Knife life span.

N

Norwolf

Joined
Feb 10, 2010
Messages
23
May be a silly question, but, has anyone ever sharpened a knife so much (over years) that there's is not enough thin metal left on the grind? Anyone ever use up a knife?
 
Sure, my grandmother had several slivers of knives left over. I used to look at them a lot when I was a kid.
 
I figure other stuff will go before the blade will. if it's a liner or framelock wouldn't that wear worse than the blade?
 
I think a knife is supposed to outlast the life of the user. Which is why some companies guarantee lifetime warranties with their knives. Then again if you sharpen your knife daily who knows.
 
remington did a study in the 30s & found the average lifespan of folders to be about 3 months or 11 months [excuse my retention]. of course knives were used much more in those days while we were still a rural culture. however most were destroyed from loss & abuse. dennis: another factor was knives were more costly due to the depressed economy, many people were making only 16$ a week.i remember in the 40s cheap imperials were 25 cents. we did'nt have the 25 cents.
 
I have. I've virtually sharpened away the main blade on a Buck 303 (it took about 40 years of sharpening), and sharpened away most of the blade on a Buck 112. Everything else on both of those knives is still pretty much the way it was when they left the factory: no play in either of them.
 
The most sharpened knife I've owned was an Old Timer given to me by my grandfather. It was one of the smaller models with a clip blade, and the clip was ground so much that it had a very exaggerated re curve
 
DennisStrickland said:
remington did a study in the 30s & found the average lifespan of folders to be about 3 months or 11 months [excuse my retention]. of course knives were used much more in those days while we were still a rural culture. however most were destroyed from loss & abuse. dennis: another factor was knives were more costly due to the depressed economy, many people were making only 16$ a week.i remember in the 40s cheap imperials were 25 cents. we did'nt have the 25 cents.
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what was happening to these knives to cause the end of their lives after only a few months?
 
You notice these types of knives at Butcher shops a lot. Those guys grind so much steel of the blades as they sharpen throughout the day. What was once a huge Butcher's knife is now a sliver that looks like a fillet blade.

My Grandfather has an old trapper slipjoint and one of the blades look like a friggin toothpick it's been sharpened so much over a lifetime.
 
When I wrote Fallkniven about regrinding an abused NL5 for me, here was part of Peter's response:

Dear George,

As a result of the high quality, it is always a good idea to restore a Fallkniven knife since it will live for maybe half a century or more.
 
I've sharpened one folder to the point that I couldn't carry it. It was a Buck Scoutlite in 425 M steel. It was the only knife I carried for 10 years. There was plently of blade left, but the bevel had gotten thick enough that sharpening took some real effort, and the point was ground back enough that it stuck slightly out of the handle. I reground the blade and took some metal off the kicker below the blade and now there's probably another 10 years in it, though it looks like crap. Flat grinding a hollow ground blade is not recommended.
 
Tony8179 said:
You notice these types of knives at Butcher shops a lot. Those guys grind so much steel of the blades as they sharpen throughout the day. What was once a huge Butcher's knife is now a sliver that looks like a fillet blade.

My Grandfather has an old trapper slipjoint and one of the blades look like a friggin toothpick it's been sharpened so much over a lifetime.
Click to expand...

Heh, yeah, my friend has an old butcher knife ground down to that size. Looks like something used to fillet fish now, but you can just barely tell it was once bigger because the blade is so much wider at the hilt.
 
Yeah I've seen plenty of blades that have been ground away until they looked like ice picks.

I think that mostly results from poor choice of sharpening methods. There are plenty of guys who only use bench grinders, bastard files, xx course stones, or those horrid carbide pull through sharpeners! If one uses these kind of implements for a knife on a daily basis it's going to wear down pretty quick.

Though with propper care and easy use, I see no reason why most knives wouldn't last generations.
 
i stand corrected on the remington study & thanks to spoonrobot for the most definitive essay on celluloid i've ever read. bookmarked that baby dennis.
 
I purchased a custom fixed-blade utility knife recently at a local Blade Show. After I purchased the knife, the maker told me he had been EDC'ing the same model and pulled his knife out of its sheath. At least half the blade had been consumed in wear and sharpening. I asked him how long it had taken to get like that. He said about 20 years.

.
 
I met a gentlemen in colorado with a spyderco paramilitary that only had about 2" if blade left.
 
Anyone have pics of a well worn knife to go with the story?

I think this is definitely a case of "your mileage may vary".

I also think a lot of it has to do with sharpening habits. Some people sharpen more often and more aggressively than others. Assuming I don't destruct any of my knives, I suspect most would last 20-30 years of constant use.
 
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