Traditional knives, for dirty jobs.

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Dean51

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Aug 30, 2014
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I was reading the thread on “Handle/slabs materials - properties, cons & pros?” and that got me thinking about my shop knives.

Last fall I got a new S-M Keystone Barlow Stag and a week later, it was on the roof of Mom's house cutting tubes of roofing cement. Roofing cement ends up on everything but it cleaned up without harm. What ever knife I'm have on me, gets used for what ever comes up that day.

Having said that, there are some jobs I don't like using my good knives on. Things like transmission fluid, gas, carb cleaner, antifreeze, dry wall and scraping are hard on handles and blades.

I have two knives that do all those nastier jobs. One is a Colonial Scout 2205 a not very accurate copy of the Camillus MIL-K-818. All 440 stainless so nothing shy of acid will hurt it.
The new addition is a Colonial Military E2 electrical knife, it's a little heavier built than a TL-29. The blades are 440C, with what looks like Delrin for the handles. One side of the screw driver is sharpened to 30 per side, for use as a scraper. Right now it's getting used to upgrade and add outlets around the house and garage.

These knives aren't carried just stored in a drawer of the tool box, like any other tool.

So the question is, do you have traditional knives that are dedicated to the real Dirty Jobs.
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I have one of those. With all the knives I have, it just makes sense to have a dedicated beater. I like a sharp knife, with thin polished edges. No point in messing them all up when it takes time to get an edge tuned up.

My beater is an old $10 Brown Mule. Normally I think of slipjoints as slicers, but I'll use this one for anything.

 
I'd say my 74 Case sodbuster, it has some bad vertical play (you can shake the blade around) and the blade is worn but it is a knife. I use it in the yard for (what else) cutting sod. NEVER would I use a daily carry on sod, the blade turns into butter knife in minutes. I work construction, so I usually have a utility knife on me for the really rough stuff. I can't imagine cutting drywall with a regular knife, too much sharpening and resharpening just to fix the tip.

Connor
 
I've cut through or into just about anything and everything with this old Ulster scout over the last 50 years or so. The lines on the blade are from scraping grips off chrome plated golf shafts. The main pivot got loose about 7-8 years back, so I just squeezed it in my vise and tightened 'er right up again. Still going strong.

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The SAK Super Tinker or the Case Texas Jack get the call for the dirty jobs. They handle them with ease.
 
I tend to group my knives into rough classifications. There's the "everyday" knives, the "dressy knives" (which tend to overlap with the daily knives a lot since I usually wear slacks and a tie on a daily basis) and the "hard work" knives in a category of their own. I usually carry either an Opinel no. 8, a Case Large Stockman, or a #73 liner lock when I expect to really need to do some heavy cutting or physical labor. If I think it's going to be really rough the Opinel gets the nod, simply because if it comes to it, I'd rather replace a $10 knife.
 
I have a Buck 301 I use for that sort of thing.
 
I've got an old Camillus hawkbill pruner dedicated for yard work. It won't win a beauty contest, but it's effective.

For all other dirty jobs, nothing like an vintage Old Timer 8OT large stockman.
 
I want a sod buster for these purpose in bone scales think it be able to handle the abuse if reaming PVC and cutting zip ties and such I am a electrical apprentice in the commercial field
 
The reason I haven't dropped the hammer on any expensive blade is I wouldn't want to carry a knife that I was afraid to mess up. I carry a SAK, it does all I want. Once the blade appeared permanently stained, didn't try to scrub it. After a couple of months it cleared up on it's own.
 
This one is my shop knife, it stays on my bench all the time, the Spey blade was badly rusted when I got it, so I reshaped to sheepsfootish and now use it as a marking knife. The main blade handles all kind of stuff from scraping to cutting all sort of things and the awl is great for marking the position of screws.
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If I have to do something Awful like cutting drywall I usually pick a modern (spyderco delica or PM2)
Mateo
 
This Camillus 1966 Demo knife and this Klein Hawkbill are among my working knives (several LT-29's in various tool boxes) - I used the Camillus while working out in my shed last night. OH

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I also have my now finished Schrade made sheepsfoot TL-29. It was a hawkbill and very rough when I got it, now it's smooth and optimized for work. The blade is also one of the sharpest I have ever ground, maybe because it's one of my first convex. The only difficulty with this was that the blade is thicker towards the end, so I had to convex the end more than the base of the blade for a uniform edge. I'm very grateful for the half stop :p.



Connor
 
Opinel. Super cheap and replaceable. You can pick them up anywhere and they work wonderfully. :)
 
pmew said:
Opinel. Super cheap and replaceable. You can pick them up anywhere and they work wonderfully. :)
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Can't pick them up anywhere, lol. I've never seen one in Bolivia.

For me, my 'beater' knives are a couple old SAKs. I keep a couple in a couple different tool bags.
 
I carried a 3 Blade Buck Made in USA Cadet stockman for over 30 years through all my crappy jobs, opening boxes, cutting paper and straps, stripping wire, scraping paint, trimming dunnage, the works. You could not kill it with any project. Had it shaving sharp on a Carborundum stone and never babied it for a minute. For several years, I used it to teach Boy Scouts how to sharpen. It won't shave any more but it has had a full and useful life, and I am sure I could bring it back. It will never die and I bet Buck will still swap it out if I were to send it to them.
 
Certainly second the Opinel recommendation. Why? Good steel carbon or stainless, good variety of sizes to suit all hands or tasks, no liners or spring to get fouled up, simple and very safe lock collar, doesn't weigh much, inexpensive, durable, thick tough wooden handle, easy to open. Easy to find -except in Bolivia...

Another choice that you are also likely to find in Bolivia/S.America is Böker Argentina Sodbuster. a bit rough & ready in finish but that's the ticket for dirty work, good sharp carbon and nice grippy handles, inexpensive too.

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I got a S&W Liner lock folder for dirty work. I paid 8 bucks for it at Academy 8 years ago and still cutting paper box straps and breaking down boxes etc.
 
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