Toughest Cutting Chore

cerulean

cerulean

Joined
May 26, 1999
Messages
1,964
What's the toughest cutting chore you've preformed with your tactical knife? I'm interested in experiences with folders that have a 4" blade or so, serrated or plain edge. I want to get an idea of what a 4" folder can actually do in the "real world". Did you ever successfully cut something that seemed to be impossible with a tactical folder? I personally can't share any stories as I tend to be a sissy and baby my knives.
 
Lets see....one thing that I have used 'Tactical Folders' for alot that I think they should do all the time, but some think is kinda radical, is skinning and gutting game. I've 'processed' wild hogs and deer with an AFCK, GENESIS, CUDA Quick Action, Terzoula Custom ATCF, and Sebenza. They ALL performed fine, and would have no problem using them all the time, but I enjoy using some of my skinners like Simonich TALONITE Cetan soooooo much!

I did one deer with a BM Striker once on a bet, but lets just say that it didn't 'lend itself to the task'. But it did get me through it, and held its edge well.

Probally the most interesting use of a folder in this class that I have been through was escaping from a locked room with a Gerber Bolt Action. I know many of you don't think of the Bolt Action as a Tactical Folder, but in the mid '80's, it was pretty 'cutting edge'[pun intended]. I found myself locked in a small room in a supposedly 'secure' building, after hours, nobody to let me out[long story, my fault, it was an accident]. I used the bolt action to pry nails and cut plywood and sheet-rock. It took a couple of hours, but I finally made it through 2 walls and a heavy security door. The knife held up fine, but man did I have ALOT to explain the next day!

'Tactical' folders, for me, are everyday work tools. They cut open boxes, clean game, help prepare meals,etc,etc. And because they are ALWAYS with me, they are one of my planned lines of defense. I guess if that makes them 'Tactical', so be it.

------------------
Stay Sharp!
Will Fennell
Camillus Cutlery


 
CUDA's are awesome

Oddly enough, saran wrap can be a pain in the ass to cut due to it's tendancy to wrap around the blade sometimes.
 
My daughter was playing with some 550 cord and got it tangled around her arm and the door. No big emergency or risk but the crying that ensued would have led you to believe otherwise.
Without thinking I wipped out my Military and carefully slipped it between her arm and the 550 cord to remove it.
Not difficult to cut through the cord at all, but if you have ever tried to get a "HYPER ACTIVE" 3 year old to hold still then you have an inkling of the difficulty of this task.
wink.gif


------------------
The greatest thought that has ever entered my mind is that one day I will have to stand before a Holy God and give an account of my life.
*Daniel Webster

Rev 20:12

 
This isn't as glamorous as dressing out a deer with a tanto blade
smile.gif
but I'd have the say the most annoying thing I've had to cut was a 1" thick root of a juniper bush.

The knife was a Benchmade Eclipse/Ascent, 50/50 serrations and not very sharp. I was helping to put up a retaining wall that would enlarge my neighborhood's playground. The juniper was at the top of the hill we were digging into and one of the guys wanted to get the (big) root out of the way. It was dangling free out of the vertical side of the hill we'd dug into. There was nothing to bear down on and the position was awkward and tricky. Add to that my tendency to accidentally unlock the $%^@!&^!#$% Ascent under heavy used and the wet, fibrous resiliency of the root... Sawing didn't work (the knife wouldn't bite) and neither did a direct push cut. Finally I just started taking little "v" notches out of it, similar to how an axe removes wood from a tree.

OK, so not very glamorous but there yah go.

Jon

PS - Yes, a fully serrated (and sharp) knife or clippers would've been better. But, the only knife that matters is the one you have with you.

[This message has been edited by Ghecko (edited 14 October 1999).]
 
Plastic "blister packs." I find these to be amazingly difficult to cut. You have to be extra careful because you don't want to damge whatever is inside. It also seems to take its toll on the knife's edge faster than you would think. All and all a surprisingly tuff cutting chore.

------------------
Megafolder Fans Unite!

Mike Melone

"Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. " Psalm 144:1
"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them." --Thomas Jefferson

 
A while back I got roped into helping lay some sisal carpeting- Imagine a carpet made entirely from hemp/manila rope & you get the idea- a bit like those doormat things but thinner, very strong & hard to get a straight cut into it- I had a Mora (Sweden)utility blade that would cut you from across the room if you looked at it funny & it did as well as any blade could. I will NEVER try that again... (huge P.I.T.A.)

