Our club is still working on the 2008 club knife.  We just can’t seem to get zeroed in on a pattern or a maker.  Hydrick Stewart will contact Canal Street about a 2-blade Congress and a 3-blade Cannitler pattern.  He’ll also try to persuade one of our local knife-makers to give us a price for a pearl folder.  We really need to get this decision made so we can guarantee that we’ll have the knives in this calendar year.  Please contact Hydrick if you have anything to suggest.  We hope to be able to make a firm decision at the July meeting so we can get our order in the works.

Upcoming Show Dates

Ten Steps To Cure

By David Nelson – North Star Blade Collectors

Let’s face it, you’re addicted.  If you don’t pick up at least one knife fix every week or two you can get a little testy.  You say that you really enjoy collecting knives and it’s not even a problem in your life, but these addictions seldom get better on their own and usually get worse.  You may even have made a New Year’s resolution to cut back.  Frankly, I don’t think it will work unless you quit cold turkey.  I’ve come up with a few steps to help you overcome the problem.  I know that I said ten in the title but since I haven’t written this yet and haven’t given it much thought, I don’t know how many there will be.

Step One – Stay away from all of your best friends.  Most of them are probably collectors and will just drag you back down with them.  They may not have even realized they have a problem.  They may be just social collectors and haven’t even actually counted how many knives they own, or they could be like me, too busy collecting to have time to count.  It’s difficult enough keeping track of what I have so I don’t keep getting doubles, much less how many knives I have in my collection.  Besides if I actually knew how many knives I own, I might accidentally let that number slip in front of my wife.  She doesn’t understand why anyone would possible have a need for a hundred knives.  (A milestone I’ve crossed a few times in the past years.)  How many times would give her a little more ammunition than she needs for why we should spend money replacing the living room rug or sofa or something like that we both know we can live without.

Anyway your friends will just drag you off to a show or club meeting and then you are right back in business.  Yep, stay away from your friends.

Step Two – Stay away from gun and knife shows and club meetings.  If you’re really trying to quit, you don’t need to be reminded of how much fun the club meetings are, and you certainly don’t need to feel the rush of excitement you get from pulling up to a gun and knife show.  Absolutely stay away from Janesville in March.  Two hundred tables of knives is akin to the town drunk guarding the booze cabinet.  It’s just not right with all the problems in this world to have that much fun when children in other countries go to bed at night without even one knife.

Step Three – Avoid flea markets, auctions, rummage sales and antique shops.  You just know you are going to find a knife that should be selling for hundreds and since you have done your homework and know it’s true value, and the seller or other bidders don’t have a clue, you’re going to pick it up for peanuts.  Last winter at two auctions back to back, I picked up a 1910 era Ka-Bar camper with the gas lantern adjusting wrench and a four inch Cattaraugus jack, each for around twenty collars.  Deals like that only encourage you to keep collecting.  If you are really trying to quit, stay away from temptations that places like this throw at you.

Step Four – Throw out your computer.  You came dragging home from a rough day at work, click on line to check your e-mail and hardly without thinking you’re slipped over to EBay and are bidding up some L.L. Bean loc-back made by Ka-Bar back in the Thirties.  It’s been sitting there for a week with a thirty-two dollar bid and now has one hour left.  You know it’s worth much more than that.  You put a max bid of forty-two dollars and actually have the bid now for thirty-three dollars.  Then you sign off for supper.  After lunch I go to see how I did but my wife is on the computer and is playing some dumb game.  I’ll wait and see how I did when she’s asleep.

Step Five – Cancel Knife World magazine.  You don’t really think you can quit collecting knives when that magazine comes every month to remind you how really magnificent those late 1800s and early 1900s knives actually were.  You don’t need to see all those beautiful custom knives that are being made in record numbers all over the world today.  You don’t need to be reminded of all the national shows and club meetings all over the country.  Just knowing how knife collecting has grown into such a popular pastime is going to make it hard for you to quit.  You’ll know how much you are missing out on and you’re quitting, remember?

