Breaking knives

Codger_64 said:
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Ahhhhh! My eyes!
coote said:
LTGreySnare0507.jpg
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Dude, is that a domestic cat?:p

In my youth I have broken knives. Nievety and Rambo. Now I realize that it's what you do with the knife as a tool to survive. A knife in a wilderness survival sense, at least IMO, is a 'tool to make tools'. I can make wooden traps and weapons, and my uncle taught me how to knap to make stone weapons.
Now I feel as confident of my survival in such a situation just with my SOG Tomcat folder, which is pretty beefy, but smaller than a usual "survival" knife. (I feel Perfectly confident that it will still take just as long for me to die. :p )

Talk about dumb kids... I recently aquired a WWII Herohito era Japanese officers blade w/ scabbard that my brother-in-law, 30 years ago as a child, had decided to chop sapplings with. Damned thing was bent so bad I could barely get it out of the scabbard. I've since straightened it, and it's been an "off & on" restoration project for a few years.
 
Chris, don't get me started on Buck 110s. Those damn things are like Lay's potato chips. :D

Adding: Buck has actually been pretty smart and outsourced some work to China so they can compete with the crap knives at Wal Mart.

There are a heckuva a lot of folks who think $20 for a knife is highway robbery. It's actually a very big market.

This strategy allows Buck to continue producing "real" knives here in the US for discriminating buyers.

The US knives are still made with the same care, and Buck supports its customers as good as anybody in the business.

While I personally hated to see a Chinese Buck knife, I recognize the business acumen behind the decision. Schrade and Camillus did not go this route, to my knowledge.

In this sense, you're right. It's a changing world.
 
I have only broken stainless steel knives .

the latest was a little excalibur judge , I got a bunch realy cheap and my girls wear them on their bra straps usualy ... they are handy for them doing what they do , cutting fruit , tags , opening packets etc ..

I borrowed my wifes one , and used it for opening beach almonds , a LOT of twisting in iinvolved , the knife put up with it , I pried a few shellfish open , the knife did OK , I cleaned some fish , the knife did OK , I tried very gently to lift a small stone out of the dirt with the tip of the blade and the tip fell off ...

I bought my wife a little red gerber that she wears on her bra strap now ...

When I was a kid I used to use knives for getting grubs out of wood , a LOT of poking digging and prying ... and I used to break them regular . then I found Okapis ...

the difference between carbon steel and stainless is awesome , I havent broke a carbon steel knife not yet . I do still get grubs out of logs , and open shellfish , beach almonds etc ...

the closest I came was folding the edge severely on my opinel trying to whittle hardwood ( mulga )

I did some destructive tests on knives I made from high speed steel power hack saw blades , just to see how tough they were , as a result my personal bigger blades are made from Starret stock :)

I think its a trade off , the blades are flexible , but will snap under stupidly abusive use .. takes more force than I can put on them without using a pipe to get better leverage .. and are hard enough to take an edge that will whittle the threads off a mild steel bolt and still shave afterward .
 
I have actually never broken a knife. I don't believe I've even taken the tip off one. I tend to treat knives with respect, unlike one of my best friends who uses them as paint scrapers. He pulled out a beat-up Spyderco Navigator the other day that would give Sal Glesser nightmares. :eek:

Also, I only pry boulders with my big fat tactical Busses. :D :p

BATACLE7.jpg
 
And some knives for Chris... all unbroken, I'm happy to report. :p

StockmanKnives.jpg
 
Guyon,
I don't believe they are alive and well at all. Used to you couldn't walk into a hardware store and not see a display case full of pocket knives, now you can't find them unless you look on line or in a very few places. The only places local you can buy what passes today for pocket knives are the big box stores like Wal Mart and they have IMO junk. I appreciate the invite over to the traditional forum but I get myself in enough trouble on this one. Chris
 
runningboar said:
Guyon,
I don't believe they are alive and well at all. Used to you couldn't walk into a hardware store and not see a display case full of pocket knives, now you can't find them unless you look on line or in a very few places. The only places local you can buy what passes today for pocket knives are the big box stores like Wal Mart and they have IMO junk. I appreciate the invite over to the traditional forum but I get myself in enough trouble on this one. Chris
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What's a hardware store? :p
 
East Asheville Hardware
Artist: David Wilcox
Album: East Asheville Hardware


An angel appeared
in a holy vision
Stood by my bedside
in shivering light
Spoke my name
Told me my mission
I could not believe I was hearing him right
Because he said, 'Go, my son, go...

Always go to East Asheville Hardware
Before you go to Lowe's

He said, Go to East Asheville Hardware
Before you go to Lowe's

You'll help to keep them open
I'm worried they might close
From the stiff competition
From the national conglomerate
With the full page ad
in the color section of the Sunday paper supplement
and stacks of plastic swimming pools
and seven brands of power tools
and rows and rows of registers
all having nice days

But no, you go, he said to me with light around his face
He said, You go first to that age-old place
To that old wooden door
that you have to close behind you
To the wide-board wooden floor
worn down soft

To the real thing
Good advice, quality at a fair price
And know that they know how deep the frost goes here.

