Do you baby your Sebenza or is it just a tool?

Dang it. Please show me how to use the sebbie as a bottle opener! I was trying it and couldnt get it to work, so I used my wedding ring. Man the wife acted pissy!
 
I'll have to see if I have the guts to try it on the Sebbie, but should be like any other knife, lighter, etc. I grip the bottle real tight in a fist just under the bottle cap. Push in what you are going to pry with between the bottle cap and top of grip.. then push in with your knife handle/lighter/etc and push down on your hand/knuckle (use as the pry surface). Should pop right off. Safer and less painful than smacking on edge of table,etc. Again, this is only in a pinch.. someone almost always has a bottle opener, lighter (Bic type) or a cheaper knife to pry with. If I'm really lucky someone tells me it's a screw off :-) and the evening continues.
 
I've got a small plain seb and a small insingo and both of these knives are meant to be used. I've had a few others (inlays,etc) pass through my hands that I just couldn't make a user of, so others are enjoying them now. I think what I love best about the plain sebs is that they look best (to me) with some signs of wear. And of course they can always get a visit to the spa if needed to look brand new.
 
Mine are tools, large inlaid and small plain get used. I figured there was no point in having them if I don't use em. Granted I won't get a wild hair up my ass and throw them at a tree or some other dumbass activity like I would a cheaper buck odyssey or something.
 
RetiredGuns said:
I use mine for any task that any of my knives might see. That's one of the reasons I like 'em plain. A few scratches on the Ti don't bother me but a gouge down the side of some fancy tooki-tooki wood might make me frown.
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I see your point - the reason I have a plain jane Insingo.
Then I think about the wood used on gunstock or older knives during the great wars of the last century.
I think of a hunting rifle and wonder if the "tooki-tooki woods" used on the Sebenzas shouldn't be able to take a bit abuse?
Well, the wood would show it of course - adds character to the knife?
red mag
 
Since I discovered the sebenza, I have always had one. I have never been sebenza-less. I have used them over the years to do many tasks and have posted pics of them doing pretty much everything. Cutting cardboard, paper, whittling, food prep, cutting tar paper, cutting shingles ( from the backside ). I have done it all with regular plain jane versions as well as some CGG/UG. I have recently finally acquired some inlay sebenzas and I have carried my new large 21 bocote in the pouch, but I have used it. Its a keeper and I know eventually it will scuff up, but thats what I got it for. Thats what I buy all my knives for. I know if I had a fancy damascus/bark mammoth I would be much more careful with it, but I would use it.

Years ago, I bought a Merkel 9.3x74R Double Rifle which costs $5400 out the door. I was making $8.00 an hour, so it was and always will be a major purchase for me. Do I hunt with it, Heck Yeah. I have carried every year since i got it and have taken 9 deer with it in that time. The wood on the stock is a walnut burl and is breathtakingly beautiful. Does it have scratches in the stock and gouges from its adventures in the woods, Heck Yeah, but I am so much happier and feel so much better when I take it. It was a lifelong dream to get and I can hardly wait till hunting season every year to take it yet again.

Use It and enjoy it. I have always said that " every scratch on your sebenza is an adventure you had with your sebenza ". If its a nice fancy one, yes still use it and enjoy it, but just go easier on it is all.
 
nyefmaker said:
Since I discovered the sebenza, I have always had one. I have never been sebenza-less. I have used them over the years to do many tasks and have posted pics of them doing pretty much everything. Cutting cardboard, paper, whittling, food prep, cutting tar paper, cutting shingles ( from the backside ). I have done it all with regular plain jane versions as well as some CGG/UG. I have recently finally acquired some inlay sebenzas and I have carried my new large 21 bocote in the pouch, but I have used it. Its a keeper and I know eventually it will scuff up, but thats what I got it for. Thats what I buy all my knives for. I know if I had a fancy damascus/bark mammoth I would be much more careful with it, but I would use it.

