Great post, Cpl, and some great responses, too.
Makes us ask ourselves what a knife actually is, what it’s good for, and what we actually need. The answers to that obviously vary from person to person. I’ve been on BF long enough to know that there are whole segments of our community here that view these questions from completely different places.
For some, it’s all about the steel: they’re wholly absorbed in the characteristics of the steels, and will debate them endlessly. They may not use the knives themselves for much of anything other than testing stain resistance, how sharp it will get, and edge holding. They’re happy doing this and, hey, someone has to do it, because it really does inform the rest of us. The actual design of the knife and its usefulness in the real world are secondary considerations. I read their posts, and I’ve learned a lot from them: it never hurts to know about that kind of thing.
For others, it’s all about the name on the blade, and collecting the latest and greatest from certain makers (“Oh, look, **** has a new blade out! This one has an extra scallop in the handle and the choil is radiused an extra .0001 of an inch. Where’s my checkbook — I’ve gotta have one. They’re only $300 more than the last one.) These people get really into the minutiae and collect name brands just for perceived rarity. These are the “If it’s not a ****, it ain’t sh**” crowd. Pretty smug and superior, but, hey, they’re happy, so what the heck do I know.
For yet others, it’s a search for their “Goldilocks” knife: not too big, not too small, but just right. I think this is where most of us fall. We’ll try production knives and customs from makers that we trust, looking for the perfect blend of steel and design because we know that there is no perfect knife, but we want to try them all anyway. We’re just as happy doing this as the people mentioned above: we’re into knives, but haven’t found the perfect one yet. The search is fun though.
For still others, they haven’t a clue about all the things that we enlightened think make up a good knife. They go to Wally World and pick up whatever’s on sale, and looks good to them at the time. They’ll use it day to day on the farm or hunting and sometimes they’ll get something that fulfills their needs and be happy. Sometimes, they won’t. Either way, they probably wouldn’t understand we knife knuts.
Then there are those of us who use knifes for whatever practical purpose is important to us. We pay attention to the steel, because we know that steel is much better than, say, cheddar cheese, for a cutting edge, but we don’t get wrapped up in the latest super steels; we just want a good steel that we can sharpen and will hold an edge fairly well. We want a size that’s easy to carry, isn’t too heavy, and works well for most of our cutting tasks. We want a good design that sits well in the hand and works for whittling, skinning, chopping, what have you. Some of these knives may be really expensive, some may be dirt cheap, but they’re working knives that we trust.
As for me, I just like knives. Being on a laughably small government pension, I can’t afford to try them all out. I’m a pretty practical guy though, and I know that there are some really good knives out there for not much money. I’m thinking of things like RATs, Beckers and, yes, the new Condors here. The RATs and Beckers are well treated 1095, and the Condor’s are 1075. They’re not fancy super steels; they’re not flashy; you don’t have to join a cult to own one: they’re just good, tough, everyday knives that — for my purposes — are as good as anything out there. I’d trust my life to a Becker or a RAT without hesitation. Those who would tell me that their $800 **** is a truly superior knife for anything other than cinder blocks would have to prove it to me.
Way back when, I took a course in flint knapping, and learned to make knives, arrowheads and stuff. I never was really any good at it, but it did teach me something pretty important: steel’s better. Along the way I’ve learned that some steels are better than others, but a well treated 10 series steel is just fine for my uses.
Which brings us to the question of which knife? The one that works for you, of course.
...LOL
:thumbup:
