Has anyone downgraded their overall collection?

[toddnmd]

After spending years trying many knives and deciding on which are keepers, I sometimes contemplate going back to a more modest set (keeping only knives that were about $300 or less).
If I keep them sharp, they’d serve me well.
Has anyone ever downgraded like that? How did you feel about it afterwards?
Do others consider doing something like this?
I wonder if I go this route, I might later have a change of heart and restart building a nicer collection again a few months later.

 

[user 16756]

well, I tend to use my cheaper knives a bit more, but mainly because Ive taken a liking to polishing, and I tend not to want to grind my really expensive knives against rocks. also, Ive learned a ton about what makes a knife cut well, what makes it feel good, what profiles and handles I like, etc.

a nice, well balanced handle and a bit of meat to the blade is about all you need to get a great knife if you're willing to put in the work. if not, Id stick with priceier stuff.

 

[Nemo]

I haven't actually downsized but I have spent a lot of this year using my Shiro Kamo Ku Superblue (Shinko Selian). It's as cheap as chips. Very thin grind. Not super reactive. Takes a wicked edge and holds it a fair while. Only ever had one small chip (an unlucky lemon seed) and it definitely hasn't been babied. The spine and choil are even not very sharp.

It's not the perfect knife but it's perfectly good for everyday use.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

After spending years trying many knives and deciding on which are keepers, I sometimes contemplate going back to a more modest set (keeping only knives that were about $300 or less).
If I keep them sharp, they’d serve me well.
Has anyone ever downgraded like that? How did you feel about it afterwards?
Do others consider doing something like this?
I wonder if I go this route, I might later have a change of heart and restart building a nicer collection again a few months later.

I haven't yet with my kitchen knives as I am still in my exploratory and fun stage but I have with my pocket/sporting knives. I went through all my testing and trying for a number of years and then I started gifting them off. I don't have a lot left now.

I'll go through it with my kitchen knives too. But in this genre, there is so much more I truly enjoy that I'll keep buying just to enjoy new things but it will eventually be on a much slower schedule. I'm already zeroing in.

As I get older, I realize, collections can be quite interesting for others. Meaning, my daughters are not going to get all giddy about some vast collection of knives I own and I can't afford fancy enough knives to make them worth anything anyway. My guns and cookware, yeah they want those, the knives? Meh. In some ways it would just be a burden for them after I'm gone. And besides, if I have a knife I almost never use but think someone else can use it and enjoy it, I'd much rather experience that than some weird idea of legacy. Don't get me wrong, if I had someone whom I thought would really want a collection, then cool, I'll save the stuff. And I do save specific items I know they will appreciate. I'm just saying I'm honest with myself that appreciation.

That said, so long as I get enjoyment out of something, even if I only pull it out and use it occasionally then I have no issue keeping it.

 

[Sparten007]

Narrowing and trimming from over dozens of makers to only a handful due to shifting to a certain forging style and makers….

 

[ian]

After spending years trying many knives and deciding on which are keepers, I sometimes contemplate going back to a more modest set (keeping only knives that were about $300 or less).
If I keep them sharp, they’d serve me well.
Has anyone ever downgraded like that? How did you feel about it afterwards?
Do others consider doing something like this?
I wonder if I go this route, I might later have a change of heart and restart building a nicer collection again a few months later.

Yea. I think I’ll sell something soon and hang out with a $900 total collection for a while. I also have fantasies about culling further and just having one cheaper knife… Mostly I’ve been busy with other stuff recently and I’d rather start experimenting with making rather than using.

 

[parbaked]

I’d rather start experimenting with making rather than using.

I totally agree! It’s like In N Out burgers…why buy one when you can just make something better!!
PS…TF was right about you…

 

[Midsummer]

After spending years trying many knives and deciding on which are keepers, I sometimes contemplate going back to a more modest set (keeping only knives that were about $300 or less).
If I keep them sharp, they’d serve me well.
Has anyone ever downgraded like that? How did you feel about it afterwards?
Do others consider doing something like this?
I wonder if I go this route, I might later have a change of heart and restart building a nicer collection again a few months later.

