Have You Ever Completely Worn Out a Knife?

SharpieB

SharpieB

Joined
Oct 31, 2017
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Have any of you have used a knife long enough that it just plain “wore out”? Not broken from prying or batoning, just worn out from a long life of honest use and many sharpenings.

It seems that many pics on BF I see are of mint knives with little to no visible use, so I am curious if any of your users have been relegated to a drawer or thrown out as they were past their period of usefulness.

Personally, I use all of my knives but rotate them and have lots of them. Some knives are scratched, dinged and stained, but nothing life threatening yet....
 
No, my attention span isn't long enough, honestly. And I have a tendency to get emotionally attached to some that I carry for really long periods of time, and then those get semi-retired and I only carry them when feeling sentimental for fear of losing them.
 
I can't say I have completely worn out a knife ... but I do have a very old Buck folder that got so beat up and had blade play and sharpened enough of the blade away that it sits in one of my tool chests to only use to scrape gunk off parts or cut something that I normally wouldn't cut with my carry knife ... but techincally it still functions.
 
Yes. A couple of slipjoints. The blades are practically toothpicks. They're in a drawer somewhere around here I'm sure.

My Sere 2K is pretty heavily worn. The blade has a pronounced recurve from sharpening, coating is completely gone, blade is rust speckled (and it's VG-10). The handle is full of dings, bust she still locks up tight and cuts like a demon with laser beam eyes.
 
AntDog said:
Yes. A couple of slipjoints. The blades are practically toothpicks. They're in a drawer somewhere around here I'm sure.

My Sere 2K is pretty heavily worn. The blade has a pronounced recurve from sharpening, coating is completely gone, blade is rust speckled (and it's VG-10). The handle is full of dings, bust she still locks up tight and cuts like a demon with laser beam eyes.
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That SERE is bloody awesome.
 
I remember a recent thread of a guy who was ticked off that after 20+ yrs of daily use he wore out a Spyderco Police.

I have seen and passed on knives in cases of "junk shops" that had blades so worn from sharpening that there was little left of them. But that could easily bee

Haven't ever done it, personally.
 
One kitchen knife is pretty close. It’s a 6” Henckels 4Star. The blade has had the tip broken off twice and it’s been sharpened hundreds of times. The edge is basically dead straight and the molded polypropylene handle is failing. This knife has never been in a dishwasher.

I had a SAK Spartan that was carried daily for 30+ years. Scales fell off (were replaced for free by Victorinox!), the backsprings wore out, main blade was heading for toothpick land when knife was lost. *Sniff*
 
I'm not old enough or too careful with my knives but they are all still there and ready to go. Weird... Actually no : any knife, even Old Hickory butchers, can outlast you by generations.
 
I've not really worn out a knife but I've tossed out a couple of cheap knives after the blades loosened up so badly. I did wear down the serrations on a fully serrated Spyderco Endura after many years of use and sharpening. And I'm sure I've broken a few knives from abuse when I was a youngster. But actually wearing a knife out...? Nope. Never have.
 
I've never completely worn out a knife. Scarred up, yes, but never worn out.

My late dad, OTOH, had worn out several pocketknives. They ended up with rusty, super sharpened-down blades with no snap left, and the blade tips stuck out of the handles when closed. Then he'd toss them into his old toolbox and get another.

Jim
 
I wonder if you take all the metal I’ve sharpened off of all my knives and added it up, would it wear out a single knife? Probably.

Certainly in the old days, softer steel with greater frequency of use would have added up to worn out knives. It would take a lot of use to wear down an m390 blade without power sharpening.
 
SharpieB said:
Have any of you have used a knife long enough that it just plain “wore out”? Not broken from prying or batoning, just worn out from a long life of honest use and many sharpenings.

It seems that many pics on BF I see are of mint knives with little to no visible use, so I am curious if any of your users have been relegated to a drawer or thrown out as they were past their period of usefulness.

Personally, I use all of my knives but rotate them and have lots of them. Some knives are scratched, dinged and stained, but nothing life threatening yet....
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The only knife I have ever worn out was a Case Barlow from many many sharpenings and the occasional sharpening by my Dad on a grinding wheel. I suspect the grinding wheel was the dominant blade wearer. I used that knife to skin animals and I would often sharpen it at least two or three times in an evening as I was using it. I retired it after I got older and it was too dangerous to keep in your pocket without the occasional poke.

I often take pictures of my new knives and then never bother from that point on. So, you only see "new".
 
Tseg said:
Pssst. Nobody actually USES their knives in his forum. (hey Ralph... just found a guy who actually uses his knife...hahahaha!)
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Ahhhhh. Got it.

That’s why my pics are all crap and every one else’s look like something from a fine art magazine. You guys are all just knife photographers!:p
 
I’ve had a Buck Odyssey develop so much blade play, after several years of use, that I wasn’t confident using it anymore. Had a couple of CRKT knives where the liner lock began to “jump the blade” when opening. Another CRKT they I sharpened until it was way too thick behind the edge, I gave it to a coworker that carried a gas station special.
 
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