Light, Medium, and Heavy Cutting Tasks

[Hondo.3]

I have seen a lot of discussion about knives being light, medium, or heavy use. Recently, it occurred to me that there has been limited discussion of what jobs fit into the light, medium, and heavy categories. I think that if we had a clearer idea of what people consider to be light, medium, and heavy jobs, then we might be able to better tailor our knife choices and recommendations. To this end, I would like to gather your thoughts. After a week, I will sort through the posts, and compile the opinions. I will post my findings in a follow-up thread.

Here are my three questions:

1) What are light cutting tasks?
2) What are medium cutting tasks?
3) What are heavy cutting tasks?

TC

 

[hank_rearden]

light cutting? nothing harder than a sheet of paper and just one sheet. soft food prep (fine slicing of soft, non-fibrous food.) my ffg vg-10 delica is my fine cutting tool.

medium cutting? anything that's tough enough to require at least 20 pounds of arm strength onto the cutting material. 20 pounds is about the strength needed to cut off the base of a head of cabbage, or the crown off a pineapple. that or, cutting tough material like thick rope or fine wire. also in this category is normal gardening work. my zdp 189 endura is for this.

heavy cutting without the need to chop or slash would be carving/whittling for hard wood, and maybe tough food prep (cutting a big joint of bone-in meat.) my buck 301 stockman is my whittling tool.

NB: too heavy a task, one that's better accomplished using a saw or an ax or a crowbar, is ridiculous. it could get you banned from BF.

 

[bladeboss]

L- food, opening packages, cutting open a bag of chips
M- Gardening, light whittling like willow, hunting use (field dressing, meat processing, meat removal from the taken game)
H- Hard whittling, whittling down small branches, cutting that requires ALMOST all arm strength in the cutting direction.

As previously mentioned, knives are knives. Not axes or crowbars. Being used as such, is stupid, and may even hurt you.

 

[Dorito Monk]

Great idea for a thread, Hondo. :thumbup: This really got me thinking... It'll be neat to see what folks come up with.

Light Use - Opening letters, cutting paper or other soft materials, opening packaging, doing most food processing, etc. In other words, doing general, every day tasks where the knife cuts nearly effortlessly through the material.

Medium Use - Whittling, skinning, most things requiring wood cutting, cutting extensive amounts of cardboard, etc. In short, most tasks where the knife can be expected to come into contact with materials which will be difficult to cut, but which aren't likely to do much damage to the edge.

Hard Use - Cutting silty rope, opening sandbags or cement bags, cutting fibreglass insulation, opening tin cans, light chopping, cutting carpet, gentle prying, scraping firesteels, etc. Things that are very rough on the edge, cuts that require a great deal of force, or cutting very tough/hard materials.

I know some of the 'hard use' tasks border on abuse or are full-on abusive, but I do 'em anyway...

 

[hank_rearden]

^
hard use would also be either your light or medium chores done 8 hours a day, at least 5 days a week.

 

[chiral.grolim]

1) What are light cutting tasks?
2) What are medium cutting tasks?
3) What are heavy cutting tasks?

To me, "light" and "heavy" correlate with primarily with force - the amount of force the user must put behind the edge and the amount of force that might be induced lateral to the edge (including abrasion forces). I do not consider repeated "light" use to be cumulative so as to become "heavy" after a sufficient period of time. "Light" cutting performed over and over again is still "light" cutting. Repeated "light" cuts must be compared to the same number of repeated "heavy" cuts to be in any way valid as a comparison.

1) Cuts requiring only light force to complete, inducing minimal stress on the blade (including lateral stress) and wear on the edge - thin and/or soft non-abrasive materials.
2) Cuts falling between (1) and (3)
3) Cuts requiring significant force to complete, capable of inducing severe stress on the blade (including lateral stress) and abrading away the edge - hard and/or abrasive materials.

Chopping and prying fall into category 3. (and to those who eschew putting knives to such tasks, a knife can do what a knife can do. I have knives that chop & pry quite well. What more is there to say? Perhaps "use tools as their design allows". No task is "too heavy" - it is the tool that is too weak.)

