Ignorance is bliss

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Dekz

Joined
Oct 26, 2007
Messages
1,392
I remember when only two years ago, my knife attitude was very different. I carried whatever $5-$20 knife looked cool that I bought at the hardware store.

I used it cut things and open packaging, but also to scrape and to pry. That's why I carried the knife, to do things that my fingers could not. If I was sitting at the computer and bored, I would entertain myself by stabbing empty pop cans.

Now of course the thought of doing any of these things makes me cringe, I ONLY use my knives to cut. I'm carrying better knives, but they are LESS useful to me. I know people are going to recommend Atwood tools or something similar, but that's one more thing to carry, one more thing to buy.

Honestly I'm not sure if I'm better off or not. :confused:
 
I know how you feel... Best solution is to buy a good knife with good deal from eBay or somewhere. Then you can excellent knife that didn't cost much. You get cheaply good quality Spyderco's from eBay. Their quality beast 10-0 hardware store knives but at the best you pay them nearly same as you buy from local hardware some chinese crapola knife.
 
If you are hesitant to use your more costly knives for mundane tasks such as scraping , prying , etc , and cannot afford an Atwood I strongly recommend the mini prybars from Ccomm.
I carry the smallest one on my keyring and it comes in handy on a daily basis.. Also an old Proto screwdriver.
Both come in handy when I dont want to gunk up my knife blade or possible break it , ruin it..
 
I can kind of agree with you there! I buy some knife that is supposed to be super tough but I don't abuse them anyway. :D
 
i hear you, i just got a para military and am finding myself a bit scared to use it, but i still wouldnt have anything less on me just because i couldnt stand to own something that wasnt top quality.
 
Dekz said:
...but also to scrape and to pry. That's why I carried the knife, to do things that my fingers could not.
...but that's one more thing to carry, one more thing to buy.
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These are two of the many reasons I bought my Vic Cadet, the larger flathead screwdriver. Ive scraped and pried (nothing too big) with it.
Yes its another thing to carry (not very big) and buy (about $20) but it could save your much more expensive knife from damage. Just my .02
 
I just buy a decent knife to use and use it however I want to.
I don't try to break it and use it for an axe or shovel, or pry bar substitute. But, it's used pretty hard and this 40 something dollar Spyderco Pacific Salt has held up very well.
Holds an edge well, sharpens easy and it's rust proof, as well as lightweight.
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funny thing. I bought my benchmade griptilian because it was as high of quality as i could afford a few years ago. Well, i found myself putting it away more and using old knives. If i got it for 10$ i would have beat the crap out of it and i probably would have bought 2, but at 100$ im afraid. The only knives ill use out of the box are victorinox swiss army knives. They keep coming back for more. If i knew how durable 154cm was as far as chips and ruining the edge by hitting hard objects or cutting sand riddled rop or slipping into the dirt i would use it more.
 
A knife is useful for a lot of jobs but it's generally not a whole tool chest. Unless it's a multitool or SAK. So carry a One-hand Trekker and see if it doesn't do what your old beaters did. And carry a big folder for whatever that might do better than the OHT.

Think of it this way. If you get dressed up to go out, you bring a gentleman's knife with you, maybe even something expensive. But it can't do what your Leatherman Wave could that afternoon. Still, the suit you're wearing wouldn't be right working on your truck, either.

Maybe what you need is a less expensive good knife that can take a beating. Everyone doesn't need a $500 folder for daily carry.
 
Haha, I was like this for about a day. I got several expensive knives back to back and thought the same way. But, I have two case finns, one hardwood handle, and one is stacked washer handle. But anyways, I use these knives for EVERYTHING, the stacked washer sits at my desk and opens mail and such, and the hardwood handle sits in the center console of the truck and gets used quite often for various tasks; scraping, cutting, prying, marking, scoring, etc..

edit: i also carried around a queen gunstock pattern in d2 (used harder than the case knives) and a sak supertinker that got straight up abused..(cut metal bands!!!!!!), but I also use my knives until they run dry, which seems to be fairly often. had a case peanut that was less than two years old and looked like it had been sharpened for 40 years and i also have a winchester peanut that i carry day in day out, doesn't get rotated in or out and gets the most use atm because i lost the sak at work and afeared for my queen (my pride and joy) so its a safe queen for now until i get a replacement incase i loose it.


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sorry the photos were taken with a new camera phone and i dont really know how to use it well yet, takes good pictures half the time; this winchester has about a year of use under its belt, i go through knives fairly often. the cheaper knives go ALOT faster than the more expensive knives at least for me. the fall apart and the blades break or wear down alot faster.
 
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I still use my high quality knives for most anything up to and including prying. i dont see why people shy away form prying with a fixed blade knife. i tend to pocket carry a small fixed blade (i just got a HEST today :D i want to scream to the heavens ive waited so long for this knife) usually an ontario RAT-3 and i think it cna handle every chore i come upon.
 
