What is the smartest thing you have ever done with a Knife?

Smartest thing I learned is when /if you drop your knives (that could be dumb lol but accidents happen)... Don't grab it and get your legs and feet out of the way too.

As for smart uses? Take the right tool for the job. I carry a few zt's and while they are great knives they are not great slicers... So if I know I'm gonna be slicing rubber pipes or various other materials I'll take a Spyderco instead or whatever else I have that slices better.

Another Smart thing to do with your knives is... When someone asks to use or borrow your knives ask why and what they are going to do with it. If it's stupid it's a no go. and also to explain it will cut them deep. Tell them to be careful else they will be going to the er.
 
In some northern states in the USA, when there is winter precipitation, salt is put on the roads to melt the snow and ice. Road salt works well at keeping the roads clear, but it causes problems:
  1. It's not good for the environment.
  2. It causes vehicles to rust.
  3. When salty slush is thrown onto your windshield by a passing vehicle, it forms a white film which partially or completely obscures your vision of the road.
Years ago, before folks had cell phones, I was driving from Vermont to Massachusetts at night, in the teeth of a winter blizzard. I was using my windshield washers every few minutes to manage problem 3, above ... until my windshield washers stopped working. Under normal conditions, this would have been a nuisance -- but during this trip, driving without windshield washers would have been impossible.

I pulled over to the side of the road, opened the hood, and learned why my windshield washers stopped working. Two sections of tubing carrying the windshield washer fluid had been connected by a small plastic connector, and that connector had broken into two pieces. To get my windshield washers working again would require joining the broken pieces of connector with a watertight repair.

Unfortunately, I had no way to effect such a repair. I had with me no clamps, no locking pliers, no gaskets or O-rings, no glue, and no tape. It seemed I had no way to repair this simple but vital piece of plastic, and I would be stuck on the side of the road until daybreak ...

... until I remembered the fixed-blade knife in my glove compartment. I held the blade of the knife against the engine until the blade was hot. I then used the hot blade to melt the two pieces of plastic connector together.
 
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Cyrano said:
In some northern states in the USA, when there is winter precipitation, salt is put on the roads to melt the snow and ice. Road salt works well at keeping the roads clear, but it causes problems:
  1. It's not good for the environment.
  2. It causes vehicles to rust.
  3. When salty slush is thrown onto your windshield by a passing vehicle, it forms a white film which partially or completely obscures your vision of the road.
Years ago, before folks had cell phones, I was driving from Vermont to Massachusetts at night, in the teeth of a winter blizzard. I was using my windshield washers every few minutes to manage problem 3, above ... until my windshield washers stopped working. Under normal conditions, this would have been a nuisance -- but during this trip, driving without windshield washers would have been impossible.

I pulled over to the side of the road, opened the hood, and learned why my windshield washers stopped working. Two sections of tubing carrying the windshield washer fluid had been connected by a small plastic connector, and that connector had broken into two pieces. To get my windshield washers working again would require joining the broken pieces of connector with a watertight repair.

Unfortunately, I had no way to effect such a repair. I had with me no clamps, no locking pliers, no gaskets or O-rings, no glue, and no tape. It seemed I had no way to repair this simple but vital piece of plastic, and I would be stuck on the side of the road until daybreak ...

... until I remembered the fixed-blade knife in my glove compartment. I held the blade of the knife against the engine until the blade was hot. I then used the hot blade to melt the two pieces of plastic connector together.
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Genius. Most impressive response so far.
 
I've used my ZT0620 to sculpt a molded plug a bit to fit near an AC adaptor
 
I defended myself from a gang of 14 year old boys. They were hungry, so myself and my Vic rucksack whipped up a bunch of sandwiches in the nick of time. Mostly the "smart" things have been opening packages that were needed, or being able to make a clean cut instead of having to resort to real effort. I'm trying to recall if I've ever cleverly fixed something with just a knife, but I can't think of anything.
 
The coolest thing I've ever done is to whittle a hexagonal torx bit from a piece of hardwood - a few years ago a friend of mine was riding her bike along with me and her seat became loose, I did not have any instruments with me so I made one with a Bulgarian Manly folder in D2 :) She was extremely impressed :D
 
Zagorov said:
The coolest thing I've ever done is to whittle a hexagonal torx bit from a piece of hardwood - a few years ago a friend of mine was riding her bike along with me and her seat became loose, I did not have any instruments with me so I made one with a Bulgarian Manly folder in D2 :) She was extremely impressed :D
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Did she marry you for that? :p
 
dinoatlas said:
I'm always proud of myself when I gently stab my blade into a piece of fence post or 2X4 and hang a piece of string from it for a plumb line. It's silly, I know!
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You are too modest! That is a simple but elegant solution to a situation where a proper implement is not on hand. Kudos to you, smart fellow.
 
number9 said:
I've done something similar (twice) at our county courthouse. Metal detectors at the door. Big barrier flower pots outside. Make sure nobody's watching, push the pocketknife down into the dirt. Just don't forget it when you get done in the courthouse.
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Ha! I did that myself once, several years ago, not at a courthouse, but at another venue that was very security conscious. It was a one off, though.
 
I used my knife to cut open this oil filter from a CAT to determine it had spun a rod bearing and was then able to blacklist it (I'm the HD equipment mechanic at a construction company) saving the crank bearings and everything in the head!
lD8k6ch.jpg

Only the crank needed turned and it needed one new rod, had I not pulled it out of service at that time it could of needed ten thousand more dollars worth of parts (plus my time on the clock) once it wiped the mains and the turbo too*.

I bet my boss thinks it's one of the smartest things I've ever done in my life lol

*interesting side note: this particular engine doesn't have cam bearings so it could of wiped the whole block if shavings got in there.
 
Puleio said:
The smartest thing I have done with a knife:
A few years ago, I gave my wife a Spyderco Dragonfly, with the stainless steel & tattoo, as an anniversary present. :)
She was not a knife person.... now, she always has a knife on her :thumbsup:, even if she is not a knife knut.
She often comments about how thankful she was to have a knife on her because either:
  • With the kids, she needed to cut _something_ ... a snack, a straw, a string on someone's clothes, boxes, clothes tags, whatever.
  • Or in some group of moms, they needed to cut something, and she had the only knife in the group. :cool:
Of course, now, she has a few more choices and picks the right knife for what she plans on doing on any given day.​

Enjoy
Click to expand...

Did you hack my brain ?
Eerily similar story here, only slight difference was it was her Birthday present, and she still claims all the time that her Spyderco Dragonfly Tattoo was the most useful gift ever!
Only a hint of the tattoo remains.
IMG_5601.JPG
 
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bloody_pawprint said:
Started carrying an average of three: one to use, one “sheeple” friendly (smaller or less aggressive looking), and one to lend.
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I agree. A larger knife like my pm2, manix 2, or ZT 0562 to use. My delica 4 with grey frn is the one I use around others and my kershaw link to lend because it's the cheapest blade I own
 
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Smartest thing I did was learn how to safely handle them in my childhood. Following that, maintaining them with sharpness and oils (for the steels prone to rust) and learning proper care and maintenance for the more natural bone, leather, or wood handles.

That and learning the advantages of a strop. Took me twenty-seven years to figure that one out. Now it's part of my standard maintenance.
 
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