Just USE the damn knife...

• 
  Support BladeForums!
  Paid memberships don't see ads!

One time I was out taking pictures with my CRK and stepped in some dog . The knife was put to work scraping that sh## off from all the crevices in a nearby bathroom. I think that was the dirtiest job it had to do .

 

I keep a pointer trawl in my garage for such tasks. At one time I kept one in my truck when I used to hit a lot of muddy spots working. I was wondering how your CRK did "taking pictures"? Now that is a versatile knife. Maybe a camera tool on a SAK in the future?

 

Damn.. that puts my knife use to shame! I keep a stockpile of toothpicks in my truck for situations just as that. Yuck, haha.

 

My knives get put to use, for whatever needs to be done at the moment.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to use ANY knife as a prybar (unless in a true life and death type situation) but any type of cutting task is going to be done with whatever knife I happen to be carrying.
I buy knives to use... and if they happen to be nice looking, that's just a bonus.

I was trying to cut a slot out of a piece of 1/8" thick ash wood the other day.. making a slot for a Mora tang in a knife I'm working on, and didn't have a chisel... has anyone ever "batoned" a Case mini-copperhead wharnecliff blade? I have... using a small brass hammer to drive it down through the ash. Worked like a champ, didn't leave a mark.

 

I've handled one of those 110's as a younger person, and found it likely to be very "capable" but also rather clunky. I find my own tastes to be in the sleek and refined league.

 

Next....

 

For me, I see no reason to own a $100 plus knife. If I need to use my knife I never want the price of it to come into question.

 

Using a knife or any other tool for what it was designed for makes sense.

Abusing a knife or any other tool beyond its design becomes a function of how drastic the need is.

If the need is drastic enough the cost doesn’t matter at all. In an emergency I want to have a knife I can rely on.

I carry high quality knives and use them. Like all my tools to get the job done.

To me a safe queen needs to be very rare, historical, or a knife that has been embellished to the point it is art. Or a straight up investment. (Bought only to resell).

To have a nice knife or gun and never use it seems a shame. If you use a knife or gun then loose $100 when you sell it. Means you only paid $100 to use it all those years. Seems like a bargain.

 

This would be a last resort to me. I don’t want anything on my knife to think about next time I use it on a steak.

Next time use the knife to sharpen a stick to do the scraping.

 

I think that was a fairly tough task to doo.
From an objective point of view your little gem definitely saved you from having nasty,smelly doo-doo fingers and fingernails.

 

I'm guilty of being one of those people who has knives I end seeing as "too nice to use" and never using them. As I'm not a collector, I tend to sell those when it becomes clear I'm never gonna use it. If I'm willing to carry it, I am willing to use it at least. But, I tend to carry what's good enough quality and $ wise to do what I want/need, but not so expensive I will freak out if it gets scratched. I'm still working on getting passed that, and doing so in baby steps.

I'm awaiting a really nice custom blade I have every intention of making an EDC, and plan to resist my "too nice" tendencies. This one will be a test! Wish me me luck.

 

Not really any recent occasions that I can recall at the moment, but I remember the first one about 36 years ago in my commercial fishing and trapping days. Dinner time rolled around and I was exhausted and starving. Most of the food was in tin cans, and I realized I had left my Cammillus folder with the can and bottle openers 29 miles up stream on my truck seat. While the spam and corned beef came in cans that had keys to open them with, none of the cans of vegetables did nor did the beef stew or chili and that was before the days of pull ring cans on foods like that. What I had with me were an Uncle Henry Golden Spike, a fillet knife, and a hatchet. The Golden Spike seemed the best option. It opened a few of those cans that night, but no real damage other than some dulling of the edge. Then after eating I made the run back to my truck. Ever since then, as long as it's not some fool hardy task I doubt it will survive that isn't necessary for my survival, I use my knives for whatever I need to use them for at the time.

 

Good luck!,hope you don't change your mind when you finally get to have the knife on your hands.

 

I recently started working at Home Depot and have all these great opportunities to use a knife - straps, plastic wrap, rope, boxes, etc - but I have to do it in secret if I do because the only knives they allow are these ridiculously useless self-retracting safety knives. It's like 1/4" of exposed blade, and only like 1/32" goes beyond the end of the handle.

 

These would make great "motivating" pics to include with overdue billing notices .

 

In a true emergency , ALL my knives are potential beaters to be used and abused to whatever extent necessary .

But routinely , I don't see anything wrong with shamelessly babying a favored few of them . Art that can do functional cutting at need !

 

When I first bought my Spyderco K2(first knife that broke the $200 barrier for me) I carried it but was hesitant to use it. One day I was looking for a broken electric wire on one of our grain trailers, kind of in a tight spot, and found the short that began to arc and melt. Well I cut the wires which arced on the blade, after a good resharpening I never looked back.
I’ve enjoyed the knife so much more since then.

 

My 3yo son dropped a bomb of a crap in the toilet and jammed it up right at the hole... my full custom knife went straight to work chopping up, and down it went.

A proper cleaning and I was using the same blade to pick food out of my teeth just minutes later.

I use my knives for everything!

 

My wife said, "No! That's disgusting." I would have to agree. Then again, she says I'm disgusting.

I guess it all depends upon what you call a "proper" cleaning. Personally, if it was mine, that knife would have a complete disassembly as part of the cleaning process. Soap, bleach, disinfectant, etc.

 

• 
  Support BladeForums!
  Paid memberships don't see ads!

I use a 3 gallon pail for occasions like that. I find a carefully aimed pour from ~3’ above the bowl will almost alway bust up the troubling blockage. No muss, no fuss, no direct contact and no E. coli contamination that could make me sicker than I care to get. On the rare occasion that technique doesn’t work, a metal clothes hanger used to bust up the clog (and then put directly into the outdoor garbage can) has always solved that kind of problem for me. As for using a knife to pick food out of your teeth just minutes after using the knife to bust up a shit blockage in a toilet (cleanings notwithstanding) -- you’re a lot more daring than I am.

On a personal note, I recently used my main EDC to cut one of those plastic hospital ID wristbands off of my wrist when I got released from a local ER after getting my head banged up but good in a car crash. That was the single happiest task I ever used any knife for. Other than that "first ever" happy occasion and rare other pretty rare light-duty uses, my EDCs live pretty quiet lives. Being a semi-retired white collar type doesn’t make for a lot of EDC use.