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Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,468,448 times
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With today's world of 'custom blades' and 'super steels', what do folks use their Every Day Carry knife for 'IRL' (packages, woodwork, camping, skinning a hog, what...)?
BTW, I'm a boater, so mostly carry a little assisted-opening cheapo in generic 440 SS for cutting and splicing line, cutting cardboard, and also opening the occasional Corona bottle!
I usually carry a cheap POS blade for cutting twine off bales, scraping oil, grease and dirt off of and out of balers and swathers, digging crap out of hydrolics, cutting hoses to length, that sort of stuff.
I always carry a Swiss Army Knife because of the fingernail cleaner blade. The little scissors work for validating hunting licenses by cutting out the date, and I've used the can opener many times to make lunch opening a can of something to heat on the forge.
I carry a Gerber multitool with needle nose pliers because they're handy for reaching screws or bolts/nuts that always fall in places you just can't reach, plus there's a pretty decent file for cleaning points and contacts on old engines.
If I'm going to gut or skin something, or make a fire or camp, I use a real knife.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,468,448 times
Reputation: 6670
â–³ Nice, Good Ole Trusty... and love all the 'traditionals', including the newer ones that despite all the 'tech', still manage to maintain some kinda connection, even an 'updated' one, w/ the 'Organic' and 'Nature'.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MTSilvertip
I usually carry a cheap POS blade for cutting twine off bales, scraping oil, grease and dirt off of and out of balers and swathers, digging crap out of hydrolics, cutting hoses to length, that sort of stuff.
I always carry a Swiss Army Knife because of the fingernail cleaner blade. The little scissors work for validating hunting licenses by cutting out the date, and I've used the can opener many times to make lunch opening a can of something to heat on the forge.
I carry a Gerber multitool with needle nose pliers because they're handy for reaching screws or bolts/nuts that always fall in places you just can't reach, plus there's a pretty decent file for cleaning points and contacts on old engines.
If I'm going to gut or skin something, or make a fire or camp, I use a real knife.
Understood, and sounds like you actually carry 3 different EDC's. For camping & skinning, etc..
So what's a 'real knife' (or are we talkin' one of those Crocodile Dundee kinda affairs...lol)?
I hand forge my own from 1080 spring steel. High carbon, differentially heat treated so the spine will flex, but tempered hard to hold an edge,
Not huge, it has a 5 inch blade. The spine ground square to work with a Ferro rod. Full tang for strength, a solid steel butt that works as a hammer for driving tent pegs. Short enough to be easy to carry, long enough for breaking rib cages or batoning through wood.
I run 3 heat cycles to normalize the steel before treating so the dendril structure is fine enough to withstand a lot of twisting or impacts without breaking.
That's the one normally on my belt, but if I go deep into the sticks, I have a slightly larger blade for survival with it's own characteristics.
The Chinese POS, the SAK and multi tool I can carry everywhere in my pocket. The Full sized knives tend to make delicate people in town nervous, so I don't always have the full fixed blade knives on me. I've regretted that a few times.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,468,448 times
Reputation: 6670
Yep, I'll bet your 'customs' are pretty 'formidable-looking', indeed... and would be great to see 'em sometime!
Been forging a little bit, off and on, simple stuff but enuff to get my feet wet, and lately looking at trying my hand on making an 18" machete, using a beat up old lawnmower blade that also might require some 'persuasion' beyond just cutting it out. Though I understand these are often some kinda mild-treated 1040 meant to withstand the occasional rock or tree stump w/o shattering. What's your opinion of that kinda steel and 'purpose' for a home-brew machete, for a novice anyway? The overall shape is sorta 'Falcata' style like this, with a full tang. Thx!
My dad always carried two pocket knives. Everybody knew he took care of his knives (ONLY Case!) and kept them sharp enough where he trimmed his fingernails with it. He kept his favorite and an extra. Since everybody knew about him and his knives they'd want to borrow it for something every now and then. That's what the extra was for. He never loaned out his favorite.
Yep, I'll bet your 'customs' are pretty 'formidable-looking', indeed... and would be great to see 'em sometime!
Been forging a little bit, off and on, simple stuff but enuff to get my feet wet, and lately looking at trying my hand on making an 18" machete, using a beat up old lawnmower blade that also might require some 'persuasion' beyond just cutting it out. Though I understand these are often some kinda mild-treated 1040 meant to withstand the occasional rock or tree stump w/o shattering. What's your opinion of that kinda steel and 'purpose' for a home-brew machete, for a novice anyway? The overall shape is sorta 'Falcata' style like this, with a full tang. Thx!
Lawn mower blades are fine for a machete, but heavy. Swinging more than a couple lbs. Will wear you out quickly. Thinning down the blade to reduce weight takes a lot of work since you need to have uniform dimensions.
One of the tricks to making swords or machetes is to only work a section at a time. If you heat the whole blade the weight of the steel can bend your blade, or induce warping. When you heat treat you need the whole blade heated to critical temp evenly. If it isn't uniform you'll have hard spots and soft spots that stress the blade, especially if you're striking something hard like wood.
A medium carbon steel works fine for machetes because it can absorb impacts better than a harder steel.
You might look at a panga design as it's easier for a beginner to obtain a working tool without some of the finer design work of some other designs, plus the weight forward design improves the strike force. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...fu5PCOi2OJrlPl
Falcata were originally a sword and getting a good balance is tricky. The originals had a cast bronze handle to offset the weight of the heavy front of the weapon. Without the heavy counterbalance you lose fine control of the blade. It just becomes to heavy on the wrist and forearm to control and maneuver well.
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