Hard use on custom knives

CCC1522 said:
Everyone seems to hone in on one thing which I clearly stated would not be the main intended purpose of this knife. I said “occasional hard use such a bushcrafting”

Let me clarify. Can the knife withstand hard use like occasional bushcrafting tasks or the like if needed. Could you baton if needed without worry? Could you chop if needed without worry? Could you pry softet material such as wood or flesh without worry?

What worry you ask? The worry that the pivot would break, the worry that the lock would fail, the worry that the bearings will spill all over the place.

Jesus guys these points arent indiscernible from the original statement/question. Im not sure why everyone simply skips everything and hones in on two words “direware” and “bushcraft”. Its quite frustrating how condescending some of you are.
Click to expand...

Hello and welcome to bladeforums the knife could handle everything except batoning no folding knife is truly suited for using a baton. It applies force to the mating surfaces and can sheer the stop pin warp your lock bar etc.

But outside of that it can handle whatever you want. If you had to baton anything with a folder in a pinch make sure your lock is disengaged. Honestly though i would just carve a wooden wedge in that type of situation though.
 
It is hard to predict how a tool will perform for you. Some guys can get along with a simple knife for a lifetime, while others will break a dozen good knives while performing the very same tasks. It is largely about the user skills and style, how they choose to approach their work and how they leverage their tools to achieve the desired results. Having said that, a folding knife has many disadvantages when it comes to bushcraft; it is more complicated and far weaker than a fixed blade, harder to clean, and has the potential to inadvertently close - because it is designed to fold.

Can you use it? Absolutely, but I would rather use a better task specific tool, if at all possible.

n2s
 
Goose 7279 said:
Hello and welcome to bladeforums the knife could handle everything except batoning no folding knife is truly suited for using a baton. It applies force to the mating surfaces and can sheer the stop pin warp your lock bar etc.

But outside of that it can handle whatever you want. If you had to baton anything with a folder in a pinch make sure your lock is disengaged. Honestly though i would just carve a wooden wedge in that type of situation though.
Click to expand...


Thank you. This is exactly the type of answer im looking for. I appreciate the welcome as well and look forward to reading the other threads and learning from all of you more knowledgable ans experienced than myself.
 
CCC1522 said:
Those arent pocket knives. The whole point is to have a pocket knife that COULD manage those tasks OCCASIONALLY.
Click to expand...
I'm sure Direwire can live up to that.

Assuming that there is a fair level of craftsmanship in the specimen you purchase, chopping and batonning will cause some impingement of the lock interface. If "OCCASIONALLY" = once or twice, no real issue. If it equals, "when I think I want to when outdoors...", it will be an expensive journey. The Vox F3, at ~$100-150 is more financially suited, if the need is more than the once in a lifetime catastrophe.

The issue you're encountering is that any well-built machine can exceed "normal" standards on occasion. "Occasionally," may differ in your definition, from mine. Certainly, you can red line a Porsche 911, travelling from Oklahoma to California, a few times. If you travel to the local speedway, and do it 4-5 times per year, the wear and tear adds up. The question is one only you can answer: what is my definition of occasional and/or extreme? Hand in hand with that: is the cost of repair or replacement one I am willing to face without griping at the maker because my definition of hard-use is different than theirs?

My bias- I quit buying $500+ folders several years ago. Not that I don't like or appreciate them, it just didn't make sense for me to have so much $$ tied up in pieces that lost value in use, and were high-loss items if damaged or stolen.
 
not2sharp said:
It is hard to predict how a tool will perform for you. Some guys can get along with a simple knife for a lifetime, while others will break a dozen good knives while performing the very same tasks. It is largely about the user skills and style, how they choose to approach their work and how they leverage their tools to achieve the desired results. Having said that, a folding knife has many disadvantages when it comes to bushcraft; it is more complicated and far weaker than a fixed blade, harder to clean, and has the potential to inadvertently close - because it is designed to fold.

Can you use it? Absolutely, but I would rather use a better task specific tool, if at all possible.

n2s
Click to expand...


Of course a fixed blade is always superior which is why I also own one. I also have other BM’s which are perfect for edc and can perform what I need as well as potential hard tasks. That is what Im looking for here. I like the direware as the art it is obviously, i just wanted to make sure its not JUST pocket jewelry and can perform at least equal if not better than my benchmades. Im aware its not the best at bushcraft but I want to make sure it could get me out of or help me in bad situations where hard use akin to bushcraft wouldnt render this knife useless.

Thank you for your post.
 
Blues Bender said:
Direware+Bushcrafting=ERROR
Click to expand...
One of these things is not like the other.

direware-solo-custom-dark-tumble-cf-large.jpg
FT10791a.jpg
 
Rob72 said:
I'm sure Direwire can live up to that.

Assuming that there is a fair level of craftsmanship in the specimen you purchase, chopping and batonning will cause some impingement of the lock interface. If "OCCASIONALLY" = once or twice, no real issue. If it equals, "when I think I want to when outdoors...", it will be an expensive journey. The Vox F3, at ~$100-150 is more financially suited, if the need is more than the once in a lifetime catastrophe.

The issue you're encountering is that any well-built machine can exceed "normal" standards on occasion. "Occasionally," may differ in your definition, from mine. Certainly, you can red line a Porsche 911, travelling from Oklahoma to California, a few times. If you travel to the local speedway, and do it 4-5 times per year, the wear and tear adds up. The question is one only you can answer: what is my definition of occasional and/or extreme? Hand in hand with that: is the cost of repair or replacement one I am willing to face without griping at the maker because my definition of hard-use is different than theirs?

