Using knife for its intended purposes

[2ndunamended]

I've had some cool knives in my life. When I was a kid it was pretty much all Swiss Army and various folders that I'd pick up somewhere. As I've gotten older, I'll pick up a knife for a specific need, often perceived. But frequently, a lot of my knives tend to go unused or lightly used in the purpose for which I bought it.

The exceptions are my ever present Leatherman Skeletool and my Spyderco Military- I carry and use both of them everyday (especially the Leatherman). If I view my steel as tools, I use them. But otherwise I baby them.

So I've changed my mentality about it. I don't have any safe queen guns, so neither will I have the equivalent in my knives. In the past week, I picked up a Tops DART and a couple of Moras (Garberg coming later this week). As soon as I received my Mora Companion and the Tops, I put them to work as tools- and it's been liberating. With the Moras it's easy because they are inexpensive but obviously tremendous bang for the buck. The Tops took a little more willpower but by putting it to work, I learned its capabilities and how to improve my technique in its use.

I'm also particularly interested in my own real world impressions with different steels- especially carbon vs. stainless. I can YouTube or Google all day long, but nothing replaces my own use and practice.

Just musing...

 

[marcinek]

When you use them as tools...what do you do with them?

 

[BladeScout]

Using knife for its intended purposes

Using a knife for cutting, slicing and piercing - perish the thought!

Didnt you get the memo? Its all about buying expensive knives, baby them and keep them in a safe except then taking hi-res photos and showing them off on the knife forums!

If you actually use them, they decrease in value and we cant have that.

All joking aside, its nice to see knives being use as they were intended - as tools.

The endless parade of safe queens can get tiring.

Slap some pics up on the forum of your Tops and Mora knives in use.

 

[2ndunamended]

When you use them as tools...what do you do with them?

All the basic daily stuff- everything from opening the mail or boxes, cutting wire or cord, and most importantly- cutting out deadwood or saplings to open "secret hiding spots" in the woods while hiking with my 2-year old daughter!

My Skeletool get's the lion's share of grunt "domestic" duties- it is an indispensable tool and has great steel. Basically, I'm always on the lookout to "unsheathe" my knives for any task that remotely calls for cutting, shaving, paring, whatever. Pretty much the same as when I was a kid. Now I just have more "valid" reasons.

 

[2ndunamended]

Using a knife for cutting, slicing and piercing - perish the thought!

Didnt you get the memo? Its all about buying expensive knives, baby them and keep them in a safe except then taking hi-res photos and showing them off on the knife forums!

If you actually use them, they decrease in value and we cant have that.

All joking aside, its nice to see knives being use as they were intended - as tools.

The endless parade of safe queens can get tiring.

Slap some pics up on the forum of your Tops and Mora knives in use.

Love it. That's been the evolution of my thinking on the matter. I have no qualms with anyone collecting knives- sometimes it's just plain cool to pull out a fantastic piece of steel just to look at and admire. My philosophy really evolved when I started thinking of my firearms as tools. My go-to "Leatherman" firearm is a Glock (actually 3 of them). It does the trick- I use it, and I don't baby it- but I do maintain it fastidiously (more than a Glock requires), just like I do with my knives after use. Same with my shotguns and rifles.

My father-in-law and I discuss the "point of the gun," as in what is the point (intended use) of whichever gun we have. For example home defense, EDC, hunting, SHTF, etc... Beyond utility, sometimes the point is just to have and admire fine craftsmanship and quality. I try to have a "point of the knife" (no pun intended) for all my knives too. It's perhaps ridiculous, to myself at least, but I may be wearing 3 knives at any one time- 2 of which are discreetly carried. The Mora Garberg may change that but we'll see. Either way, I don't have any hard and fast rules with my knives, other than I stop being a ninny about using them. They are useful, and just plain fun.

I'll take some more pics- I'm a photographer but usually will just use my iPhone for such pics, so please excuse the quality. I think I need to be a member to post images- just started on here so I imagine I'll be joining soon.

 

[Pomsbz]

My Skeletool gets hard daily use. Used it today to change my bikes brakes for example. It does all the dirty cutting, and all the tasks around home and work which require a tool of that kind. My pocket knives (traditionals) are mainly used for food, specifically cutting up veg, fruit, bread and meat for my lunches and snacks although they also do package opening duties. I have a whittler that gets used for wood (a little bit) and leatherwork (a lot). I rarely use the blade in my LM Style CS but the other tools, especially the scissors, see daily use.

I have knives that don't see much use but that is because the didn't match up to the task intended and are not worth selling.

My fixed blade bushcraft knife hardly sees any use. Probably because I'm stuck in the city