How many of you regularily dig with a knife?

Cliff,

I think the main objection most people have to digging with their knife is that the finish will be destroyed in the process. Your comments ont he quality of the steel are well taken, the steel can handle the task. The finish on the knife can't. In most cases the point of the knife can't resist either.

You do wind up with a knife that looks abused because digging with a knife is like prying with a knife, abuse. I have and will continue to abuse blades like that. I if "had to dig" with an expensive knife I wouldn't hesitate finish or not.
I would feel pain as I did so knowing that my expensive knife would never look good again.

The fact is that I "plan to dig" with my cheap machete. I actually blue the steel on my Tramontina machete's so they don't get confused for other people's blades when out camping. When I dig the blue gets worn off, the edge will get battered up as well. Half the time I dig with a machete it is in gravel that would be really hard on anything you slam into it. Nobody wants to subject a knife they paid good money for to this kind of treatment becuase in short order it makes the knife ugly.

As far an carrying an e-tool, that's fine in a truck but my mountain pack for Brazil weighs about 20 pounds. There is no way I'm going to take an e-tool. The short machete just does too well to consider anything else at this point. There is alot to be said for an inexpensive, tough abusable blade like a 10 or 14 inch Tramontina machete. I put them through torture and when they wear out I give them away to farmers and field workers whose machetes are REALLY beat up and they love me for it. Mac
 
Yes the finish can get damaged, but really should that be a concern for a "survival" knife, its like complaining that you would not eat wearing your survival vest because you might get a food stain on it. All of my EDC blades are heavily scratched along the flats from just cutting cardboard and other used materials. Any wood working you do in the outdoors can readily scratch blades because bark can contain grit.

The point though can be readily impacted, it depends on the nature. Some of the more robust points like used by Strided, Busse etc., won't be seriously effected, nothing that would not be restored with the next sharpening. And a lot depends on method, if you blindly just smash the point into the dirt, then yeah, you will likely end up with an impacted point - but this is where knowing how to use the knife comes into play. That is rarely necessary. You can minimize damage to the tip with proper method.



-Cliff
 
I routinely "dig" with an old Ontario machete. It is the best way I know of to deal with shrub roots - short of an axe, or, demolition hammer. It is better to dig down, hit roots, chop through, and continue digging. You would waste alot of energy trying to go through this stuff with just a shovel. That old machete may not look pretty; but, it is still all there after a couple of decades of hard use.

n2s
 
Cliff Stamp said:
its like complaining that you would not eat wearing your survival vest because you might get a food stain on it.
-Cliff
Click to expand...

LOL! true, and you can't send a vest back to have the stain removed and have the whole vest refinished, as you can with most quality knife manufacturers/makers.
 
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