Users and abusers?

J

Javelin

Joined
Dec 19, 2008
Messages
320
Good evening!

So I have a question for yall, are you a user and abuser? Does the knife you carry reflect this in its design or wear? I only ask this because over the past 3 months or so I find that I've tilted more and more to the abuser side of things and my knife reflects it! My most carried knife now is a Rough Rider camping knife. I love the hole punch, old style can opener, screwdriver, bottle opener, and of course the main blade. I find I use the can opener and hole punch much more than I do the actual knife. After grinding the edges a bit I use them as small, thick, abuse-able blades! One of my favorite things to do is to utilize old soda or soup cans for another temporary purpose. I also do some hole poking, prying, scraping and what not with these two stout tools as well. I like them so much that this camp knife has kicked out all my other knives 95% of the time. Then I save the actual main blade for normal cutting tasks, and this too reflects its use as I've got the edge down to something like a 12 degree edge.

So, lets hear your opinions!
 
Welcome to the dark side. We have cookies.

I don't know if you are an abuser, or a hard user. I have kept a Mora that I bought cheaply with a broken handle (and re-handled) for hard, "toolbox" use for years. The most common thing I use it for is to cut pop cans up to use for various things.

I like to carry a two bladed jacknife for EDC and keep the small blade sharpened rather obtusely for tough tasks, scraping, etc. This is a common strategy.

You might like an electricians knife. Keep the main blade sharp and the screwdriver blade has a scraper edge on it already, go figure. So there has been an "industrial" pattern for years. The other nice thing about electricians knives is that they are not very collectable so you can get a nice old Camillus or sumpin' pretty cheaply if you go the knife rescue route.
 
Maybe i'm too obsessed, but I can't bring myself to abuse a knife. Even a cheap knife I bought just for a 'beater' knife. I know, I'm weird. But I do understand the concept. On all my multi blade knives, I'll set one blade aside too sharpen to a more blunt edge to save the 'good' blade. For many years I carried a three blade stockman as my edc and go-to pocket knife. The clip and sheepfoot blade were well sharpened, but since I had no use for a spay blade and it's intended use, it then became my whatever blade. It got used as a putting knife, wire scraper, muddy boot scraper, and whatever else I didn't want to use a good blade on.

Then I picked up a Wenger SI, and it became my beater knife. The screw driver and awl have been used for lots of things I wouldn't subject a nice knife to, and the old SI has taken it all in stride. Light prying included. And on the SAK's like the Victorinox pioneer and Wenger SI, the awl edge is sharpened in a nice chisel grind. I use the awl as a spare heavy duty cutting blade. If it gets buggered up, its easy to regrind quick because of the one sided edge.

There's a heck of a lot to be said for having a camper pattern around as a beater. It seems like the tools give you a dimension of use bordering on abuse that even a dull knife blade won't. Maybe that why I've always had a scout/camper pattern around. It was the knife I started with when my dad gave me a scout knife at age 12. When I went into the army soon after high school, I'd left the scout knife home because I was afraid of it getting swiped in the barracks, so I carried a army issue MLK knife. The one that people call a demo knife, but it's just an all metal scout pattern. Good rugged knives if a bit heavy. The only problem with them is they tend to break in the back springs. Then I found the alox handled SAK's when I was stationed in Germany.

I haven't tried the the RoughRider camper, but I know the pattern is a handy one. Eventhose low cost but functional Kampking and Imperials do a great job. For a good pocket knife, it's hard to wrong with a camp/scout pattern.

Carl.
 
The concept of use and abuse is kind of personal.
I use my knives for cutting and nothing else. Since they're knives, thus tools meant to cut, I don't consider it abuse, just use.
For tasks other than cutting (scraping, prying, and so on) I use other tools.

Fausto
:cool:
 
bladeboss said:
my regular screwdriver "blade" on my Pioneer is for bad stuff like prying and scraping.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I think the screw driver blade on a SAK has saved my pocket knife from some real wear. If I don't have a SAK around, there's the Sear's 4-way keychain screw driver in my wallet. Useful for light prying, and of course some screwing around.:D

Carl.
 
quattromori said:
The concept of use and abuse is kind of personal.
I use my knives for cutting and nothing else. Since they're knives, thus tools meant to cut, I don't consider it abuse, just use.
For tasks other than cutting (scraping, prying, and so on) I use other tools.
Click to expand...

What if some of those tasks are best accomplished by a knife? As an example, I'll often cut up large sheets of sandpaper into smaller, more useful pieces. I like to utillize a knife for that. Some might choose scissors, but since sandpaper is guaranteed to dull whatever tool is used, I think a knife is superior in this application because it is considerably easier to sharpen. My sodbuster gets the call for this, I don't see the need to destroy the edge of each of my knives for this specific task. I guess you can say the soddie is my beater.

- Christian
 
This is a question I already asked my self sometimes.

I think I´m not an abuser in general more a practical user. Then it comes to abuse a knife I really just have two (!!) beater knives. The one is my Mora 711 and the other on the Glock Feldmesser 78 (both not really traditional). They work on the building lot and while making firewood in the winter on my belt.

The Glock has seem some real bad things you could do with a knife. Prying, cutting sanded roofsheet etc etc as well as the Mora.
 
