Thread: Knife as a tool

Originally Posted by Chribo

P.S. just to reiterate ... my Randall No 1 split wood, dug dirt, opened tins, slaughtered goats, skinned, chopped, cut etc. etc.... for 5 years... and I could still pull it out the drawer and it looks good ;-)

God Bless you,
Sounds like you have a good knife to pass on to your children.

Here you go... a thing of beauty...

Originally Posted by Chribo

Hi,

The problem is... you dont always have an axe when you need one... and you dont always have a crowbar when you need one... in the field you sometimes have just the one tool... the knife on your belt.

For every time a soldier draws blood with his knife (excluding own blood) there are a million other soldiers cutting, chopping and prying with theirs.

Knife makers say dont open tins, dont pry things open, dont chop wood, dont ... dont.. dont... basically all the things a soldier (IMHO) needs a knife for. :-)

I not new to a soldier's needs in the field, though I've never needed to "draw blood" with mine, thank God. But, I have always had a better tool at hand, "in the field" as you put it,, for getting the job done,, never found a lot of tins in my MRE's, had I , a P-38 works great for that. Never needed to chop wood in the field as a Marine, did chop wood as a recreational camper, an axe was brought for that.

Hi

We were often in places where the phrase "n'avoir que la bite et le couteau" (no equipment other than your wiener and a knife) were order of the day.

Only blood I ever drew was my own on occasion... and every now and then a goat.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

The truth is, that many people use the wrong tool for the wrong job; it's as simple as that. Then they give that tool a bad performance review. Is that fair to the tool & is it fair to the potential buyer who may be considering that tool. Let me answer that, "No, it's not."

This statement from you, "What is more its not always about the best tool for the job...sometimes it's about silly whims, and who among us is not guilty of participating in a few?" Not quite getting this??? As an learning adult, I always try to match the best tool for the job. I cannot remember ever trying to intentionally break a tool on a "silly whim". I have damaged tools by being inexperienced in their purpose, basically being stupid, tool ignorant.

Can you explain this a little more, please, "That is why I suggest that there is a time and place for many different steels."

I am sorry, I feel like you may have misinterpreted what I said. I did not intend to suggest intentionally breaking a tool, and I am not sure how that could have been derived from what I said.

By silly whim, I was referring to non-traditional knife uses for the sake of fun. some examples might be batoning, chopping, prying, or even digging. Who am I to mandate to anyone else how they choose to use their knives? Further, how can anyone claim that these uses are wrong if the knife maker specifically designed the tool to perform these tasks?

Granted, I agree that knives are primarily for cutting, and I have been on a high horse a time or two with regard to what I thought was ignorant use of a blade...but the truth is, it is a pretty big world out there, and there are some knives/tools that are designed and built to put up with what we used to call abuse. Love it, hate it, argue about it, whatever.

As far as explaining in greater depth my statement about "That is why I suggest that there is a time and place for many different steels."...what do you have in mind? A blade used in the kitchen has a very different set of uses and needs as compared to a camping or survival or folding slip joint or folding tactical or competition blade or show piece/master piece. Does it not seem logical that these various uses might best served by various steels?