So...I did something stupid today....

unit

unit

Joined
Nov 22, 2009
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A well driller asked me if I had a knife. I told him yes and without hesitation I handed in my Devin Thomas Damascus Sebenza.

Granted, I bought this knife to use it and to use it without hesitation. But I will say that I generally don't use my knives for stupid things and as you should all know handing a nice knife to a well driller is a stupid thing. A few seconds later I see him hacking away at a ratchet strap when he breaks through the muddy soil stained strap I hear that sharp clink sound of steel hitting steel. Yes my Devin Thomas slammed into the side of the drill rig frame.

The good news is it just rolled the edge bit I'm sure it won't be too much of a problem to fix, and my photo skills are bad enough that I'm not even capable of taking a picture of it to show you.

So why did I even bother to share this embarrassing story? I'm sharing it because when I inspected the edge afterwards I was actually surprised that it wasn't damaged worse. I'm not gonna go using the "super steel" moniker or anything silly like that but this stuff is surprisingly tough;)
 
Ouch!

I will sometimes carry two knives..my CRK and a junker...But when someone asks, I don't usually let anyone use my knives unless it's the wife and she only uses them to open mail :)
The junker is for me to use doing stupid stuff..Like cutting cardboard on these vinyl tile floors at work or something similar..I would loan it out,..but I am of the mind of "if you have to borrow something more than 1x, then you probably should own it". Never really borrowed knives though..have always thought of one as a necessity. (to me anyway)
 
unit said:
A well driller asked me if I had a knife.
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Sweet Mother of Pearl. I knew from this point on that it was not going to be good. :) At least he didn't drop it down a drill hole. So maybe get yourself a Buck 110 for the job site, eh? :thumbup:
 
After i read the first sentence I thought it was going to be a lot worse! Im glad it wasnt! :thumbup:
 
unit said:
A well driller asked me if I had a knife. I told him yes and without hesitation I handed in my Devin Thomas Damascus Sebenza.

Granted, I bought this knife to use it and to use it without hesitation. But I will say that I generally don't use my knives for stupid things and as you should all know handing a nice knife to a well driller is a stupid thing. A few seconds later I see him hacking away at a ratchet strap when he breaks through the muddy soil stained strap I hear that sharp clink sound of steel hitting steel. Yes my Devin Thomas slammed into the side of the drill rig frame.

The good news is it just rolled the edge bit I'm sure it won't be too much of a problem to fix, and my photo skills are bad enough that I'm not even capable of taking a picture of it to show you.

So why did I even bother to share this embarrassing story? I'm sharing it because when I inspected the edge afterwards I was actually surprised that it wasn't damaged worse. I'm not gonna go using the "super steel" moniker or anything silly like that but this stuff is surprisingly tough;)
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Over the years I've sold a lot handmade knifes to people and I've noticed most people take good care of the knives they in fact one guy bought and s35vn 4" D.P. hunter and he'll field dress,quarter and skin 6-10 deer each season with little more than a few light strokes on a steel I touch it up for him each year even though it doesn't need it,I just like to see what the knife looks like after it's had a work out.Another guy I know (family member) actually manages to ruin one of my hand mades each year,either using it for a pry bar or letting it sit in the corner of his garage on the floor and letting the mice eat the sheath and handle off of it.Yes mice love to eat your leather sheaths and stag knife handles when your not looking.He is by far not the only person I know like this neither,so when someone wants to use my knife the answer is always NO! I will cut what ever needs to cut for them,unless it's somebody I know really,really well.
 
Agreed, I thought for sure you were going to say it now is resting 80 feet at the bottom of a water well. I guess it could have been worse.
 
It could have been worse as others have said. I expected it to be worse than it was the words did something stupid & knife in the title.

I always carry 2 knives: a CRK or other good quality and a SE Dfly. No, I wouldn't give my CRK to someone else to use.
 
Ouch! That's a scary story.

I let my buddy use my Sebenza the other day and he wrist flicked the damn thing opened!:mad: He says "oh I thought it was a flipper":confused:

This guy knows what a flipper is, I've shown him many of them...
But let's just say he's not the sharpest knife of the bunch;)
 
You are fortunate that is all that happened! It is good to know that the damascus steel is tough though:)
 
Ok, I HAD this buddy who is about as dumb as a rock, though he doesn't come off that way at first.
I once said "Hey, look at my new knife!" and handed it to him. We were camping.
He said, "Oh, cool." and threw it point first in the dirt. I still don't know why he did it, I couldn't speak without starting a fist fight.

Last time he ever touched one of my knives.
 
