Do You Dig With Your Knife?

redsquid2

redsquid2

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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Aug 31, 2011
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I have seen people cut sod with a knife, and I recently came upon a picture of an Air Force officer digging in the dirt, with one of those nice ESEE knives, in SERE training. I just cringed.

At the age of 48, I have never used a knife to dig with. I was always taught that's not what a knife is for, and I don't like sharpening unless I really need to.

Of course, if it was an emergency, that would be different.
 
I have cut into the roots dirt or sod or the like if im gardening or landscaping, but I never actually dug into the dirt with my knife
 
Yes...I've spent many days in the outdoors in my life, most without a spade, trowel or shovel. I also prefer to bury my scat. This narrows down the options.
 
sven56 said:
Yes...I've spent many days in the outdoors in my life, most without a spade, trowel or shovel. I also prefer to bury my scat. This narrows down the options.
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I hide my scat with leaves and brush.
 
If I don't have a shovel , I carve a digging stick. This saves my knife edge for cutting stuff.
 
The only time I have ever "dug" anything was when I cut some sod. It removed the teflon from this CS Lawman pretty quickly. But I'm with Brother Hiwa - I almost always just use my knives to cut things. Crazy.

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There are many knives that I dig, but no knives that I'll dig with..:D
 
Trying to dig with a stick in a hurry in hard, rocky soil wastes more energy than sharpening a knife. Sticks are fine in soft or loamy soil, but they don't push/scoop much. I can manage 10 minutes of freehand sharpening...it's actually quite therapeutic.
 
depends on the knife. I've used by my Buck Nighthawk to dig before (but don't think I would ever use my Bravo 1 to dig).
 
sven56 said:
Trying to dig with a stick in a hurry in hard, rocky soil wastes more energy than sharpening a knife. Sticks are fine in soft or loamy soil, but they don't push/scoop much. I can manage 10 minutes of freehand sharpening...it's actually quite therapeutic.
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If you wanna dig in a hurry, use a shovel. :D
 
Dig... as in the action of moving topsoil from one location to another? I have not. I've used knives to cut buried roots, though. It went alright, but I wouldn't go out of my way to do it again.
I also have a trio of throwing knives that I use exclusively to... uh... aerate the lawn... several times a week. They are in terrible shape and I can't help but imagine that actually digging with them would be worse.

I'll probably be leaving that task to the shovels.
 
Sep said:
They actually make a knife specifically for digging

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Those are neat, would be great for metal detecting in the woods.

And yes, I did dig with my knife once. Was metal detecting at a city park and forgot my trowel. It was very soft dirt and dulled the heck out of my buck vantage.
 
Only once...was caught in a torrential rainstorm while hunting..it started to flood through our campsite about 2.am....used my Svord bowie to dig a channel...A camp knife will be used for whatever it is required to do....FES
 
So far in life I have only encountered a few emergencies, and none of them involved digging. I find it pretty hard to envision a scenario where I would need to emergency dig.

I have been fortunate enough to have ALWAYS had something better available for my digging needs (so far).
 
the only one I would consider doing that with is my coldsteel shovel which has a pretty sharp edge to it.

I once had my hand slip down a machette which was a bit slick with mud and it damn near cut my fingers down to the bone. Last time I use any blade for digging!
 
If you want to dig something, use a shovel. If you want to pry something, use a prybar. If you want to cut or stab something, use a knife. Do you understand the concept of the right tool for the job?.:D.
 
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