How many of us truly use a knife to it's full potential?

Joined
Mar 19, 1999
Messages
2,277
I have been thinking about all of the great strides that have been made in knife technology, all of the great material and designs. I've got to ask, how many of us use these knives to their fullest. Take your latest folder, how many of us will actually wear this knife out? I don't mean practicing openings.
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I mean actually cutting stuff.

I can honestly say, I will most likely never wear out a knife. Of course that doesn't mean I don't need more.
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Ask Derek Russell. Korene, his wife, wore out the liner lock on an Ernie Emerson custom CQC-7; I heard him chide her about this.

Walt
 
I was always concerned about wearing out a knife until a little over a year ago when my uncle passed away.

About 25 years ago, I had given him a Case Sod Buster knife, which quickly became his favorite and his daily carry knife. He used that knife for everything...camp chores, field dressing and skinning deer, cleaning fish, opening boxes, trapping, etc. You name the knife task, that was the knife he used. It had seen thousands of sharpenings.

When he passed away, I was helping clean out his home and I found that knife. The blade was discolored to the point of appearing blackened. Its original blade shape gone from so many sharpenings, it looked like a kitchen boning knife. The knife had been carried in his back pocket, and thus was sat on for thousands of hours. The knife as a whole, was slightly warped from that (he was a BIG man ... 350+lbs.)

I cleaned the old knife up, applied some much needed TLC and put a good edge on it.
It still locked up fairly tight and had considerable "snap" left in the spring.

I took that old knife hunting one last time to enjoy some old memories of hunting seasons past and then buried the knife above his grave.

I'm not so concerned about wearing out a knife now. I buy quality products and take reasonable care of them. I expect most of them will outlive me.
 
I've found that sharpening a knife usually puts more wear on it than using. That's why, when I discovered crock sticks some 25 years or so ago, it was a revelation! I could get and keep my knives razor sharp without grinding away at 'em with bench stones. I take 'em to the bench (i.e., a GATCO) a lot less now. Plus I have a lot more knives to pick from for daily carry, enough to last a bunch of lifetimes, actually.

Back in my mechanic days, I used a knife hard. They took a beating from stripping wire and scraping gaskets and performing various other tasks around the shop. I do much less of that now.

My current job still allows me to use my knives for a wide variety of things. I teach biology so I get to dissect a lot of different critters. Always nice to use a good sharp knife when slicing into the head of a squid.
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This semester I will be teaching invertebrate zoology. Lots of critters to slice and dice.
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In the summer, I do field biolgy. I use everything from my machete to prune research plots to the scissors on my SAK to mulch up material for chemical analysis. I also do some trail clearing (and making) for local nature centers and my machetes, hatchets, axes, and saws get a lot of use there.

I also built a gazebo last summer and this mean street was brand spanking new when I started. The nice thing is that it doesn't show nearly the abuse I put it through. Besides a variety of different cutting jobs, I also used it to pry staples and roofing nails. There are better tools for this but the MS held its own.
Hoodo's really big pic of his MS

The Mean Street held up better than I did.
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My hunting knives don't show nearly the abuse they used to, because 1) deer hunting became a problem due to a shoulder injury that put a crimp in my archery 2) my job allows for less time in the field during deer season and 3)I have a lot more hunting knives than I used to so no one knife does it all anymore. At the moment, I'm confined to butchering small game. I also prepare "study skins" of small mammals for the university where I work. Did a groundhog this past semester.

My Spydie Catcherman cleaned a boat load of fish last summer, though, and it should be doing the same this winter but it's 10 below right now and I decided not to go ice fishing this morning.
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Hoodoo

I get some pleasure from finding a relentlessly peaceful use for a combative looking knife.
JKM

[This message has been edited by Paracelsus (edited 12-28-2000).]
 
my family has worn out a few knives, my father being a butcher has taken a full butcher knife down to about boning or fillet knife size over the years several times, mostly via sharpening, we also had a paring knife my gand father made of very this stock the back edge was about as sharp as an average sheeple's kitchen knife, and the cutting edge was damn near invisible. it lasted several years but finally wore down to a very sharp nub
 