------------------
Runs With Scissors
AKTI# A000107
 
The most abusive thing I can remember doing was when I got my first ATS-34 AFCK, I was helping my father rig crab gear. Crab pots have a stainless rebar frame which we wrap with innertube rubber, enclose with a stainless wire net, and tie up with a 3/8" nylon rope harness. The knife work involves cutting and scraping the old rubber off the frames, and cutting rope lengths for the harnesses. Cutting the rubber against the steel rebar was really hard on the edge. I didn't have any chipping problems. The knife performed a lot better than the stub of a cheap stainless fillet knife that my Dad was using.
 
Oh, the other hard thing I did was chisel a whole through a 2X8. If your knife still has a tip when you get all the way through, it is a strong tipped knife.
smile.gif
 
This isn't as exotic as what I've read, but, I was looking for some Osage Orange (hedge) to cut for a carving project. I wanted to try and see if I could develope it into several projects I had going on. One of which was future slabs for a bowie blank. I went through several of my folders to see their cutting power and edge ability. I won't bore you with the list of 3 or four but the dry hedge (2" diameter) pieces I did cut successfully I completed with an old Gerber lockbolt. Kinda shredded away at it. Blade edge came back quickly with a couple swipes at the ceramic. My SOCOM held up real well, but would have done better with serrated edges. Boy is that hedge tough--especially when dried.
 
Muddy, 6 inch Kevlar stap, in the rain. One pass with an Endura Spyderedge and it was parted.

8-10 0.25-1.25 inch wild grape vines that had come down with a limb blocking my road. My Mini SOCOM PS cleared the tangle in a couple of minutes.

PVC electrical box with a Spyderco Bob T.

etc.

Take care,

Mike

------------------
TANSTAAFL


 
Hmm...pretty tough cutting tasks. The juniper bush in particluar impresses me. Last summer I had to remove a small yard full of juniper bushes and it was one of the most annoying physical tasks I have ever preformed. I tried a variety of bladed instruments and finally settled on some huge shears for the job. I'll have to stop reading this thread, as it's giving me nightmares!
 
I didn't use a tactical knife but the blade was about 4 inches. I had sprayed foam insulation between the sheathing/siding and the concrete foundation all around the house, and after the stuff expanded and hardened I needed to trim it flush with the bottom of the siding and flush with the foundation, which meant using the foundation as a cutting board. My old Randall didn't hold up very well .....just kidding, I have a Chicago Cutlery knife that I use as a beater.
 
I cut a lot of stranded copper wire (#12AWG THHN and #12/3AWG SJO cable) with my sub 4” folders on a regular basis, SOP. No miracles of steel, just regular work. Makes my co-workers cringe, though.

------------------
James Segura
San Francisco, CA


 
cerulean,

I really am hesitant to share this but my gut hurts so much now from laughing that I figure what the heck. A female friend is here with me and as I scrolled down the thread list and paused on yours, she opined her thoughts on what she felt would present the "toughest" cutting challenge. Would you believe she said "circumcision"
smile.gif
!!!

-=[Bob]=-
 
Good God! I'm now going to have to sue BladeForums for mental distress. But seriously, I just hope this doesn't turn into a "If you had to perform an emergency circumcision, what knife would you use?" thread.
 
I just got back today from helping to clean up some hurricane damage.

would you beleive the hardest thing to cut was wet muddy carpet, this stuff was shag and about an inch thick and still wet and muddy from the floods, you could cut it but it would frey and catch the best way I found was to have 2 people pulling in different directions and just chop through the middle with a slicing motion.

I used a OE Magna and it held up real well to the task...

Alan...
 
I was volunteering with the Red Cross after the Oklahoma tornado and I used a Kar-bar to hammer-drill a screw driver into a cinder block wall so I could insert a plastic anchor and hook to hang up display clothing to give to victims. It took awhile, but there was no other tool to drill with, and I wanted to hang up most of my slacks!

I also hammered my Stryker into wood walls to start holes for hook screws, also to hang up clothing. I had my Axis, but the tip profile on the Stryker is thicker and would punch a bigger hole.

I carried the Stryker on my left hip, Axis in right front pocket, L Voyager in back right pocket, Deluxe Tinker forward of L hip in pouch, Gerber multi-thingy (added later) back right hip, and Kar-Bar in S-Kit in trunk. -Brian
 
New clean carpet is hell on any knife edge. Old dirty carpet will dull a edge as fast as you look at it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top