Years ago, I bought a Merkel 9.3x74R Double Rifle which costs $5400 out the door. I was making $8.00 an hour, so it was and always will be a major purchase for me. Do I hunt with it, Heck Yeah. I have carried every year since i got it and have taken 9 deer with it in that time. The wood on the stock is a walnut burl and is breathtakingly beautiful. Does it have scratches in the stock and gouges from its adventures in the woods, Heck Yeah, but I am so much happier and feel so much better when I take it. It was a lifelong dream to get and I can hardly wait till hunting season every year to take it yet again.

Use It and enjoy it. I have always said that " every scratch on your sebenza is an adventure you had with your sebenza ". If its a nice fancy one, yes still use it and enjoy it, but just go easier on it is all.
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This is pretty much how I feel. When I use my large inlaid for food prep or cleaning critters I'll gently wash it off in a creek or whatever. With this new plain small, I'll just toss it in whatever cooking vessel I was using and "get around to it".

My inlaid is ebony wood, and I know it's tough, but still dont wanna cause premature wear.
 
I treat it just like any another tool should be treated: I use it ONLY for the purposes it was intended for and keep it properly maintained (lubed and sharpened). Okay, maybe I baby it a little as I don't regularly buff and shine my other tools. :-)
 
It's a tool and I use mine often for tasks it was designed for. I'll do light prying, but nothing i think would be half as much as needed to break it, and I have beater knives to do the stuff I know will grenade the edge immediately. At the end of te day to me, it's a tool, and needs to be used to be valuable. Some may consider it art; it is made very skillfully. YMMV.
 
my 'zaan gets used; and as someone else has stated, "i use it wherever i please", and whenever i have to...and apparently i abuse it too, given the descriptions i read about what constitutes knife abuse...it gets dropped too (yikes!); many times, as that's what happens when you use it a lot LOL...

if it "breaks", i'll get it fixed...or get another one...or not...i didn't get the 'zaan to play with or show off...

...ditto the above to the hinderers and striders (most especially the striders) i got too
 
I took some tiny chips out of the blade of my 21 this week EGADS! 5 minutes on the sharpmaker and 30 seconds on the paper wheel & it is ready once again.
 
I carry and use mine, I have done so for 5 or 6 years. They've never left me wanting more knife or feeling like I had to ease up to keep from breaking one. I use them for everything I can find an excuse or reason to, some of that would be considered abuse by the collectors but the knives don't show it at all.

I felt the same way when I bought my first one, I'm somewhere around 20 knives into collecting CRK's and it becomes "normal", if there's such a thing, to spend that and more on a knife.

One of my most favorite features of a Sebenza is the rounded spine, it makes the knife more comfortable to use but sadly makes it a poor bottle opener. You can use the but end of the Ti to do it but it'll eventually gouge, my recommendation is to use your belt buckle or the teeth of whoever passes out first to open your beverage ;D
 
I carry a regular Sebenza, large or small, every day. I keep 'em sharp, clean, lubed and I try not to abuse abuse them, but it's nice to know that they can take it. I use them for anything I'd use any knife for--but for deer hunting I usually try and bring along a fixed blade (Nyala!), just because I've gummed up the action on my Sebenzas a couple of times with venison fat, and that means I'll have to take it apart and clean it. I try not to scratch them up, but they have plenty of little scratches. I have a beater machete that I take out for the really tough stuff, like batonning, hacking branches and vines, etc. It's just easier with a >12" blade.
 
Do you baby your Sebenza or is it just a tool?
It's just a tool.

One thing I'm known to do in a pinch is open bottles with the handle or blade spine (when closed). Would I be crazy to do this with a Sebenza?
No. Every time I use my Small Sebenza (handle) or Zaan [blade spine (when closed)] against a cap the CRKs win.
 
I use my small Insingo fairly heavily, and in hindsight there are three things that I kind of wish I hadn't done with it.
Cut sandpaper (scratched up the blade pretty bad)
Open some bottles (scratched up the scales)
Pry open a window (bent the tip a little)

I shouldn't have done these things but the Sebenza was in my pocket so I used it.


If I lived in the States, I'd probably send it for a spa treatment and then in the future use it, but not not subject it to abuse.

Because I'm not, I'll just keep using it and put the scratches and marks down as patina.

A well used knife with a personal story will very likely be worth more to me in the future than a shelf queen.
 
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