That time when I used 1 knife for almost 10 days

jackknife said:
If we're being honest, we would admit that we, the obsessed and afflicted knife nuts, are the 1% of 'society' that actually carries a knife beyond some keychain size thing or box cutter. The humble little Victorinox classic is the worlds most popular selling pocket knife and sales of it pass all the other knife companies by many millions of knives actually sold on the world wide market.

Fanboys of all kinds have a very skewed vision of real life. Gun nuts, car nuts, knife nuts, whatever.
Click to expand...

I agree. I remember starting my blue collar days and all I had was my favorite 4" CASE stockman, and my hunting knife (carried only when hiking, fishing, hunting, etc.) which was carried only when needed along with the stockman. A few years later I was able to buy a 4" copperhead, and still have that one. Carried until I wore a couple of rivet heads off, the shield is rubbed smooth on one end, about 5 years. Almost 10 years, I only had those three knives. Never felt under powered at any time, even daily out on the job site.

I have a wealth of knives now, and I am ashamed to say I don't carry them except "in rotation". I am at the point now I will never wear one out. The closest I came to putting some real wear on a knife was when I got a RAT 1 after all the raves here. What a great work knife! All the accolades and praise it got here was well deserved, and no new work knives for me for about 3 years.

I love a few of my knives and the ones that are gifts will always be special. But I could easily cut back my actual knife needs to less than ten knives for every activity I could imagine for work, weekend, outdoor activities and even my kitchen efforts.

Robert
 
DMG said:
This is a nice reminder that we don’t need all the fancy gear. I have traveled for weeks with just a SAK and aside from it being dull when I got home, it worked great.
Click to expand...
I agree.

Just, I'd hate to cut carpets, zip ties or plastic packaging with a SAK.
I won't even mention food prep, cleaning the fish we caught or some wood processing I did. Just tapping off smaller branches, and chopping in a little so I can break the wood at that exact spot, and some feather sticking. No need to baton.

But yeah, other people there had their SAK's and Leatherman, plus few box cutters, and that's nothing fancy.
Even my ESEE 3 is nothing fancy, it's just plain old 1095, and even if I had some fixed blade in some kind of super steel - I doubt it'd make any difference for me.
And yeah, ESEE saw the most use and did pretty much all "heavy lifting" there, so good old 1095 is still serving a purpose, the same as it did many years ago.


In all honesty, SAK is really pretty much all EDC you might need. Pair it with a small fixed blade and your carry needs are all set.
 
My longest streak was 10 years with a CRK small, PJ Sebenza. It was both my edc and woods knife while my son was in the BSA (troop frowned in fixed blades). I’ve since retired the knife (still has plenty of life, but too many memories to risk losing).

Now, I rotate edc among three knives, have a dedicated office knife, three primary field knives (depends on the trip), a campground/carver a couple of lenders for hiking buddies, and a host of back-ups.

Ultimately, I want one more carver, two “better” back ups for my field knives (now that I know exactly what I want), then will sell off the rest. I think that leaves me with 8 fixed blades and 6 folders.
 
TrainedBullets said:
My longest streak was 10 years with a CRK small, PJ Sebenza. It was both my edc and woods knife while my son was in the BSA (troop frowned in fixed blades). I’ve since retired the knife (still has plenty of life, but too many memories to risk losing).

Now, I rotate edc among three knives, have a dedicated office knife, three primary field knives (depends on the trip), a campground/carver a couple of lenders for hiking buddies, and a host of back-ups.

Ultimately, I want one more carver, two “better” back ups for my field knives (now that I know exactly what I want), then will sell off the rest. I think that leaves me with 8 fixed blades and 6 folders.
Click to expand...
My CRK is my most expensive knife so I can’t yet bring myself to use it as a woods knife. I wish I could. Maybe once the new wears off it.
 
DMG said:
My CRK is my most expensive knife so I can’t yet bring myself to use it as a woods knife. I wish I could. Maybe once the new wears off it.
Click to expand...