My bias- I quit buying $500+ folders several years ago. Not that I don't like or appreciate them, it just didn't make sense for me to have so much $$ tied up in pieces that lost value in use, and were high-loss items if damaged or stolen.
Click to expand...


Very good points here. By occasional it would be once or twice a year. And as another poster pointed out I would carve a wedge before batoning. Which is a perfect example of using the tool intelligently. But the fact stands youd have to carve the wedge after obtaining the suitable sized block of wood which could involve some prying or other tough tasks. Just making sure it could do it. Not that I will for sure without a doubt do it.
 
I think what everyone is trying to say is, don't buy the direware expecting it to perform meaningfully at bushcrafting. Of course it's your money, but the knife will suck at the tasks you want use it for.

Live and learn I guess.
 
How about: buy a Cold Steel 4Max. Send it to Josh @ REK for a "nightmare" regrind.

I'm just spitballin' here.
 
CCC1522 said:
Thank you. This is exactly the type of answer im looking for. I appreciate the welcome as well and look forward to reading the other threads and learning from all of you more knowledgable ans experienced than myself.
Click to expand...

No problem hang around and there really are some valuable info arpund here. I know when i first got into knives i wanted a folding knife that could do everything like pry open a manhole and still be able to slice through tomato so thin you could read the newspaper through it :-) i learned that what i wanted was a direct conflict of interest for each application.

Like if your doing really fine detail work in bushcrafting you would want a thinmer blade and if you wanted the strength to pry open a manhole /wood crate/ baton hardwood it needs to be thicker
 
shinyedges said:
I think what everyone is trying to say is, don't buy the direware expecting it to perform meaningfully at bushcrafting. Of course it's your money, but the knife will suck at the tasks you want use it for.

Live and learn I guess.
Click to expand...

Im not sure many of the ppl saying so read clearly what I said. But ok.
 
CCC1522 said:
Hello all this is my first time posting here so I apologize if this topic may have been covered. I did look but couldnt find anything really all that helpful.

Im interested in purchasing a Direware Solo. However, I do not want to spend the money on a piece of art only. I want my knife to be a tool first and a piece of art second. I have heard as we all have that these custom knives are “overbuilt”. Can these knives withstand hard use? I dont plan on abusing mine but I do plan on using it regularly with the occasional hard use outdoors buchcrafting and such. Can these knives withstand these tasks and are they any better than production knives from benchmade or ZT?

Do these knives actually merit the description of overbuilt or are they simply art pieces?
Click to expand...


Answering your original post.

Most discerning knife people will be let down with basically everything, as with any hobby or pursuit. Most knives produced are made for people who don't know or don't care about what they want and need. Or maybe the opposite is true, maybe most people could handle most situations with scissors or a key and giving them anything regardless of function is good enough. If you have to ask, you're setting yourself up for disappointment because you are already admitting you don't know what you want.

Point is, don't ask until you yourself know what you want and know enough to understand why most people's responses to more in depth questions is simply bs and should be disregarded.

As far as hard use folders, there are none. Not really. Many, many people buy and carry cheap pieces of crap from autozone or whatever and do just fine with them. Buy what makes sense to you and use it.
 
Someone1 said:
Answering your original post.

Most discerning knife people will be let down with basically everything, as with any hobby or pursuit. Most knives produced are made for people who don't know or don't care about what they want and need. Or maybe the opposite is true, maybe most people could handle most situations with scissors or a key and giving them anything regardless of function is good enough. If you have to ask, you're setting yourself up for disappointment because you are already admitting you don't know what you want.

Point is, don't ask until you yourself know what you want and know enough to understand why most people's responses to more in depth questions is simply bs and should be disregarded.

As far as hard use folders, there are none. Not really. Many, many people buy and carry cheap pieces of crap from autozone or whatever and do just fine with them. Buy what makes sense to you and use it.
Click to expand...

This seems to be the case more and more. i know what I want in a knife. A good edc blade that could withstand some abuse when the time comes if it ever did. That doesnt seem like an impossible task which is why as you noted many get along just fine with an autozone knife.

but youre right about all of it. Thank you for the post.
 
CCC1522 said:
This seems to be the case more and more. i know what I want in a knife. A good edc blade that could withstand some abuse when the time comes if it ever did. That doesnt seem like an impossible task which is why as you noted many get along just fine with an autozone knife.

but youre right about all of it. Thank you for the post.
Click to expand...


Most of the knife game isn't about what we need. Based on your own analysis mentioned here, a demko triad from cold steel will do everything you want and more compared to other, far more expensive knives that run on pure bs marketing.

I'd say if you want a prestigious hard use custom, go with an actual demko custom. And i say this not even owning any cold steel or demko knives. But truth is the truth. Direware is as much hype as hinderer. You only buy those if you want hyped up knives that do little to satisfy real needs of working people, but you like the marketing and the resell value is good. But they're not for people that actually demand hard work.

On the flip side, I've really put some knives like the spyderco military through some hard use. The design doesn't look like it should be great for those tasks. I used some common sense when using it in those situations and it came out fine and for everything else, performed great.


Take care and good luck. Most customs won't perform better than production knives. Depends on what you need and why
 
CCC1522 said:
Those arent pocket knives. The whole point is to have a pocket knife that COULD manage those tasks OCCASIONALLY.
Click to expand...

Batoning or chopping? On a folder? I don't care WHO makes a folding knife, the pivot is always going to be the weak point when performing activities the deliver a shock to the makeup of the knife.

All I can say is, good luck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mo2
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top