There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
Well, not right now but if I put my mind to it (and enough coin) I can succeed. It may take a while starting from square one but given enough time and perseverance I really can make the perfect knife. Perfect for me at least.
But it won't be pretty. What do I mean by pretty? Have a look at one of my favorite knives, the Sakai Takayuki Syousin Sakura from KnivesAndStones:
No matter how much time I spend making my "perfect" knife, I can't make something like this. This is art, and art can cost a lot. This is also just a tool and so from a distance it might seem foolish spending so much on something that is meant to be used and abused. After all, you wouldn't spend more than few bucks on a screwdriver, would you? Certainly a $100 screwdriver isn't going to dramatically outclass a $5 screwdriver, is it? What about knives? I know for sure that a $100 knife is definitely superior to a $50 knife, maybe twice as good, but a $200 knife is not often twice as good as a $100 knife. Diminishing returns and all that jazz.
So at what point do you stop and think, "am I buying a tool or am I buying a piece of art"? The turning point is going to be different for everyone and there's no right or wrong answer. Just know that at some point you're paying more for form than for function.
I'm all about practicality, but if we always gave up on form in favor of function the world would be a very dull place.
Product page for the Syousin Sakura: http://www.knivesandstones.com/sakai-takayuki-syousin-sakura-kirisuke-shaped-wa-gyuto-240mm/