All About Beater Knives

sabre cat

sabre cat

Joined
Jul 4, 2014
Messages
6,155
Hi Everyone,

Lately, I been reaching for my lower priced knives and leaving my better knives at home. For example, three days ago, my wife and I went to the movies and I slipped my Cutco 1891 in my pocket before heading out for popcorn and a classic flick.

Why did I leave my Benchmade 531 behind? There's always a chance that something may get lost or left behind in a dark theater. Hence, the Cutco got a night out on the town.

Sometimes, when I travel, the nicer stuff stays at home and the easy to replace, cheap stuff goes with me. If it gets left in a motel, I'm not out much, right?

So, I am curious, when and why do you choose to ignore your better knives in favor of...for lack of a better word...dreck? Is it just to keep your better stuff from getting trashed or do other things come into play?
 
:) I have some cheap but completely serviceable "beaters" to carry whenever I might otherwise worry about losing or damaging my more valuable knives . Like when we go to the lakes to paddle around our inflatable . Those waters are deep and murky . :eek:
 
I leave my daily banger (plain ti-military) at home when I go on hikes or out to bars, restaurants, etc and take with me a manix lw 2 or my delica.

This might go out of the scope of your question but there’s a state park about 45 min away that I got to and after a long, hot hike I actually will go for a swim in the river that flows through it with either of those knives in my pocket without thinking twice.

I don’t baby my military but I wouldn’t mistreat it either so getting sand or lake water in the action would just make me mad at myself because I know better than to do that.

Having said that, if I had a military that’s just the standard g-10 model, I’d probably be less worried about it. But really, why would you want to since leaving it on shore in one of my shoes is easy enough to do?

I think you’re on to something though with your thought. I love my delica and manix because you don’t worry about them, just like you’re not worried about your beater when you just want to go watch a movie. The lack of concern is a nice part of having several knives and when you hear reviewers say “you throw this knife in your pocket and you forget you have it till you need it” and this is taking that one step further
 
sabre cat said:
Hi Everyone,

Lately, I been reaching for my lower priced knives and leaving my better knives at home. For example, three days ago, my wife and I went to the movies and I slipped my Cutco 1891 in my pocket before heading out for popcorn and a classic flick.

Why did I leave my Benchmade 531 behind? There's always a chance that something may get lost or left behind in a dark theater. Hence, the Cutco got a night out on the town.

Sometimes, when I travel, the nicer stuff stays at home and the easy to replace, cheap stuff goes with me. If it gets left in a motel, I'm not out much, right?

So, I am curious, when and why do you choose to ignore your better knives in favor of...for lack of a better word...dreck? Is it just to keep your better stuff from getting trashed or do other things come into play?
Click to expand...

There are times where I get the urge to carry my less expensive knives. Like you it is often on nights where I worry I my lose my knife.

Sometimes even without that I get the urge. I really love some of my “beater knives.” Some of my favourite “beater knives” aren’t low end at all. For examplemy cqc7 is one of my all time favourites. I consider it like someone who owns a sportscar and an suv. My “beater” knives are like the suv.
 
Most of my knives are what people here would consider lower end specifically because, what's the point of owning knives you aren't willing to carry and use? Though my knife habit also likely leans towards the more practical than a lot of people here.

That being said there are a couple of knives I leave at home for sentimental reasons.
 
I do the exact same thing. Benchmade rarely travels via air; Kershaw goes along for the ride. If risk of losing is high, the inexpensive knives go out.
 
my Kershaw Tremor kicks ass as a beater knife. It’s what I’ve been carrying at work every day for the last few months.

C737652_C-_C46_C-4_B49-_ACFF-697_B87_B1044_C.jpg
 
The most I ever spent on a knife was $130-140 range (ZTs, BM Adamas slightly used). Most of my knives fall in the $40 (Ontario Rat 1 D2) to $90 range (Manix 2, MiniGrips, Delicas).

Why?
1. VG10, D2, 154CM, etc are plenty good enough for me.
2. If I lose the knife, I won't cry too long.

I lost a Gerber Gator (154cm IIRC) back in the day. I'm normally good about not losing things but it happens. I honestly can't imagine carry a custom or CRK and losing a $200-2,000 knife.
 
