Have You Ever Completely Worn Out a Knife?

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I've had this since I was 10 years old, and i'm 38 now.
It cut hundreds of news paper straps. When I first started working in retail it was my box cutter. I even cut through a couple of radiator hoses. Helped start a few fires and countless other things.

I think it lasted this long because i had no clue on how to sharpen it, and it stayed just barely sharp enough to still cut things lol
 
I have yes...they are in a drawer now. Why? You looking to buy? ;)
Lol.
 
Yes, an old Emerson Horseman. Beat it to hell and back. Liner touched the other side, blade was trashed, etc... I gave it away to a guy that bought another knife from me as he needed a real beater.

I kinda wish I had kept it.
 
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.

Sounds alot like me. Unlike many people who rotate their knives every day I tend to get stuck on one particular knife and carry it for a month or two before something makes another knife catch my attention.
 
The ones ive worn out, lockbar touches other side, or no blade left...you get the idea, are BM pardue, a browning, a kershaw cryo 2, and a CRKT Amicus Compact. Im working on wearing out a Kiser T1 (task) at the moment. Lol.
Im in construction, and use the right tool for the job, but my knives seem to wear out anyways. After the T1, ill be wearing out a Shiro Hati. Gotta see what it can do! :)
 
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.

Just in case anyone wants to see it (some for the 100th time), here's my Sere:

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Old pics of it next to my buddy's relatively new one:

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I have a Spyderco Tenacious on which I've worn out the liner lock. It "locks" up late as can be and wiggles and waggles when open unless I tighten the pivot so tight it's hard to open.
 
My Aunt at the family farm had a knife that probably started as a boning knife about 6-7" long. She used a steel to sharpen it, and it was down to the breadth of a narrow paring knife in the middle of the belly. Who knows, maybe 30-40 years old? She wasn't a knife snob, but she could cook for all the men-folk.
 
I've only seen a few online from hack job sharpenings and my grandfather in person. He's usually sharpening the whole blade on a slip joint (just how he prefers) and that tends to thin them down so far they snap or become a toothpick.

I did see a high carbon kitchen knife last time i was home that my grand mothers grand mother used.. Used from gutting hogs in 1900 (I'm sure) to a few Thanksgivings ago. It's probably a quarter inch tall, maybe 1/16" thick and 2-3 inches long.
 
I have a few with blades that have certainly seen much better days. Are they completely worn out-no. There is still something left, just not much.
 
Kabar Dozier is ground down probably an 1/8th of an inch from repeated sharpenings as I used it for a work knife quite a bit. Probably be missing at least twice that if I didn't pick up a cold steel kudu when I have to abuse my knife and sharpen it immediately after.

So if I got rid of all my knives except that Dozier you would need to check back in with me in 10-20 years and I could protected say I have worn out a $20 knife.
 
The last knife I wore out was my Spyderco Persistence. It has a lot of blade left, but the pivot feels like it’s running on gravel, and the blade is badly off center to the point of contact with one of the liners. Blade play is an understatement. It’s a blade holiday.

After that, I started adding more and more. While I regularly use my knives at work, that work is distributed between enough of them that they don’t look very rough.

There’s also this:

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The little fella is a Wenger Esquire (analog to Victorinox Classic). It’s my tape buster and goo scraper, keeping adhesive residue off my folders. The folders are used for cardboard, plastic straps, zip ties, etc.

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...or for unexpected fun, like wrecking the tires of a thief’s bike after he left it behind when he ran out the door.

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Given the number of knives in S35VN, M390, XHP, etc rotating in use, I doubt I’ll ruin any more folders.
 
I wore down the blade on my Benchmade mini Presidio to the point it was so thick behind the edge that it just didn’t cut well anymore. Fortunately Benchmade still stocked blades for that model in 2011 and I was able to pay for a replacement.

My wife has a Benchmade Sequel that is about done due to repeated sharpening. Benchmade doesn’t have any replacement blades left so it’ll be time to retire that one soon.
 
None
So far I only made a test on a PM2 to see how much it can take (prying and any kind of abusive use...). I destroyed it but I have been impressed and I am now sure I can use it for any kind of normal knife use
 
That used to happen. Back in the old days when people bought a thing. That was their thing until it broke or wore out. If you had a knife, that was your knife. Why would you need another one, or ten, or one hundred and forty seven. Of course there was always an exemption to the rule, but by and large that's how people were. It was just another tool. They also didn't have super steels.
 
I've only seen a few online from hack job sharpenings and my grandfather in person. He's usually sharpening the whole blade on a slip joint (just how he prefers) and that tends to thin them down so far they snap or become a toothpick.

I did see a high carbon kitchen knife last time i was home that my grand mothers grand mother used.. Used from gutting hogs in 1900 (I'm sure) to a few Thanksgivings ago. It's probably a quarter inch tall, maybe 1/16" thick and 2-3 inches long.
Sounds like a good opportunity to give them a new knife or three for the kitchen.
 
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