the other day I realised it's been a long while since I bought a new knife.
Not because I don't like the newly revealed knives, but mostly because the knives I have just work so well.
For most tasks, I find myself grabbing the same knives, the choice is almost automatic.
It's both a testament to how wel designed these knives are, and how boring I've become in my choices ;-)
Any one else suffer from that "problem" ?
PS just a quick overview of my routine:
Around the house: Native Chief Rex45 (bought thanks to Nemo's recommendation, has pushed almost every other knife from my pocket)
Garden: Schempp Rock or Bow River depending on cutting needs
Yeah, I have around 80 to choose from and consistently carry about 8 different knives and some of those are even other brands. I've settled into a place where I don't really want a lot of different designs anymore, I want steel options for the few designs that are my favorite.
Really nothings wrong with your approach , I like to rotate myself but always seem to go to what works for me . MG2
MNOSD 0002 / Do more than is required of you . Patton
Nothing makes earth so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.
Henry David Thoreau
Yup, I could get by with variants of the Manix 2, Endela, Native 5, Delica, Pac Salt, and Dragonfly for my daily cutting chores.
The newest Spyderco design I have tried is the Military 2, but there are others like the SpyNano and Techno 3 that just don't set my heart aflutter the way designs from previous years used to.
I'm up to 5 Para 3's (Selling one with another on order) and tend to just carry one of those along with a Swiss Army Knife. Lot's of other knives to choose from but the Para 3 just fits me. I carry a SAK because I can pull it out in any company and nobody loses their mind over it and it's nice to have a sacrificial blade.
There is not a day that go’s by without having 1 of my many Manixes in my pocket. The Manix is like fused in my Dna by now.
Besides a manix i am currently carrying a folder design from a polish custommaker made by fox.
Last edited by apollo on Thu May 08, 2025 7:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
I'm like Evil D, on this... I got the Hurd and still collecting more, but I just have my few large knives I carry, just wishing for an upgrade in the steel on these bigger beast I like to pack edc...
Will add that of the 4 or 5 I pack on me as edc, there is just the Leatherman Titanium the only thing that is not Spyderco anymore, I just don't see anything else I want for, or heck I would buy it...
Mm..
you could buy one knife and be quite happy with that knife.
If you buy 50 you can learn something about your preferences and what features matter for your own use.
I too have almost permanent knife choices in the different roles I use my knives, doesn't make the other knives bad purchasing decisions (well, OK. Maybe some of them were). They were all important pieces in educating myself.
For the same reason I don't buy as many new knives anymore. I'm much more particular in what I'm looking for, and when you reach a certain point of satisfaction with your tool, any improvement will be so hard to achieve and so incremental, that it's hardly worth the effort. Of course, when your cursed with this disease you never quite stop looking, but the intensity with which I look for new knives has waned off significantly.
There is not a day that go’s by without having 1 of my many Manixes in my pocket. The Manix is like fused in my Dna by now.
Besides a manix i am currently carrying a folder design from a polish custommaker made by fox.
Right? I bought all the Spydercos I want, and my sock drawer still has room for two dozen pairs of socks. Such a waste! Spyderco needs to get on the ball and bring out some new knives for me to buy. The climate here is such that I wear sandals most of the year. I don't even NEED socks!!!
Mm..
you could buy one knife and be quite happy with that knife.
If you buy 50 you can learn something about your preferences and what features matter for your own use.
I too have almost permanent knife choices in the different roles I use my knives, doesn't make the other knives bad purchasing decisions (well, OK. Maybe some of them were). They were all important pieces in educating myself.
For the same reason I don't buy as many new knives anymore. I'm much more particular in what I'm looking for, and when you reach a certain point of satisfaction with your tool, any improvement will be so hard to achieve and so incremental, that it's hardly worth the effort. Of course, when your cursed with this disease you never quite stop looking, but the intensity with which I look for new knives has waned off significantly.
I can relate really strongly to this. It's all about the learning and experimentation process for me. I've done the same thing with skiing, climbing, backpacking, and other outdoor stuff. Now that I think about it I do the same thing with my reference library - I have the books that are my go-to references on particular subjects but then I have a mess of books on the same subjects that I refer to occasionally. It's all about finding the things that are most physically or mentally ergonomic and bring the most joy to my life. I don't know that I realized that in quite that way before, so thanks Aicolainen!
If I were being frugal I got by with an SAK, a Mora, and my rig knife (for work) for decades and I still could, but I so enjoy the process of experimentation and education! Also discovering salt knives was glorious. And the community here is wonderful. :-)
after enough years in the hobby, in my experience one figures out what does and doesn't work for themselves.
When it comes to Spyderco specifically I had a lot of fun early on trying out 200+ different models / versions, but it's nice having things settled.
it's both a blessing and a curse.
These days I pretty much never buy a knife and find myself unhappy with it, because of how well I understand my own needs and preferences.
However I also find myself uninterested in 90%+ of new models coming out from even my very favorite few companies, because I know they won't do anything better for me than my favorites.
Police is the best all around EDC for me. It's my true goldilocks size. Smaller knives feel small to me, bigger ones start to feel a bit less convenient in use.
Military 2 or Pacific Salt when I want a rust proof utility folder.
Manix XL when I want a beefy, extremely secure handle to work with.
Catcherman is my ultralight knife for the outdoors.
Recon 1 folder when I'm in a dark side mood.
Recon XL or Voyager XL when I want a true XL folder.
Leatherman Rebar always on my belt or in my EDC backpack. Super Tool for around the house, basically a beefier Rebar.
