When your knife is a toy, not a tool?

I would say never. I don't play with my knives. I play with my bicycles, which are also the tool that I use for all my transportation. (Cars cost too much to buy and feed.)
 
I like to keep a few ancillary knives outside of my EDC rotations. Balisong and autos are coffee table knives. Fun to pick up and play with throughout the day.
 
For me, I think my knives fall much more on the side of "tools", rather than toys.

When I was in my teens, they totally were toys, and id flick them open all the time. Nowadays, I can go days without opening my edc, and not really notice/care. I will at times open/close it if it's in my hand... but... I also do that with generic ballpoint pens as well.

My camping knives are where it gets kind of fuzzy for me. I camp for fun, so maybe they are toys, even though the tasks I use them for are totally legitimate work "tool" tasks?
 
:) For the purpose of domestic tranquility , we have a separate budget for actual tools vs my "toys" (which are part of my personal entertainment allotment ) .

40 years ago , I could get away with putting some knives and machetes etc , in the tool budget . Then SWMBO wised up and since then almost all my blades are defined as toys :(. The "investment" argument doesn't work now either ! :p
 
Hickory n steel said:
W


Fantasy ?
You mean basic no frills functionality ?

I don't see the fantasy unless someone just wants to be macgyver or whatever.
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Some wish they were MacGuyver. Some fantasize they are grizzled old timers who "dont need one of those newfangled expensive knives, going on about how frivolous others' knives are," etc.
 
rje58 said:
You have a point when it comes to the modern/tactical/bushcraft knife industry. I'm not sure what the fantasy is for SAKs, slipjoints, Moras, Opinels, etc.
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You probably shoud read my first post in this thread.
 
I did read it. I wasn't referring to the "tools vs. toys" comments. SAKs and Moras could be toys just as well as other knives. I was referring to the poster who was talking about the fantasy of being Jim Bowie or Rambo, of fighting and survival. As opposed to opening your mail and the package that contains your next knife purchase, or your latest Amazon delivery.

marcinek said:
You probably shoud read my first post in this thread.
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I highly doubt there is anyone reading this that doesn’t fawn over their new knife when they get one. In that sense, every knife is that new toy
 
rje58 said:
I did read it. I wasn't referring to the "tools vs. toys" comments. SAKs and Moras could be toys just as well as other knives. I was referring to the poster who was talking about the fantasy of being Jim Bowie or Rambo, of fighting and survival. As opposed to opening your mail and the package that contains your next knife purchase, or your latest Amazon delivery.
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Only an S110V blade is good enough for my Prime packages. Regular mail gets an S30V blade; though bills are demoted to a VG-10 treatment; but the contempt of Aus8 or 14C28N is reserved only for those friggin' coupon packs that never have any coupons I want.
 
So I view all knives as tools, but pretty much every knife on the market is a fair bit toy too. There is nothing you can't do with a $10-30 knife that you can only do with a $200 knife. If you are spending that much, you have to admit that the knife is partly toy factor.

That said, there is nothing wrong with a knife that's also part toy. If it's sharp and cuts, it fulfills all the tool factor it needs to fill, and you can tell pretty easily that a $100 or more knife is just flat out nicer than a $20 knife.
 
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