Crappy knives

C

ChuckBuck

Joined
Oct 19, 2004
Messages
218
I think we should all have at least one or two "crappy", (by crappy I mean not too expensive or top of the line) knives. Just in case you ever need to use it someday, you know. I would hesitate to use my new Al Mar, a $200 knife, in anything other than perfect environmental conditions. Tomorrow I am going fishing for salmon in Redding CA, and was thinking of what kinfe I will bring with me. I then realized that I don't want to take a risk of messing up or even losing any of my nice, expensive knives, which is all I have. If I had a cool $40 or $50 fixed blade I would use it without worring all day about what condition I will bring it home in. With my $200 knives, I would spend the entire day worrying about my knife, instead of enjoying my time fishing, damn I wish I had a crappy knife. :rolleyes:
 
I agree. I've beat on my work knife, a Spyderco Paramilitary, pretty hard, and it shows. It's missing the very tip (the eventual fate of all my user Spydercos :rolleyes: ), the lock needs a thorough cleaning, and the G10 is covered in paint, grime, and scuffs. I usually carry a $1.00 snap knife for the really nasty tasks like cutting groundpaper over concrete, trimming tape around metal, etc because there are some things I just can't do with an expensive knife. For a (very) cheap beater fixed blade it's hard to go wrong with a Cold Steel Bushman or Mini-Bushman. They run around $20.00 or so, are one thin piece of carbon steel, and have stood up well to tasks for which I won't use more expensive blades. Grip tape on the handle improves the knife immensely, and aftermarket sheaths are available to replace the horrible stock sheath. I keep one on the workbench for slicing sandpaper. The steel is fairly soft (54 RC I think), so the edge touches up quickly.

Jeremy
 
A couple knives that I use on a regular basis are my
KBar Warthog (love the shape)
and a Fallkniven/Marbles A2 steel fighter looking knife.
Both really good at keeping an edge.
Just the way I like it, uh huh, uh huh.
 
Walking Man said:
A couple knives that I use on a regular basis are my
KBar Warthog (love the shape)
and a Fallkniven/Marbles A2 steel fighter looking knife.
Both really good at keeping an edge.
Just the way I like it, uh huh, uh huh.
Click to expand...

I connot fathom using a Fallkniven in anything other than "good" environmental conditions, like the rain, or in the mud for instance. I couldn't let myself do it. I'd sooner chew on something with my teeth, than use one of my prized possesion knives for doing any dirty tasks. Although I probly will someday. I'm just not emotionally prepared for that just yet.
 
ChuckBuck,

You'll beat on a very good knife soon enough.

At some point you will buy a knife that demands to be used.

For me it happened when I got my first Chris Reeve (a Shadow 7"). I just had to use it, and from that point onwards no blade has safe queen status.

David
 
I try to convince myself to use a cheap knife when I go fishing--usually an EZout, or a spyderco. Even recently bought some of the red class Benchmades for the same reason.

However, I end up bringing and using a sebenza. There's no better way prep fresh fish for dinner than with a bloody but sharp sebbie. :)
 
If you want to fall back on a beater for now, until you learn how to use a better knife where it really makes a difference, consider that there are really good knives out there that don't cost nearly as much as the CRK level.

Check out Fallkniven. They are not tremendously expensive, and they will hold up. A scratch will not invalidate the knife! :D Look at the Bark River line, same holds for them.

Buy a Mora. Look at the budget Kellam knives, including filet knives. All these also come in stainless.
 
there are a lot of extremely cheap beaters, sak (soft steel though), mora's, opinel, knives from the northerner (ex. - http://www.northener.com/products/k772006.html), and a lot of others that are great beaters


personally though, i use part of a 100$ knife as a beater because i would under no circumstances ever use it for anything else - the serrated blade on my leatherman ti. im not going to use a serrated blade if i have a sharp plain edge, especially one thats serrated like the leatherman (very shallow peaks), so it gets to shave labels off of glass, cut sand paper, and scrap across ceramic tiles while the rest of them get to sit back and relax :) . the plain edge blade on it being 154cm is my secondary beater, what i use for opening boxes and such.... my 300$ belt knives are used when i feel like using a nice knife :D (and for armegeddon :rolleyes: )
 
For the real dirty work that essentially ruins the edge, I use an old Shrade Sharpfinger. Sometimes I pick up my Kershaw Vapor for such tasks too. But good knives still get used a majority of the time.
 
