Actual "hard uses" for a knife

J

Jonnygun

Joined
Jul 16, 2012
Messages
56
Hey all, I've got the day off so...

I was trying to decide on another work knife and ended up losing about four hours chain reading threads about knife tests and testing to destruction and then watching some YouTube stuff. I think some of those videos are awesome. I got to thinking about some of the things I've actually done with my knife that I think is "hard use".

-prying- used the spine to pry up the nails for poorly laid shingles,
prying up the battery connectors on my wife's car.

-torqueing- cleaned the burs out of countless PVC and pex pipping connections

-Batoning- just yesterday I used a hammer and my EDC to chisel out the bottom of 4 door frames when
laying tile. I've actually used my knife quite a bit as a chisel.

-tip strength??- I regularly use the back of the tip as a screw driver, I'll cut vents in 5 gallon paint
buckets by stabbing and twisting with the tip (that's torquing too!)

-edge- I strip copper wire a lot so I can see some rolling, I cut against a lot of hard plastics, and I can
easily use my knife in some muddy crap (irrigation piping) so that's bad on the edge. I also cut
drywall frequently and insulation and rubber.


Plus my EDC gets dirty almost daily, and gets wet.

Anybody else use/abuse their knives like this?


-
 
Processing fatlighter with a Randall 14, I'd consider this fairly hard use. Includes a bit of batonning, prying and torquing the blade to pop out chunks. It's not too bad if you don't go overboard with it though.
 
Jonnygun. Can I ask what your EDC knife is?

The hardest mine gets DAILY is cutting cardboard, tape and use the spine-tip as a screwdriver sometimes.

I usually carry a 8cr13mov Kershaw. Not the toughest knife by far, but very cheap. It was like $22 or something.

So if I come to a reason to use it 'hard', like any of the examples you gave. I wouldn't have a problem with it. It's a cheap knife...Lets get 'er done.

So i'd also like to know what type of steel your EDC is?
 
Jonnygun said:
-Batoning- just yesterday I used a hammer and my EDC to chisel out the bottom of 4 door frames when
laying tile. I've actually used my knife quite a bit as a chisel.

Anybody else use/abuse their knives like this?


-
Click to expand...

I use my main EDC pretty hard, batoning kindling, chopping out brush, digging up roots, used it to remove a stump from my yard, open a lot of metal buckets, stabbing, prying, hammering and even some cutting!


If I could make a suggestion, if batoning use wood to hit the knife or other soft material. Using metal causes micro cracks in the steel on your knife, there are some really good threads on here about that.
 
Sometimes I use my screwdriver as a prybar, and occasionally I hammer with my cresent wrench.....of course it is always best to use the right tool for the job.

n2s
 
It's more comfortable to edc than my Rat1, because i don't need a pocket for it. If not a small fixed blade, Get a rat 1 or a utilitac. they are about 25 bucks.
 
Jonnygun said:
I got to thinking about some of the things I've actually done with my knife that I think is "hard use".

-prying- used the spine to pry up the nails for poorly laid shingles,
prying up the battery connectors on my wife's car.

-torqueing- cleaned the burs out of countless PVC and pex pipping connections

-Batoning- just yesterday I used a hammer and my EDC to chisel out the bottom of 4 door frames when
laying tile. I've actually used my knife quite a bit as a chisel.

-tip strength??- I regularly use the back of the tip as a screw driver, I'll cut vents in 5 gallon paint
buckets by stabbing and twisting with the tip (that's torquing too!)

-edge- I strip copper wire a lot so I can see some rolling, I cut against a lot of hard plastics, and I can
easily use my knife in some muddy crap (irrigation piping) so that's bad on the edge. I also cut
drywall frequently and insulation and rubber.


Plus my EDC gets dirty almost daily, and gets wet.

Anybody else use/abuse their knives like this?-
Click to expand...

Wow. Not even close.
 
not2sharp said:
Sometimes I use my screwdriver as a prybar, and occasionally I hammer with my cresent wrench.....of course it is always best to use the right tool for the job.

n2s
Click to expand...

Yeah, yeah, use the right tool :thumbup:

I acknowledge that the right tool for the job would be best, but I am too important to carry around actual tools :cool:.

J/k, mainly I do a lot of different tasks throughout the day and caring around all the proper tools
would not be practical. I'll grab the right tool if I know what's coming but my job is to make sure things actually get accomplished, not run to the truck every 5 minutes because I need a chisel. Sub-contractors are supposed to have tools.

