I'm not guilty of using my knife blade to turn a flat or Phillips screw, however. I know that is an "excellent way to break the tip.
The vast majority of my knives may are sub $25 full retail, including whatever the sales tax was where I purchases it. (usually 6% to 8 or 9%) That doesn't mean I don't have to take care of them, or can afford to replace them.
You are correct. People can and do use a knife - and pretty much any other tool - for tasks they were not designed for.
My friend, I'm glad you didn't take my last post in a wrong way, my last intention would be to sound rude. I'm not going to comment on your retrospect of "Knife use trough the years of human History"
simply because I totally agree with what you did put down.
However, I still think you are responding based on a assumption and I like to correct it if this is the case:
I am not in any way against "The right tool for the job", not in any way.
I cannot be against this suggestion simply because if I don't follow it, I'll have mediocre results and I had to go back and correct it, not to mentioned, I have to deal with unhappy customers.
As I mentioned, I have a truck full of above the average right tools for numerous jobs and few more that I made for some specific things that I do more often.
I deal with very odd jobs almost every day and I can't afford to have unhappy customers, I'll lose money, you now...
Now I'll give you perfect example when I'm using my knife instead going the whole 9' with the "right tool for the job":
One of my customers, a physician that thinks he is very handy, decided to replace one of the hinges of an Office door with self closing, spring loaded one. That's fine, he did it but because the new hinge was slightly thicker,
the top part of the door started touching the frame, he started adjusting the other two hinges, the heavy, lead filled door because of the X-ray machine behind it, went off alignment and wasn't able to close... He called me.
The regular "right tool for the job" logic calls for me to come over on the weekend, when there are no patients, to bring my son with me to help with the door, to remove the door, take it outside so we won't mess the office,
to run extension cords, use a metal guide and router, to sink the hinge cut-off about 4mm, bring door back, use special tool to rise it back to where it should be, install it and adjust it. I would charge him about 4 hours worth of my time.
Instead, I came in his Office break at noon,
took the hinge off with a screw driver that I brought in my pocket, outlined the hinges cut outs with the tip of my GB1, sliced the extra wood to 2mm on each site,
installed back the hinge, adjusted the door gaps and charged him 2 hours of my time. He was happy because I charged less and didn't have to wait with non-closing X-ray door (liability) till the weekend and
I didn't have to kill my weekend, occupy my son, I didn't make mess in the office, everything took me hardly 15min and his patients didn't even understand that someone was working there.
When I say that I'm using my knives for my work, this is one of the typical cases I deal with almost every day - odd jobs that you can do it "the right way" or save time and do it using your pocket knife...
I am not in any way dismissing "The right tool for the job" thing, simply using it when it makes sense to me, that's it.
I am not against cheap knives, not at all, I love Bucks but they are simply not suitable for my line of work.... In another occasion, let's say I have to deal with few doors, I will do exactly this - I'll take all of them down
and will execute all steps on every door the way the rule goes - using the right tools for the job, it will be quicker and much better done compared to if I use my knife for more than one doors.
But when I have to save myself time and leave my customers happy, I'm using my knives any way I can, I've being doing this so long that can't even think of do it another way.
I apologize for the long read, just wanted to be completely clear why I'm opposing the RTFTJ theory or the "BEST" statement, both are good things to follow but as everything else they have exceptions and my knives are covering
very well those exceptions, I came to specific blade geometry and features, steel specs and so on after years of work and what I'm using
works BEST for me, regardless price.
I like Emerson wave not only because it is "tactical" whatever this means. I like it simply because it is extremely convenient for me to have the blade open, when I'm on a ladder, holding piece of AC insulation 12' above the ground,
very prosaic reason.
Price point is another almost nonsense to me
if you use your knives for work... It really doesn't mater how much it is if it's "the right tool for your jobs", period.
You get out there and make few bucks more, your customers always pay for your tools as a figure of speech, to me, if I see a design that I find useful and want to try for my job, I'll buy it, regardless the price.
It doesn't mean I am in any way against the cheap knives, nor I look down to the Bucks or such, it only means that if your $12 bucks gas-station knife can open a can of beans ( non-knife task BTW) few times and you are lucky the lock will hold without cut yourself, my Cold Steel Golden Eye will slice trough a box of those before needs any sharpening, that's why I prefer more expensive models.
