Do you mind a scratched EDC?

Z

ZTFan

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Oct 6, 2016
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I recently took my first dive into the custom knife world, and I couldn’t be happier. When you get a new knife, especially if it cost more than you ever thought you’d spend on one, you can’t imagine ever scratching it. Well I was showing it to some friends last night after the Warriors game, and later that night I noticed some very minor scratching on the titanium handles and pocket clip. At first I was upset, mostly because I had no idea how anyone had managed to scratch it so quickly, but I quickly realized how silly it was to be upset about something so trivial.

Ultimately a knife is a tool. Even a custom knife. Unless you bought it just to lock inside a display cabinet and never use, or maybe turn around and resell on the secondary market, a knife should be used. Personally, I bought the Cope with every intention to carry it every day and use it whenever I needed to. Scratches and minor damage will occur with any tool, so it’s important to not dwell on keeping it in the pristine condition that you received it in.

No one buys titanium for its scratch-resistant qualities. I’m sure Syrian warriors 2,000 years ago didn’t care if their Damascus blades got scratched. The fact that my knife was built with washers instead of ball bearings or springs means it was intended for work, which consequently means it was built for and ready to take a beating if need be.

Sorry for the rambling, but I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that anything I buy and use in any practical way is going to incur damage. A phone, a car, shoes, and yes even an expensive knife. And that’s ok. That’s the real world. And I still couldn’t be happier with my purchase.

And who knows, if I ever decided to sell her, there’s always the spa!
 
Those first scratches are TOUGH! Especially when it was so pristine when you got it. Believe me though you will get over it. I have beat the crap out of some of my customs. They may be scratched, but they were built so well that they just keep coming back for more.

Enjoy your knife!!
 
I'm not sure why knives with springs or ball bearings aren't built for work.. I mean that's a large portion of knives out in the wild, especially these days.

I don't mind scratches on my knives, but I don't go out purposely trying to mar them up. If it happens, it happens. That said, some knives take scratches much better than others.
 
Scratched handles are easy, scratches on s30v are hard to lay down! I try not to scratch softer cladding on my seki city slicers, but they’re probably easier to buff out as well (haven’t tried).
 
Genrally no not at all, but I will say a bright shiny polished stainless blade will look like crap all scratched up.

A tumbled finish or as ground finish such as the hollow grind on Bucks often not show up at different angles, and a carbon steel will patina and those scratches will not stand out so much.

I don't mind scratches, but they can make some knives look like crap.
I'm my opinion a knife meant to be used should be finished in a way that it doesn't look like crap after it's been used.
 
I don't mind them. They say there's a story behind every scratch, and I happen to like stories!
 
Well, I don't like my users to be all scratched up & abused, which I never do. I hate to be the first to scratch or put signs of use on a new knife. That's why I buy pre-owned, well cared for knives as my EDC. I'm the same way with my wristwatches.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Genrally no not at all, but I will say a bright shiny polished stainless blade will look like crap all scratched up.

A tumbled finish or as ground finish such as the hollow grind on Bucks often not show up at different angles, and a carbon steel will patina and those scratches will not stand out so much.

I don't mind scratches, but they can make some knives look like crap.
I'm my opinion a knife meant to be used should be finished in a way that it doesn't look like crap after it's been used.
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Yeah, you’re right about a polished blade being tougher to scratch unless it’s 420J2 or equivalent. Stonewashed or coated blades are designed to be scratched, it seems.
 
I don’t mind scratches on knives that look good with them - which, honestly, isn’t all of them. I like the look on knives I see as utilitarian or workhorse knives, but the more ornate knives tend to just look bad to me when damaged. This is also why I don’t own any particularly fancy knives - what’s the point of a tool you don’t use? What, am I going to start a hammer collection next? Get a polished micarta handle and get timascus inserts in the claw? Get tritium on the sides of it? Now I kinda want one.
 
Yonose said:
Yeah, you’re right about a polished blade being tougher to scratch unless it’s 420J2 or equivalent. Stonewashed or coated blades are designed to be scratched, it seems.
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I was saying they look worse when scratch, not liking them I've not had enough to know that they're tougher to scratch.
 
Hickory n steel said:
I was saying they look worse when scratch, not liking them I've not had enough to know that they're tougher to scratch.
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My bad, I didn’t mean to put words out of place. I should have said in my experience polished knives, of the d2 and up at proper hardness, either scratch much less easily or don’t show it nearly as much. I almost always have a Ti s30v Millie in my pocket, use it for everything, and until I checked it just now I would’ve sworn it didn’t have a scratch on it. I looked closely, in the light, sure enough, at least 15 very light scratches in the blade.
 
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I don't EDC expensive knives. I EDC a great dirt cheap multi-tool I wouldn't mind losing, breaking, scratching, etc. It baffles me why anyone would take out $100+ in their pockets knowing that at any given instance these things may happen to their knife.
 
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