Although it is still in excellent shape, I use my old REKAT Hobbit Fang as my "beater/utility" knife...That's the one that sees pretty much all of my household "utility" cutting chores.
 
It depends on what you mean by really use. If it is just getting used and it will be getting dirty and nasty, edge dulled etc. I will use an expensive knife without worries, I just used a Mayo TNT to chop down a bunch of 6' canna lillies in my yard. It got dirty, and all kinds of gunk from the flowers and soil got onto/into it, and the edge dulled. No big deal, in less than 10 minutes I had it good as new again.

If I know I am going to be doing something that is likely to damage the knife (ie abuse it) then I will choose a cheaper knife. I have a few of them lying around for nasty tasks when needed. One such example would be prying an epoxied connection box out of a speaker. I knew that it would very likely damage the tip of the knife, so I used a Ka-Bar USMC. Or when I was doing some concrete work I was using a Camillus Arc-Lite to open the bags and cut the expansion joint material. So what if the edge got some chips, and the tips are not complete anymore?
 
Pagan that I am, I use all my knives, including the Randalls. There is a real joy in using a high quaility, handmade knife and I think the makers enjoy knowing their knives are used. A knife maker doesn't need to go through all that tempering and heat treating just to make drawer queens. Except for the obvious "works of art" I say use them all. What do you knifemakers say?
 
ONe man's treasure is another man's user. For me, I would limit myself to using purpose-built working knives in the mid-range price. I CAN see myself using a $400 folder, esp. if I bought it because it had specific working functions. Yes, that includes custom made working knives.

However, I think that there is a wide range of inexpensive knives that perform extraordinarily well. ONe example is my Spyderco Goddard folder with VG10 blade, that cost me just over $50USD to bring into Australia. The AG Russell tiny slipjoint with VG10 blade and titanium handles is just $20USD.

I wanted to make that distinction between inexpensive & good value for money VS. "Crap" knives. Jason.
 
djolney said:
The better the tool, the more enjoyable the task becomes.

David
Click to expand...

This is as true a statement as I've ever heard.

Don't think of it as owning a nice and expensive knife. Think of it as paying for the privlidge of using such a fine tool. ;)
 
It's all a question of what expensive means to you. My beater for 3yrs so far has been a spydie ss pe dragonfly... lost about 1/4" off the tip so far.

I use my BM921s when I want something fancy... already put it through 2 months of work though, got it nice and marked up and worn in.

I carry and use my customs... everything from an $80usd leavitt to a 280cad LHK.
Today's rotation is a spydie ss se cricket and spydie moran fb01(mirror finish, #638, custom kydex).

Gonna start making my own knives next week, since I'm home on med leave for a few months.
 
Jason Cutter said:
ONe man's treasure is another man's user. For me, I would limit myself to using purpose-built working knives in the mid-range price. I CAN see myself using a $400 folder, esp. if I bought it because it had specific working functions. Yes, that includes custom made working knives.

However, I think that there is a wide range of inexpensive knives that perform extraordinarily well. ONe example is my Spyderco Goddard folder with VG10 blade, that cost me just over $50USD to bring into Australia. The AG Russell tiny slipjoint with VG10 blade and titanium handles is just $20USD.

I wanted to make that distinction between inexpensive & good value for money VS. "Crap" knives. Jason.
Click to expand...

Yeah, by "crappy", I didn't mean crappy, I just meant not expensive, or top of the line. Like an old Buck 110 or an older KABAR USMC or something of that nature, as opposed to a CRK Sebenza.
 
I use my AFCK M2, Spyderco Military S30V, and a Greco Falcon, all pretty much equally, for yard work, chores at the range, etc. That is why I have them.
 
Sounds like you need a Mora 2000. Good all around bush/camping/hunting/fishing knife for about 25-30$. Check out Ragnar's Ragweed Forge, sorry I don't have a link.
 
Chuck, not to be a PITA, but I'm concerned with your choice of username. Chuck Buck is a real person, a very prominent person in the knife world (head of Buck Knives). If you are not that Chuck Buck (I suspect you are not), there is a risk of people thinking you are, attributing your comments to Chuck or Buck Knives, etc. I think it's a situation that is ripe for confusion and misunderstandings.

I'm not a moderator who has the power to ask you to change, but since you have only been here a short while and haven't built up a huge post count under this name, would you consider it?
 
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