Sometimes just having a knife in your pocket will get you in trouble

….when you aren’t supposed to and then are dumb enough to brag about it.

Yeah, we all do dumb things sometimes, but even when we don’t- we have to be careful nowadays.

Yesterday, a student made mention to someone he had a pocket knife, and he was overheard. This guy obviously, I’m guessing, wasn’t supposed to have his EDC.

Now he is having the book thrown at him- he was arrested on multiple counts and may end up getting kicked out of school, permanently. I’m not for breaking rules and there are consequences to our actions, BUT, or is it, AND we all make mistakes- even dumb ones sometimes.

The Director of the school declared to the Lynn Daily Item, “I am zero-tolerance. If you want to have something like that in here you are going to be out the door.”

The worse part, as I read it, is the student had it in his pocket, but then he made a second mistake by telling somebody, third- dumb thing- he said it loud enough he was overhead.

More bad press about knives

Hold on to your hats knife fans. It is only a matter of time before even stricter knife laws come our way.

Here’s the headlines of an article in today’s New York Times: KNIFE KILLINGS IN CITY INCREASED 50% IN 2008.

The bottom line is this quote from Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department-

“We may have made it harder for killers to get their hands on guns,” said Mr. Browne. “Knives are still easily and legally acquired.”

2009 Knife Collector Survey Results- Question #1

Cutlery News Journal conducted an extensive survey over a two and a half month period earlier this year. The findings will be published soon. There are some surprises too.

1308 collectors took the Cutlery News Journal’s 2009 Knife Collector Survey. It was conducted from January 15th to March 31st, 2009. It comprised of 10 multiple choice questions.

Today, I am presenting the answers to the first question in the survey. It simply asked the participant to indicate the age group he or she represented (click on the chart to enlarge. Each time you click the chart will zoom in).

If chart fails to load, click image to display.

2009 Knife Collector Survey

The survey was heavily promoted through the major knife forums, Blademag.com, Yahoo Knife Groups, Cutlery News Journal, ElephantToenails.com, the National Knife Collectors Association, YouTube and various knife company communities, as well as the NKCA Knife Show in Dalton, Georgia March 13- 15th 2009.

The finding show that of the 1307 participants who answered this question- 43% are 25 and under. 33% represent the 20 and under age group, with an additional 10% from the 21- 25 age group.

I will refrain from adding editorial comments at this time. Instead, I will publish the survey results in an official report.

I’ll only add  that most folks would have guessed the 46 to 60 age group to have made up the largest age segment, when in fact those ages only represent 23.5% of the collectors.

There are many conclusions that can be drawn here, and a bunch of questions. From a knife collecting organization’s perspective, one question begs asked: “What are we doing to reach out and engage this active younger collector?”

Wall Street investor put his money in collectibles

Talk about getting out of the market, Antique Week reports in the April 13th edition, on an investor who got out in time. Then he turned around and jumped into collectibles as his investment of choice.

Ralph DeLuca said, “I didn’t like what I was seeing.”

So, he cashed in well before it was common knowledge things were out of kilter. He added that he wanted to deal in more tangible items.

1933 King Kong Poster- sold for $345,000

Now to knife collectors what he jumped into might be considered an odd place to stash millions. Yet he had a hunch and followed it. He could have ended up in any area of collectibles, but he chose vintage posters. Yeap, posters.

Last month, he paid a new world record for an original 1931 Universal studio poster of Dracula, staring Bela Lugosi. The price? A cool $310,000. And at the same auction he paid $107,000 for a 1932 poster.

Mr. DeLuca now owns over a 1,000 entertainment posters, but he also buys other types too. He remains confident that all quality antiques, sporting items, firearms and collectibles are good investments.

“If you collect for a hobby, buy what you want. But if you collect for an investment, look for the best. I look for the rarest and the best.”                                                                                                                                                                         David DeLuca

I don’t know if we want somebody like this guy cornering the knife collector market or not? All it would take is one or two guys like this to change our market dramatically. It would be fascinating to watch though, wouldn’t it?