 

[Hondo.3]

I suppose that one could also define non-cutting tasks for which a knife is used, and then divide that broad category into low risk of damage, and high risk of damage. For example, I use the flat of a blade to squash garlic, and that is a non-cutting task that presents a low risk of damage. Prying open a crate, though, would be a non-cutting task that presents a high risk of damage.

So, perhaps my questions should be:
1) What are light cutting tasks?
2) What are medium cutting tasks?
3) What are heavy cutting tasks?
4) What are low risk of damage non-cutting tasks?
5) What are high risk of damage non-cutting tasks?

PS
I once used a small chisel-ground Japanese kitchen knife to squash some garlic. The stick tang broke right below the ricasso. I was surprised and disappointed.

 

[chiral.grolim]

I suppose that one could also define non-cutting tasks for which a knife is used, and then divide that broad category into low risk of damage, and high risk of damage. For example, I use the flat of a blade to squash garlic, and that is a non-cutting task that presents a low risk of damage. Prying open a crate, though, would be a non-cutting task that presents a high risk of damage.

So, perhaps my questions should be:
1) What are light cutting tasks?
2) What are medium cutting tasks?
3) What are heavy cutting tasks?
4) What are low risk of damage non-cutting tasks?
5) What are high risk of damage non-cutting tasks?

PS
I once used a small chisel-ground Japanese kitchen knife to squash some garlic. The stick tang broke right below the ricasso. I was surprised and disappointed.

I disagree with your division into "risks" as that is entirely relative to the design of the knife rather than to the amount of force applied. My Cattaraugus 225Q will pry open crates all day long with MINIMAL risk of damage, but a fillet knife (or another knife of similar design in terms of stock thickness or blade hardness) would fail entirely. Keep your divisions relative to application of force, not to the tool you choose to apply that force to.

 

[JuJu-]

I think you would have to split this up into fixed blade and folder. There are things you don't do with a folder that you would a fixed and vice versa.That being said, I think this thread is an awesome idea.

 

[nopyo]

Out of the things I've actually done with my folders:

Light
Cut tape. Open letters/bubble mailers/thin cardboard boxes/clamshell packages/food packaging. Remove clothing tags. Cut paracord.

Medium
Cut thick cardboard/carpet/bigger zipties. Deburr wood and aluminum. Cut a fish's head off (quick kill due to hook stuck in throat).

Heavy
Campfire (wood) prep. Open coconuts.

Will probably update this list once I think of more.

 

[bdmicarta]

too heavy a task, one that's better accomplished using a saw or an ax or a crowbar, is ridiculous

I'm not sure I understand the intent of this statement. A knife is a tool, and if you are in a situation where you need to accomplish something that would be better served with an axe or crowbar, but you don't have an axe or crowbar and you really, really need to accomplish the task, and the knife is the only tool that you have, well then you do your best with the only tool that you have. And this might mean that you are working in the basement of a building and you need to pry something open, and you don't want to have to quit what you are doing and walk upstairs to your truck to get the appropriate tool, or it might mean you are stuck out in the middle of nowhere and you need to cut or pry your way out of a car or house. There is a risk that you might break your knife and not accomplish your task but you have to try anyway. Ridiculous is only if you have a knife in your hand and you try to pry with it when there is a crowbar laying on the floor at your feet.

I know some of the 'hard use' tasks border on abuse or are full-on abusive, but I do 'em anyway...

See the above, sometimes abusing the tool accomplishes your work faster or easier. The purpose of tools is to serve the owner. The owner should have tools appropriate to the task but sometimes you don't for whatever reason. If you sacrifice the edge of your knife because you didn't want to drive to the store to buy the better tool for the task that might be a reasonable sacrifice.


I don't endorse frivolous use of your fine safe queen knife and then complain that you harmed its value and cannot sell it, but if you buy a knife to use then use it. If it is damaged during the use then hopefully it has earned its price in previous use and you are justified in buying a replacement for future use.