Rough and ready work knife

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Ben Dover said:
I never seem to have any dirty work planned, so when it does come up, my old Spyderco Military in S90V, my EDC, gets called to duty.
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Similar for me with my poor Spyderco Sage 1. It's taken a lot of abuse and I finally realized it's not the right knife for me to EDC due to some of my tasks. Nothing drastic has happened, but I've had some minor chipping. I'm moving away from more edge retention and toward more toughness in my knives. Still love my Sage, btw.

Not sure what steel is my ultimate for EDC, and of course there's more than one which would work well. No complaints with Cru-wear so far. My Sage and Creely Blades Cru-Wear Maco below. The Maco is a nice EDC knife. The sheath makes it an excellent EDC knife. (Makers, are you listening? More EDC friendly sheaths please.) The Maco is nice but expensive.

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Owen K. said:
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Is that a heated slab getting ready to be poured? Gotta love heated floors.
 
David Richardson said:
Similar for me with my poor Spyderco Sage 1. It's taken a lot of abuse and I finally realized it's not the right knife for me to EDC due to some of my tasks. Nothing drastic has happened, but I've had some minor chipping. I'm moving away from more edge retention and toward more toughness in my knives. Still love my Sage, btw.

Not sure what steel is my ultimate for EDC, and of course there's more than one which would work well. No complaints with Cru-wear so far. My Sage and Creely Blades Cru-Wear Maco below. The Maco is a nice EDC knife. The sheath makes it an excellent EDC knife. (Makers, are you listening? More EDC friendly sheaths please.) The Maco is nice but expensive.

tB1mYME.jpg




Is that a heated slab getting ready to be poured? Gotta love heated floors.
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You guessed it. It's a garage slab I was helping out with, sure beats working outside.
 
Ben Dover said:
David, if you want toughness AND edge retention, take a hard look at CPM M-4.
IME, it's one of the very best compromises for toughness and edge holding.

And it's ridiculously easy to sharpen. I can get a hair popping edge on M-4 with nothing but water stones and a strop.
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I thought M4 was one of the hardest to sharpen, requiring diamond stones?

I miss the ease of resharpening my cheaper knives, but I do not miss their lack of edge retention!
 
Billy The Hungry said:
I thought M4 was one of the hardest to sharpen, requiring diamond stones?

I miss the ease of resharpening my cheaper knives, but I do not miss their lack of edge retention!
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Diamond stones are best for M4. You can use aluminum oxide stones, but you will do better with diamond stones.

I find that most stainless has a propensity for forming a bit of wire edge, although high hardness stainless has less. That bit of wire edge is easy enough to remove using a stropping motion on your pant leg, but M4 doesn't form any at all.

Personally, my knives for harsher work are both Cold Steel knives, with stainless blades.
Usually a Grik, but if I'm working outside, I'll add a Pocket Bushman. Both are really hard to damage, easy to restore the edge, and inexpensive to replace if I do something really stupid. (been a number of years since I did, but stuff can happen.)

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I agree with Gary that if you do not have with you/on you - it won't be used when the need arises.

I do try to select my carry of the day depending on intended activities. Some, like hunting or fishing are easy - other days, as this thread shows, you just can't tell.

Because I don't like to beat up my "better" knives, I have assembled the Beater Brigade of Folders. Admittedly they have not gotten much use yet, but these will save wear and tear on my next level up folders ... you know, like the Buck 110 and RAT-1 knives LOL!

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If I anticipate dirty work, I usually grab an Opinel.

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Often a Spyderco Byrd.

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I also have a Kershaw Needs work that I use for dirty chores, CS Bushman, and an old CS Umtralock Recon 1, and newer Triad lock Recon 1, and a handful of old slipjoints I use as well.
 
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Thanks for the comments on the photo I posted, I used an LED light thingy I picked up from Amazon seen here and to make the reflection, I used an app on my iphone called Reflect, it isn't free but worth the small amount they charged.

G2

edited to add that I decided to pick up a Steel Will Chatbot folder, I'll report back next week how that turns out :)
The ones you guys have recommended I've owned most if not all of them already, so, this one looks like a solid cutter with a boxy looking handle that will not twist during cutting.
 
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David Richardson said:
Stupidity, I suppose. I was mixing a small amount and just wanted to cut the corner off the bag to pour some into a 5 gal bucket. Probably could have used a trowel.
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Sometimes you just get a little too excited about a new knife.

Got a new Spydetco Tenacious when it came out and immediately took it to the job. Used it to open a couple of bags of thinset as opposed to the guys just ripping them open. Just needed a little from the bags. At the end of the day the blade was stained badly and had a dusting of rust on it from the caustic materials in the mix.

Later that week I used the same knife to open a couple of 50# bags of fertilzer and cut the bags down as it was spread. Pulled the knife out the next day and the blade was rusted and lightly pitted. My RAT1 never did that even though it is the same steel as the Tenacious.

I cleaned up the Tenacious, buffed out the blade, sharpened it and gave it to an older fella I know that told me "he never thought he would own a knife that nice". Since he is afraid to use it, it looks great!

I knew this and preach it often, but the lesson learned from me is to remember to use the right tool whenever possible.

Robert
 
I rarely have to use my knife on messy jobs like mixing epoxy, but I do use my knives for cutting and scraping difficult things- wood, plastic, etc. including cutting wire and carving on aluminum. I used my M4 Manix 2 today to scrape some paint off of floor tile after painting some baseboards this morning. This could have taken the fine edge off of it but otherwise would not have harmed it, and I can always resharpen it. In my workshop I have a utility knife, I have a cheap old hunting knife, and I have an old CRKT folder, as well as more modern knives including a Spyderco Mule and a Spyderco GB. I select whichever one is most appropriate for the cutting task. My most used knife around the house has been that M4 Manix 2, but recently I got a Rex45 Manix 2 for most of that use.
 
David Richardson said:
Stupidity, I suppose. I was mixing a small amount and just wanted to cut the corner off the bag to pour some into a 5 gal bucket. Probably could have used a trowel.
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Don’t feel bad bud. I’ve opened a ton of concrete bags with my CRKs. Never had any issues. I’ve used a shovel as well. Sometimes the shovel ain’t as close as my pocket knife
 
Gary, I try to stay out of the dirt, since I'm too old to get up and down like i used to... However, I did once use my CRK Zaan to pry off a cast iron lid so I could shut off the main water supply in a self-imposed emergency. It looked just fine and did no harm to the blade or edge.
 
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