Way back when I was a teenager working in a cotton mill , I used to look with amazement at the worn out blades on the old ladie's pocket knifes that they carried in their aprons. They would sharpen them by laying the blade flat and rubbing it in a circular motion. They never would consider getting a new knife until there wasn't a toothpick's width left on the blade. I carried a Buck 110 at that time.My older brother bought me a Puma 270 brand new for $27.00 and I carried it for 10 years before retiring it with a broken tip and worn out lock. I later sent the puma back to coast cutlery and they replaced the knife with a new one and sent the old one back to me too! Great company! I have been trying to wear out a gerber for the last 11 years but can't seem to do it. It showing it's age though. But I still wouldn't let one of those cotton mill hands borrow it!
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The only knife I've ever worn out was a Western barlow. I bought this when I was 12 or 13 years old. It was my daily carry and saw back-up use hunting, fishing, trapping camping, you get the picture? It's now retired but still usable (with caution). The spring has lost most of it's snap and alot of the blade has been sharpened away. After 10 years of HARD use, I woud imagine most any blade be ready for a rest.

Paul
 
Most of my folders are tactical knives, and I certainly hope that I never have to use them for what they are designed. I do use my knives for a lot of things, heck that is why I bought them. I do not believe that a knife should be kept in a drawer.
 
Talk about band hog!
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Now with that in mind,
<A HREF="http://TitaniumKnutt.freeyellow.com/home.html" TARGET=_blank>
YesBearsDo.jpg
</A>

Now, the dilema HAS been answered!

& yes, you can flush (wear out) a knife!

TitaniumKnutt ~~~ Mark W. Douglas

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"Knutts Ain't The Word For It"

EDITED:

IMAGE RE-POSTED CORRECTLY, I HOPE!

[This message has been edited by TitaniumKnutt (edited 12-28-2000).]
 
About my pic:
I thought it wasn't the size that counted but the size that counts. I.e., although the pic was large to view (and btw, on my screen it didn't scroll off the page--did it for others?), it was only 35K. In contrast, the bear pic is 37K but is smaller in appearance.
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Band hog indeed.
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Hoodoo

I get some pleasure from finding a relentlessly peaceful use for a combative looking knife.
JKM
 
Mark; you owe Hoodoo an apology. He put his picture in the form of a hyperlink, which does not delay the opening of the thread, whereas your picture was simply posted, thus delaying the thread. Your bad.

If both of you gentlemen would go to Gus Kalanzis' Custom Knife forum and peruse the thread on posting thumbnails, you could have the best of both worlds. People would get an idea of what the pic looks like, and only open it if they wished to view it in large format. Gus has even provided a practice thread for posting pics.

I just learned how to do this last month, and am about as dumb with regards to computers as one can be. Thus, I am sure it would be a snap for you erudite posters. I confess I was a TRUE bandwidth hog, posting pics in the 100's of Kb (hanging head). I am now reformed, however, thanks to Gus.

Here is a gratuitous picture of my kittens, with one laughing at the bear in the woods (you can check the code I used to post the thumbnail by hitting the edit key).

<A HREF="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=306668&a=2279510&p=36287429&Sequence=0&res=high" TARGET=_blank>
Thumbnail
</A>

Walt Welch, reformed bandwidth hog (with occasional lapses; the kitten pic IS 200k!)
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Walt, I knew that, just I was lazy when posting that image.
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Hopefully I just corrected that situation, I'm not a band hog
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[This message has been edited by TitaniumKnutt (edited 12-28-2000).]
 
Hoo Doo, is that the thinner newer Mean Street? looks like a very useful blade shape!

Back to the subject, use to fullest potential, I'd have to say yep, my knives were made to cut stuff and so I have, LOTS of stuff, I've knives that were made to throw, and throw them I have, LOTS of times, much fun! I've had knives for killing, didn't kill much with them, actually not at all, though I had a nice Gerber Mark I knife, wasp shaped blade and that knife threw very straight! I threw it at a clothes line that was tied to a tree and severed the cord, then my friend, who will remain nameless, threw the knife and it hit sideways and snapped at the joint, being about 17 at the time I almost cried my eyes out, that took a long time to save up for that knife, nice as it was but no where useful for normal knife jobs....so full potential, yep I'd say so, since almost every knife you get has a warning that you are only to use it to cut stuff, but we never follow those instructions too closely.