Step Six – Take it one step at a time and don’t expect to quit cold turkey.  OK, I know I said it wouldn’t work if you didn’t quit cold turkey, but hey, it’s probably not going to work anyway so let’s just try to take it one step at a time and see if that works.  My wife is still on the computer so I can’t quit now anyway until I see if I got the L.L. Bean or not.  See how easy this one step at a time thing works?  If you share the computer with a spouse, you have already cut back a little waiting for her to get done playing her computer game.  I wish she would get off that computer.

Step Seven – Holy cow, we’re at step seven already?  I really didn’t think there were this many.  Maybe there really are ten steps to quitting knife collecting.  Step seven is, don’t start fiddling with your collection.  You will just end up reminiscing on the story behind how you found each knife and maybe realize why you started collecting knives in the first place.  You may even have your dad’s knife or your grandpa’s knife or some other knife in your collection with sentimental value.  There could have been any of a hundred different reasons you started collecting and many more things that encouraged you on your journey to the knife collecting addict you turned into.  It’s not going to help you stop or even cut back to spend an afternoon reminiscing, or perhaps doing a little cleaning and oiling, or maybe just fondling and admiring some of the neat old knives you have found over the years.  While you are looking over your collection, you may have even notices that you don’t have an old L.L. Bean lockback hunter in your whole collection and your wife is still on the computer.  If you are trying to stop collecting, fooling with your collection certainly isn’t going to help.

Step Eight – O.K. I just chased my wife off the computer and I didn’t get the knife.  Somebody out bid my forty two dollars and got it for forty three dollars.  Let’s see, what was I writing about again?  On yeah, the ten steps on quitting collecting.  See how well this is working so far?  I didn’t add the L.L. Bean to my collection.  While I was on the computer I finished the game my wife was playing.  Step eight must be to replace the knife collecting hobby with something else like playing that dumb game my wife was playing or writing some dumb newsletter article instead of being on line trying to win a knife that should have gone for more than forth three dollars.  On by the way, trying to quit or cut back on an addiction can cause you to become irritable so beware of that.

Step Nine – Don’t under any conditions obsess over some dumb knife you didn’t win on Ebay even it should have sold for more than forty three dollars and you weren’t on line to bid because you are cutting back, remember?  I hate when I say I’m cutting back and it actually happens.

Step Ten – If you haven’t figured out by now that quitting knife collecting, even if you are hopelessly addicted, is a stupid idea and that ten steps aren’t going to help you anyway.  Collectors are born addicted so you might as well get out your calendar and write in the date of the next local club meeting, book motel reservations for the show, and make sure your Knife World subscription isn’t running out.  At lease people will think you are collecting on purpose as opposed to collecting because you are hopelessly addicted.

P.S.  Wanted L.L. Bean lockback hunter.  Make sure you call when my wife isn’t home.

Parker Knife Show

Parker’s Greatest Show on Earth on June 12-14 was pretty good!  I certainly enjoyed it.  I bought a couple of English fruit knives, two knives from Great Eastern Cutlery, and a couple of Bulldog knives.  I tried like crazy to get a custom switchblade from Bobby M. Neal but just couldn’t convince myself to buy it since I could not, could not get the darn thing to open.  Mr. Neal could just flip that blade out with no problem but I had dents in my fingers and it still wouldn’t work for me.  I told him I’d be looking for him at the next show because I really enjoyed talking to him and his wife.  They’re an interesting couple who have farmed for a living at one time, made cabinets, and  then sold donuts for several years.  He’s a very creative knife-maker and his wife crochets and makes beautiful tablecloths.

 It was enjoyable to see people I hadn’t seen in a long time and to keep remembering ones that I didn’t see.   And John Rickard and I kinda missed the orange curtains hanging from the ceiling and the night-club lighting…………………just kidding!

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OUCH!: The husband and wife were enjoying dinner out when the husband made a remark about the couple across the room. "I hope we don't look that bad when we get old." His wife glanced in the direction of the other couple and shook her head. "Sweetheart, put your glasses on," she said. "You're looking at a mirror."