Show your HDFK!

Unused knife, the day I got it.
ZxW2xr1.jpg


Used knife, after I, well, used it
8SgC7lv.jpg


I mean, what else is a knife used for? It's either a collector or user (cutting stuff) IMO... I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree
 
ManOfSteel89 said:
Jesus. Look man, if you wanna fondle them and just look at them, that’s fine.. I’m not judging. But we’ll have to agree to disagree on what a used knife means and what using a knife entails. A display case isn’t using them, twist it however you want. I’m just a lowly welder with a full-time job and a business to run on the side so I have no interest in arguing with you or anyone else on the internet over justifying staring at knives all day. It’s your money, spend it how you want and do what you want with your property. For all I care you could buy them, melt them down, turn them into fishing weights, and then say that is your use for them.
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Please, no need to get all excited. I’m not arguing with you. You came posting into the conversation all on your own. If you are too busy to have a conversation then please don’t feel obligated to.

Nothing about what I said is twisting anything. I posted a dictionary definition of a word in a case I made for a wishful attempt at helping people have a more opened minded acceptance of other people’s preferences.

Pretty simple. If you don’t like my conclusion feel free to point out your issue with my premise in a constructive fashion.

Thanks.
 
91bravo said:
Unused knife, the day I got it.
ZxW2xr1.jpg


Used knife, after I, well, used it
8SgC7lv.jpg


I mean, what else is a knife used for? It's either a collector or user (cutting stuff) IMO... I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree
Click to expand...

That looks like a knife made for cutting used to cut.

e064636543bfb82459e046284a7f22bb--knife-art-handmade-knives.jpg


Here is a knife that wasn’t made for cutting. Still a knife. Still being used.

Two groups of men on opposing sides of a field bashing their heads together repeatedly over some brown oblong ball may be a sport, but it isn’t the only one.

Thanks for your time. I enjoyed the conversation.
 
You got real defensive when he said it’s nice to see people using them. Seemed to have bothered you.
 
JustinFournier said:
That looks like a knife made for cutting used to cut.

e064636543bfb82459e046284a7f22bb--knife-art-handmade-knives.jpg


Here is a knife that wasn’t made for cutting. Still a knife. Still being used.

Two groups of men on opposing sides of a field bashing their heads together repeatedly over some brown oblong ball may be a sport, but it isn’t the only one.

Thanks for your time. I enjoyed the conversation.
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I don't see any signs of use on that knife. We were discussing the difference between collector knives and user knives, not knives that were designed for use as you quoted my last post. If you were to take that knife above and prep some dinner with it, THEN it would be used. I enjoyed the conversation as well. It has showed me that people who don't use their knives, will still think their knives are users!

 
I just wish I had the means to admire more knives by owning them, in my collection, AND I wish I had time to turn all the ones I do have into hard users like they were meant to be used. I'm in an odd group that many of my knives were obtained to support my first true hobby - woodworking. I bought them because I wanted to make presentation handles for them. I do use them to a small degree, but much of their life they are disassembled, sitting on my work bench with tape on the sharp bits.
 
TRfromMT said:
I just wish I had the means to admire more knives by owning them, in my collection, AND I wish I had time to turn all the ones I do have into hard users like they were meant to be used. I'm in an odd group that many of my knives were obtained to support my first true hobby - woodworking. I bought them because I wanted to make presentation handles for them. I do use them to a small degree, but much of their life they are disassembled, sitting on my work bench with tape on the sharp bits.
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Oh me too. I wish I could afford to buy nice knives and put them in a case to admire, but unfortunately, my hobby can't reach that level. So I get to actually use the ones that I do have! At least you're not saying a brand new knife is being used just because it's being admired, curated or photographed. Beats all I've heard today. To each their own I guess...

Now, back on the topic of this thread, show your HDFKs! I know folks are getting them into their hands again!
 
For what it's worth, every single knife that leaves our shop is "used". They are all "resharpened" and stropped. So not a single knife with "Carothers" on it is completely "new unused". They have all (100% every single one of them, without exception even the integral daggers) cut things. And not just one or two tiny cuts either.

Many have shaved hair because one standard is all knives must be able to shave hair and actual hair is used to calibrate the test media with every single sharpening batch. I would test all of them on hair except I'd be bald so we use a push cut in a special fine paper for most. We test 100%, and along the entire length of the edge, and more than once. The side effect of this is that no knife leaving our shop is "new, unused". I personally use all of them and have since the beginning. So go ahead and use your knife, I already did.


Edit to add: in my opinion a knife is fundamentally a cutting tool. If a "knife" doesn't have an edge on it, to me that is a knife shaped object. Knives cut <--- that's what they do.

^ my opinion on this matter.

Now, that said, just because an object is a knife doesn't mean it has to cut things. Just that it should be able to. We can own and admire objects because of what they represent and what they can do, even if we don't use them for those things.


here's a funny thought: most of us own air bags in our cars *. Most of us never "use" them. Does that mean we didn't use them and derive value from them over the time we had them? Some objects, like a fire extinguisher, don't have to be used to serve their purpose.

But a good fire extinguisher should be able to extinguish a fire, whether you use it for that or not.


*ironically not Bob. His daily driver is a McLaren F1, which is not equipped with an air bag. This might be a problem except traffic on his island is relatively light, so it's largely moot...
 
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Nathan the Machinist said:
For what it's worth, every single knife that leaves our shop is "used". They are all "resharpened" and stropped. So not a single knife with "Carothers" on it is completely "new unused". They have all (100% every single one of them, without exception even the integral daggers) cut things. And not just one or two tiny cuts either.

Many have shaved hair because one standard is all knives must be able to shave hair and actual hair is used to calibrate the test media with every single sharpening batch. I would test all of them on hair except I'd be bald so we use a push cut in a special fine paper for most. We test 100%, and along the entire length of the edge, and more than once. The side effect of this is that no knife leaving our shop is "new, unused". I personally use all of them and have since the beginning. So go ahead and use your knife, I already did.


Edit to add: in my opinion a knife is fundamentally a cutting tool. If a "knife" doesn't have an edge on it, to me that is a knife shaped object. Knives cut <--- that's what they do.

^ my opinion on this matter.

Now, that said, just because an object is a knife doesn't mean it has to cut things. Just that it should be able to. We can own and admire objects because of what they represent and what they can do, even if we don't use them for those things.
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My thoughts exactly, thanks for clarifying. I know you build your knives to withstand some hard use and if folks don't "use" their knives, how will they ever be able to reap the benefits of all of your R&D? I just can't word my thoughts so eloquently....
 
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