The News from ElephantToenails.com

Deciding Your Collection’s Direction or Theme

So you have decided you want to purchase a toenail and are trying to decide which one to get. This is a common situation and I am frequently contacted for suggestions. There are several factors you must consider at this point before you jump right in.

Buy the Knives You Like

First, I would encourage you to buy what you like. Do you like new shinny ones or the older varieties that are showing their age? Different strokes for different folks- there is no right or wrong. Again it is what you like. The issue of your likes and do other collectors like your likes only really comes into play when you go to sale the collection. Also, you can take comfort in the fact that the toenail pattern is a popular pattern and unless you only buy JUNK toenails or an entire collection of plastic or celluloid handled toenails, folks will want to buy the knives when you do decide to sale.

See The Possibilities- Go To The List

The first place I would go is The List here at ElephantToenails.com. You will find many different makes and variations, plus there are actually different style toenails too. I don’t want to get too deep into all the specifics at this point and will stay somewhat general to begin with here, but when you go to The List you will see the different drop down menus for most of the different variations manufactured, like maker, style, handle material, color, etc.

Then I recommend you think about this- If you were to want to purchase additional toenails as you go, it is important to consider what I am going to call the direction or theme of your collection. Again keep in mind you are going to be buying what you like, so as you look through The List are there any factors that appeal to you the more. It is OK to begin with to have a hodge-podge of unrelated toenails.

Giving a little thought to the direction of a collection is healthy and will save you headaches and money in the long run.

Your budget is going to come into play immediately, and while it will probably grow as you get into toenails more and begin to appreciate other toenails (either make, handle materials, era, etc).

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Got a bunch of projects going on at the moment. One just went out the door and should be published in an upcoming edition in Knife World soon. Even though it is on the broader topic of early pocketknives, it is related to toenails, of course.

Also, I’m burning the midnight oil, on a big project related to cutlery around the turn of the century. I’m still in the research stage now, but hope to have it to Knife World by the end of August.

I don’t want to give all the details away, but will share this much with you. You know I am a modern-day Commercial Traveler (commonly referred to as a traveling salesman, or road warrior), so I have an intense interest in life as a traveling cutlery salesman (sometimes called Drummers) around the time of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

If you don’t know, many of the founders of early American cutlery companies were at one time traveling cutlery salesmen. As a side note here-  my great-grandfather was a traveling salesman (back in the early 1900’s), as was my grandfather and my father, so, “life on the road” goes back in my family at least 4 generations.

How about that article by Gary Moore in the the July 07  editon of Knife World? 

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