Hard use/abuse knives vs. somewhat "babied" knives that you carry...

S

ShooterMcgavin

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Jan 20, 2008
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A lot of what I read on this forum is great... People buying great and expensive tools and really putting them to hard work. I'm wondering about the knives you choose to carry for the tasks you might undertake for the day. The question is: Do you choose a different knife to carry when you suspect that your day's chores might require some hard use/abuse, compared to an easy day where you won't likely have rough use to get done? What are the knives you choose for easy use and for hard use/abuse?

I typically work in an office environment, so my usual days don't require pushing a knife to its limits. Simple cutting of mild materials is my regular needs - cutting paper, tape, rubbery stuff, zip-ties, etc. For those needs, I usually carry a Spyderco Caly 3.5 Super Blue. I have put a patina on the blade and brought the edge angle down to about 10 degrees per side. I love it, for what it is made for.

Alternatively, there are times when I am working outside, driving big trucks that may break down, in the woods, or cutting harsh materials. I might be cutting cardboard with staples in it, cutting plastic ties with the risk of slipping into metal engine parts, or cutting material with sand in it. Maybe I would need to pry something gently or use the knife spine as a makeshift tool to turn a valve. For those times, I prefer to keep my Caly 3.5 at home and instead I will carry a Cold Steel Voyager, 3" plain edge clip point, usually. Sometimes, I will carry one of my Benchmade Griptilians.

How about you?
 
I edc a small Insingo, and use it for pretty much anything that crosses my path. I really make it a point not to baby it, however when I know its going to get intense I reach for my Benchmade 710..
 
Strider SnG for any/all tasks. I do LOVE some of my nicer knives (Sebenza, ect.) but the Striders can seemingly take everything I throw at em WITH a warranty that does not recognize the word "abuse."

Avoid staples with ANY knife though!
 
Depending on my mood, I either grab my ZT301 or 350. from yardwork to home renovations to working on cars, either of these are on me. I like using all of my knives, so far no safe queens.
 
I have been using a Byrd Cara Cara 2 pretty hard...Really awesome blade at a disposable price point.
 
I use my Ritter Mini, with Wilkins scales, hard as I would use any knife. With the scales it is not a a real cheap knife but just knowing I can repair it with another Benchmade it makes it a nice hard use knife. So far it has held up very well with no blade chipping, rolling of the blade or lock wear.
 
+1 on the Byrd line. Tough knives and a great value. I usually abuse my Kershaws or my Byrds, but I don't have what people would call high end on this board. I baby my spydercos only because they are my "dress" knives being so thin and light. I don't need heavy duty cutting very often when I am dressed up.
 
tomsch said:
I use my Ritter Mini, with Wilkins scales, hard as I would use any knife. With the scales it is not a a real cheap knife but just knowing I can repair it with another Benchmade it makes it a nice hard use knife. So far it has held up very well with no blade chipping, rolling of the blade or lock wear.
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That is a great knife. I've really wanted one with an M4 blade. If I had that option, it would probably be a "do everything" knife for me.
I like my sprint run Caly 3.5 too much to leave it un-carried, but I know I can't replace it and it is a thin blade, so I won't put it to real hard use.
 
Good question.
The knife I babie is a Mandi with cocobolo inlay.
The knife I use more is a large micarta Sebenza.
In the garden i often use an old Spyderco Endura.
The Endura has the zytel clip and is plain edge; bought it used and it is so light.
red mag
 
I open packages, letters, boxes, break down boxes, cut some branches and food. The only knife (not counting key-chain knife), which used gently is Moki Glory because I prefer a better grip of my spydies. I usually carry more than one knife and trying to keep one of them "clean", in case if I need to cut food. I would really hate to taste a clue on my apple or salad. Sometimes I cannot give my knife sufficient cleaning at work. Any of my EDC can be a clean knife today, but "cut anything" tomorrow or next week. Sometimes I hit brass staples, when I open boxes. I absolutely hate this, but this is what coarse stones for.
 
I used to really dislike using my EDC knife to open boxes because I hated getting packing tape gunk on my edge. I'd rather hack at the box for a minute with the corner of a ruler. But I learned a little trick that has eliminated that problem. I believe I learned this tip from a knifenut video, but I don't remember exactly. You can easily clean packing tape gunk from your blade by -- and don't laugh because it really works -- rubbing the tip of your finger on your nose to get the oils on there, then just wipe the packing tape gunk off. It comes right off! Then wipe blade off with your shirt, and good to go. Now I use my EDC knife to cut everything... including packages! :D :D :D
 
I usually pair a smaller, thinner blade like a Dragonfly with something a bit heavier duty. I wouldn't really say I baby the small knives, but there are some things it's either difficult or inadvisable to do with a very small knife.
 
