- Joined
- May 19, 2007
- Messages
- 7,745
Knives have a wear component, and as such "to me" are a consumable tool. You can buy really good screw bits for your impact driver, and they will last longer, but they wear, and thus are consumable. Yes, a flat wrench can wear to the point that it is no longer in spec, and is more likely to round a nut, but not in my lifetime. They go bad because they get damaged or abused (outside of a few rare cases, we replaced 13mm combi wrenches at the oil change shop because the 12point box end would wear out) But, I'm sure there are 6point sockets in a set in my dad's shop that are as old as he is.
That said, am I likely to live long enough to wear out any of my knives, probably not, but if I suddenly could not replace any, and what was in my pocket was all I had, well, in a couple decades, you'd find a leatherman surge with a pretty thin looking blade.
As another illustration to that point, a friend of my parents were admiring their very well used, but still excellent old hickory knife set from the late 70s, including a couple that my dad rebeveled well before it was cool. Their son had been a hunting guide, and had used the large old hickory butcher knives for a very long time while hunting muskox, he would get a few years, 3-5 out of a blade, since he used a fine double-cut file for sharpening (did skinning and all parting out work with the "same" blade) and to him, they were about the best knife for the job. He would wear them to the point that they were the profile of the boning knife, and really, just had the "old" knife for boning and the "new" knife for everything else. So either the quality dropped a huge amount, or it's kinda what you treat it like. I doubt that there is all that much change in quality between 1970 and 1990 for Ontario at least.
That said, am I likely to live long enough to wear out any of my knives, probably not, but if I suddenly could not replace any, and what was in my pocket was all I had, well, in a couple decades, you'd find a leatherman surge with a pretty thin looking blade.
As another illustration to that point, a friend of my parents were admiring their very well used, but still excellent old hickory knife set from the late 70s, including a couple that my dad rebeveled well before it was cool. Their son had been a hunting guide, and had used the large old hickory butcher knives for a very long time while hunting muskox, he would get a few years, 3-5 out of a blade, since he used a fine double-cut file for sharpening (did skinning and all parting out work with the "same" blade) and to him, they were about the best knife for the job. He would wear them to the point that they were the profile of the boning knife, and really, just had the "old" knife for boning and the "new" knife for everything else. So either the quality dropped a huge amount, or it's kinda what you treat it like. I doubt that there is all that much change in quality between 1970 and 1990 for Ontario at least.