Please tell me: What is the point of a Sodbuster?

quattromori said:
I don't have a Sodbuster myself, but.........
I guess Pinnah is right, one thing is to collect knives, another is to use them, and although I have seen a few awesome custom Sodbuster's, it's not probably the king of any knife collection.
But if you buy knives to use them...a single drop point blade works great for almost any task (I do like David's comparison between Sodbuster's and Opinel's on this matter). Of course, taste is taste, and it's very personal, and if you don't dig the pattern, I suggest that you don't get any, and look for something else...the knife world is so rich that it's already hard enough to buy the knives that you like :D but as a general thought I don't really see nothing weird in liking a soddie. After all, if you look outside the US (and the UK maybe), the vast majority of traditional knives are single bladed (with either a clip or a drop point blade), and that must mean something... :rolleyes:

fausto
:cool:
Click to expand...

Fausto, you don't know how right you are with that last line!:thumb up:

Every country I've ever been in, the working class man has had a sodbuster. Oh, it may not have looked like our sodbusters here in the U.S., but in design it was. They were always a medium to maybe large single blade, in a no nonsense handle that was comfortable to grasp really tight for the heavier cutting. No high dollar handle materials, just plain wood, or some synthetic, or even metal. France has the Opinel and Douk-Douk, Germany has the Mercators and from Germany and eastern Europe the folding butcher knife is around. Italy and the islands around it has those beautiful horn handle knives you've shown us. Spain has the Navaja. Here in the U.S. in the 1960's, 70's, and even the 80s, all you saw around most construction sites, truck depots, rail yards, woodhshops, boat yards, was the black pouch on the belt with the iconic Buck 110 folding hunter. Again, a large sturdy
single blade knife. Even now, most knife sales are single blade knives. Modern in design with locks on the blades, but single blades none the less.

The sodbuster is just one branch of the evolution of the simple working man's knife.

Carl.
 
I like em so much I just had to have a nice one made for my Avatar:p


Well, I did get some special dates stamped on the liners on my Avatar knife, so that's the main reason it's there.


Really though, they are just great light weight working knives. I think you'll need to get one to really see why so many love it. Give one a try, they don't cost much, and I think you would like it.
 
Humppa said:
To me, a Soddie is the right knife, when dirty jobs have to be done. I really like the shape of the soddie. And here in Germany they are already used for a long time. In Solingen they called it a "Hippeskniep" or something like that.

The used blade shape is pretty universal for cutting jobs.

Well, why not using an SAK instead of a Soddie? Good question. But why not using both during work? Everyone has to decide for himself. And beautiful is always in the eye of the beholder (I hope that was right term for telling this, but I hope you guys know what I mean).

IMG_0946.jpg


That´s the right place for my soddie, if it´s not in the pocket ;)

Kind regards
Andi
Click to expand...

Not to derail the thread, but what is that type of hammer used for? Is the one long claw for use as a pick? I've seen this type around but never been able to find a description on their use!

As far as why I like sodbusters, though, it's because they're no-nonsense designs that are tough and inexpensive (barring customs!) so they work great for very hard use tasks that might damage or "ugly-up" the knife. You know, hard tasks like busting sod! Nothing harder on an edge than cutting dirt with it. :D
 
Hi FortyTwoBlades!
Hi guys!

This is a carpenters hammer. The long claw is used to it into wooden beams for getting them into where you want to. It´s comfortable to use, when you stand on a ladder or a scaffolding when you can hardly move or whatever. A very useful tool. I use mine for everything when a heavy-duty-hammer is needed. The full tang construction makes that tool absolutely indestructable. I really liked it. I use such types of hammer ever since I worked on my own building lot. I used the claw also to remove old plaster, tile from the wall. It´s also good for any formwork or general bricklayerwork.

Here in Europe it´s pretty popular.

Hope this could help. :) Sorry of OT, but I wanted to ask, the honest question.

Kind regards
Andi
 
Last edited:
What can I say what others havent already cleared up.
The Soddie to me is this, its easy-quick open, durable, and basically built knife- less to go wrong.
Materials are tough wearing, usually a hard Composite, and the blade is an all-rounder, has a slight tip, good long blade with a curve that can be used for skinning etc....
In all, the Sod Buster is just a great knife, my hat off to the good man who thought of this great utility.
 
