Too Valuable?
Like some of the others, I am of a mind that, if I bought it, I mean to use it.
I have one knife I've never used, would very likely never use, and it was specifically packaged as a collector's piece. It cost me maybe $100. I look at it some days, sitting there in its glass-topped display box, taking up desk space, and realize I really need to sell it or give it away. It holds no romantic or other emotional attachment and, while a pretty knife, it's not a practical knife. Why? It has a cut-out in the blade in the shape of the state of Idaho. It's an otherwise ordinary Buck 110/111, and I have something like a dozen of those. I like the 110 and use them, have one that does car duty, and carry one on my person in EDC rotation. Having a hundred-dollar display-only version of it does nothing for me.
On the other hand, I have a Lone Wolf Paul Presto folder that cost my wife $150 (father's day gift), and I carry it as routine. It's not a bad little knife. I removed the pocket clip (I mean, really, on a knife that small, a pocket clip?) and use it as I would any of my other pieces. It doesn't see as much use, for example, as a couple of my stockman patterns (Case John Deere medium in green bone, old Schrade Uncle Henry pawn shop rescue), simply because I find them more useful more often.
I have another knife set, a Finnish puukko/leuku pair that shares a scabbard, another father's day gift costing over $100 that is virtually unused. Why? Lack of opportunity. It's not a show piece, it's just waiting for that elusive camping trip that keeps getting away from us.
I recently did a quick pass through the various toolboxes and drawers where most of my knives live, and found nothing in there that I've exempted from use, only things I haven't yet had the chance to try out and test on the job.
I do have backups of certain knives. They're basically clones of something I use all the time. If nothing ever happens to the primary, the secondary is likely to become an heirloom.
Interestingly, the more I use my knives, and the more experience I get, and the better acquainted I become with the costs of using cheap cutlery and the advantages of using real quality pieces, the more inclined I become to take a pass on modestly priced "meh" pieces and save my shekels for something with better steel, better treatment, better materials, better fit & finish, and so on, as funding will permit.
I still hold that *any* knife is better than none, but I now appreciate that real quality is worth having and using, and worth the extra bucks.
Moreover, real quality is worth having and using even if it doesn't cost the extra bucks.
Now, I should probably make it clear that I'm *not* a collector. I started on a journey to discover what would work well for me in an outdoor setting (that elusive camping trip, remember?) and went on to find what works for me as EDC and in general use. And then Steve came along and reminded me that there was a whole class of knives I'd abandoned, and I had to re-acquaint myself with those . . . and I wound up with boxes of the darned things. It kinda morphed into an ancillary hobby.
Frankly, if I could afford something like a Sebenza, I'd carry it. No point in getting it otherwise.