To be fair, I mostly opened food packages, cut cord, cut tape, and did a little whittling with it (tent pegs). I never did fire prep, game prep, or anything like that with it.

That PJ Sebbie is still my second most expensive knife, just under my Mnandi, which does get babied.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMG
The ESEE 3 really is fantastic. I have one in S35VN without the coating and 3D contoured G-10 and it is about all you would ever want out of a sub full size fixed blade companion knife. Going to be a little tougher to touch up on a pocket stone like the DC4 but the lack of coating and upgraded handle was well worth the increase in price for me. Really is a blade that could do it all for a lifetime if you needed it to.
 
eveled said:
I carried and used the same Buck 110 exclusively everyday for 30 years. Never felt deprived. In fact I’m certain I had a better knife with me than 99.9% of the people around me.

A buck 110 is all the knife I need, the rest are just for fun.
Click to expand...
I can’t top that, but I have a fun story.

I carried my 3-dot 110 for 17 yrs straight, every day like you, until a widow lady asked me to help her go through her late husband’s stuff. I ended up with his Case P157, sometimes called a Shark-tooth. Basically a 110 with a little more angular rear end. As an experiment i “melted” the bolsters and scales to make it more hand-friendly, which turned out great. I wanted to carry it in Bill’s memory, but the 110 was an old friend.

What a dilemma, two folding hunters - which one to carry?

So I started keeping 2 pairs of work pants, the dirty pair and the “really dirty” pair. I start each day by thinking, “how dirty do I expect to get today?” The 110 rides in one, the Case in the other, to this day. Most days also a modified stockman in the right pocket, 301 or equivalent.

Side note: in recent years, Buck has chamfered the edges of the 110 somewhat, but the early ones were pretty square.

Parker
 
Lol. Great minds think a like. I started with 1 Buck 110 in high school. It was one of the old squared off ones but my father had rounded it off with a file before he gave it to me.

When I started working I got tired of switching it from my jeans to my work pants. So I bought an extra sheath. Which in theory made sense, but I kept on ending up leaving the house with an empty sheath on my belt.

So when I could afford it I bought another knife, this time a Finger Groove 110
one for my work pants, one for my jeans.

Ten years after that I started wearing Jean shorts off hours if the weather was hot. So I had to buy a third 110. 1 for work 1 for long jeans 1 for short jeans.

So for simplicity in my original post when I said I carried a 110 every day, it was really three knives.

The Finger Groove one ended up wearing out to the point that the lock did not work. So searching that led me to this forum and I joined just to resurrect a thread that said that they never wear out.

Which led me to send the first two Back to the factory for blade replacements.

During that 30 year period. I owned two pocket knives from my youth and a KA-BAR, all of which never got carried. Also during that time the only cooking I did for myself was if I was outdoors. So I used my110, and even in restaurants if I was eating steak I used my 110.

So even though I occasionally probably touched another knife during that period. 99.9% of my knife use was with a 110.

Now I own lots of knives, some dedicated purpose ones some kitchen ones. I will still usually have a 110 on my belt or in my pocket.

One of the first 2 110’s has gone to work with me everyday since my first job 36 years now and counting

Interesting to note that the first 110 cost me about 10 hours pay, at minimum wage. now it would be about 3 hours pay. For the longest time Buck prices seemed to hold steady as they streamlined the manufacturing process they kept the price pretty much the same for years. But those early 110’s were an investment for a guy like me.

Here is that old thread with my first post

Anyone ever have a 110 lock fail?

hunting camp....(sigh)...been years...(sniff)... good to know they still exist.. hear there are some elk camps near post falls...wander what they look like? got a gold cross lock i need to try.. and a alpha hunter.. heck i might even go "fixed" at a camp..
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
Last edited:
c7m2p3 said:
The ESEE 3 really is fantastic. I have one in S35VN without the coating and 3D contoured G-10 and it is about all you would ever want out of a sub full size fixed blade companion knife. Going to be a little tougher to touch up on a pocket stone like the DC4 but the lack of coating and upgraded handle was well worth the increase in price for me. Really is a blade that could do it all for a lifetime if you needed it to.
Click to expand...
I agree with statement.

