Blade wear: What's to be expected, what's Abuse?

E

enderwiggin

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Nov 18, 2006
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I have a BRKT Mini Canadian that's starting to see some fairly rough use.

Reason being, I bought a Kydex sheath for the Mini Canadian, and an A.G. Russell Woodswalker around the same time as the Mini Canadian, to try out some different carry options.

The Kydex sheath scratched the holy heck out of the blade, in all of 4 times I sheathed the knife in it. I assumed the wear would lessen the more I used the Kydex sheath, but that's apparently not the case--the sheath just scratches the heck out of the knife.

Now that I'm learning a little more about knives. I.e., the 'Kydex-Like' sheath included with my Ka-Bar TDI is not what I should expect when I order a true Kydex sheath.

It's sort of a funny situation, because I expected to feel 'miffed' about beating up the blade by just sheathing it, but all it's really done is make me want to use the Mini Canadian more--to get some honest scratches in there, ones from actual use :D

So, what constitutes 'hard use' of a knife? What's 'abuse'?

And how many users are out there who just don't care about the condition their knife's blades are in, as long as they're useful?
 
Here's something you can do to help with the scratching:

Wrap your blade in one or two layers of masking tape.
Put on some gloves.
Heat your sheath gently with a heat gun until it just starts to become pliable. Gently insert the knife into the sheath, and allow it to cool and reharden.
Remove the knife and take off the tape.
Wash out the sheath with soap and water and let air dry, or blow it dry with air.
Try your knife. If its too loose, put the knife back in (without tape) and reheat to just pliable.
Work the sheath around the grip area until its tighter. You want the sheath to grip here, not the blade. Its the crap inside the sheath, caught between it and the blade that's causing the marring and scratching.

A scotchbrite pad and WD-40 will give your knife a nice brushed satin finish that doesn't show marks as easily, and is easy to repair if it does.
Hope this helps!
Scott
 
enderwiggin said:
So, what constitutes 'hard use' of a knife? What's 'abuse'?
Click to expand...

"Hard Use" is what you're doing that requires you to stop and give it a good sharpening. (digging holes, cutting shingles, scraping glue, etc.)

"Abuse" is whatever you're doing right before you break it! (prybar, chipping rocks, screwdriver, etc.)

J-
 
Thanks for the replies... Kept forgetting to check this thread!

I'll definitely try your tips on the sheath, Tanguay.
 
Everyones definition of abuse will vary, for instance today I used a knife to cut about 6 linear feet of 14 guage steel, wasn't sure the knife would hold up but it's what I had and it worked. sure a lot of people would probably call this abuse but i needed it to do something, and it did it
 
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