When I was in the Navy back in 1972 I picked up my first custom, a Barry Wood Swinglocker with aged ivory micarta inserts, $52 I think at the time, gave it to my Grandfather and he put that knife through pure hell! I came home from on furlough and asked if he still had the knife, took it out and I physically was sick to my stomach, he had taken it to a grinder to sharpen it and believe me he did not have the gift to sharpen it on a grinder! It was TERRIBLE, but he smiled and said ` I love this knife! I've split 2x4's with it by hammering the blade through the board, scrapped up gum off the sidewalks and tons of other chores!' I was speechless.... he has since past away, I found the knife buried in a tool box, called Barry and asked if he could refurbish it, $75 later and the knife was like new, he had an old blade that he put in the handles for me and reprofiled the handles, amazing. So even if you KILL your knife, and you just have to have IT, you can probably get it restored, the bulk of the knife is still the original...

But as to your intentions of this post, I'd say we never fully exploit the benefits of the latest steels that are presented to us, though I'll do my best!!

G2
 
Love the Mean Street, got Tom Mayo makin' me a hand made version out of 420V.

Wear out a knife? I carry a rotation of about 20 knives, and most of them have CPM420V, CPM440V, Talonite, M-2, or differentially tempered tool steel blades. How am I gonna' wear out twenty knives with steel like that? Even if I was still a commercial fisherman, I couldn't wear out such knives.
 
Walt, I originally didn't post my pick as a hyperlink. I posted it as an image. Paracelsus edited my post and made it into a link. I'm the bad person here. But Mark is more bad.
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His image was larger (in kbytes) than mine.

I just hope that Paracelsus will be consistent here and turn every image in the general forum that is greater than 35K into a hyperlink.
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Gary, here is my brand spankin' new Lean Mean Steet, posted as a link, of course.
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The one above is the regular Mean Street.
http://www4.gvsu.edu/triert/lms.jpg


It's an awesome lil' thing.
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Hoodoo

I get some pleasure from finding a relentlessly peaceful use for a combative looking knife.
JKM


[This message has been edited by Hoodoo (edited 12-28-2000).]
 
Actually, I didn't think ANYONE was really bad, I just wanted to slip the huge pic of my kittens in on some thread!!! :P

Regarding the above comments about wear, I agree that most modern knives will outlast their users. However, we should separate out the people who ABUSE knives. Folders, in particular, are subject to abuse.

I once saw a BM 612 and 625 (the excellent Leopard Cub and Leopard) that had been ruined by flipping. The stop pin and spacer pins were loose, and could not be tightened. The knives had to be sent back to BM. I made the mistake of giving the woman who had done this my Kit Carson Mod #18 Talonite (r) folder; she had been flipping in a dangerous manner (she nearly skewered my 7 yo son when the knife she was flipping flew across her kitchen). So, I gave her my Carson folder, and demonstrated the correct way to flip, if you absolutely, positively have to flip, then got her in the vacant front room. In 45 min. of practice, she flatted the stop pin. Kit was amused when I related this story, but fixed the knife without giving me TOO hard a time about it.

Remember the old line about engineers being to make anything fool proof, but nothing damn fool proof.

Unrepentent band hog......with cute kittens
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Walt

[This message has been edited by Walt Welch (edited 12-28-2000).]
 
Not to change the subject .... but,

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally Posted By Hoodoo: Walt, I originally didn't post my pick as a hyperlink. I posted it as an image. Paracelsus edited my post and made it into a link. I'm the bad person here. But Mark is more bad.
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His image was larger (in kbytes) than mine. ..........
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how do you know the kbytes size anyway? What is considered too many or too large, kbytes? Really, I don't know
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Sorry Dirk for going off subject here!

TK ~ MWD




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"KNUTTS AIN'T THE WORD FOR IT!"
 
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