Magnaminous_G said:
I used to really dislike using my EDC knife to open boxes because I hated getting packing tape gunk on my edge. I'd rather hack at the box for a minute with the corner of a ruler. But I learned a little trick that has eliminated that problem. I believe I learned this tip from a knifenut video, but I don't remember exactly. You can easily clean packing tape gunk from your blade by -- and don't laugh because it really works -- rubbing the tip of your finger on your nose to get the oils on there, then just wipe the packing tape gunk off. It comes right off! Then wipe blade off with your shirt, and good to go. Now I use my EDC knife to cut everything... including packages! :D :D :D
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Gonna try this trick once the chance arises. But wouldn't it be easier to like..strop it against the nose? less hassle; more nose oil.:D
 
I EDC every knife that I own. That said, I DO tend to grab a less expensive knife if I suspect that there's a good chance of trashing or losing the knife that day. For example, I don't cary an expensive knife on boating days. I've sacrificed more than one knife to the lake gods over the years (Along with cell phones, hats, sunglasses, etc...). Or if I'm going to be working in an extremely harsh environment like mud for example, I'll grab a less expensive knife. Some days you kust KNOW that the knife will be abused to some extent and I have a large enough collection to chose something appropriate.
 
I don't specifically baby my more expensive knives, but if I am doing something that has a reasonable expectation of damaging the knife (or if I'm lending a knife), I'll reach for something that will hurt less financially if broken or lost. I keep a KaBar Dozier in my work bag for just that purpose.

KaBar_DozierFH_800x638.jpg
 
When I don't expect to do a lot of cutting chores, I usually carry something smaller, slimmer, and less heavy-duty than when I expect to be doing a lot of work with my knife.

For example, I usually carry a Vic Pioneer on a day-to-day basis, or, more recently, a Grohmann slipjoint. They do get a lot of use, but normally it's very light stuff like opening mail or whatever. I don't shy away from using them, but they just happen to get used for less heavy-duty chores than my other knives.

When I know that I'm going to need to to a lot of cutting, etc., I usually carry something larger, sturdier, and generally more abuseable (what I refer to as a work knife) - like a Spyderco Manix 2, Leatherman skeletool, or Benchmade Presidio. These end up doing the more heavy-duty cutting/prying/whatever chores.

Strangely enough, the knives that I end up using and abusing the most end up being the more expensive ones (My 120$ sprint run Manix, for example, gets used for opening bags of quick-crete and all manner of junk that really tears it up. My 30$ grohmann gets used for opening mail.).
 
Well, call my crazy but most of the time I carry 3 knives.

I have a Victorinox Super Tinker that I suppose I baby a bit simply because its not a "hard use" knife. I use the small blade that I keep razor sharp at 30 degrees inclusive for things like stopping hangnails etc. It's my personal scalpel if you will. I use the scissors a lot and the screw drivers a lot.

I alternate a Delica or Endura largely for the one-hand deployment and all-in all, this knife does the most cutting. It's somewhere in the middle or maybe even gets babied a bit because they are really meant for serious "hard use" like...

...my third knife, the ESEE Izula fixed blade. That's the hard use knife. I would not hesitate to do anything with that thing but to be honest, I have it if I need it but I don't use it an awful lot. I needed a small, shallow container to put some solvent in and I did not hesitate to use the Izula to cut a metal can down short...stabbed it into the side and worked my way around the can...ragged but worked great.
 
Great question,

I usually just carry my Sebenza or xm18 when I suspect the day will consist of hard use. Otherwise I carry my Customs when I know its going to be an easy day, but if I need to use them to cut, I do so.
 
Magnaminous_G said:
I used to really dislike using my EDC knife to open boxes because I hated getting packing tape gunk on my edge. I'd rather hack at the box for a minute with the corner of a ruler. But I learned a little trick that has eliminated that problem. I believe I learned this tip from a knifenut video, but I don't remember exactly. You can easily clean packing tape gunk from your blade by -- and don't laugh because it really works -- rubbing the tip of your finger on your nose to get the oils on there, then just wipe the packing tape gunk off. It comes right off! Then wipe blade off with your shirt, and good to go. Now I use my EDC knife to cut everything... including packages! :D :D :D
Click to expand...

Never tried that one before, but I have cut through the sections of cardboard that don't have tape residue on them and that seems to clean it off well enough for me.
 
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