What's with EDC and boxes?

I'm slicing a piece of cardboard every day-------the machine lock downs barely touch the floor---so I stick some cardboard under there to give it a better purchase.

This happens at least once a day or often more as the machines are moved around for cleaning.
 
I cut a ton of cardboard. In addition to just opening boxes and breaking them down, a while ago I found an excuse to cut up a whole lot more.

I set aside a fair amount of our brown corrugated (thanks Amazon!), cut it into strips and then cut the strips into chips to basically make cardboard mulch. I keep compost and vermiculture bins, the mulch gets mixed in periodically to help balance out the raw organic matter (food waste, leaves, grass clippings). If I go overboard and get too much, the chips always burn well too.

Even 5-10 minutes of cutting every day or two adds up to a LOT of cutting over time and has been a great way to get a feel for the too many knives I've accumulated :)

For me, the biggest take away is that geometry cuts. Sure, cardboard will take away that shaving edge pretty quick, but if the blade is 0.010" or less behind the edge they will keep on cutting for a loooong time, pretty much regardless of the steel. Not to mention the small bevels are stoopid easy to resharpen once I finally decide they need attention.

Two of my current favorite cardboard cutters are the B70P Spyderco mule and a Master Cutlery MU1130 that I bought for $8 as a practice knife for regrinding on my HF 1x30:

2hcmfq9.jpg
 
This is what I use to cut cardboard, it's ZAPP A11 (CPM 10V)

DSC_47111.JPG
 
Poking holes in beer cans to shotgun them is a good portion of use for my knives. Ha ha no but use have to agree with vanslem6 everything I can find.
 
If I'm being honest, most days my quality knives do nothing more than serve as entertainment and/or pocket jewelry. I use regular/inexpensive kitchen knives for food preparation, and rarely encounter other tasks that scissors can't handle just as well as my EDC folders. I buy, and carry, knives because I enjoy them, not really out of necessity.
 
Knave said:
.... I buy, and carry, knives because I enjoy them, not really out of necessity.
Click to expand...

This. I can only justify about five knives. Dress, small EDC, large EDC, fixed blade and a utility knife with throw away blades. I have more than five just in Vic SAKs. Cardboard and tape are very common for me.
 
Food processing/preparation it’s my EDC blades main tasks. At home it’s just for fun, but at work, since I mostly carry my lunch box, it’s more a necessity :). Peeling fruits, cutting bread, slicing cold cuts, scraping hard cheese, opening packages, etc. are daily activities. I also cut quite much shrink and stretch film, PP straps and cardboard materials when I am at suppliers or in warehouses. Week-ends it’s more some house maintenance work related tasks, gardening, etc. or hiking tasks. I’d say cardboard materials specific cutting it’s around 20% of my EDC tasks :).
 
Agreed, I have multiple EDC knives I carry around regularly, and don't use except for protection and standard box-cutting and stuff. I'm sure mine would be in much worse shape than they are if I used them for anything other than that, though.
 
I don't really live near civilization so when I need something, I order it on amazon. And cut the tape with one of my edcs. I also use it in food prep a lot, and I consider myself "thrifty". When an old tshirt or sweatshirt becomes too old and crappy to wear, I use a knife to make rags out of them. And I use rags mostly when maintaining my car. So it comes in handy.

There are tons of bags I cut open. I cut open burlap bags filled with coal, giant bags of dog food, at my job, I do a lot of inventory, and I tend to use strips of cardboard as lists to write down what I need.

I use my edc to cut through those obnoxious plastic containers that don't want to be opened. The ones where your bare hands will never open them, and scissors are just a pain.

Other than that, it's situational. What ever needs cutting will get cut
 
Everyone's idea of EDC is different. It's based on what you need it for. There's no right or wrong for edc. Whether you beat the crap out of your blade or use it only to cut threads off your fancy suit haha. It depends on your needs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top