Have you ever worn out a “nice” knife?

Macchina

Macchina

Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
5,213
As with many on here I have a large collection I rotate through. I may only carry a single knife every couple weeks or so. I sharpen religiously, usually just a touch up on a Spyderco white ceramic but if I used a knife hard during the day I usually return the edge to super sharp.

I have seen my redneck brother actually use up cheap knives (usually the pivot hardware gives out on his as he doesn’t maintain them and they break down). He sharpens with grinder or something similar and the blade’s primary grind becomes too thick.

I have “well worn” knives, blade scratches and some serious wear on Nylon handles. Usually the blade is noticeably less tall when compared to a new one. Even some of my Sebenzas are getting worn to the point of having to back off the pivot screw to allow them to open smoothly. But all of them are still in perfect working order and definitely work for their intended purposes.

Does anyone have pictures of nice knives (let’s say Benchmade/Spyderco or nicer) that are actually unusable anymore? Curious what it would take to get to this point.
 
I've never really worn out or broken a nice knife, no. I broke the backlock on an Extrema Ratio knife years ago trying to batton with it 😜 when I first learned what battoning was, but I was able to fix that. I do have a series of pictures from random sources online, everytime I see a pic of a well worn knife I save it on my computer. Some may be from pics that Bladeforum members here have posted, apologies if it's anyone's. Here's one.
Well Worn Leek.jpg
 
And finally a Umnumzaan that a guy did some battoning with and the ceramic ball, being harder than the steel, gouged a divot into the lockface. I believe I remember him saying that he did quite a bit of battoning and crazy stuff with it.
Well worn umnumzaan.jpg
 
My Bradley Alias 1 was my daily carry/work knife for several years. It got used a lot, no doubt opened and closed many thousands of times at work. It's a titanium frame lock, and although it's not "worn out", the contact surface for the lock has gotten seriously worn over the years.

The very outer edge of the locks contact surface has a little raised ledge to prevent the lock from ever passing all the way across the blade tang and hitting the opposite handle scale. The lock has worn to the point that the blade tang now hits that raised ledge. But yet the knife still locks up tight.

On a related note, when it comes to the subject of "worn-out" knives, I'd say there is a difference between knives that were used a lot, and knives that have simply suffered from improper/excessive sharpening. A few passes on a grinder or through an electric sharpener can significantly and instantaneously alter the appearance of a blade. I wouldn't call that "wear" as much as I'd call it "damage".

nW9RrpJ.jpg
 
No!

I'm trying very hard to!

Can't seem to wear out any of my 'nice' knives.

I'm starting to think that companies, handles and steel types are a myth!

No, not really they're not.

It's all about budget vs use.
 
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In my youth I wore down tool steel Dexter Russell and other knives by misusing a honing steel. Wore a belly into a couple till they were unusable on a cutting board.

Since then I have mended my ways.
 
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Recently I picked up a knife in 20 CV steel, I have a work Sharp system but I don't know if I'm capable of sharpening that type of steel yet. And I dread trying. When and if it does need sharpening I'll try it, if I can't get it right I'll send it back to Oregon where it came from. It should only take about 3 months to get something from Oregon. It's only 4,000 miles away, Bass pro shop does sharpening. Not that I trust them.
 
Vlade said:
Recently I picked up a knife in 20 CV steel, I have a work Sharp system but I don't know if I'm capable of sharpening that type of steel yet. And I dread trying. When and if it does need sharpening I'll try it, if I can't get it right I'll send it back to Oregon where it came from. It should only take about 3 months to get something from Oregon. It's only 4,000 miles away, Bass pro shop does sharpening. Not that I trust them.
Click to expand...

Though I mostly hand sharpen, I have found the Work Sharp Precision Adjust to be perfect for reprofiling or correcting an edge. It takes time but it’s hard to screw up!

From there, hand sharpening when needed is much easier as you can set all your EDC edges to the same angle and maintain the same microbevel angle by hand.


66294904030
 
1911bphil said:
I have worn down several work knives. I was a meat cutter for 27 years. We would get new knives every year. After sharpening them daily, they would have a significant amount of metal loss. They were still usable at home, but not at work. I have never worn out a pocket knife or hunting knife though.
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Any pics???
This is a topic I'm curious about

I don't want to assume the steels you used.
But I'm wondering if a Hard, high alloy steel would have same effect.

I really don't like choils, and blade wear is something I think about.....
 
Macchina said:
Though I mostly hand sharpen, I have found the Work Sharp Precision Adjust to be perfect for reprofiling or correcting an edge. It takes time but it’s hard to screw up!

From there, hand sharpening when needed is much easier as you can set all your EDC edges to the same angle and maintain the same microbevel angle by hand.


66294904030
Click to expand...
I have the exact one, can you tell me how I could clean the ceramic? It's dirty and I tried to clean it with Ajax. Thanks in advance
Edit will ceramic work on 20 CV?
 
My Dad used to buy knives from a barrel in a shop in China Town. I think they were $1 or less. Essentially they were pairing knives that started out as chefs knives. Worn down in kitchens, (I assume Chinese Restaurants).

Pretty sure it was the method of sharpening more than use that wore them out.

A friend of mine had a 2 inch thick cutting board he used for a kitchen table. It was 3x6 feet? There was a small hole in the middle. If you looked from the bottom. The hole was the center of a huge concave area that finally blew through. Pretty sure it also came out of a Chinese restaurant.
 
eveled said:
My Dad used to buy knives from a barrel in a shop in China Town. I think they were $1 or less. Essentially they were pairing knives that started out as chefs knives. Worn down in kitchens, (I assume Chinese Restaurants).

Pretty sure it was the method of sharpening more than use that wore them out.

A friend of mine had a 2 inch thick cutting board he used for a kitchen table. It was 3x6 feet? There was a small hole in the middle. If you looked from the bottom. The hole was the center of a huge concave area that finally blew through. Pretty sure it also came out of a Chinese restaurant.
Click to expand...
That's not a knife, that's recycling. Pretty thrifty
 
Vlade said:
Recently I picked up a knife in 20 CV steel, I have a work Sharp system but I don't know if I'm capable of sharpening that type of steel yet. And I dread trying. When and if it does need sharpening I'll try it, if I can't get it right I'll send it back to Oregon where it came from. It should only take about 3 months to get something from Oregon. It's only 4,000 miles away, Bass pro shop does sharpening. Not that I trust them.
Click to expand...
There’s only one way to find out! I was nervous the first time I put a good knife on my Wicked Edge system, but it does work good, and if you have the patience and the time you can definitely get good results from guided systems. First knife or 2 may be a bit of a learning curve, so don’t start out sharpening your favorite knife. But you will get good and comfortable in no time…
Just my $.02
 
I have seen a buck trapper or similar that wore out the pivot. We drilled out the pivot a tiny bit oversize and left the bit in it at the shank I cut it off and peened the ends. No idea if the blades outlasted the new pivot.
 
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