Do You Ever NOT Use Your Knife?

An old fellow once told me on a job site in Alaska that a knife is only in your hand for 1% of the time you carry it. Most days, I only need to use my knife for about 5 minutes, but it is in my pocket from 7:00am until 11:30-12:00 that night. It seems to me that we should be as concerned with how a knife sits in the pocket as we are about how it fits in our hand.
 
I do it all the time. I'm not the type to "look for reasons" to cut things. I still use scissors when appropriate, or my hands to open certain packages.
Granted the vast majority, if not all will outlive me, but every time I use one I also know I shorten the life of the edge. It'll get closer to needing resharpening, and down the road that will cost more time and money in materials, (stones and what not), so if I don't "need" to use my knife, I don't use it. The result, many a day where they just become pocket jewelry, however it's still always nice to know it's there for when the opportunity presents itself to use, like a gun or fire extinguishers or smoke detector, I'd much rather have one and not need it then need one and not have one available.
 
Very true. Very true.

jackknife said:
Sometimes whole days can go by that i don't really need my knife. Living in an urban environment is different than life on a farm or ranch.

My old man once told me something that I never forgot. He said that a pocket knife is something that is carried a lot, but used a little now and then. When I was a kid and all men carried a knife in their pocket, it was always some little one of two blade penknife. It was all they really needed. Todays knife market is artificially motivated by hype of a product that has very little to with the real world.
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Apologies for the duplicate posts. I'm new at it and thought it didn't post the first couple tries
 
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115Italian said:
Ive had days where that happens. Knife never leaves my pocket. Ive gone through whole days at work never using my knife. It happens sometimes, theres just nothing to cut and Im too busy to play with my knife. But the days where I use the heck out of a knife make up for it.
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I couldn't have worded it any better.
 
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It's do or die, hit or miss, famine or feast. I forgot mine once and had to go buy a cheap one to get by. I'm 53 and live on a farm and do some remodeling out and about. That knife is the first thing I reach for in the morning getting dressed. I never know when I will need it so it has become in my mind just like my billfold. It's been like this for me since I was a kid. I don't even worry about needing it because I've always got it.... Or them!

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
 
I mentioned that I use my SAK every day. Because of its various tools, it's obviously also getting used for non-knife blade-related tasks. Such as light prying (large screwdriver), loosening a knot (corkscrew), opening cans, etc. One major reason why I no longer carry knife blade-only traditional multi-blades anymore.

Jim
 
I carry 2. My main EDC plain edge and small auto fully serrated. I find myself using the small blade more than my main EDC half the time. Sometimes I will use my knife 3-4 times a day.. Sometimes, they never come out but they are on me from time I get dressed to time the jammies go on 👍
 
I use mine just about every day. Often it's to slice an apple for a snack, slice a tomato to top a premade salad, or cut up sliced chicken that's just too big. Once in a while, it stays in the pocket all day.
More often than I'd care to admit, I'll get up in the morning and wander around the house without it in my pocket before getting fully dressed, and come across something that needs cut. It's easy enough to grab a kitchen knife or one hanging above the workbench, but so much more satisfying to just have it on me.
 
John Watson said:
Being retired now has lessened the need for a knife as often as it did in the past. Doesn't matter, the knife is a tool that should be available at all times just in case there is a loose thread or apple that needs cutting. I have carried a knife since I was young, needed or not.
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Indeed. As the old saying goes, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. :thumbup:
 
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sharkattacksw said:
Just an observation, I recently noticed that a few days had gone by and I never even removed my knife from my pocket, except when I was changing clothes at the end of the day.

So I was wondering how often you guys have days where you never remove your knife from your pocket to use it. Playing with it, flipping it open, looking at it, etc. doesn't count.
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Seldom have days that go by without using my EDC.
 
I carry my knives not looking for something to cut but simply to have them when I have something to cut.

On very rare occasions, there are days when it happens that nothing needed to be cut. Very, very rare. :D

I don't want to need to cut something and then have to waste time looking for a knife, so the first thing that goes in my pockets after I put my pants on in the morning are my pocket knives. The fixed blades and handgun are already on the belt when I pull the pants on.

I wander around the farm all day with multiple knives and a .357 but no phone. I'm way more likely to need to cut something or shoot rattlesnakes than make or take a phone call.
 
I noticed NSBFL wrote about opening packages for improving hand strength. I like the way you think. My problem is I use my hands pretty hard most days so I appreciate being able to cut open packages easily. Especially those damn Kraft macaroni and cheese boxes, can't get my thumb in there! Reached for my 940 and took the box top off with one pass.

Oh yeaahh:D
 
I use mine almost every day. If nothing else, on each day the mail runs, I open envelopes with it. But most days I find other uses, such as opening packages, clam shells, or something. Knives are such a standard part of my "wardrobe" that I feel a little odd on the rare occasions when I don't have one with me (airports/airplanes, court houses, etc).
 
When I reeeeally want to kill someone.
 
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