T. Erdelyi said:
I've only ever had one sodbuster, an old 70s Case Delrin Yellow CV Bladed one, it served as a work knife, cuttin boxes, scrapin' gaskets or cuttin' wire, just a life of drudgery, destined to sit in my tool box until called on again to pry something apart or take out a philips head screw, (gasp), under appreciated, until...

2006 when I took it to Hungary along with several knives to leave there as gifts to my cousins, (there is a relevant point here somewhere :) ) on the first night there I had pulled out a handful of knives to give to my closest cousins and of all the knives to pick from, ( Case Seahorse Whittler, Old Timer Stockman and Trapper and a Queen Barlow) the knife they all wanted was my old 70s Case Sodbuster, the one I brought for me 'cause if I lost it or it was taken away for some reason I wouldn't have missed it.

Before I left, my one cousin who was a tradesman and a farmer pulled a brand new Opinel #6 and asked me if I'd like to trade? So before I packed my Sod Buster up in my checked bag we made a trade and ya know what?

In retrospect, my cousin got the better deal although the Opinel is a great knife and design in it's own right.

Sorry no pics of the Sodbuster. :(
Click to expand...

Great pictures and story about the truck and nothing to apologize for from my point of view. The comparison is very, very apt.

One of the things that came up in another thread on this forum is size. My take on size is that for folding knives, there are 3 categories:
Big - Buck 110/112, Opinel #9/#8, Large Stockman, Large Sodbuster
Medium - Barlows, Camper/Scout, Canoe, Medium Stockman, Opinel #7, Buck 501/55
Small - Peanuts, Opinel #6

I got my son an Opinel #6 as his first knife. The friction folder design was infinitely easier for him to handle than any slip joint or lock back. Here it is (at the bottom) along with my run of Bucks and Opinels.


Folders by Pinnah, on Flickr

The upper Opinel is a #9 filed down to a drop point and all the Opinels pictured here have had their handles flattened, shortened and converted to easy-open (allows for one hand opening, with some practice). TE, would be interesting to let you use the modified #9 for a bit and see how that stacks up to that Soddie you traded or against the smaller #6. I know Fausto prefers the smaller #6 in much the same way Carl prefers peanuts (which is cool), but I find knives of that size to be too little for my taste. Would the Opinel #6 be the cute little French, "Sunday go to Mass" knife"? :)

I could definitely see adding a Sodbuster into the mix, especially if doing more kitchen work, food prep and meat cutting, just on a account of the easier clean up and washing. But admittedly, the non-traditional looking Buck 482 has the "use it hard and put it away wet" usage pretty well covered with less weight than a Soddie and a locking blade.

But all this to say that I agree with Fausto and Carl, that the single blade work knife is pretty timeless and certainly the very center of my own interests. Carrying the #9 today but have been carrying the 112 pretty much non-stop for 2 weeks. 'sall good.
 
Last edited:
I worked a summer in France in 1980
Every worker and famer hand had an Opinel
And there is no difference between a soddie and an Opinel

In England, the single blade clip or spear Barlow or a single blade Sheepsfoot/Lambsfoot was the working knife
 
I've been eye-balling a Sod Buster for the past few weeks. I know there is a huge fan club of the Sb's, but I do not have the "trigger time" with one personally. I should be picking one up this week or next. I'll get back to you all on my thoughts. I hope I can enjoy it as much as some of you do.
 
neeman said:
And there is no difference between a soddie and an Opinel
Click to expand...

You don't consider the locking to be a notable difference? To me a lockblade knife is much safer for hard and fast cutting. As for the English, they consider any lockblade to be a weapon, rather than a safety feature. Well, at least the government does.
 
One theme that keeps recurring here is that the Soddy is a work knife and that it can be thrown in a toolbox and take all kinds of abuse.

I would counter that if the knife were in a toolbox, it wouldn't NEED to take abuse, except to the handle. The toolbox also contains The Right Tools for the Job, so that the knife doesn't need to get abused. So why not just keep a utility knife in the box?

I guess the answer is: "Because we like pocket knives."

