Using knife as prybar/screwdriver?

Stubai said:
Breaking a sharp edge under pressure can have some amazingly BAD consequences.
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I have always believe in the motto "you pays your monies and you takes your chances". If a peice of a knife breaks off and flies into you (hopefully not in your eye but theres a good chance that it will be), well you put yourself in that situation and you have no one to blame but yourself. have fun at the hospital and remember, thats why god gave ya two eyes!
 
They're tearing you up, but i do agree that if you want to do it then my all means you should, i've used my benchmade to drive nails, it was a contents under pressure package with an aluminum seal as thick as a soda can, and i used a nail to relieve pressure. So abuse those tools! I even use my benchmade to cut roots in ground I KNOW is soft and unrocky.
 
To the OP - I had a superintendent that worked for me. Best super in the industry - could build anything on paper. Had the same attitude that you have. I gave him a new uncle henry stockman as a thankyou for finishing up a really tough job. He broke the main blade off within a week. I think you need to re-evaluate how you think about tools.
 
Maybe the OP is too dumb to just walk into Sear's, and for 98 cents, buy a keychain 4-way screw driver that works on flat and Phillips screws. About the size of a half dollar, solid steel and can be used for light prying. Goes right on your keyring or in your wallet. But then he probably also uses his knife to open can's instead of having a P-38 in his wallet.
 
I use my skyline to pop open laptop parts all the time. Not realy a prybar but to snap tightly fitted platic metal glue apart.
 
Here what it boils down to.... You determine what your knife is used for and what is abuse. Just take responsibility for it.
 
When I've got to open something up and I don't have a flat head screw driver handy, I'll use the top side of a knife on me, be it seb or para 2- I'll aviod the very tip. I'll apply the pressure slowly and if the screw doesn't move after I've reached my comfort zone- time to dig out the multi-tool. If you gotta do it, err on the side of caution.

Actually, just finished adjusting the XM-18 pivot screw with the top side of the para 2- just a minor tweak. The flat edge works real well, since the screw is not cranked down hard and sealed with loctite.

However, never used a folding knife as a pry-bar.
 
If I have the right tool , or even closer to the right tool at hand , Ill use them before Ill use a knife but yeah , I often enough use a knife .
I do not expect a store bought knife to take that kind of treatment well . I DO tho expect something I make to take it and come back for more .. I make it t do that

I do not understand tho people being ready to risk destroying their knives because they are in an emergency situation ,where replacement / repair is probably going to be impossible at the time , but when they are not , and have the wherewithal to repair / replace their gear if they damage it abusing it , they treat it gently . I am way more willing to abuse my knives if I know I have the means to repair it at hand than I am if I am roughing it in the bush for a few weeks or was in a survival situation .

In an ordinary day tho if I need a screwdriver and one isnt handy , Ill use a knife knowing itll be maybe a couple minutes on a stone to fix it if I do stuff it up
 
I have a SAK minichamp that lives in my pocket- had a perfectly fine screwdriver but noooo, my dad who knows nothing about them, used the envelope knife ant tooh a large chunk out of it.- This is why they're cutting tools, not prybars etc

But if its a hard use knife, by all means go for it :), its yours afterall

-Travis :)
 
I never would do such a thing out right and if I did, it would have to be in only if it was a life and death situation plus I would need to have some sort of an additional blade for a backup.. Carry a swisstool x or the spirit and you'll be covered.

Cheers,
Serge
 
Have I? Yes. Do I? Not really. Would I? If I had no other choice. I'd be sure I was capable of repairing the damage and it would depend on the knife. I would never attempt it with a Spyderco Delica but I'd do it with my Tyrade. Sometimes you have no choice, the right tool may not be available to you. Anybody here ever wrench on cars? Sometimes you have to improvise.
 
nightman said:
Knives are tools not objects of worship. Tools get used and abused. I snapped the tip off my mini grip awhile back by prying with it. Yes I was abusing it but it was all I had at the time. I have broken numerous other tools by using and abusing them as well. Tools break. Just replace it and go on.
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...and this is why i have used a knife to pry; I HAD NO CHOICE...and did i break the tip sometimes, YES...i just bought a new one, simple...

i will never hesitate to do so again, with ANY knife i own...i'm not going to be stuck in a jam because i don't want to possible break a knife...
 
My EDC has changed slightly since the last time I posted on this thread, but I still carry at least one multitool. I think I'm a minority even among knife nuts, because I don't consider myself dressed with just a knife. To me carrying a simple folder is only slightly better than not carrying, and I struggle to understand why people who live in the city carry a stand alone knife and consider themselves prepared.
 
It is your knife and your money do what you will. The first thing I learned about tools in general and knives in particular,"use the correct tool for the job." The exception to this rule is in a SHTF situation. A knife makes a lousy but expensive screwdriver, prybar or chisel
 
you're not trying hard enough if you haven't broken a knife using it to pry.
mat_890 said:
I agree, I knife is a tool and is to be used as such. I wish I knew the answer as to why people get super uptight about only using a knife to cut. My guess is they put some sort of intrinsic value on the knifes they own and strive to protect them from breaking.

I abuse the hell out of my knives, some perform better then others but nothing has failed. Heck I even battoned through small pieces of wood with a SOG Flash to prove I could, never failed and its still in service 3 years later.

Say if I break a knife every 3 years (again, I have yet to break anything), and I acquire say 3 blades a year thats 17 broken blades on my deathbed and 133 knifes my kids will have to throw away. :eek: If you want to carry around a knife and a multi-tool thats fine, but the space in my pocket is worth more then 40-60 dollars ever 3 years. Also who's to say the multi-tool won't break?

Just my 2 cents. :)
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EASY !Tony -he's a student remember .They know more than anyone.
Tony8179 said:
So you risk cutting yourself by prying open your frozen gas cover with a knife rather than taking the whole 60 seconds it would have taken to open your trunk and get a small screwdriver that could have opened it without risk of slicing your hand open? That just sounds like laziness to me my man. Most people only learn a lesson once they cause pain to themselves or another.

In my opinion you should always have a multi tool of some sort in your center console, glove box, ashtray, or somewhere that you can get to it in the car.
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I wouldn't hesitate to use a knife for something I wasn't supposed to if it was all I had and getting a proper tool was an impossibility or a huge inconvenience, however it just depends... Like lava_lamps circumstance. I love my 930, and if I just needed to screw a battery terminal screw and was at home it is basically like weighing the cost of, "Well, might break this >$150 knife or spend a while sharpening dents and chips out, or I can spend at most a minute to go inside and get my tool box I left inside," but if it was versus having to go home from somewhere? Yeah, I'd use it as a screw driver. Might look around for something else more suiting first though.

I had to pry the gas hatch open on my car this winter because it got frozen shut. I tried using my keys but ultimately wound up using my Izula. Only other thing I could have done was left my car on the side of the road and walked for assistance hoping it didn't get ran into in the low light of a back country road. Just lucky I was keeping a can of gas in the car just in case I ran out of gas... Ridin' on empy and eatin' Ramen, college life was grand...
 
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