Tostig said:
If you are hesitant to use your more costly knives for mundane tasks such as scraping , prying , etc , and cannot afford an Atwood I strongly recommend the mini prybars from Ccomm.
Click to expand...

I will check these out, thanks.

slimshaneee said:
I can kind of agree with you there! I buy some knife that is supposed to be super tough but I don't abuse them anyway. :D
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big_chief said:
i hear you, i just got a para military and am finding myself a bit scared to use it, but i still wouldnt have anything less on me just because i couldnt stand to own something that wasnt top quality.
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Hehe, exactly. It's funny, most soldiers and other people that would put a knife through hard use are carrying $40 Gerbers/CRKTs/whatever they are issued; meanwhile the rest of us are using ZTs and Militarys to open packages :D

Esav Benyamin said:
Maybe what you need is a less expensive good knife that can take a beating. Everyone doesn't need a $500 folder for daily carry.
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It's a bit of a dilemma. I have my $30 Boker Trance that is inexpensive and a great, tough knife. If I know ahead of time that I'm going to be working on the car or fixing something or whatever, I will of course choose to carry that.

But what if one of these situations just comes up (as they often do), and I happen to be carrying my Damascus Skyline instead. I know it's not super expensive either, but it's a really nice knife and I don't want to use it to scrape corrosion off of a battery terminal. But on the other hand, if I'm not willing to do that, why am I carrying the damn thing?

I forgot to mention in my original post that using a knife as an improvised screwdriver would also happen with some regularity.

I guess the somewhat obvious solution is to just carry two knives.
 
Dekz said:
I guess the somewhat obvious solution is to just carry two knives.
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That would be the solution that I have come to. After reading on knife forums and watching reviews on utube, I too have developed a taste for the more expensive knives.

Like others have mentioned, a Victorinox or SAK is the perfect solution. You carry your one hand opening folder clipped to your pocket and nestled just below is your small Vic. I like the tinker model personally, but all the smaller ones are good. You can use the extra tools for dirty abusive tasks and save your blades for clean cutting. It only costs me 12.36 at target (clearance price:thumbup:!).
 
While I've never been one to keep things pristine (unless you're talking about my BG-42 Military), knives have recently become much more expendable than they used to be.
It really started back in June, I picked up a Kershaw NRG-II for $40 CANADIAN (thanks Jay) with the sole purpose of abusing it. Not "see if you can cut a car in half" abuse, just "throw it in the dirt, so what if the action is gritty" abuse.
The edge near the tip is a little chipped but still fairly sharp, and the tip itself has held up admirably. I know better than to pry with it, but the lock does occasionally fail when you throw it at a log long enough.
After using the NRG-II for all the stuff I wouldn't dare do with my beloved Military, I'm actually getting attached to it. Much worse though, some of the habits formed with that knife are now being passed on to some of the others. The best example being... Opening a pop (soda) can. Why use the silly little girly "tab" to make a hole, when you can use your super awesome manly knife to punch, rip, and tear it apart! (and now you can open a can properly, making a vent hole so the drink comes out smoothly.)
I haven't used the tab in weeks.

I still would never do this with the Military, but the Hossom Retribution 1 was just begging to plunge it's blade into some aluminum cylinders.
A little dull, a few dings, so what. I'm getting my moneys worth, 'cause this knife wasn't made to be pretty.
 
I think you just have to be reasonable with what you do with a knife but also with which knife you do it. I've EDC'd many $70+ knives at work and those particular knives did just that...work! That includes everything from cutting to scraping to digging to even (gasp!) prying. It took me a little while too, but you simply have to get over that "I don't want to hurt this knife!" mentality.

Now, would I ever carry a Chris Reeve Umnumzaan to work? Of course not. But something like my SOG Trident I wouldn't hesitate to use to help undo some bailing wire or to pry open some oyster shells at a friend's barbeque.

Good luck with your dillema. I believe many of us here have gone through the same thing. If it helps, ask yourself this question: Did I buy this knife and pay for all its features so it can ride in my pocket all day and look pretty? Or did I buy this knife for its intended purpose...to work!
 
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I carry my umnumzaan to work with me everyday! But I use the right tool for the job. A knife is a tool used to cut things, so that is what i use it for. They make tools made to pry, scrap, stab, hammer, snip wire, etc. A knife is NOT ment to be used for these things, but can be if in a pinch. To each his own.
 
A good idea would be to pick up a Gerber Artifact. It's atwood-like, has a disposable razor blade that you can afford to abuse, a pry tool, bottle opener, etc.

Or you could pick up a SAK, but I'd rather abuse something that doesn't fold. The artifact would probably be a lot better at prying.
 
I must laugh at something to justify my insanity :p
 
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