What do you use your knives for?

[Rivka]

I am writing an article on steel and I am designing a set of tests based on real use. I keep seeing knife tests based on things I would never do with a blade and I don't think they are very helpful so I am trying a different approach. Suggestions would be helpful especially from people and hunt and fish(I do neither). Any comments on which steel you like for particular jobs would be great too.

[Sequimite]

Cut rope to rig crab pots and clean and segment crabs(Caspian Salt).

Cutting cardboard, packing tape plastic ties. Prying out staples.

Every kind of food prep.

Cutting pills in half. (Need thin blade)

Whittling and carving.

Cut alder wood for smoking. (BBQ)

Trimming thorny plants back.

Opening feed sacks.

[TexSierra]

Today I used my VG10 Serrated Spyderco Endura for opening boxes, cutting a piece of sand paper (3 pieces actually), opening 4 or 5 clamshell packaging, trimming my fingernails, cutting zipties, slicing a registration sticker to prevent theft and trimming a piece of air hose.

[RIOT]

my Spyderco is in my pocket for my Awesome pocket knife & defense if it ever comes down to it.

[HotSoup]

Fending off ninjas!

[spyderHS08]

The question should be more like what dont you use your spyderco for...

[ICSK]

For the most part, I use it for light prying, scraping, slicing, and occasionally light chopping

1. Cutting cardboard to open packages
2. Opening letters
3. Food preparation. Sometimes involves prying (ex: Taking seeds out of fruit. Nothing I know the knife couldn't take!)
4. Trimming tree branches and/or foliage
5. Scraping dirt off when I'm doing fossil prep.

That's all I could think of off the top of my head. As with all the tools I carry with me, their uses are spontaneous but they easily find their uses throughout the day.

As for cut tests, I know this youtuber does a cut test of cardboard, wood, parachord, and sometimes paper after all his knife reviews.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BLUNTRUTH4U

[Bill1170]

Cutting food, cardboard, clam packaging, plants, wood, rope, tape, paint out of corners, plastic banding, whatever needs cutting at home or in the shop or construction site. Never any prying, I use screwdriver blades on SAK for that.

[chuck_roxas45]

Fending off ninjas!

There ya go!

Hey soup, are there no zombies there?

[ChrisR]

Most of mine are SLIPITs and are basically for slicing open boxes, envelopes, packaging and dinner-time food preparation :) I always wash them after use and keep them ready to eat with at all times :)

[MENTAL]

http://spyderco.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41127

Rivka- Try this thread for (as of today) 234 answers to your question. Good luck with your article.

[The Deacon]

Most common would be food prep, followed by opening letters and packages. Those are daily tasks. Opening larger cardboard boxes and breaking them down, and cutting plastic of some kind, ranging from bags, to zip ties, to the dreaded clam packs would be the next most frequent. Sharpening pencils, cutting twine and rope, scraping stickers off a car window, and trimming branches, would be my relatively low frequency uses.

[Joe Internet]

Let's see... cutting up cardboard boxes, opening mail, cutting better air vents in coffee cup lids, cutting plastic bags open, cutting up catalogs and phonebooks for disposal, field dressing trout.

For clamshells, I usually grab my Leatherman Wave, and use the serrated blade, or use a utility knife.

[Pete1977]

Most every cutting need that arises while commercial lobstering.

[SUDS]

Alright heres some of the stuff I use my knife for

Cleaning trout
Cutting fishing line
cutting up deer meat
Cutting open bags of corn
Food prep
Opening mail/packages
whittling wood
splitting small pieces of wood for kindling

And thats about all I can think of

[Evil D]

Mostly corrugated boxes at work, tape, nylon packaging bands. Food prep. Occasional stick whittling when i'm outdoors and bored. Generally anything that needs cut.

[vampyrewolf]

At my current desk job (hopefully changing soon)... opening boxes (tape or straps) of units for testing, food prep, and cutting paper to add to my "wall of knowledge".

With my IT work I use em for electrical tape, zip ties, cable, packages, and even so far as to make a few wiring mods. But I also have a fairly well equipped toolbox for IT.


Most of the use my knives see is food prep and cutting tape. Clam packs are only on a few parts I get (like my spare cellphone batteries). Real demanding on the high performance knives eh?

[Franciscomv]

I spend roughly one third of my time in an urban setting, another third in a rural environment and the final third outdoors.

In the city I favour compact pocket knives. I do a lot of food prep (I eat six meals a day), open boxes, cut plastic packing straps, zip ties, etc. For some reason I always end up doing handy work for friends, my girlfriend or at school. So I use my knives for that as well (cutting drywall, stripping wires, trimming caulking and any other thing that needs cutting).

At the horse ranch I prefer fixed blades. Come to think of it, I only rely on folders in the city because I can't EDC a fixed blade. I do a lot of food prep as well, cut cordage and leather (saddles always need fixing) and anything that needs cutting for maintenance work (hoses, wood).

Outdoors I prefer fixed blades as well. I do a lot of wood whittling while playing caveman (friction fire kits, traps and snares, cups and spoons).I also cut cordage, clean game and fish, split wood for kindling.

[cckw]

here is my most critical use in my mind. I process my own deer. I use the same knife start to finish. It is a 4" drop point hunter like the Moran. The one I have is a D2 blade and can do about 2.5 deer before I am annoyed by the loss of sharpness. I'm careful about contacting bone or counter top. Of course, at the point I am annoyed many Buba types would think it's great.

I personally do not want to stop and sharpen and since I never do more then two at a time my knife is a winner.

Hope you can glean something useful from that

[Vincent]

Most of my knives go unused, I use my edc for various daily tasks. I mainly carry it for the worst case scenario,