There’s a lot interesting I can say regarding the knife industry. Upcoming releases, new designs, twists on old ones, shows, podcasts, events, you name it. But I think what makes the industry so compelling is the community behind it. It seems like everyone with some interest to collecting or even simply owning a knife has a story tied to it, a fact I was reminded of only a few days ago.
Though they’re few and far between on shipments, every once in a while, you can come across a matter of a missing package. And that very matter happened recently. Attempting to resolve the issue, a worker for the freight transportation company called me in an attempt to gain specifics on the package and its contents. When I told her it was a pocket knife, there was a clear pause, before she asked “What brand?”
When I told her Case, she couldn’t help but laugh.
As it turned out, her father had collected Case for well over forty years and had left her with dozens of boxes of that very brand something she said she valued the most in her life, next to her kids.
With that chance encounter, I was reminded just why some people collect. There’s a lot to be said about finding what’s appealing to you on a aesthetic or practical level, but what makes knife collecting so intriguing is the shared ties that seem to bind generations together.