Thrifty Thursday... Cheap Traditional Knives

dave308ek said:
I love it's utilitarian looks, history, and function. It has great walk and talk with a very strong pull (which I like) that is easily pinchable to open and is easy to pocket carry. But it has an unfair advantage as it was a gift from my daughter. :D :thumbsup:
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Decent edge holding? I know it may be softer but easy to put the edge back on.
 
cbach8tw said:
Decent edge holding? I know it may be softer but easy to put the edge back on.
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Decent for me but I may be the wrong person to ask. I know it is relatively soft but so were my knives when I was a cook at a steak house and also did food prep all day. I constantly used honing steels and could tell when raw meat or tomatoes were not easy to slice, a few swipes and good to go.
I still use honing steel on my fixed and folders. (Just took a minute on my Douk Douk and it's sharp again lol)

scienceofsharp.com

What Does Steeling Do? Part 1

It is a common misconception that steeling does not remove metal, but simply “re-aligns the edge.”
scienceofsharp.com scienceofsharp.com
 
dave308ek said:
Decent for me but I may be the wrong person to ask. I know it is relatively soft but so were my knives when I was a cook at a steak house and also did food prep all day. I constantly used honing steels and could tell when raw meat or tomatoes were not easy to slice, a few swipes and good to go.
I still use honing steel on my fixed and folders. (Just took a minute on my Douk Douk and it's sharp again lol)

scienceofsharp.com

What Does Steeling Do? Part 1

It is a common misconception that steeling does not remove metal, but simply “re-aligns the edge.”
scienceofsharp.com scienceofsharp.com
Click to expand...
This is probably the wrong thread for this discussion, but I noticed the guys who work at the slaughterhouse (where I go to slaughter a sheep or goat a couple of times a year) also have basic industrial stainless steel knives which they keep sharp by frequent steeling. I worked on a fishing boat one summer as a teenager and seem to recall the skipper taking my knife to sharpen it a couple of times a day. I imagine other professional or industrial situations are similar.

A lot of enthusiasts are hung up on edge retention, but in a professional setting it seems ease of resharpening is more important.

I almost never take my knives to the stones except to set the original bevel. After that it’s just a few swipes on a fine ceramic rod periodically to keep it sharp.
 
Just Tom. said:
in a professional setting it seems easy of resharpening is more important.
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I worked in a kitchen through high school, went to culinary school and continued in a kitchen for a few years after that until discovering that career path wasn't a good fit for me.

My favorite are the Dexter Russell sanisafe. Cheap, easy to sharpen and the steel sold with the set is awesome. We always had a tri-stone sitting around to sharpen.

I haven't met anyone that uses fancy, extremely expensive knives on a day to day basis. Homeowners buy that stuff for the most part. Maybe a fancy, high end chef would have one, but the people in the back doing the work most likely not.
 
Last week I posted an Otter paring knife (bottom knife in photo below), and here are a couple more "kitchen knives" that can be bought for very little money. Both are from Victorinox. The top one, with black handle, is sold as a utility knife and the middle one, with red handle, is called a serrated paring knife. The sheath at the top of the photo was sold with the black-handled knife, but it will hold any one of the 3 knives.
3paring+sheath.jpg

- GT
 
Just Tom. said:
This is probably the wrong thread for this discussion, but I noticed the guys who work at the slaughterhouse (where I go to slaughter a sheep or goat a couple of times a year) also have basic industrial stainless steel knives which they keep sharp by frequent steeling. I worked on a fishing boat one summer as a teenager and seem to recall the skipper taking my knife to sharpen it a couple of times a day. I imagine other professional or industrial situations are similar.

A lot of enthusiasts are hung up on edge retention, but in a professional setting it seems ease of resharpening is more important.

I almost never take my knives to the stones except to set the original bevel. After that it’s just a few swipes on a fine ceramic rod periodically to keep it sharp.
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Any time you're talking about knives in a commercial setting, there's a lot more factors that go into blade selection beyond many of the attributes prized by individuals - namely cost, cost, and cost, and then availability (things happen and replacements will be needed), consistency (don't want the workers to have to re-learn their skills because it would slow down production), longevity and ease (and cost) of maintenance - did I mention cost? 🤣 Basically, in these kinds of situations, the biggest priority is that the line doesn't stop because whether it's a slaughter house or a commercial kitchen, a delay in the line equals lower revenue.

However, when required, you will find "higher-end" steels in use by, and sometimes created for, commercial industry - for instance, I believe Cru-Wear was developed for the combination of toughness and edge retention needed for the machines used in the tire recycling industry. In that case, edge retention is a pretty big concern. I'm sure there are individual use cases where the same rules apply. 🤷
 
View attachment 2329139Was under $23 (USD) shipped fore both. I believe that was "economical".
Roough Rider 'A STROKE OF LUCK' series RR1057 tiny stockman (only 4.25 inch closed) and RR1062 full size Canoe.
The knives are high quality; not cheap junk. 😁👍

The Stroke of Luck series has been discontinued.
I saw a sister (brother?) stockman for sale on another site for $25 (USD).
I paid $9.99 for mine.
Despte a potential 250% (or more) profit, I have less than zero interest in selling it during my lifetime. 🙄
 
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HSB Junior Cattle Knife, pawnshop pickup in Fort Worth around 2016 or 2017, $20 OTD. Great snap, F&F, and an easily applied wicked sharp edge. OH
HSB_9729_Jr._Cattle_Knife_(1).jpg
 
mbkr said:
Rough Ryder whittler. I used it to open a package a little while ago and it sure is a slicey little thing. I didn't take any action pics of the package opening. Maybe I'll do a reenactment later on :p
View attachment 2337205
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Love that little spear main whittler, Mike! :thumbsup::cool::thumbsup:
Maybe the handle is a bit short for marathon whittling sessions, but my amateur whittling tends to be short sessions while waiting for a bus, or taking the dog to the back yard to do his business, or taking a brief rest on an 8-mile walk.

- GT
 
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