For the abusive work (things I know will damage a knife edge) I mostly use my SAK, the screwdriver, can-opener or small blade (and a BM 710).
The other knives are reserved for pure cutting tasks, it's just an impossibility for me to do evil things to those beautiful and innocent knives. :D
 
My Delica scales are all torn up from using it to open bottles, and the blade is scratched all to hell from use. It has just become my Dedicated user.

For the harder tasks I now carry a TT Chopper for prying and scraping,and to stop my Delica from getting torn up.
 
I try not to abuse any thing I've paid for or that has been gifted to me, and try to be a good steward of everything! On hard use, I guess that would be for someone else to decide, but I'd say I'm below average at least among my friends here.
 
Knives for cutting, the tools on my keyring for prying and screws...
 

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I am of the same sentiment as a number of users who've responded thus far. I can't bring myself to "abuse" my knife regardless of the cost. My knives are for cutting alone and nothing else. I'm from the school of using the right tool for the right job.

In terms of using a tool for an all round tool, I think that's where a multi-tool comes into play. I own several knives as well as multi-tools and apply each tool to the job at hand. Just my humble opinion and philosophy.

:-)
 
kamagong said:
What if some of those tasks are best accomplished by a knife? As an example, I'll often cut up large sheets of sandpaper into smaller, more useful pieces. I like to utillize a knife for that. Some might choose scissors, but since sandpaper is guaranteed to dull whatever tool is used, I think a knife is superior in this application because it is considerably easier to sharpen. My sodbuster gets the call for this, I don't see the need to destroy the edge of each of my knives for this specific task. I guess you can say the soddie is my beater.

- Christian
Click to expand...

Hi Christian
If you take a slightly dull pair of scissors and cut sandpaper (sand up, 330 gritish) it will actually put a not bad edge on them.

Regards

Robin
 
There was this point in my life where I had to get rid of most of the things that belonged to me. i was leaving a US state, and headed to another one via one way plane ticket. I had just enough money to send a couple boxes of things, but I have some blades that I can't get rid of.

A couple of nights before I was going to leave, i had my neighbor over, and he ended up sealing my SAK One Hand Trecker (Plane Blade). I loved that knife! I would mountain bike, and it was not only a one handed opener, it was also a part of my tool mobile set that I carried.

To sum it up, when I started out with mostly nothing, I wanted to use my Western brand Barlow that my grandfather gave, but I value it too much, so I ordered another plane bladed One Hand Trecker SAK.

These days I carry a Vic Classic SAK along with a Paramilitary 2 and a nicer multi-tool.

I took a little chip out of the PM2 blade not too long ago when one of the belts shredded on my lil' Nissan. One of the grooved pullies had dried belt grooves stuck in the groves. I was kinda' under the car (before I bought the multi-tool) and used the PM2 to clean up the grooves (thats when I noticed the chip in the blade). I bought it to be a used though.
 
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My perfect knife would have a 1095 main blade I could get razor sharp (maybe D2), and a thicker secondary out of file steel hardened to 63 Rockwell so I could scrape and actually deburr and lightly shape metal without a lot of blade touch up.

Oh, screw construction of the pivot please so I could remove side to side play without a hammer or vise.
 
I'm not much for abusing knives. And like Carl and Elliot, my 'keys' serve many purposes. ;)

keys-1.jpg
 
Christian,
I get your point. Personally, I use scissors to cut sandpaper, but obviously I could use a knife.
Sandpaper will dull the edge (like cardboard, and other things) but I would not consider it abuse. In your example (Sodbuster and sandpaper) I would just say that you have a dedicated knife for hard use.
I would call abuse any use other than cutting (prying for example), and that's why I carry a couple tools in my pocket as well.

Fausto
:cool:
 
Folks, let us remember this is the Traditional Forum and stay focused on traditional knives.
From the header on the first page:

Forum: Traditional Folders and Fixed Blades
Discussion of classic Hunters, Trappers, Lockbacks, Slipjoints, Skinners and other classic designs

I have left visitor messages for a couple of you.
 
Javelin said:
Good evening!

So I have a question for yall, are you a user and abuser? Does the knife you carry reflect this in its design or wear? I only ask this because over the past 3 months or so I find that I've tilted more and more to the abuser side of things and my knife reflects it! My most carried knife now is a Rough Rider camping knife. I love the hole punch, old style can opener, screwdriver, bottle opener, and of course the main blade. I find I use the can opener and hole punch much more than I do the actual knife. After grinding the edges a bit I use them as small, thick, abuse-able blades! One of my favorite things to do is to utilize old soda or soup cans for another temporary purpose. I also do some hole poking, prying, scraping and what not with these two stout tools as well. I like them so much that this camp knife has kicked out all my other knives 95% of the time. Then I save the actual main blade for normal cutting tasks, and this too reflects its use as I've got the edge down to something like a 12 degree edge.

So, lets hear your opinions!
Click to expand...

The definition of "abuse" tends to vary by user. Back when we used to remove spark plugs, scrape them, re-gap them, and put them back in the engine, I used to use my pocket knife blade to do the scraping. If I were doing that job today, I probably still would. But I still have the knife I used to carry then and it appears none the less for wear. So, to me. That sort of non-cutting chore is not "abuse". YMMV.

On the other hand, I don't really pry or cut metal with a knife blade. To me, those activities would be abuse. I carry a small pocket tool these days to take care of those. Sometimes the screwdriver blade on my Vic Classic serves.
 
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