I am considering it... I started this after you did. You sold me one of my first KKF knives, a Sabatier slicer with an olive wood handle.

I often think of letting go of some of my less used blades, mostly in hopes to let some noobie try a nice knife. I also think that a collection can become too much. That level differs, I am sure, from person to person; but eventually, I think everyone senses they have too much. In some cases, too much to the point of ridiculous.

I see myself using some special blades, not because they are the most expensive or the prettiest; but because they suit me the best. I would maintain them well. Some would be physically striking because some of my knives are. And some of the beautiful ones are also fantastic in use.

I used to think of what I had spent and the cost of the knives. I have gotten so much from this hobby; it is hard to put an amount of the positive enjoyment I have incurred.

Yea I think about it..

 

[refcast]

Kogetsu monosteel SK is very very good. Edge taking and thinness and cross sectional geometry that completely satisfactory. Symmetrical too, and tip is the thinnest I've seen in a stock knife -- thinner than Ashi ginga. Just a little handle gap where the knife distal taper starts. Another downside is that the steel isn't too hard . . . around ashi ginga at most. It feels maybe a little softer than that. If only they did wa handle

 

[Pointless1]

Haven’t downgraded but did downsize. Decided I’d rather have just a few that really crank my tractor than just a bunch.

 

[KnightKnightForever]

<- Will happily buy your knives

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

My apologies. I see now I missed the original point. I automatically converted downgraded to downsized.

Reading subsequent posts made it click for me.

In that regard, and now re-reading the original post, I'm not qualified to say as none of my knives are over $300.

 

[DitmasPork]

After spending years trying many knives and deciding on which are keepers, I sometimes contemplate going back to a more modest set (keeping only knives that were about $300 or less).
If I keep them sharp, they’d serve me well.
Has anyone ever downgraded like that? How did you feel about it afterwards?
Do others consider doing something like this?
I wonder if I go this route, I might later have a change of heart and restart building a nicer collection again a few months later.

Hmmm, interesting question. I've been buying J-knives for about a decade, along the way I don't think of purchases in terms of 'upgrading' or 'downgrading'—which is a very linear approach—but simply view it as 'building' my collection. My collection is rather eclectic—I'll buy what my current fancy is—off-the-shelf, custom, Japanese, Swedish, etc.—not caring if the costs $150 or $900; doesn't matter if it's w2, b1, 52100 or R2. I don't just chase performance, or bling, or certain makers—I just gravitate towards knives I respond to. Got all the high-performance knives my kitchen requires—I continue to buy knives because I love the craft, aesthetics, authorship, history of handmade kitchen knives. Acquiring a $200 doesn't downgrade my collection, it merely expands it, giving range.

 

[GorillaGrunt]

Not in so many words; but I don’t have as many expensive gyuto at one time as I used to. I had to try them all to learn about knives and learn what I like but as a tool kit, a lot of them are equally good and hence in my mind became redundant. Then I did the same thing with sujihiki. I have as many knives total as I ever did but many of them now are more specialized, especially for butchering and as opposed to having 20 gyuto, 20 suji, and a petty.

 

[chefwp]

I'm not quite there, but I am more content with what I have than since I began this journey. I have a what I think is a modest number (wife certainly disagrees) of a variety of knives that I really like. While some don't see daily use, a even smaller set don't see weekly use, I do use them all.

 

[nakiriknaifuwaifu]

bad knives aren't worth keeping
still miss every one I've sold though

 

[Chang]

Ive actually upgraded my collection as of late...so I shouldn't be talking, but I have been finding joy in buying random "budget" knives and finding out just how incredible they are for the price, like my newfound love for Takamura Hamono.

 

[Chicagohawkie]

I for sure have, I’m going to get down to 2 collector knives. Keeping the Kono ashi and the Kato 240 dammy. Have about 2 dozen users that I’ve accumulated over the years that will last me a life time. Not sure I’m done yet, but it’s been a great run!