Lack of coating and better handle make it perform better. Also, there's no worry about corrosion, and it holds an edge for a lot longer.

But one of reasons why I even got ESEE-3 at a first place is 1095 steel that's really easy to get scary sharp with even most basic equipment or even natural river stone.

I also don't know how is 1095 comparing to S35VN in toughness, but from what I know, 1095 is known as fairly tough steel.
 
EatingSarma said:
I agree with statement.

Lack of coating and better handle make it perform better. Also, there's no worry about corrosion, and it holds an edge for a lot longer.

But one of reasons why I even got ESEE-3 at a first place is 1095 steel that's really easy to get scary sharp with even most basic equipment or even natural river stone.

I also don't know how is 1095 comparing to S35VN in toughness, but from what I know, 1095 is known as fairly tough steel.
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with 1095, I still love using my Ontario Rat 5 for heavier tasks and it has held up against everything I could possibly throw at it. I wanted something that I could carry with me everyday if I needed to though and I live in a rather wet climate so the S35VN upgrade was attractive for a blade that would be kept on my belt or small of back while walking, sweating, and living in this climate. Both great blades and 1095 really polishes up nice.

https://imgur.com/a/lfUqks3
 
c7m2p3 said:
Nothing wrong with 1095, I still love using my Ontario Rat 5 for heavier tasks and it has held up against everything I could possibly throw at it. I wanted something that I could carry with me everyday if I needed to though and I live in a rather wet climate so the S35VN upgrade was attractive for a blade that would be kept on my belt or small of back while walking, sweating, and living in this climate. Both great blades and 1095 really polishes up nice.

https://imgur.com/a/lfUqks3
Click to expand...
I'd lie to myself if I said I wouldn't get S35VN version too if I could afford it.

Also, I was on an island with mine, I had no corrosion issues and all I did was just dry it and oil it with something before putting away. So little care goes a long way with 1095
 
I read the title as 10 years not 10 days, so I was really confused where the rest of the story was lol. I'm glad that the Esee met all of your needs. Cool to hear so many stories from others about time periods where they carried one knife. I'm still rocking my Benchmade Bugout that I bought just shy of four years ago as my only knife.
 
I tend to carry one knife for a good few months to a year before swapping it for something else when I get tired of it, but it's never the only knife I use, because certain tasks require certain blade shapes and lengths. A pocket knife makes a poor chefs knife and a chefs knife makes a poor pocket knife, although it can be done. I'm a geologist and travel a lot and when I travel I typically have only three knives in my bag. One Leatherman, one Cold Steel American Lawman, and one SAK Spartan. The Leatherman is my "work knife" and gets used the most. The American Lawman is the "kitchen knife", but realistically a short chefs knife with a sheath or scabbard would work better for that task, but it also gets used as a heavier duty pocket knife, so it has its place. The SAK is just a useful tool to have around for things that the Leatherman can't do, like opening bottles of wine and pulling out splinters. I've lived for weeks to months at a time with just those three knives and never felt like I needed more
 
GatorMedic said:
I read the title as 10 years not 10 days, so I was really confused where the rest of the story was lol. I'm glad that the Esee met all of your needs. Cool to hear so many stories from others about time periods where they carried one knife. I'm still rocking my Benchmade Bugout that I bought just shy of four years ago as my only knife.
Click to expand...
I only have 5 knives currently 2 of which are small ebough for EDC, so I don't have much of a choice.

I carried Boker GoBag almost exclusivley for about a year until I got Viper Berus 1.

I had more knives but I either sold them or they broke because I did something stupid.

I have:
Boker GoBag (D2)
Viper Berus 1 (M390)
ESEE 3 (1095)
Ka-Bar 1211 (1095 CV)
Warcraft Tanto (CPM-3V)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top