Yes, when loosing, damaging or getting lifted is a possibility, I will use efficient but "entry level" stuff...
Here under, the "ugly duckling" (the bottom one...) I acquired in my young years especially in case I would get searched by police and have it confiscated. Cheapo as it is, it turned out to be an efficient and reliable pocket knife. And its simplicity is quite fetching, in the end. It's still in a drawer somewhere and I consider adding it to the rotation, someday.
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We have a place in the woods that we spend weekends at in the summer and I generally use inexpensive folders as I have lost a couple in the past. Generally $20-40 knives including Buck, Chinese Spyderco and Byrd, CRKT, Kershaw and Gerber. Spyderco M1’s for fishing though.

I do use more expensive fixed blades in the woods (generally ESEEs) as I don’t tend to lose big fixed blade knives. Plus, my ESEE 6 has a bright green blade and orange scales. Kinda hard to lose.
 
I only go for a beater when I know I'll be dealing with something that will be excessively damaging, but then again it depends on what a beater is to you. I hacked through the grease fitting boot of a Honda CR-V drive shaft to separate the 2 halves using my Endura. I was careful but still took a long time to clean it up. I guess the beaters I have now are much better than when I was a kid getting by on those $2 Pakistan lockbacks from the flea market ;)
 
I don’t worry about knives being lost or stolen but I do try to keep a couple in nice condition for dress occasions. My GB2, 940-1 and Chaparral come to mind.
My GB1, 940, 707 and Rookie G10 can get carried anywhere, anytime.
I have a Manix2 and Kershaw Blackout for dedicated work knives.
I do have a piece of crap fixed that I found many years ago. I use it for yard work, digging holes etc. Definitely a “beater”. It has a compass in the handle in case I get lost, umm......like ummm...... in the yard. :)
HsO0AjU.jpg
 
Work Truck Man said:
my Kershaw Tremor kicks ass as a beater knife. It’s what I’ve been carrying at work every day for the last few months.

C737652_C-_C46_C-4_B49-_ACFF-697_B87_B1044_C.jpg
Click to expand...

Look at that bad boy! I bought one of those about 5 years ago to take on the job site for all the nasty tasks my daily knives face. Thought it was too "pointy", it isn't. A little slim, I thought it might be hard to use for a length of time, it isn't. Thought the steel might be too soft, it isn't. The steel doesn't roll, doesn't chip, and doesn't get rust spots. My maintenance is running it over the rods as needed, make sure there isn't any gunk in the handle, then a spritz of a super lightweight lube I like. I don't take it apart, tune it up, adjust it, replace washers or anything else. I just use it.

I have used it for everything from slicing and cutting (as it should be used) to all kinds of things for which it isn't designed. I have cleaned tar and butyl caulk off it for years using charcoal lighter fluid. Still locks up fine after all these years (although it has been in rotation with a RAT1 and another "jobsite user" knife) and shows no real sign of wear except the FRN scales getting polished up. I rarely like a knife this much, but as a proven work knife, I love it.

In fact, when I found it was out of production I started looking for another one as backup. Couldn't find it. Then a Google search took me to the 'bay, where I guy had 3 at half the price of the $32 I paid for mine. I shot him an email and he covered the shipping and I bought them all! Now the trouble is that the knife might outlast me, and I have 3 new ones in the blister pack. Going to be a good Christmas for my nephews!

Robert
 
I am an Emerson nut so I've always got one on me, and I do use them... but I've got an old Buck knife that I bought probably close to 20 years ago that I take with me on vacation as my beach-knife. It was around $40 from what I can remember. It's a polymer frame, half serrated blade, thumbstud opener, spine lock. Not sure what model.

It's really beat to hell, missing teeth on the serrations, sand in the riveted pivot, I've sharpened it on rocks, etc... but it works.

I swim with it in the ocean, I've gone surfing and diving with it, play with my kids in the sand and use it to dig. It does the job. If I lose it I'll be a bit sad for sentimental reasons, but I'll just go buy another similar 'expendable' blade and make more memories.

I'll get a pic up when I get home.
 
The knife that see's the inside of my pocket 90+% of the time is a Kershaw Hotwire they make exclusive for Wally World. <$10 and available at an WW near you. Was glad I had that with me on my last vacation. I had been good about stashing it away in checked baggage, but wouldn't you know I forgot on the return flight. They found it going through security and bye bye. Would have been very PO'd if I had been carrying one of my special ones. The Special ones don't even need to be expensive. I have some that were low end but now out of production. So even cheap can become irreplaceable if you really like it. :cool:

Other knives I edc vary with my mood, usually another Kershaw, Rough Rider, or Opinel. If I am dressing up for the evening, then it is one of my "Gentleman's knives" such as the NW Norfolk, Feist, Puma Armino, Zhen, Kwaiken Jr. or Panatela.
 
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