Stupidest thing I did was hand my buddy my Benchmade Rift (funny isn't it that all our stories start with handing our knives to a buddy?) thinking he was going to use it. He proceeded to drop it point first on a concrete floor covered in only thin carpet. Lost the point that day. I almost went crazy. Talk about lack of respect. Stupidly enough I'm still friends with the guy to this day. *sigh*

*Unit - glad to hear it wasn't worse than it ended up.
 
Glad it turned out ok.

Most people that know me don't ask to use my knife. Rather they ask me to cut something for them. Seems to work out better for both of us.
 
You know, I've been thinking about something in regards to Devin Thomas SS damascus. Why is it so tough? You carry yours every day, I carry mine every day unless briefly rotating in another Sebenza. We both keep our blades extremely honed using fairly aggressive angles on the cutting edge. Neither of our knives perform in any manner shy of impressive. I initially bought mine after hearing you say good things about it, and knowing that you use it often, and in your job site, I was confident in the blade. Over the last few months, I'm constantly surprised by the damascus blade. Devin's site says he uses AEB-L and 304 SS to make his stainless damascus. To my knowledge, neither of those steels is particularly impressive. Certainly not bad, but not even as impressive on paper as say, a high performance steel like S35VN. My damascus holds it's edge longer than S35VN, has never chipped no matter what I've cut (or cut through then HIT), and really doesn't tend to roll much. Mr. Thomas certainly does a damn fine job on his damascus, that much is fair to say.

Glad your knife is alright! It manages to survive quite a few risky situations; be it clanking against steel, getting snagged and dragged on metal rivets, or being mostly buried underground. May your luck continue!
 
Another excellent endorsement for the DT damascus. I love reading Unit and Zeta33's posts! I can't wait to get mine for Christmas.
 
Yeah, I have worked with this driller quite a bit (lots of exploratory drilling) so I knew what I was dealing with. I knew there was no way he'd get it down hole, but I figured he'd probably test the edge;)

It only required a few minutes on the hones and once again, I can say I'm very impressed with the steel (it takes a sticky sharp edge). This knife is so much fun after a full progression honing.
 
Oh, and I generally like to share this knife and probably will continue to do so. Over the years, a lot of people have trusted me with their precious knives, I figure, it's time for me to trust a few others. I have a special deployment method I use to offer the knife to others even. I have loaned it to quite a few...win some lose some...actually, today was the first time someone (other than me) damaged the edge.
 
unit said:
Yeah, I have worked with this driller quite a bit (lots of exploratory drilling) so I knew what I was dealing with. I knew there was no way he'd get it down hole, but I figured he'd probably test the edge;)

It only required a few minutes on the hones and once again, I can say I'm very impressed with the steel (it takes a sticky sharp edge). This knife is so much fun after a full progression honing.
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Did you run the same variable edge as last time? Sharpens up so easy. Mine has a fresh edge right now as well, honed up to 12k. Sticky sharp is a good way to put it. If you run your finger down the edge gently, it feels smooth like glass till you lift your finger and find it's nicked the skin, and you "stick" lifting off of it.
 
Yes, that is pretty much it. I place a finger straight down on the edge and then lift back up and it's got a sticky feeling, if I draw it at all, it bites. This is the only knife I have ever drawn blood with while doing this (I honed knives and straight razors professionally and dealt with a lot of blades over the years).

Yes, it had a compound edge in it as I described before. It's a little more symmetric this time though. I used the same progression I used to use on competition knives, it responded similarly except it took about a third of the strokes to get there (14,000 grit).
 
unit said:
Yes, that is pretty much it. I place a finger straight down on the edge and then lift back up and it's got a sticky feeling, if I draw it at all, it bites. This is the only knife I have ever drawn blood with while doing this (I honed knives and straight razors professionally and dealt with a lot of blades over the years).

Yes, it had a compound edge in it as I described before. It's a little more symmetric this time though. I used the same progression I used to use on competition knives, it responded similarly except it took about a third of the strokes to get there (14,000 grit).
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Very interesting. Fresh off the stones, the edge will bite like a demon for me, but as I bring it to a mirror polish it smooths out almost completely yet retains that little "stick" if I were to put my finger on it, then lift off. I'm a bit undecided whether I prefer the 30 inclusive primary bevel with 36ish unstropped micro bevel with that insane bite, or if I prefer the super smooth polished edge I get using the strops+compounds after the stones at 30 inclusive without the micro bevel. Both have their strong points.

In any case, thank you for the responses. Always fun to chat with sharp folk.
 
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