What's with all the blades?

[Rick]

I can obviously understand why a knife would have a few different blades, but when I see a knife (usually a congress pattern) with duplicate/redundant blades, I have to scratch my head. I can only assume it was done so if one blade went dull, there's still another one that's sharp. An older version of snap-off utility blades, I guess.

I felt the same way, but then I bought a Congress pattern with two sets of identical blades--two large pseudo-Wharncliffes and two pens--on a whim and it felt so good in my hand that I decided to carry it. I made the best of the redundancy by honing the front pair of blades razor-sharp, while giving the rear pair a coarse toothy edge for rougher tasks, and it's worked out surprisingly well. For example, I was able to easily carve a series of deep grooves in a hardwood branch with the coarsely sharpened blades and still have two X-acto-like edges to cutout some long straight thongs from a sheet of old leather.

 

[Bastid]

Although I do carry one bladed knives of all types (mostly slipjoints), there is much wisdom in Dennis' and The Government's thoughts especially.

On singles sometimes I think it is a shame there is only one blade surrounded by all the caps, bolsters and handle material.

 

[jackknife]

I like having a choice of blades. For much of my life I carried two and three bladed pocket knives. For about 25 years my stockman was my main edc pocket knife that served me well on four continents. There were more than a few times I went to cut something, and I knew it was going to dull the heck out of my blade, but I didn't worry, because I would just use the rougher sharpened blade to do the dirty work. And there's times you just don't need much blade, like when opening a UPS box or the like. Then the secondary blade gets used.

It's nice to have a choice of blade.

 

[Noddy]

I don't use it on a ranch, but for about town, in the workshop and up the hill a good large stockman is ideal. Like modoc I largely avoid multiblades - though I have a QCCC teardrop jack that has a fine pen blade on it

It is not a thing I can work around, this: But ideally I like a larger stockman with an awl. Can't figure which blade I'd prefer to sacrifice for it. The spey is my favourite user blade, and the sheepsfoot absolutely necessary

The ramshorn/D2 RAT/Ontario cattle knife loses the spey - but is a fine thing despite that.

The real shame is that, for whatever reasons, I don't like the GEC four blade stockman with its awl. It should be the perfect thing. Something is holding me back from it though. Perhaps that will pass - hopefully before the knife is discontinued though

 

[xbxb]

Wharncliffe and a pen would do me very well. Jack knives are my favorite. I really don't need more than 2 blades.

 

[moonwilson]

I like multiblades a lot! When you carry a single-bladed knife, you get used to using that single blade for everything. When you carry a stockman, for example, you have three different blades to choose from for any given cutting task. Different blades with different profiles, different lengths, and different types of tips. I like the variety of cutting options you get with a multi-bladed knife. I don't like redundant blades, and more than 4 blades is just too many. Case's medium congress pattern, with four different blades, is right at the limit of what I find useful.