Why don't most humans care about knives?

[Blerv]

I think it's a two-fold (or maybe more) issue. Here are the ones I believe.

The first is the more sophisticated society becomes the less reliant we are on these tools occupationally and for survival. Some of this is merely coaxing college youth away from fields of study which are still very much needed: Blue collar trades. Something Mike Rowe has some excellent talks on.

The second is a movement towards seeing tools as weapons and the world as inherently dangerous. That's mostly the media coverage bending towards sensationalism. It's another system that's sacrificing long-term health (paranoia) for short term gain (ratings).

Even at the apex of civilization old fashioned tools are interesting to us mainly because the gap between eras. Look at the popularity of fantasy works like Game of Thrones and LoTR. Those times were awful but in many ways more simple and on some level our primitive minds crave it :p. IMHO, MMV, etc.

[Spydersense]

Now why is it that some people will spend 100 bucks on a night out and think that's acceptable but tell them that they'll probably want to spend about 100 bucks for a good knife that'll last for years and they flip out.

Same reason why people will spend $3,000 on a gun and not want to spend $50 on a knife..

Or Spend $60,000 on a Car, but won't spend $100 on a knife...

Or get all the newest gadgets, phones etc, but $80 is too much for a knife...

They eat out 3 times a day, 6 days a week, but that $50 is just to much for a knife...

Spend $200 on a pair of sneakers.... But wouldn't spend near that on a knife...

Spend $5,000 to $20,000 on a watch, but $200 is just outrageous to spend on a knife...

Spend $80 a week at the beauty salon, but $40 is just too much for a knife...

Spend $8 for a cup of coffee everyday on the way to work, but heaven forbid $60 on a knife.... OMG.....

Just take that $8 cup of coffee that people buy everyday because they are too lazy to make their own for pennies....

$8 x 5 days = $40

$40 x 52 weeks = $2080...

That's 4 Sebenzas....

Or 13 Militaries....

Or 20 Native 5's...

Or 34 Delicas...

That $8 cup of coffee just got real expensive.....


I use the same logic when people say X knife is too expensive..... I find one thing that they throw money away on everyday, add it up and show it to them.....

:eek: Where the heck are you seeing $8 coffee? The most expensive thing at Starbucks is just over $5 around here.

Oh, and just so I don't stray from the topic; I went without carrying a knife for many years. Once I started carrying one, I don't know how I got by without one. :)

[Ankerson]

Now why is it that some people will spend 100 bucks on a night out and think that's acceptable but tell them that they'll probably want to spend about 100 bucks for a good knife that'll last for years and they flip out.

Same reason why people will spend $3,000 on a gun and not want to spend $50 on a knife..

Or Spend $60,000 on a Car, but won't spend $100 on a knife...

Or get all the newest gadgets, phones etc, but $80 is too much for a knife...

They eat out 3 times a day, 6 days a week, but that $50 is just to much for a knife...

Spend $200 on a pair of sneakers.... But wouldn't spend near that on a knife...

Spend $5,000 to $20,000 on a watch, but $200 is just outrageous to spend on a knife...

Spend $80 a week at the beauty salon, but $40 is just too much for a knife...

Spend $8 for a cup of coffee everyday on the way to work, but heaven forbid $60 on a knife.... OMG.....

Just take that $8 cup of coffee that people buy everyday because they are too lazy to make their own for pennies....

$8 x 5 days = $40

$40 x 52 weeks = $2080...

That's 4 Sebenzas....

Or 13 Militaries....

Or 20 Native 5's...

Or 34 Delicas...

That $8 cup of coffee just got real expensive.....


I use the same logic when people say X knife is too expensive..... I find one thing that they throw money away on everyday, add it up and show it to them.....

:eek: Where the heck are you seeing $8 coffee? The most expensive thing at Starbucks is just over $5 around here.

Oh, and just so I don't stray from the topic; I went without carrying a knife for many years. Once I started carrying one, I don't know how I got by without one. :)

You can spend $7 or $8 easy around here in Raleigh at SB.... EASY....

But Mc Donalds is still a little over a buck. :)

[gbelleh]

Yeah, $8 seems a little excessive, even at Starbucks. I would imagine anyone choosing to spend $8 every day on morning coffee would have reasons other than cost for not buying expensive cutlery.

[tvenuto]

I think Blerv makes two very valid points, but I have a third.

There is caring about a knife and then there is being a knife aficionado. I care about my car. I maintain it, and I want it to turn on every time I go to use it. I fully understand how the engine, and all of its mechanical parts, work. However, I don't go on the internet and muse about what its power curve might be if its camshaft had this lift or that duration. Those people are car aficionados.

Almost everyone in the US owns a couch, but few actually care about interior design or read/post blogs on it. Those people are interior design aficionados.

Everyone here likes discussing and thinking about knives more than is practically necessary; we are knife aficionados. Many tradespeople care about knives like I care about my car. They can sharpen when necessary, and they want it to cut, but it's no different than any other tool in their belt.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I think Blerv makes two very valid points, but I have a third.

There is caring about a knife and then there is being a knife aficionado. I care about my car. I maintain it, and I want it to turn on every time I go to use it. I fully understand how the engine, and all of its mechanical parts, work. However, I don't go on the internet and muse about what its power curve might be if its camshaft had this lift or that duration. Those people are car aficionados.

Almost everyone in the US owns a couch, but few actually care about interior design or read/post blogs on it. Those people are interior design aficionados.

Everyone here likes discussing and thinking about knives more than is practically necessary; we are knife aficionados. Many tradespeople care about knives like I care about my car. They can sharpen when necessary, and they want it to cut, but it's no different than any other tool in their belt.

That's a very good point. There was a workman who wore a Spyderco Stainless Steel handled Clipit, one of the original Police clipits, as his edc knife, and told me he "doesn't know much about steel or even care much about the tech stuff behind it" but from his personal experience, is the best folding working knife he's ever used, and wouldn't trade it for any other knife on the market. So there we have someone who knows good tools for himself, and has experienced the quality of a Spyderco knife, and yet, unlike say, myself, or many here, isn't so interested in the technical stuff, like the steels and handle materials and all that. I respect his understanding of the quality of these knives made by Spyderco.

[Screwdriver]

I can be a bit of a foodie and on occasion I go out to eat at some fairly expensive restaurants. One thing I have never understood is how people can spend large sums of money on a fancy meal and don't even seem to notice that they have been given a crappy knife and sometimes just a butter knife to eat with. I recently went out to dinner at a restaurant where my meal alone was $75 and I was given a butter knife to eat it with. It seems especially strange since I assume that the chefs that work at these restaurants care about their knives yet they hand out some garbage cutlery. I mentioned it to the people I was dining with that we were spending quite a bit of money and that we weren't given decent knives and they all agreed and told me that it was a really good point and that they had never even thought of that before. I am not asking for an expensive or fancy knife at a nice restaurant because I am sure people would steal some of them and even nice restaurants often feed all of there dishes through a dishwasher but a decent steak knife seems reasonable. People are very oblivious when it comes to knives. In most cases most people are happy as long as they can make it work and have no idea what performance or purpose built knives even are. Same applies to most peoples kitchen knives. That cheap knife block from Walmart gets the job done and that is all most people care about.

Food is not cardboard or hemp rope......