Do You Dig With Your Knife?

machine26 said:
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.
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This kind of implement is a hybrid between a knife and a trowel. It's slightly concave on one side like a trowel, but it's shaped and edged like a knife. It's not gonna push cut paper, but it's still much sharper than a trowel.
 
B.Mauser said:
I have never had to dig with a knife. But my life has never depended on it.

Seems to me SERE training is teaching them to save their lives in an emergency and I don't see how that could make anyone cringe.
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Of course you do what you have to do in a life-or-death situation. I guess I cringed as a conditioned response, from all the years of Scoutmasters pounding proper knife care into my head.

It turns out the picture was taken in Iraq, and I would guess the man using it is an infantryman.


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40 years ago or a little more I was standing at a gun show table examining a Taiwanese Fairbairn-Sykes dagger. A grumpy old guy stomps up to the table and chews out the seller - what ya doin tryin to sell the kid a fake Fairbairn knife - they're no damm good anyway - the tips bend-and make a lousy shovel. The seller tells him - hey -gunny - I didn't tell him it was authentic - I back him up on this and the guy stomps off.Seller sighs and says - he's been grumpy ever since he left that foot at the Chosin. OK - I got that - not the only guy I'd ever run into who was still hurtin from what he'd done for us.What I really didn't get was the shovel comment -why would anyone use or confuse a F-S commando knife with a shovel ? My generation has produced a lot of combat veterans - I eventually realized that while I'd heard some stories about the guy in a company or squadron a valley away who had killed in combat with a knife - personally I've never run into a guy who said he had used a knife to kill someone - it was always that friend of a cousin of a buddy in a unit over the hill somewhere. What i did run into - over and over again - was the guy say somthin like - I pulled out my KaBar ( sometimes a bayonet if a army vet) and dug myself a hole and I f I hadn't been able to get my ass that first foot into the ground I'd be dead now 'cause the (mortars,grenades,grazing MG fire) would a killed me. OK - so now I understood what gunny was sayin. Caused me to take another look at the classic KaBar Marine knife - that round handle means that you can grip it 90 DEg. out from normal use and chop into the ground pretty efficiently. Try that with one of the handles on a modern fighting knife and it keeps wanting to turn into your hand - it's designed to align that blade in your hand - just not a very good shovel.
Have been grateful no one's been shootin at me while doing it - but I've dug with knives pretty regularly over the years. This is probably one of the reasons I keep tryin to go to smaller folders and can't stay there ( "Friends don;t let friends try out big folders - it'l become a habit!).
 
redsquid2 said:
Of course you do what you have to do in a life-or-death situation. I guess I cringed as a conditioned response, from all the years of Scoutmasters pounding proper knife care into my head.

It turns out the picture was taken in Iraq, and I would guess the man using it is an infantryman.


rc5-iraq.jpg
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Notice the new digicamo on his face.
 
My mom uses her small Machete (8-10 in blade) to dig small holes for like tulip bulbs, or small potted herbs. Anything larger than say a 4 in hole, she grabs a shovel.

It's a technique that's popular in Asian countries to dig with a knife.
 
I've never really dug anything with my knives, but I have cut through some pesky roots. Unless I'm pressed into it, I try to use the appropriate tool for the job. I'll usually even have a small folding shovel on me during a hike.
 
There are situations when you will dig and drag with your knife - you just have to know how to. Never pull the cutting edge toward you - you damage the blade when you don't know better. Use spine for that.
PS on cell did not seen how old this is.
 
Never actually dug with a knife, but I have cut roots, cut root balls, divided plants, and so forth. The knife I use for such things is a original Condor Bushlore which is built like a tank. Would I? If I needed to, but I don't see it happening any time soon.
 
My wife used her knife to cut sod. A Kershaw Blur. Had to flush out all the dirt, clean, lube and sharpen to get it up and running again.
 
yes. i use a glock knife to dig with while using my metal detector. its hardly a knife anymore but it works better then anything else i have for that task

ETA:

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Only if my life depends on it.

Or it's one of my cheaper fixed blades..

Actually I went camping once and only had my Commander with me.. Ended up digging a shit hole with it.
 
I do pretty much weekly and unhesitantly at this point (I only cringe the first few times with a new knife)... I'm a stone mason as well as being "that guy" at my company thay gets called to fix everything.

I only do it with fixed blades, I cut [new] sod [as I'm laying it] with folders but only FB's for digging into the ground.
 
Yes, I've used my knives for digging. At the times I have done so, they were the only thing I had immediately handy. As others have mentioned, the blades dulled quickly, whether AUS-8, VG-1, or ATS-34. I've also used my knives to cut open bags of potting soil, sand, and pea gravel, which also dulled the blades quickly. I don't generally buy my knives just to look at, but to use.
 
redsquid2 said:
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.
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I've only used​ a knife to dig once, and that was while escaping prison, and it was a shiv. I wasn't too worried about breaking it.

Sent via carrier pigeon
 
K.O.D. said:
I've only used​ a knife to dig once, and that was while escaping prison, and it was a shiv. I wasn't too worried about breaking it.

Sent via carrier pigeon
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Is that enlarged member or orifice ?
 
Necrothread!!!

I've cut sod and roots with my knife in a pinch. Not something I do regularly.
 
Hey when a company say if it brakes we replace it . I will do everything I can with it . ESEE 4 is what I use for my gardening I dig holes for my plants i use it for everything in my back Yard.

 
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