Sure there's stuff you'll have to find at Paty's, Lowe's or Sears

But go to East Asheville Hardware
Go to East Asheville Hardware
Before it disappears.
 
Sterlinghammer,

Those are Ewoks.

As for the topic at hand my opinions are already on record here from all the other times we have all fought like schoolchildren over this topic.

I frequently carry my one and only SPB, a BK-7. It certainly isn't a high end knife but plenty strong for what I use it for. I don't hesitate to use it like a machete, or to spilt wood in rainy season. I like the knife alot but it really sucks for all the little whittling jobs. I have a one-blade slipjoint in the pouch that covers that job well.

One aspect of knife-breaking big-blade popular culture that I do think is dangerous is all the loading of blades. I'm not saying everyone out there is doing it but there seems to be a certain testosterone induced insanity that has something to prove. That knife might not snap, quite possibly it will live up to the claims. It could slip out, the medium it is wedged in could suddenly fail. Of course all this is done under the guise of "testing" to "have confidence in my gear" or "know limits". The very worst grade of steel with any form of edge will pass through a human body nearly effortlessly. Bullets are tested in "JELLO" because it simulates what you are made out of. Go ahead and test, whack, baton, whatever. Please before you do make everyone repeat three times "I am made of Jello". Mac
 
runningboar said:
Guyon,
I don't believe they are alive and well at all. Used to you couldn't walk into a hardware store and not see a display case full of pocket knives, now you can't find them unless you look on line or in a very few places. The only places local you can buy what passes today for pocket knives are the big box stores like Wal Mart and they have IMO junk. I appreciate the invite over to the traditional forum but I get myself in enough trouble on this one. Chris
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I grew up in a family-owned, family operated hardware store/ lumber yard and I know what you mean. Try buying a good three blade stockman at a Home Depot. Luckily, when my parents sold the store and retired, my dad actually made a point of telling the new owners that he was taking the knives, and the displays, with him. I just visited them in Arizona and he pulled out this ginormous box filled with old Schrade and Case and Buck pocket knives, still in their boxes. I was ten all over again. Got me the smallest liner lock muskrat I've ever seen and my wife picked a fine stockman for herself.
 
runningboar said:
Guyon,
I don't believe they are alive and well at all. Used to you couldn't walk into a hardware store and not see a display case full of pocket knives, now you can't find them unless you look on line or in a very few places. The only places local you can buy what passes today for pocket knives are the big box stores like Wal Mart and they have IMO junk. I appreciate the invite over to the traditional forum but I get myself in enough trouble on this one. Chris
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I guess it depends where you are, up near my farm in PA there are a few gun stores, and riding stores that each has display cases full of Case, Queen and some old Schrades. Near my G/f's place outside of Pitt its a very similar case. I guess it depends on where you are. Around this part of MD I agree its tuff to find a good slipjoint darn near anywhere. The farmland and country style of living is getting smaller and smaller, hence these types of stores find it hard to stay alive as the pop grows and walmarts move in around them. And knives suffer right along with everything else. There are stores.....just gotta know where to find em.
 
pict said:
Sterlinghammer,

As for the topic at hand my opinions are already on record here from all the other times we have all fought like schoolchildren over this topic.
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Sorry Mac, even sometimes as I am typing I know I should just keep my mouth shut but for some unknown reason I am compelled to open my pie hole. Chris
 
When I saw the title I thought, "This will be intresting." This topic is right up there with religion and politics. Mac
 
barrabas74 said:
The farmland and country style of living is getting smaller and smaller, hence these types of stores find it hard to stay alive as the pop grows and walmarts move in around them.
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Every generation, to some extent, laments the passing of the "good old days." My father-in-law seems stuck there. All he does is complain.

You have to take the bad with the good. Thirty years ago, sure you could find slipjoints in hardware stores. Hell, you could find hardware stores. But realistically, how many hardware stores were in your area? Three? Four? In just a few minutes, I can find you thirty or forty places online where you can find a wide range of very well-made, quality slipjoints. Better? Not really. But different, yes.

Would we be talking in a forum like this 30 years ago? No, but you'd probably be spending more time with people in your local community. Better? Worse? I'm not sure.

I grew up in a small town, and I recognize that it's a way of life that's fading fast. For better or worse though, I've got to figure out ways to hold onto what's worth holding onto, and try to pass those on to the next generation.

You guys need to head over to Traditional and explain to the folks over there why no one can fix things anymore. :p

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=489679
 
pict said:
When I saw the title I thought, "This will be intresting." This topic is right up there with religion and politics. Mac
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Interesting to watch just like:

9mm vs .45
Ford vs. Chevy
Republican vs. Democrat
Blondes vs. Redheads
Lucky Charms vs. Trix
 
I agree that a lot of knives are misused. But somepeople really would need to have a heavy blade knife that is durable. Chris you say you are in the military and that is one area that someone could use a strong fixed blade knife. But reality is that most of the knives used in Iraq are used to cut open MRE's or cut packages open. I don't know of anyone fighting their way out with a Randall over here. My point is some people do need a stout knife to do different tasks and some don't. But damn the newest indestructible tactical knife sure looks cool right? :)
 
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