Does anybody else collect antique knives? Particularly green rivers?

[windywales]

I got into knife collecting when I fell into muzzleloading, head over heels; it made no sense to me to be packing a new knife when one that could have "been thar, done that" might be lurking, cheap, on a gun show table.  I've always tended to collect users, not showcase queens, and my first acquisitions were home-forged belt knives of the sort I guessed most mountain men were wont to carry.  Some of these looked like butchers or skinners, some more like bowies or "theater" knives--but once I read of the huge popularity of Russell's Green River Works hunter and its butcher and skinner cousins, I got positively addicted.  I've been at it now for most of 30 years; if I knew how to put pictures online I'd show off a bunch of my sweeties.  I'd love to hear from others so addicted, and maybe do some trading.  Anybody else got this disease?
mind yer topknots!
windy
 
 
sonny, whar i growed up, "magnum" wuz jist another word fer "lousy hunter"!

[Anduril]

is two a collection?
 
I found the top one on a mountain above tree line. looks kind of old.
 

[windywales]

two's purty slim, old hoss; better git down to th' next gun & knife show and git ye another!  then ye'll have a shore enough collection!
mind yer topknot!
windy

[gcrank1]

The big rivets mean its not 'really' old, at at this point in time it is purty old. Look for one with small dia. pins; for instance, I have a nice '6-pin' plain scalper pattern, about 5ish ", and thin, that I got from a friend long ago. It was a cheap knife in its day (well hey, since it is still being used, I guess it is still in its day) but worth every penny.

[windywales]

hard to lose money on a knife that probly cost four bits back in the day....some o' these skinners i picked up have slicked the hide offa so many critters thare's only a quarter-inch o' blade depth left, but they still do the job.  cole showed a couple of those when he wrote "the skinning knife" back in 1996; i went hogwild there for awhile until every gun-show table had cheap skinners starting at 35 bucks and up--and up, and up!  now i'm blade-rich and dollar poor, but i ain't gonna run outta steel.  got a couple of high-end pieces i'm gonna git rid of purty soon--no room left to hide 'em.  i hope i larn to take a decent picture afore i do!
mind yer topknot!
windy