Have You Ever Completely Worn Out a Knife?

I have never personally worn down a blade sharpening it to the point of disposal, but I have retired a few folders that developed a lot of blade play and proud points.

My father, on the other hand, would wear out a blade by sharpening it down to a thin spear point. He used them daily cutting string, rope, cardboard boxes, paper and burlap feed sacks, tags off shrubs/trees, etc...... and ended up needing to sharpen the daily.

My first 4 or 5 knives were mostly worn-out peanuts and stockmen passed down from my grandfather and father when they deemed they needed/wanted a new knife.
 
In the pic below, right column, 5th row down, the mother-of-pearl-handled little Imperial. I/we wore that one out. The main blade was broken off by prying by my grandpa, before it was mine. The small blade is still there and serviceable, but it has a lot of side-to-side play.

I whittled enough as a 10 year-old kid with that knife to fill a semi trailer full of wood chips.



I've seen knives I considered worn out before due to sharpening, but usually due to someone from a previous generation sharpening the blade on a bench grinder. :rolleyes:
 
I carried a medium cv stockman everyday for almost 20 years. The blades wire down from years of use and sharpening. The blades had absolutely no snap left. It was used to clean small game,fish, used while working on vehicles and working in a parts store. It was a wonderful knife.
 
No. But I haven't been a "knifeguy" for that long, and I rotate a fair deal.
I've broken a few knives, but that's beside the point.
 
I had a Rapala fillet knife that was used to clean thousands of fish. It was used and sharpened so much that the blade shrank down too far to be usable any longer, blade just got too small! I wore that thing out over decades of use.
 
Never wore one out, usually I lost or broke them before that happened.

The top one below was used almost every day for more than 15 years in ways people here think you're not supposed to use a knife. Nowhere near wore out, still works almost like new, but retired now. The bottom one is like new.

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I’ve worn out two leatherman waves in the oil patch. The wife gave me my first one 16 years ago for Christmas and there has been one in my pocket every day at work since then. As I sharpen it with a file it gets worn down “relatively” quickly. Usually I break something before I sharpen them to nothing but I’ve sent a pair back over the years for warrenty with just a thin sliver of blade left.
More impressive then that is I’ve never lost one.
 
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