What are your daily folding knife uses?

Opening boxes
Trimming plastic build material from 3D printed items.
Trimming plastic around thread inserts.
Carving cured epoxy
Stripping insulation of large RF cable bundles.
Scoring copper sheet.
Lunch/dinner.
Planing edges of clear poly-carbonate sheet.
De-burring PC boards.
Cutting different types of foam.......

That was just today.
 
Work (non freight day): whatever comes up. Usually 20-30 zip ties and/or plastic straps, little cardboard, twine, plastic packaging. Odd materials for destruction purposes. On these days, I probably make 15-50 cuts/shift. Almost all of these are shallow, and stock thickness or thickness behind the edge are irrelevant.

Work (freight days): Same as above, except zip ties and plastic strap cuts spike to... sometimes more than 60 of each. 30 each would be very light. Still almost all shallow cuts.

Work (floor resets): 4-8 weeks out of the year, I wind up breaking down stupid amounts of double walled corrugate shippers. This kind of shit is why I prefer .12”/3mm stock thickness, even though I fully acknowledge that I only see the benefit for these brief chunks of the year.

Days off: meh. Barely any cutting. Flipping is fun, though!

I’ve learned that I can happily carry whatever I want, and only benefit from better performing blades during small chunks of the year.

I’ve also learned that it can be annoying being surprised by an unexpected spike in knife work on a random day.
 
Cutting fruit and opening boxes. For fruit it is an Opinel #8 that resides in my lunch bag. Boxes will be any of a number of knives.

And yes, the overbuilt knives are poor slicers. You can test that yourself - cut fruit and cardboard with an Opinel or similarly-thin blade, and with a heavy duty super thick blade with a thick edge bevel. You will quickly find that the thin blade cuts SO much better.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
The Rebar is to me what the Wave is to others, just about perfect. I don't mind that it doesn't have an external blade. Im usually not in that big of a hurry to make a cut, although like yourself I have found the CX to be a fine little tool. I generally carry the Rebar in my watch pocket and a one hand folder clipped inside my right front pocket. The knife is handy, but the Rebar and tools like it have literally saved the day more times than I can remember. Having a tool that lets me improvise to a situation trumps a sharp knife.

About the only time I trade up from the Rebar is when I pack the ST300 on the job.

Dang...I've kinda talked myself into a new LM now:confused:
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That isn't a difficult thing to do! I'm currently debating between eventually getting an aluminum Charge model (the one with two slots for extra bits) and a Surge. The only thing keeping me away from a Charge, or Wave for that matter, is the lack of replaceable cutters at the base of the plier jaws...
 
The_Iron_Joe said:
That isn't a difficult thing to do! I'm currently debating between eventually getting an aluminum Charge model (the one with two slots for extra bits) and a Surge. The only thing keeping me away from a Charge, or Wave for that matter, is the lack of replaceable cutters at the base of the plier jaws...
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The Wave "+" has replaceable cutters for the pliers.
 
Lately it is all Amazon and Indigo (Canadian bookstore) boxes. The holiday season is busy for Knife usage around here.
 
lambertiana said:
Cutting fruit and opening boxes. For fruit it is an Opinel #8 that resides in my lunch bag. Boxes will be any of a number of knives.

And yes, the overbuilt knives are poor slicers. You can test that yourself - cut fruit and cardboard with an Opinel or similarly-thin blade, and with a heavy duty super thick blade with a thick edge bevel. You will quickly find that the thin blade cuts SO much better.
Click to expand...

Carbon or stainless for that apple?
 
Peeling/quartering fruit, lunch, cutting some tape to open packages (I don't "break down" cardboard boxes at all.... if I need to dispose of them, I just fold them).

Actually in my environment (office) I almost need to force myself hard to find excuses to use my knives. But is all good.
 
Addendum: don't forget to keep an eye on what the blades doing and nearly cut myself.
 
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Well working from today's usage so far. SAK Rambler and SAK Pruner.

File nick in nail that was catching on stuff. Open up staples on something. Cut open packet of salami. Slice salami, carrots & pickles for lunch. Scissors to cut nail caught in the peeler when peeling said carrots. Open packaging for new server in the office to check all the parts are there. That's so far at 3pm.

Could I get by with just the SAK Rambler for day to day usage? Kind of but I do like having a food knife on person rather than having to hope there's a good (and clean!) one on site. The blade and handle is also rather thin/short for cutting through thick cardboard or that lethal molded plastic wrapping on new electronic items.
 
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I had a Buck multi tool I carried for a few months and was surprised how often the small pliers came in handy but a Buck 112 Ecolite works well for everyday tasks that most folks have mentioned here. