Folding Pry-bars.

bld522 said:
Well there are those guys, of course. And Lordy knows they make a big deal of how strong their folders are . . . with good reason. But I'm just too old school to buy into it. To me, a "hard-use folder" is an oxymoron. There are better tools for tough jobs in my estimation . . . tools whose only moving part is me. ;)
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This is something I can completely understand.

Where you live and what you do (lifestyle and work) will dictate for the most part what type of knife suits you the best, and you can generally eliminate some things that you may not do with a knife.

What really annoys me about threads like this is the "no two ways about it golden rule" that a knife can only do one thing....

That is incorrect.

Maybe the knife you carry, or how you view a "knife" makes it a single purpose tool, but it's not gospel.
Anyone in law enforcement, the Military, construction, and even people who spent a lot of time working the land or hiking can tell you that they expect their knife to be able to more than just cut, if and when required....
 
singularity35 said:
I'm thinking people who call overbuilt knives as folding prybars are using a commonly used term here and is just another way of saying hard use folder.

Second, if we admit that prying is part of the job of an overbuilt folder, then it would be relatively easy to test for that capability. We don't basically see the capability of folders in prying because of the usual reaction(witness this thread). Once particular models are determined to be capable, I'm sure we would hear about them too.

When people ask for recommendations about overbuilt knives, they usually get a lot of replies that like oxymoron and ridiculous. Which is no help at all. If people need strong knives for whatever reason, it is not our place to ridicule their choices. Instead, we should be as helpful in our recommendations of strong folders as we are helpful when someone asks for say edge retention.
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^^^^Thank you....you have figured out that there is more to the world then just what you think you know, and what you think is right. Enlightening....
 
This is all very interesting.
I think the most important thing is that you carry a knife to begin with everywhere you go and most of us here probably do.(can we all hold hands and hug now?)
Maybe there is a direct link to why we pick the blades we do? I'm willing to guess its because of personal past experiences?
I lean toward the heaver overbuilt folders myself. It would be great to always have the tools you need when you need them but we don't. Often we have an immediate unexpected task and find ourselves quickly taking inventory of our EDC and unfortunately my 20 lbs EDC key-chain with every imaginable life hack/ life saving tool is not on me....:o but my knife ALWAYS IS. Its a chosen lifestyle commitment. Picking a knife for this lifestyle commitment is probably for most, an ever changing and evolving development in progress. My personal experiences write the guidebook or the “evolving” checklist of characteristics/features that my EDC folder must have...
 
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“Bob” in accounting may have chosen his EDC (tiny SAK) based upon his experiences like the time he had to cut off the loose thread from his Argyle socks before the BIG meeting..... Bob may have trouble understanding why “Susan” in the parking garage chooses to carry a krambit and calls her a wana be barbarian queen not knowing she was physically attacked in the past....

(Im not poking fun at anyone and there tiny SAK..):D....but Susan probably is..:)
 
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brandoak said:
This is all very interesting.
I think the most important thing is that you carry a knife to begin with everywhere you go and most of us here probably do.(can we all hold hands and hug now?)
Maybe there is a direct link to why we pick the blades we do? I'm willing to guess its because of personal past experiences?
I lean toward the heaver overbuilt folders myself. It would be great to always have the tools you need when you need them but we don't. Often we have an immediate unexpected task and find ourselves quickly taking inventory of our EDC and unfortunately my 20 lbs EDC key-chain with every imaginable life hack/ life saving tool is not on me.... but my knife ALWAYS IS. Its a chosen lifestyle commitment. Picking a knife for this lifestyle commitment is probably for most, an ever changing and evolving development in progress. My personal experiences write the guidebook or the “evolving” checklist of characteristics/features that my EDC folder must have...
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Hey, everyone should have one of those keychains... I know I do LOL. :thumbup::D
 
If you cant build a fire, construct a paradise in a rain forest, take a chill pill, pry an enemies door open, clean your gun, sharpen your knife,see your keys in the dark, have a flashlight, clip your fingernails, write a note, tweeze out a sliver, AND safely give mouth to mouth to a dying child with influenza and aids, your key-chain is NOTHING!:D
 
brandoak said:
This is all very interesting.
I think the most important thing is that you carry a knife to begin with everywhere you go and most of us here probably do.(can we all hold hands and hug now?)
Maybe there is a direct link to why we pick the blades we do? I'm willing to guess its because of personal past experiences?
I lean toward the heaver overbuilt folders myself. It would be great to always have the tools you need when you need them but we don't. Often we have an immediate unexpected task and find ourselves quickly taking inventory of our EDC and unfortunately my 20 lbs EDC key-chain with every imaginable life hack/ life saving tool is not on me....:o but my knife ALWAYS IS. Its a chosen lifestyle commitment. Picking a knife for this lifestyle commitment is probably for most, an ever changing and evolving development in progress. My personal experiences write the guidebook or the “evolving” checklist of characteristics/features that my EDC folder must have...
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brandoak said:
“Bob” in accounting may have chosen his EDC (tiny SAK) based upon his experiences like the time he had to cut off the loose thread from his Argyle socks before the BIG meeting..... Bob may have trouble understanding why “Susan” in the parking garage chooses to carry a krambit and calls her a wana be barbarian queen not knowing she was physically attacked in the past....

(Im not poking fun at anyone and there tiny SAK..):D....but Susan probably is..:)
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Perfect points here, and I could not agree more!!

One thing I always have on me is a knife. I am usually never without one.

With that being said..... I need it to be able to perform certain unnecessary tasks, or lets call them tasks that the knife was not initially meant to do, but rather a second ability after cutting. There have been many times where I have been in a situation that required me to use a knife as a shovel, pry tool, scraper, and many other things other than just a knife.

I will agree with the statement that overbuilt prybar is taken out of context far too often. I am not expecting my SNG to be able to Pry open a Sewer grate, or a chink of concrete, nor would I attempt to do so with it.....

However, I do expect it to be able to handle prying out some staples on a wooden pallet that I am un-crating an engine from, and I do not have a pry bar on me or close by..... I do expect it to be able to handle light prying of hard dirt when I am out in the garden and I realize that I want to or need to dig out a plant/vegetable, etc...

I could go on and on all day long........


I also realize that the knife was designed first as a cutting tool and it needs to be good at that while doing everything else. Some knives need a little help with that aspect, (insert my Reground XM-18).

The one thing that is for sure is we all have different opinions and tastes in knives, just like everything else in life. And its ok if some of us want to have a blade/tool on us that can do more things than simply open our mail.
 
brandoak said:
If you cant build a fire, construct a paradise in a rain forest, take a chill pill, pry an enemies door open, clean your gun, sharpen your knife,see your keys in the dark, have a flashlight, clip your fingernails, write a note, tweeze out a sliver, AND safely give mouth to mouth to a dying child with influenza and aids, your key-chain is NOTHING!:D
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I think Budk sells this......
 
I definitely remember the times I didn't have a knife on me and wish I did....
Like the time I was skinny dipping in northern Ohio and a world record size blue gill clamped onto my left nipple and wouldn't let go.....:eek:
it could have been worse given the circumstances and I realize that now.... snapping turtles.......
 
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Boats said:
Lol. Can't you imagine any? I must confess I cannot think of any prying job that couldn't wait or isn't amenable to a short walk back the Jeep
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When replacing a piston on our Hydrasplit at work I used my Military to pry a rubber dampening collar off the old piston shaft.

The only tool any of us had that would fit between the collar and the mounting bracket.

Not something I would do daily, but my Military did the job. And it isn't even a "folding pry bar"
 
Fast is about getting to the end state. Quick is about moving efficiently.

The idea as I've had it explained to me is that when you try to move fast, you make mistakes, you hang up on things, but if you try to move smoothly, speed will come naturally.
 
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Boats said:
Lol. Can't you imagine any? I must confess I cannot think of any prying job that couldn't wait or isn't amenable to a short walk back the Jeep in order to risk breaking a much cheaper tool.

If there is emergency prying to be done with an EDC folder, I must not be on the correct wavelength to pick up what situation that might be.
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I personally don't have to imagine any, because I experienced one. I've told this story several times on this forum-

I was home alone, went into the bathroom and closed the door. When I was finished and went to leave, the doorknob didn't work. Apparently the bolt mechanism chose that moment to fail and locked me in the bathroom. The bathroom window was too small for me to crawl through, and I didn't feel like sitting in there for hours until my girlfriend came home, so I pulled out the only knife I happened to have on me and started prying between the door and the jamb around the area of the bolt. I was able to pry enough to get the bolt clear and opened the door to freedom.

The knife wasn't even a "tank", it was a Benchmade Darkstar. It worked, it didn't break or suffer any damage, and I still have it.

I wouldn't necessarily call that an "emergency" situation, more a matter of convenience. Naturally I don't carry a knife because I expect to get locked in bathrooms, this was simply one instance where I NEEDED to pry something, and the only tool available to me was the folding knife in my pocket. And it worked out great.

I often use my fixed-blade for what I would describe as "light prying", it's well suited for such tasks. But if I weren't able to carry a fixed-blade I'd choose a heavy-duty folder, because I like being able to perform "light prying" with whatever tools I happen to be carrying on my person. I'd probably choose a Benchmade Adamas.
 
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