Age and change of taste?

cbl51 · **on:** February 03, 2013, 09:14:39 PM

Have any of you, as you got older, had a big change of taste as to what kind of knives you like and carry? Like going from large husky knives to more pocket friendly modest sizes?

I find myself accumulating more knives like small slip joints and SAK's than I ever did before in my life. It seems now, that if it's over 3 1/2 inch closed, I find it too big. And I like simpler knives, like slip joints insead of locking blades. I've been into Opinels for like 30 years, and I used to take number 12's and reshape the handle so it looked more like a Spanish Navaja. The number 9 and 10 used to be a regular carry knife. Now I find most I carry is a number 7, with a number 8 as a winter coat pocket knife. My taste in SAK's has went down from huntsman size to recruit and bantam's.

The funny thing is, I'm retired now, and have more time for fishing and camping and wandering around the woods with my better half than ever before. With all this leisure time on my hands I would have thought the opposite would have been happening. Weird huh?

Zed · **Reply #1 on:** February 03, 2013, 09:18:08 PM

I'm enjoying it all now mainly using mt's at work and the champ on a daily basis,going on this government the retirement age will be 80 by my time

Dunc · **Reply #2 on:** February 04, 2013, 08:32:11 AM

Yeh I have found my non work edc has got smaller , I don't carry my large Sebenza or full size Swisstools so much now , it's more spirit or mp400 and a Sak or Buck 55 or Gerber SLT 2.5

nelly1974 · **Reply #3 on:** February 04, 2013, 02:06:13 PM

Yup it has for me ae well. I still carry a locking blade but have added a slipjoint to that. And my multi tool I s almost always a juice rather than a swisstool or supertool.

AimlessWanderer · **Reply #4 on:** February 04, 2013, 02:58:27 PM

Yes, there's been changes over time - but less than I thought there might have been

I've always liked puuko style fixed blades ... no change there, but I do have some other blade styles which I also like (from the handmade Scorpion Warthog to Cold Steel cheapos)
I've always been sceptical of the hype surrounding Leatherman ... no change there at all, and whilst I still own and use LM's, 75% of the time (at least) I'll be carrying something else. I still hate the Juice line manufacturing standards
I used to think Gerber was a bad choice ... I fell in love with the MP700, plus they have improved their game on recent models (Octane, Dime, Balance) and I fell in love with my modded MP400. Still don't like the old Pinchy's though
I used to think SAK's were cheap gadgets and not to be taken seriously .... BIG change there but I also use and carry non-Swiss "multifunction knives" too (Sheffield made, Solingen made, and WR Case)
I used to carry the occasional locking knife, but now it's very rare I'll do that (excluding multitools) as there are a few very good non-locking options now (such as Byrd Tern)
I used to like stockman style knives, but aside from a choice few, I prefer slippies with ONE blade (Exceptions being a few Barlows, a Seahorse Whittler and a Doctors Knife) or a SAK
I now take cheapo tools a little more seriously, and will judge them on their own merits rather than writing them off as junk without seeing them
I hated the X-Tract (original), but really like the Essential and Fin variants (even though they are liner locks)

Beyond that it's mainly awareness of what I need and what works for me. I need scissors, and I prefer a corkscrew SAK over backsprung phillips etc.

jerseydevil · **Reply #5 on:** February 04, 2013, 05:50:21 PM

Perhaps not quite a big age difference here,

but my tastes have certainly changed. I used to go with the biggest, coolest looking "tactical" folder I could get away with. Nowadays, though a locking folder is still part of my mix, it's not nearly as large and agressive. I've been carrying traditional patterns a lot more, and finding that that's plenty of knife for what I need for the most part.

For example, today I have my Kershaw Needs Work on me because I have several pallets coming in today that need to be unpacked and put away. However so far today, all of the cutting I've done has been by my Case tiny toothpick. If I end up going out tonight, my Case small Texas Jack, a Barlow, or the toothpick will be in my pocket and I'll be just fine.

sawman · **Reply #6 on:** February 04, 2013, 05:54:04 PM

I find myself preferring the smaller and lighter carry these days but that is mostly so my pants will hold themselves up

Heinz Doofenshmirtz · **Reply #7 on:** February 04, 2013, 07:22:07 PM

I'm a lot like what Tom described... when I was younger I was all into the biggest and most complex things I could find, no matter what they were. In college I had the biggest, baddest, HP graphing calculator money could buy, even though I really only used about 10% of its capabilities. On my bike, I always had to have the coolest and most intricate hand made componentry. My backpack had to be the coolest mountaineering/backpacking day pack I could find. And so on...

Now, I'm all about utility, and form and function mean a lot more to me that having a 'single tool', or one that can do a whole bunch of different stuff. I'd rather have a few, good tools that are well designed and do their jobs better, than carrying a bunch stuff that usually doesn't work as well. I also don't feel compelled to carry a full size version of whatever it might be anymore. A pocket or even keychain sized tool paired with a single cell torch meets 95% of my needs anymore, so that's what I usually tend to carry most of the time.