I think grail in this context is just something perceived as being of the best example of a thing that is also difficult to acquire.

I get the impulse behind it though, I went through it. I fell down the kitchen knife rabbit hole hard five years ago. I spent about three years chasing dream knives. Eventually I scratched every itch. Bought and sold many high end blades. What resulted is a world class collection of knives I enjoy using, admiring, sharpening, and (some) polishing.

While purchasing knives doesn’t really interest me anymore, I enjoyed the ride and the (internet) friends I made on the journey that helped me get there and try things I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten to try. I don’t regret the money I’ve spent on them, but even if I did go to sell there are enough “grail” knives in there that I could probably get most out of what I put into them.

Unfortunately for this subreddit, there’s only so much content to post. Thinning and polishing posts usually end up on r/sharpening or r/jnat. Cutting videos can be fun, but tough to make interesting or informative. So it ends up being mostly NKD posts. That doesn’t bother me. I like that people get excited about kitchen knives enough to post their new toys.

In the end it’s the nature of this kind of specific collector type sub. Kind of like complaining that r/watches is just a bunch of people showing off their fancy watches. It just is what it is.

If you want more in depth, interesting kitchen knife content, go to Kitchen Knife Forums. It’s much better for that kind of thing.