Ever avoid using your new blade?

M

Metro

Joined
Oct 30, 2005
Messages
62
I got my new Camillus heat last weekend and I know you guys will probably laugh but it's my first decent blade and I love how sharp it is and it's quality. The problem is I find myself continuing to carry my beater S&W beater knife to use and can't bring myself to use the Camillus for fear of marring it or dulling it's razor sharp edge. God I'd hate to see what it would be like if I bought a nice Benchmade or Sebenza etc... HELP!!
 
I'm not the only one that does this? Maybe I'm not crazy!!!!

Each time I order a new knife, I tell myself in the several days that it takes to arrive that there will be "no more of this foolishness. You will use this knife to cut fiberglass tape, scrape cow poop off your boots, rip carpet to shreds, take down big pieces of cardboard, etc..." BUT what do I do? I worship the cursed thing as an icon, carry it everywhere, and never use the thing! Instead, I'll grab whatever "crap" knife I can find and use it instead. (And it ain't because I can't sharpen a knife, believe me.)

Why this madness?
 
I know exactly what you mean...Especially with large fixed blades! I am so reluctant to go and chop some stuff with a fresh edged fixed blade because i know after just 1 swing it looses that razor edge. I also carry a small fixed blade in my car so if i have to cut some "un-worthy" of using my EDC i have the Beater to use.
 
Yeah, I'm usually the same way for maybe a week. Then I give it to mild use, eventually it gets scratched or something, then I can give it the workout it was designed for. I tend to only buy knives that are financially replaceable for me--even though I won't, I can tell myself "Oh, if I scratch it all up, I can just go out and buy another one." Again, just for personal ease of mind, never actually done it. Totally normal. If you want to avoid it, order your knives used on line, already broken in. They're cheaper, for one thing, and they're already a little weathered, so you don't fear that first scratch. That's what I love about my HI WW2 Khukuri. Came broken in. Not afraid to put it through hell from day one. Would be a different story had I gotten it new.
 
I do that too, but the stage only lasts a couple weeks. I don't have many knives at any given point, so they all eventually become users.
 
I'm always leery about using my new knife because I know the first thing I'm gonna do is slice myself.

happens every time.
 
Wait til you get into sharpening, then you use them just so they get dull so you can put your own edge on it.:thumbup: Last night I spent 2 1/2 hours reprofiling my pert near new Tanto SMF even though it wasn't actually dull yet. Took it to 15 degrees per side then a 20 degree micro bevel and it cuts hair like nobodies business now.:thumbup: :thumbup:

oil
 
Out of what I own right now, I've never used my Buck 110 custom damascus blade/stag scales. Never even accidentally cut myself with it.
 
Metro, perhaps you are an "Accumulator" at heart, not a "User"?

Of my 210+ knives, only 5% have ever been used and do not have the original factory edge. Of the 5%, one is my EDC, a few are junkers that people gave me, and a few are knives I used as a boy.

For the short term, the only way that I see through your dilema, buy a second identical Camillus Heat just for using. :)

Best Wishes,
Bob
 
i was the same way... i would just look at and clean my knives and never use them. until i got a strider ! from day one i cut everything i could find just to see how "good" it is. and it's gooood.:p
 
Yup I do the same thing to my knives I look and play and clean and look and play and clean until I get up the nerve to use them. I did this to a busse of mine until i remembered the damned thing was made outa infi;) . I think its perfectly normal and once you start using it, all that babying kinda goes wayside to how much can this puppy take!
 
I'm sort of like that until the first "character" mark. Usually, though, I do carry a "hard use" knife like my Ka-Bar/Dozier folding hunter and try to baby the new ones for a bit. Once they get by the "honeymoon" period, they don't get treated so nicely. For the most part - a little scraping, cardboard boxes is about as hard as it gets. I do like keeping my blades as nice as possible, but I don't mind it getting some "character" either:)

Interestingly, when I got my Buck/Strider 887SBT Police Advocate, it's first job was chiselling out a door jam for a deadbolt I was installing, and it's second job was digging in the garden and doing some "sod busting". It just sort of blinked at me as if it was expecting some "real work". The gardening portion dulled the edge pretty good (it doesn't like rocks) - no chips, and I got the edge back pretty easy once I ran under the tap to find it:D I don't think I would have done this with any of my other folders - not that they couldn't have handled it, but just something about this one, demanded it.

Some of my fixed blades get terrorized the odd time, especially if it's a tool steel one that I've made, though I haven't made one this year (just too busy with work, etc) more for testing than anything else - usually when a wreck a grind line, or something, I'll finish it up and beat it up to destruction or close to destruction (now it's a beater) just to test my HT.

- gord
 
No. I use my knives as soon as I get an opportunity. I dont buy knives just to look at.

Lurp:
I know exactly what you mean...Especially with large fixed blades! I am so reluctant to go and chop some stuff with a fresh edged fixed blade because i know after just 1 swing it looses that razor edge. I also carry a small fixed blade in my car so if i have to cut some "un-worthy" of using my EDC i have the Beater to use.
Click to expand...

If you are losing the edge after 1 swing, you need a better knife.
 
I thought the Camillus Heat was the beater for people who didn't want to scratch up their nice shiny new Dominator! :D
 
I carry knives for self defense and never use them for anything. I carry a small SAK on my keychain for when I need to cut something. I got tired of hearing my wife complain that I was carrying a knife, but wouldn't cut anything with it, so I got the SAK.
 
I do the same. I recently got a william henry and always worried it will fall out of the leather open end pouch I keep in my rf pocket. Even more so, I have not caarried my new Kimber 45 that cost $1100, even though I am a retired police officer and can legally carry same. God forbid I have to use it and it is turned as evedence and never given back. That probably won't happen, but I think about it.
 
I'm always squeamish about using a new knife----untill my most recent purchase---I figured my sub $30 Buck 110 is one of the cheapest---in dollars---knives I own------I designated it as my beater from the get-go----so that way I don't use my expensive ones----lololololololololol

Twisted logic---but that's how it is.
 
That's why I carry a little cheap beater knife in my pocket to use, and the other better knife stay clipped to my pocket... :confused:
 
I go through this from time to time. If it's a very expensive, nice looking knife - but I'm not fully attached to it - I think I shouldn't mess it up because I'll probably end up selling or trading it later.

The one that I don't feel guilty about never using is my Spydie Lum Chinese. I can honestly tell myself that I should keep it mint because they won't be making any more of them.

The best knives are really well made ones that cost enough money to be well-made but not so expensive that you worry about using them. Knives like my Military and A.G. Russell Strikeforce both went into full use immediately and with none of the agonizing over it. I just ordered a BladeTech Pro Hunter Lite that I believe will fit quite comfortably into that category. :)
 
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