 

[nakiriknaifuwaifu]

I for sure have, I’m going to get down to 2 collector knives. Keeping the Kono ashi and the Kato 240 dammy. Have about 2 dozen users that I’ve accumulated over the years that will last me a life time. Not sure I’m done yet, but it’s been a great run!

haha, still waiting for my invite to try all those unicorns you've got stashed away!!!!

 

[spaceconvoy]

I don't think of my knives as a 'collection,' more like the 5 on my knife rack that I actually use, and a box in the closet filled with:

- knives I'll eventually sell when I get around to it, maybe next year (I say this every year)
- knives I want to keep a little longer in case my tastes change again

It's like Schrodinger's box because I don't know which category any particular knife belongs in until I look at it.

 

[Brian Weekley]

My collection had grown to what I thought was a bit of an unmanageable state where I was becoming reluctant to make new additions. I had a policy of not selling my knives so I realized a new plan was in order. So the plan I hatched was to sell fifty knives and replace them with one … or two or three knives of consequential importance to me. I sold off the first twenty five knives … all A+ examples from known makers. I’ve spent the past few months culling my remaining knives to select another twenty five which will start hitting BST soon. I bought one of the A+ knives back and am constantly pestering the purchaser to sell me two of the others that I regret selling. I’ve also added six others. So there I am, at this point down twenty five and up seven. More to go soon. The logic behind my reduction … that’s a carefully guarded secret that I barely remember myself! But the important part is that I no longer feel guilty about buying new knives.

 

[PappaG]

Good question. Lately every few months I put up my nicer knives for sale, have silly regret as soon as I put the post up, and then get happy when it doesn’t sell or withdraw it after a week or two. Pretty silly but I’ve done it at least twice now if not three times In the past few months.

 

[esoo]

I have generally lived with a 1 in/1 out policy. And everything has to be on the knife rack with only exception being my suji which doesn't fit under the cabinets on the rack.

The only exception to that rule currently is 2 Kono MM as they are mostly non replaceable.

Living with the limited space has forced me to truly evaluate knives and decide on my preferences. Now for me to buy a knife, it has to have the potential to bump something out of position

I have a custom shipping shortly so I'm in for a challenge to see what stays or goes.

 

[toddnmd]

Yes, I used “downgrade” in the post purely defined by cost. The contemplation of changing to less expensive knives is an acknowledgement that some lower cost knives perform very highly and could be all I need. Even if I became willing to part with some knives I really love, I just wouldn’t want to restart the whole quest again.
Or maybe I do and this whole notion would give me a path to doing that.
I appreciate all the responses.

 

[timebard]

I have a few knives over that mark that I don't plan on selling short of financial emergency, but I've definitely thought about trimming down to a very small collection, maybe as few as five nice knives plus beaters. But I'm still in the phase of working through a list of interesting makers to try and have a ways to go.

 

[M1k3]

Yea. I think I’ll sell something soon and hang out with a $900 total collection for a while. I also have fantasies about culling further and just having one cheaper knife… Mostly I’ve been busy with other stuff recently and I’d rather start experimenting with making rather than using.

Sometimes is kind of fun to use a $15 knife for everything without a care in the world. Except for safety. Cuts on fingers suck.

 

[gcsquared]

I have some expensive knives ($1000+), and some mid-priced knives ($300-600) [mid-priced to the KKF nuts at least!]. I have to say:

1. Having a range of price points is fun, no less because high-priced knives give me a certain kind of satisfaction but the lower-priced knives give me a certain kind of comfort. Kinda like wearing a suit vs. dressing down in athletic wear.

2. I think once a knife is in your rotation for long enough, and you’ve sharpened / fine-tuned it over time to fit your cutting style, they all kinda gradually merge towards similar level of performance, at least when the knives are fresh off the stone (heat treat / retention can never be altered of course)

 

[WildBoar]

I think there is an easy way around this. Todd, I'll buy all of your expensive knives for $200/ each. And then I will sell them right back to you for $200/ each. Then no more guilt in the future -- none of your knives will have cost you more than $200.