The Losable Knife

[Matthew Carberry]

Try cutting something fairly resilient with a SAK or similar non-locking folder.  Like a piece of leather, or very tough rope, or whittling on a branch with fast movement and you hit a knot.  You can over-extend the knife backwards in its socket, and as the knife completes the cut you have now pre-loaded the spring on its joint and it can slap closed.

I hate SAKs for this reason, except for the models that at least include a liner lock for the knife blade.

That's misusing the knife, not a flaw in the knife. If you have to cut something a pocketknife is expressly not designed for, you use different technique.

Put the rope or leather on a firm surface and slice through it with repeated light strokes, with your finger on the spine to take the pressure off the pivot.  Whittling is a controlled movement, if you hit something that hard you stop and start a new cut.

Camp chores are what you're describing and should be done with the fixed blade you should have handy if you think you might need it. Even a locking pocket knife is a planned lesser trade-off, as is a sheathed heavy folder. A fixed blade is the right tool.

[tokugawa]

Buying cheap crap so you don't mind if you lose it is nuts. If it is incapable of doing the job it is intended for, you might as well not have it.
 
 Pro mechanics don't buy snap on because they can get a free replacement if it breaks, they buy them because they are pretty well assured they WON'T break.
 
 A knife is basic tool #1, first on the list, neolithic to modern day.  I remember my first- on my 8th birthday Dad brought me to the hardware store and I picked out a nice bone handled three blade stock-mans knife.
 
 I was so proud of that knife. I had it for about 4 hours- a bunch of kids and I were playing football in the yard, and after the game the knife was gone from my pocket. I scoured the yard- no knife- one of the other boys must have "finders keepers" it.  My sob story to my dad elicited no sympathy. No replacement was forthcoming. It was a good lesson. 

 Amazingly few people , especially kids, carry a knife anymore. Baffles me.  I think they "learn" that in school.
 
 

[230RN]

It's a pocketknife, not a fighting knife. If you need to poke a hole that's a controlled press, not a "stab".

What I like is it's plainly labeled "TOOL."

Bite me, TSA.  :D

Terry, 230RN

[Jamisjockey]

It's a pocketknife, not a fighting knife. If you need to poke a hole that's a controlled press, not a "stab".

Fail. AZ only carries combat instruments.

[Gewehr98]

Wait - I thought AZRH44 was/is a combat instrument?!

[brimic]

About the cheapest knives I buy are still decent quality knives- CRKT or Byrd (spyderco), or Moras for fixed blades.
I exactly one sub-$5 knife- its one my wife got somewhere and gave to me- chinese made out of unknown stainless- I use it only for opening salt bags for my water softener, a job that I wouldn't want to expend another dollar to buy a cheap utility knife to do.

[mtnbkr]

In nearly 40 years of carrying a pocket knife of some sort, I've only lost my knife once that I recall.  That was a SAK I was carrying in the pocket of a pair of BDUs while turkey hunting.  I was sitting against a tree, and because the pockets were shallow, it must have slipped out.  I could probably have gone back for it that day (realized it was missing back at camp), but it was a longer walk back up the mountain than the knife was worth. 

These days, I alternate between a Chris Reeve Small Sebenza (have owned it for 8 years) and a Canal Street Cutlery Cannitler (2 years). 

As for slipjoint failures, you're "doing it wrong".  You're more likely to cut yourself with a cheap knife than by using a slipjoint properly.  Folding knives should never be used where a fixed blade is more appropriate. 

Chris

[tokugawa]

About the cheapest knives I buy are still decent quality knives- CRKT or Byrd (spyderco), or Moras for fixed blades.
I exactly one sub-$5 knife- its one my wife got somewhere and gave to me- chinese made out of unknown stainless- I use it only for opening salt bags for my water softener, a job that I wouldn't want to expend another dollar to buy a cheap utility knife to do.

 There is a huge difference between "cheap" and low cost.

[Balog]

I was instructed to update the Amazon Christmas wish list for the inlaws. Anyone know what the difference is between the 5-6 different lines of "Mora" knives for sale on Amazon?

[AZRedhawk44]

Fail. AZ only carries combat instruments.

 

I only carry locking folders.  The smallest of which I own is a tiny little Buck, thin and short, probably about a 1 3/4" blade on it, when I actually dress nice and don't want a pocket clip showing.

Wait - I thought AZRH44 was/is a combat instrument?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4yzkefot3c

[charby]

I was instructed to update the Amazon Christmas wish list for the inlaws. Anyone know what the difference is between the 5-6 different lines of "Mora" knives for sale on Amazon?

I have Cold Steel brand ones. Seems to work for the price, very hard steel. I have the Finn Bear which is strapped to the outside of my hunting pack.

Will cut through a deer like butter.

http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Steel-Polypropylene-Handle-Cordura/dp/B000Q99RXG

Its not a full tang, but it works good for cutting and carving, I wouldn't try to go AZRedhawk44 Paul Bunyan with it.