Stout 5-6" fixed blade like an SRK for general outdoors stuff, reprofiled to a much thinner edge of course.
Mora Companions for an ultralight outdoors option.
Aqua Salt for a rust proof outdoors option.
Fiskars x7 hatchets and their larger axes.
Cold Steel straight edge south african machetes.
Kiwi #21 for home cooking.
Bahco laplander folding saw for a compact outdoors folding saw.
Leatherman half micra for my keychain (took a micra and removed the scissors, tweezers and half the handle, managed to fit all the other tools in the one half, it's about as light and compact as a vic classic but with more utility from the different screwdrivers)
There is not a day that go’s by without having 1 of my many Manixes in my pocket. The Manix is like fused in my Dna by now.
Besides a manix i am currently carrying a folder design from a polish custommaker made by fox.
Is that knife by Fox the Ingeni?
Yes its indeed the Ingeni folder under the brandname MK.
My brother and me each bought one from the polish designer himself in holland at the Dutch knife exposition show. (Due to lack of Spydies at the show)
Its a great knife. Have bin using it for a month now and will make a review for it in off topic soon. S90V blade is a very nicely done very happy with its performance so far.
I sold most of my collection after realizing I did the same thing.
I ended up keeping three purposeful knives -- a do-all EDC (Sebenza 31), a high-edge retention/enthusiast knife (Stretch 2 LW), and a sub-3" knife (Chaparral LW). I complement them with either a Victorinox Pioneer or CyberTool M depending on my needs. I've also got 4 other knives that were gifted to me that I occasionally carry.
Are there knives that I miss? Yes, absolutely, but I decided to keep what I felt was the best example for each of those purposes.
Current Collection
Chaparral LW (CTS-XHP), Dragonfly 2 (VG-10), Mule Team (VG XEOS), Native 5 Salt (LC200N), Stretch 2 (K390)
There is not a day that go’s by without having 1 of my many Manixes in my pocket. The Manix is like fused in my Dna by now.
Besides a manix i am currently carrying a folder design from a polish custommaker made by fox.
Is that knife by Fox the Ingeni?
Yes its indeed the Ingeni folder under the brandname MK.
My brother and me each bought one from the polish designer himself in holland at the Dutch knife exposition show. (Due to lack of Spydies at the show)
Its a great knife. Have bin using it for a month now and will make a review for it in off topic soon. S90V blade is a very nicely done very happy with its performance so far.
Here is a pictures of my carry's today.
Thanks for sharing Apollo! Dig the design of the Ingeni and looking forward to the review. Shame I missed the DKE this year, hopefully next year!
Constantly carry Para 3, PM2, Manix 2, on a daily basis. Occasionally carry randoms for different reasons. Gardening I always have a SE something.
I have an endless variety of different Spydercos to pick but those same 3 end up in my pocket.
Edit: also those three are usually 15v or Magnacut
I would like to say I have whittled down my collection to only the knives I really carry and use, but the variety of designs is just to vast. I can say I consistently prefer to carry 1 large folders and 1 small folder. One is always PE and the counterpart is always SE. These are probably the only two constants in the description of my edged pocket tools.
Even my purpose specific tools are still seeing some rotation as I try out new (to me) designs.
sal wrote: .... even today, we design a knife from the edge out!
There is not a day that go’s by without having 1 of my many Manixes in my pocket. The Manix is like fused in my Dna by now.
Besides a manix i am currently carrying a folder design from a polish custommaker made by fox.
Is that knife by Fox the Ingeni?
Yes its indeed the Ingeni folder under the brandname MK.
My brother and me each bought one from the polish designer himself in holland at the Dutch knife exposition show. (Due to lack of Spydies at the show)
Its a great knife. Have bin using it for a month now and will make a review for it in off topic soon. S90V blade is a very nicely done very happy with its performance so far.
Here is a pictures of my carry's today.
Thanks for sharing Apollo! Dig the design of the Ingeni and looking forward to the review. Shame I missed the DKE this year, hopefully next year!
Your welcome. I will keep you posted ones i posted the review have a bunch of cutting chores still waiting for me this weekend so i will probably make it sometime next week. It was the first time in many years we went to the DKE but i think we will make a habbit of it again so who knows ill run into you next year!
Due hope K&T brings some more spydies then as there prices where amazing but they almost had nothing with them except for a collection they needed to sell off for a family. Did pick up my Blue stepped Ti chap there for an incredible price.
I'm the opposite of the OP: I rotate irregularly among dozens of knives. Some get a more attention than others -- Militaries, Stretches, Polices, UKPKs, PM2s, GBs ...
I guess I'm still where Vivi was years ago. If the post office wasn't such a downer, at least half of my knives would be gone.
the other day I realised it's been a long while since I bought a new knife.
Not because I don't like the newly revealed knives, but mostly because the knives I have just work so well.
For most tasks, I find myself grabbing the same knives, the choice is almost automatic.
It's both a testament to how wel designed these knives are, and how boring I've become in my choices ;-)
Any one else suffer from that "problem" ?
PS just a quick overview of my routine:
Around the house: Native Chief Rex45 (bought thanks to Nemo's recommendation, has pushed almost every other knife from my pocket)
Garden: Schempp Rock or Bow River depending on cutting needs
Office/town: Para3 or BM Bugout
Around non-knife people: Pingo Ti or Case Barlow
Always on me: Dragonfly hawkbill salt
The Pingo is such a great design. Was hoping for a sprint but Sal commented the designers are with a competing brand now, Giant Mouse I believe, and that it won’t happen. I also love the Barlow Pattern along with the Peanut on slip joints
Knife nut & Spydie aficionado 
