If Dan made the knife I describe in this thread my "ideal minimum user knife collection would be":

Swamp Warden = EDC pocket carry
Architect's Campivore = small field knife (companion to something larger)
S5LE = can only have one with me today in the field, and the ASH-1 is too big
ASH-1 = general go to camping & survival
NMSFNO = bug-out (companion to Architect's Campivore)
NMFSH = get to da choppa (companion to Architect's Campivore and/or S5LE)

I guess I've found I like to have knives in size ranges:

Under 3"
Around 5"
Around 7"
Around 8"
Around 10"

Its great to live in America.

Pants?!?

We don't need no stink'n, PANTS!

Sorry Tom, couldn't resist.

I guess it was understood that the six knives wouldn't be carried at one time. I'd look like Lazi's avatar.

Amen to your last line!!!

Its hard to narrow down the list. I've been trying to scale back my gun and knife collection, and have to convince myself to part with some of the items I've been sending to new homes.

In the end, I simply cannot afford to keep everything.

There are some items I should keep, but simply can't afford to do so if I want something else. The cost of INFI puts pressure on every other aspect of my hobby. Heck, I spent $1400 this month on three knives. That's A LOT of money for a one-income household.

Take my Scrapper 5 issue. I love the design, but have one CG and two LE's. In the end, its a smarter move to keep the INFI and sell the SR101. I wish I could keep all three, but I can't justify having three of the same knives in my collection and one of the INFI's is a user while the other is a safe queen. The CG is "new" so I don't want to use it.

I went through the same thing with my FIVE SOD's. In the end, I had to keep a safe queen and let the rest go (or I wouldn't have been able to add a safe queen NMSFNO to my collection).

Recently I bought another SJTAC so I'm parting ways with one of my last two DF's to pay for it.

I use to hate the lack of releases, but now I'm hating the number of them. Its hard to keep up while trying to "fill in" the older stuff (at secondary market prices).

At one point I sat down and added up the "secondary market value" of my collection, and was astounded to see what it was "worth". Since all of my knives were either bought new and sold at roughly the release price or bought secondary at secondary prices and sold at the same price (or often less than I paid) I figured I'm at a net loss. It is hard to build a collection that way!

I waffle between being a "user only" and "user collector". The former would be far more cost effective, but the latter offers the pride of owning these beautiful pristine blades. I'll probably always be a "user collector" but want to shift the balance toward user.

The Basic 4 LE Anorexic might suit your needs perfectly with a handle mod. It will be light enough to neck carry and has a similar blade shape vs. the Yard Keeper.

I had the Basic 4 LE Magnum until recently, only difference is the thickness (.22" vs .155"). I found that the Magnum was too heavy to neck carry comfortably and the handle thickness caused it to print when concealed under a t-shirt.

The Anorexic will weigh much less and you can easily shape the handle to your liking. There looks to be plenty of room to remove material in the War Dog handle, so you could actually take off quite a bit when you get to the pommel end half of the handle.

I understand your dilemma! VoxHog has the right idea; set a certain figure in your mind of how much money to keep in knives, then sell the rest. Upgrade when another one comes along that you just must have, and sell one.

Gary, I actually like the S5 Better than the Wardog. BUT the Wardog got the nod cause it's infi which equals easier to sharpen and not as rust prone (personally I don't worry about rust).

SO I guess I COULD narrow down my MUST have steel as

Bulldog
S5
Muppy

But I would like the option of having a "Couple" others as well.

Farewell,
The Basic 4LE Anorexic might be the answer! The blade thickness, grind and profile look almost exactly with what I had envisioned for this knife.

I wonder what the tang profile is under the WD grip? Has anyone removed their grip? I've not had a War Dog so I can't visualize who it compares to the mudders on a 411 or S5 (for example). It might be that I would just need to remove some of the material from the pummel area to "streamline the profile" for neck carry.

Decide I must, how to serve the design best. If I quit begging now, have a knife now I could; but I would destroy all for which I have begged.
- Knife Yoda

Tom,
That's good advice. I guess a question becomes: is the value a fixed price or does it grow over time. Only I can answer that, but I think it needs to be a fixed value.

Randy,

S5LE with INFI would be your perfect blade then.

I am with you on all counts that you mentioned in this post......

The way the knives are released makes it very difficult for one not to become a collector, but we must realize that they are made to be used (hard). If they are not getting used, I see no reason to keep dozens of them around unless you just have nothing better to put your money into.

Thankfully, I have a very limited budget and a strong preference for choilless knives....... so I've been able to keep myself out of the realm of 'collecting'. Not to mention a fiery redheaded wife, that wouldn't hesitate to ginger snap on my [censored] if I spent too much on them, LOL!! Just kidding, I love you honey....

I've only just recently eliminated duplicates of models, I think having duplicates just further encourages this habit. I'm not even close to being able to afford one of everything, so it doesn't make much sense to have duplicates of a single model. There are exceptions that I would make for this, but generally I will avoid this at all costs.

Also, secondary market prices can eat you alive. I refuse to get anything secondary market if it was made before 2010 or so, I just can't justify the premiums. These blades are already pretty pricey (especially Busse's) paying more than retail for them is downright brutal for those of us on a budget.

Since becoming aware of these about a year ago, I've had about 30 Busse & Kin pass through my hands already. Most of these got sold or traded out of necessity, but shipping costs have nearly eaten me alive it seems. It really adds up when you count shipping and loss of value for those sold on the exchange.

Here's pretty much what I'm down to now after a year or so in this, the Rodent 5 and 1311 are headed to new homes now though.

The tang is very narrow on them, there is a lot of res-c that can be removed. I believe that streamling the pommel end of the grip would be necessary, at least rounding the corners at the pommel anyways. They tend to be pretty uncomfortable on your chest/stomach.