$9 Trillion Pulled From Stock Market

Don’t let the talk of the recession put a cloud over our head regarding the future of knife collecting or declining knife values.

Consider this- E*Trade reports at the end of 2008, cash in money markets and bank accounts reached right at $9 Trillion. You read that right, that’s TRILLION with a “T.”

Just think of all those investors who are now looking for another place to park some of those dollars. Plus, though I am not an economist- just a knife collector, we know we will have tremendous inflationary pressure as we begin to come out of this slump, knives can be a tremendous hedge against inflation.

On a related note- The results of the 2009 Knife Community Survey confirm, close to 50% of knife collectors are new collectors- close to 30% have only collected less than 2 years. I’m preparing the report on the survey now, but you will also be surprised to learn, close to 50% of the collectors are under 25 years old. These two stats provide a very healthy future for our wonderful hobby and it flies in the face of the belief that the vast majority of collectors are 50+ years old- that simply isn’t true.

Our hobby is very alive and well, I’m glad to report. Now all we need to do is tap a few hundredths of a point of the $9 Trillion and funnel it our way.

iKnifeCollector Grand Opening Announcement

Grand Opening Announcement of iKnifeCollector- The Next Generation Knife Collector Community.

Change and Knife Collecting

Yesterday’s post about Robert Simpson’s reflections of his boyhood and the role pocket knives played, caused me to do a little thinking.

Then I ran on this statement by Harry L. Rinker. He is one of the most respected names in the field of collectibles.

“Nostalgia continues to play a major role in what people (collectors) buy.”

Nostalgia= a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past.

Many collectors can relate to the affection for the past, but boy is it in stark contrast to our modern computer driven society of today.

I’ll step out and forecast- old knives are going to continue to grow in popularity- even among new collectors- as we all wistfully long for something to help slow time down. Time brings change. Change is not always comfortable. Old knives pause time for us, but just for a moment.

I can’t help but think about iKnifeCollector in this context too. It’s the future of knife collecting on the web. Many are embracing it already. Some are going to decide it’s too different because it is too much change.

You will notice too, the universe of knife collecting is as broad as it is wide. As collectors start moving into the iKnifeCollector community, it is interesting to see how diversified collector interest is.  This is different too. Most knife places are like living on a single street. You either fit in or you didn’t. That’s not the case with iKnifeCollector at all.

The mainstream collectors and the younger crowd are both moving in- this is different too, but very healthy. Go look around and meet the collectors. I can’t wait to see the community in a year from now.

The knife collecting past and the future are now. Want to see this phenomenon? Then check out iKnifeCollector.

Carrying a pocket knife- the way things used to be

Kids today carry cell phones, not pocket knives. Unfortunately, most parents today would freak out if their son or daughter pulled a knife out from their pocket.

Clearly that’s not the way it used to be. In fact, we reported in Times have changed and lifestyles have too here at CNJ, pocket knife carrying was almost a rite of passage from the 1800s to at least the middle 1900s anyway.

Want to hear what it was like to be a boy carrying a knife back years ago, then listen to Robert Simpson share with us what it was like when he was a boy. It is entitled- Nostalgia- the fine art of selective memory.

Grand Opening of iKnifeCollector Coming Soon

Weekend Edition

iKnifeCollector is almost ready for an official Grand Opening. But I wanted to invite all subscribers of Cutlery News Journal to come on over for a special preview.

Here’s the deal though. It is not a flashy type site. Instead it is a community. I’ve developed the subdivision but it doesn’t become a community without you building your own home and then moving it.

The Next Generation Knife Collector Community

I want to join a knife community. I’ve looked at a bunch. Searched the web- deep and wide- and it ain’t there. Not like what I’m looking for.

What I am looking for is a combination- 24/7 Knife Show, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, FaceBook, Yahoo Group, Cutlery News Journal and knife forum- all rolled into one, all exclusively for knife collectors.