Prior to ETS, I was content with cheap folders. Cheaper the better. And I didn't know to call them "folders." They were simply: knives.

Didn't know about the various steels. A2-D2: C3PO's sidekick?

Thought "tang" was Apollo's faux orange juice invention.

And then ETS came into my life. And within a few months I'd ordered a knife: Doug Ritter's Mk3. Huge, to me. A small machete. Yet it fits my hand, so delicately balanced it hovers on the edge of a finger. I lovingly caress the drop-point S30V fixed-bladed full-tanginess of it.

Next to arrive is the Doug Ritter Mk4 "Gentleman's Folder." Although I am a gentlewoman, or perhaps because I am a gentlewoman, the sleekness and the efficient opening mechanism which does not endanger one's nails, seems custom-designed.

While perusing rei.com a discounted CRKT M4-03 catches my eye. I'm curious so it now resides next to the Ritter Mk4 in its own zippered pocket in an unused leather cosmetic bag given to me at Christmas.

Then AG Russell. In route now is a Bark River "Gameskeeper." One of 250 with an "unusual bronze Maple Burl" handle that proved too alluring to resist. It's tang is tapered and I don't know if that is a fault. But it's beneath the unusual bronze maple burl so I gamble that I won't care.

Next I wonder: when and what's the best knife show in this area?

"Functional sculpture," I've concluded. Beautiful knives will compliment my art collection which is currently dominated by wood sculptures, glass and metal. Favorites will become talismans worthy of inclusion in the shoulder bag that carries books and my journal on roadtrips and camping.

I have a lot of camping and hiking gear and there is no aesthetic appeal to it, except perhaps for the stainless Colemen cooler and the functional beauty of cast iron. Until discovering the world of knives -- handsome and refined -- I did not know that art and survival gear could go, literally, hand-in-hand.

This discovery is going to cost me.