The Soddy makes a lot more sense as a field pocket knife than a toolbox knife. But then, we could have the luxury of a nicer looking knife that feels and works just as well, so why bother with the plain Jane Soddy?

Not trying to put the knife down, it just doesn't seem to me to have a real purpose.
 
Random thought: did the disposable blades utility knife replace the Sodbuster pattern for working Americans? Was it another case of us making everything disposable?

Also, now that I reflect on it a bit more, I can imagine some instances in which the longer blade of the Soddy is needed, compared to just a sharp utility knife with a 1" cutting edge. So toolbox duty is back to being logical, in my mind.
 
Smaug said:
One theme that keeps recurring here is that the Soddy is a work knife and that it can be thrown in a toolbox and take all kinds of abuse.

I would counter that if the knife were in a toolbox, it wouldn't NEED to take abuse, except to the handle. The toolbox also contains The Right Tools for the Job, so that the knife doesn't need to get abused. So why not just keep a utility knife in the box?

I guess the answer is: "Because we like pocket knives."

The Soddy makes a lot more sense as a field pocket knife than a toolbox knife. But then, we could have the luxury of a nicer looking knife that feels and works just as well, so why bother with the plain Jane Soddy?

Not trying to put the knife down, it just doesn't seem to me to have a real purpose.
Click to expand...


Smaug, there's no single right answer on matters of taste and preference so what follows is no judgment on anybody. Just saying how I come to things.

In terms of utility, having worked as a bike mechanic for many years (still do it as a hobby), I loathe crappy tools. But, I also see tools as tools and not and end to themselves. I love certain tools because of the years I've used them and the things I have and can do with them, but they're also somewhat replaceable. I don't carry a soddie but I do carry their cousins like the Buck 112 and the Opinel #9. I don't destroy knives, but neither do I pamper or baby them. I use them around my barn and in my shop and really every day. I drop them too and occasionally they'll slip and I'll ding an edge. My knives, if inspected closely, have a good edge on them but show their use. For me, knives of this sort strike the sweet spot in terms of utility. If, heaven forbid, I loose one or destroy one, I'll be sad but not heartbroken.

In terms of aesthetics and what makes something pretty vs plain Jane, this is a deeper issue for me. I drive a Subaru, not a Volvo XC. I wear a Timex, not a Rolex. I wear Wrangler carpenter jeans or Dickies work pants, not wool gaberdines. That not good or virtuous and I'm not impugning people with more refined tastes. I'm just speaking for myself... With most things, there comes a point in the look of things at which I become self conscious. My Buck 500 is right there at the outer limit of knife bling that I'm comfortable with and then only in certain circles. There are some guys I hang with who, if I pulled out that 500, they would say I was trying to put on airs and to a large extent, they would be right. So, I carry a peasants knife or a working man's knife. It just suits me better.

Really, really, really must emphasize that I have no problem with people owning super nice things, including knives. I really do get it and compared to say, watches or custom bicycles, a super fine knife is a drop in the bucket.

Just noting that for some of us, knives like the Sodbuster feel right in many ways so I'm glad they exist.
 
If you've ever had a slipjoint SAK fold back up on your fingers while using it, you wouldn't be asking the question.
For non-locking folders, the sodbuster has to be one of the safest blade shapes because even if digging with the point, the blade is unlikely to fold closed.
 
Hi All. You may be interested to know that I just ordered a Case Sodbuster Jr., yellow CV.

After thinking about this for a while, and deciding I really like the blade shape of my Opinel (which is the same as the Soddy) I decided I will give this a go as a toolbox knife.
 
I'm sure you will enjoy it too. The CASE Jr is an excellent size for the pocket. A single blade knife that has relatively thick rounded handle always feels just right, in my hand,many of our knives in Europe are traditionally of this type. So too the Sodbuster, and it won't weigh down the pocket at all. It's certainly versatile, few weeks ago I was at a work party (yawn!) and a range of nice cheeses and sausage had been put out for us to enjoy with drinks. Looking at the miserable blunt knives that had been laid out, I opted for the Sodbuster in my pocket. Result, nice decent slices, other people took an interest in the knife too but I wasn't for lending it out:D:eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top