks- and that doesn't make those folks any lesser people than me.

I understand your position on this but it just seems to me that when it comes to the history of production of things as foundational and fundamental to the national spirit as steel and cutlery, more people ought to be interested and proud of their heritage and history. Consider Sweden and Swedish steel. I have spoken with Swedes and when I mention the extreme quality and notoriety of Swedish blades, both male and female have acknowledged this. Could it be that different nations school their people in these areas to greater or lesser degrees ?

What is interesting, is that in my studies of Sheffield steel and knifemaking, I found that some of the early Sheffield makers and the early American knife makers understood that Swedish iron was of great quality and imported it.

At one time, England was the workshop of the world and pocket knives from Sheffield was a tiny fraction of the big, societal impacting things we made.

Sweden has many fine attributes but did not have the vast array of industrial products or scale of output that England at the time of Sheffield's heights....so it's easy to pick out Sweden's fine product of the time.

"We made the best little folding knives in the world in the 19th century"
"Dude, we owned an empire covering a third of the world and gave everyone railways....get some perspective"

[James Y]

Why aren't more people into knives?

Not everyone can be as cool as us. :)

That's a good point :)

When it comes to "everyday people" in the UK, namely in Britain, do most still have any knowledge about the history of the great Sheffield knife and blade and steel makers or has that mostly passed away except for people like you and others who are interested in knives?

For example, if one were to poll the average British citizen on the street in London or the outlying areas today, and asked them "Are you aware of the great history of the fine Sheffield steel and knife makers?" how would most respond?

Does the average person in the street have a grasp of any basic history?

Let alone of a specific part of history called the industrial revolution?

Let alone a specific product in a specific city as a result of the industrial revolution?

Of course they don't. Why should they?

I learned early in my teens that my interests and hobbies are probably not shared by most folks- and that doesn't make those folks any lesser people than me.

I understand your position on this but it just seems to me that when it comes to the history of production of things as foundational and fundamental to the national spirit as steel and cutlery, more people ought to be interested and proud of their heritage and history. Consider Sweden and Swedish steel. I have spoken with Swedes and when I mention the extreme quality and notoriety of Swedish blades, both male and female have acknowledged this. Could it be that different nations school their people in these areas to greater or lesser degrees ?

Usually, when you tell people they 'should' or 'ought to' be proud of and interested in some aspect of their heritage, especially when it comes to things like industry, steel, etc., it's going to create more resistance within them. You cannot make someone share your interests or your viewpoint, if they're going to become interested in something, they're going to do it on their own. And if not, then never. Just like the younger generation in Japan's Seki City are, for the most part, not interested in working in the cutlery industry, so reportedly there's very few if any of them learning the trade to carry on from the older generation. Japan also has extremely strict knife carry laws, especially in the cities.

People will be interested in whatever they're interested in, in the same way that every single one of us is interested in the things we are, and not interested in the things we aren't. Most of the people in this world are not interested in knives beyond using them in the kitchen or to help them make a living, if they use them at all.

Jim