Toys of the steel variety
I've spoken before of my love of knives. Along with the many draws they have for me, they allow me to invest in one of my passions when F-ing laws and second class citizen (18-21 years old) status won't let me partake in the other.
I own about a dozen fixed blade knives and a few nice folders, with sundry cheaper folding knives in a drawer across the room. I'd post a picture of my favorites, but quite frankly I'm too lazy right now to break out the digital and gather up the toys and pose them and all that junk. Maybe later.
So, being bored over the last few days, I put together a list of knives I was interested in buying should I win the lotto (or that I was interested in collecting over the years). I tried not to be redundant, but I still ended up with over 50 fixed blades alone. I have barely looked at folders so far. This doesn't count the ones I already own, and is entirely made up of production knives with the notable exception of a few Randall customs.
I have six knives on order at the moment. Two, by
Anza, I ordered before I started this list thing: the 705 and 709 with wood laminate handles. They were about $55 each and should arrive at some point in the near future, hopefully tomorrow or thursday. I haven't decided on their roles yet; if they perform better than my current choice belt knives, I'll carry them instead. If they don't, I'll love them anyway for being works of art in a bridge between my favorite mediums, wood and steel. Oh, and a BIG thanks to Kim du Toit for reminding me of this company; I had entirely forgotten about them until about a week ago. Anza is notable for using very hard file steel, which is 59 HRC if I recall correctly, and annealing it to remove the brittleness. Most quality knives run 57-58 HRC, again IIRC; the harder the knife, the sharper edge it can take and hold under use.
I don't know if I've ever written a post about sharpening, but maybe I'll do that at some point. It's something of an art with plain ol' Arkansas stones and some oil or water, and much more satisfying than using a guided system or machine.I have a few Cold Steel working knives coming too; they should arrive thursday. I ordered a second Kobun and a Carbon V SRK; if the SRK is worthy, I'll order a backup for that as well. I love my Kobun, and I'd rather spend the money on a backup now than wait anywhere from a week to a much longer period of time depending on where I am in the world when I lose the first one. I've heard good things about the SRK as well, so I'm hopeful on that front.
Also coming thursday is an SOG Gummint Agent, which I bought for kicks because I can afford it and it made my wish list (and it's not exactly useless), and a Linder Pathfinder.
Interesting bit of trivia on the Linder Pathfinder. When I first saw it, I was struck by its similarity to a historical knife of the Nazi persuasion. I did a bit of research and I found that the Hitler Youth knives were originally made in Solingen, the same place Linder knives are made today. I'm not saying the original HJ knives (Hitler Jugend) were made by Linder, but it wouldn't surprise me if at least some were; unfortunately I can't be sure because Linder isn't the only old-time knife company based in Solingen. Basically the Pathfinder is the exact same design without the Blut und Ehre! (Blood and Honor!) inscription on the blade and swastika on the handle. The swastika is replaced with a fleur de lis, if you're curious. It also comes with a leather sheath instead of the HJ metal, but that's ok.
That similarity bumped the knife onto my list over the objectionable fact that the blade is 420 stainless rather than my preferred 440. Am I a fledgling HJ? Nope. Sorry. The Third Reich did have some incredibly attractive militaria, however, and I'm particularly enamored with their weapons. My uncle Neil (on my mother's side) has a collection of historic bladed weapons, including a Luftwaffe dagger, fire department dress axe, and a few other broad bladed daggers I don't recall the place of. Very cool stuff.
I'd love to get into knifemaking some day. Add that to my woodworking, gunsmithing, A/V (much less these days, but it's still there), and an interest in all things mechanical... sigh. I'm gonna have to win that lotto after all and use it to buy myself another life to enjoy my hobbies.
