Do you carry a knife, but rarely use it?

N

neocacher

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May 9, 2013
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I was wondering how many of you carry a knife regularly but never use it? I carry often knowing I will unlikely use mine. Often I carry just because it makes me feel good! I love spyderco's!
 
some knives I carry I use often - opening boxes, making my lunch, etc. Others - like those I carry as a self defense blade, I hope I never need to use.
 
I carry 2 or 3 (sometimes 4 or 5) every day. They don't always get used though. The one that gets the most use is my Classic SAK on my keychain. I'd still rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them!
 
neocacher said:
because it makes me feel good
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Feeling good is the very thing that causes us to hunt for, find, buy, fondle, photograph, carry and hoard knives. All of this talk about blade steels, lock strength, sprint runs and blade geometry is just the cover story. When you are playing with your knife, for a fleeting moment you forget that you will never stand on the moon or see Kate Upton's bite marks on your shoulder.
 
Probably most of the times I carry a knife I end up not using it. That's because I mostly do desk work, where I have a couple of desk knives that are more convenient to use (one of them is a Pingo, which is very office friendly and that my colleagues love; it works well enough for opening packages, but not very well for regular mail). When I do field work or go camping, I always have one or two fixed blade knives on my waist and/or backpack. At home, I also have blades and more appropriate tools for the different tasks at hand (unlike many, I never use my pocket knife for food preparation, because my kitchen is full of much more task-appropriate chef's knives). I only use the pocket knife when in a setting different from the above, which is very seldom. Unless I just want to play with the knife in my pocket... :)
 
I carry a knife daily, and sometimes it doesn't get used. But I know it's there if I need it!
 
I usually carry 2-3 knives (large untility blade, small secondary blade, and self defense blade) but honstly don't use them much. I just love knives and like carrying them. I hope I never have to use my self defense blades.
 
When you are playing with your knife, for a fleeting moment you forget that you will never stand on the moon or see Kate Upton's bite marks on your shoulder.
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All right, that may be the greatest quote I've ever heard.

But, yeah -- I find that I use mine a fair bit in daily life, especially when I'm outdoorsy. Even when not, I need to open or slice things pretty frequently! For impromptu food prep a larger knife is sometimes useful as well, and when I'm not around my personal kitchen knives it is usually far superior to what is available.
 
Even being retired, where everyday is the weekend, I still use my edc daily. Don't feel dressed without it.
 
I usually switch out between 2-3 different knives of different sizes during the day depending on where I'm headed. I might use one for maybe 2 or 3 small EDC tasks throughout the day. I feel naked without a blade clipped to the inside of my pocket.
 
I used to keep from using my nicer folders - I've never had that problem with fixed-blades, but with my first folder that went over the $50 mark, I started to look at them as an investment instead of as tools (especially since I don't have any local shops that sell knives and I rely heavily on online retailers to even be able to look/feel a new knife).

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that - especially if you're a collector, but I eventually decided it just wasn't for me. I ended up selling the knives I was afraid to use, and the ones that didn't get enough carry-time in the rotation. I'm trying to get down to just the few that I either love or pick out to carry over all the others.

I've got a few sprint-runs that are steadily increasing in value, and a few mid-techs that were outside of my original comfort-zone when it comes to folder-price. I use them all - at least one of my knives gets used every day and often more than one.

For me, once I get over the fear of scratching/dirtying up that new pretty toy - it becomes a lot more valuable to me and not just as trade/sell fodder.
 
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I always have a knife on me and use them quite a bit. Back in the early 80's I even had to use one in self defence. This guy was trying to kill me with a tire iron outside a club in Hollywood and I had to gut stab him. LAPD deemed it self defence and I was not charged. Even thought that was almost 30 years ago, it reminds me to always carry.
 
As a cubicle drone-I find myself not using one often. I always have one on me though and feel naked if I don't, but I live by that saying (as riot also stated) ... I would rather have one with me and not need it than need one and not have it.
 
I work in maintenance at a refinery. Use mine almost everyday and they get beaten. My para2 and Delica are the best ones to use daily.
 
I almost always have one 4-inch blade (Super Commander, Recon 1, Military, etc.), a SAK, and one smaller folder (between 3 and 3.5 inches). There's not a day that goes by that I don't use one of them, at least once. Just today I used my Military to poke holes through thick foliage covering a storm drain and also cut some cardboard, used my Manix 2 to cut some cloth and cut out a coupon, and I used my SAK to tighten a phillips screw. Just depends on the task that may present itself.
 
I don't "hard use" any of my knives. I could (wouldn't) sell my used blue m390 para as new because you can't tell it's been used. I've used it as a steak knife, open boxes. I've also taken it apart and polished the washers and it opens like butter now.
 
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