I've carried a lot of different knives. Most recently is a zt0350 or my strider PT. Both have held up pretty good. The PT is a little small, and the zt0350 is stout enough, but the spine is a little funny, and the tip is to fat for somethings (1/2 inch piping).

I've broken at work:

Kershaw blackout (pivot)
Spyderco endura (tip)
Hogue ex01 (didn't really break it but the scales got munched)
 
Jonnygun said:
Yeah, yeah, use the right tool :thumbup:

I acknowledge that the right tool for the job would be best, but I am too important to carry around actual tools :cool:.

J/k, mainly I do a lot of different tasks throughout the day and caring around all the proper tools
would not be practical. I'll grab the right tool if I know what's coming but my job is to make sure things actually get accomplished, not run to the truck every 5 minutes because I need a chisel. Sub-contractors are supposed to have tools.

I've carried a lot of different knives. Most recently is a zt0350 or my strider PT. Both have held up pretty good. The PT is a little small, and the zt0350 is stout enough, but the spine is a little funny, and the tip is to fat for somethings (1/2 inch piping).

I've broken at work:

Kershaw blackout (pivot)
Spyderco endura (tip)
Hogue ex01 (didn't really break it but the scales got munched)
Click to expand...

I agree, just have more than one catagory of knives. Tools(heavey users), light users and collectors.
 
Jonnygun said:
mainly I do a lot of different tasks throughout the day and caring around all the proper tools
would not be practical.

I've broken at work:

Kershaw blackout (pivot)
Spyderco endura (tip)
Hogue ex01 (didn't really break it but the scales got munched)
Click to expand...
This all begs the question- At what point does it become more practical, and cost effective, to carry around the "proper tools" rather than to continue breaking knives?

The way I see it, if you break a knife trying to perform a task, not only do you ruin a knife (loss of money), but the task you were trying to perform with the knife might remain undone. I'd call that "lose/lose".

Imagine if you have a task to perform, you use a knife, the knife breaks, the task remains undone, and then you HAVE to go and get the right tool. If you had gotten the right tool to begin with you would have saved time and not broken a knife. Not to mention the embarrassment of having people possibly see you break a knife using it rather than the proper tool.

Don't get me wrong, I don't see anything wrong with using a knife in "unorthadox" ways, but if knives keep breaking, perhaps a change in policy might be a good idea.
 
I don't do anything crazy with my knives.. my SAK gets used to do most of the hard stuff, and usually it has the right tool for the job.

My Tenacious gets put through the paces, but it sharpens up nicely (and at $33 bucks, I don't mind being rough with it).
 
Mostly, I tend to consider any task that the knife was never intended to accomplish to be 'Hard use', especially when those tasks involve an increased risk of breaking the knife. For me, I tend to think of tasks with folders in mind - I usually carry just a folder, whether at work, just walking around, or out camping - so that's typically my bias when it comes to knife use.

For example, I have a Kershaw Cyclone that is pretty heavy for a folder of its size - I used it to hammer in tent stakes once or twice - I really don't remember why. I would consider that 'hard use' because it was quite beyond what a knife is really meant to do.

Prying, chopping (with knives that aren't meant to chop), scraping hard surfaces, or cutting really tough materials (bags of quick-crete, wires, scoring drywall, large amounts of carpet, fibreglass insulation) would also be 'hard uses', to me.

I'd also call things that are pants-on-head-retarded (ex: batonning, throwing, etc.) 'hard uses', although I'd also call them abusive and a great way to break a good knife.

Again, almost all of the work I do is done with a folder, so that's the context I'm looking at when I think of 'hard use'.
 
killgar said:
This all begs the question- At what point does it become more practical, and cost effective, to carry around the "proper tools" rather than to continue breaking knives?

The way I see it, if you break a knife trying to perform a task, not only do you ruin a knife (loss of money), but the task you were trying to perform with the knife might remain undone. I'd call that "lose/lose".

Imagine if you have a task to perform, you use a knife, the knife breaks, the task remains undone, and then you HAVE to go and get the right tool. If you had gotten the right tool to begin with you would have saved time and not broken a knife. Not to mention the embarrassment of having people possibly see you break a knife using it rather than the proper tool.

Don't get me wrong, I don't see anything wrong with using a knife in "unorthadox" ways, but if knives keep breaking, perhaps a change in policy might be a good idea.
Click to expand...


Best part of a knife is I can clip it back in my pocket :thumbup:. Other tools get loaned or snatched. Plus, I really haven't cost myself much money. What, under $100 in more than 3 years. That's not crap
 
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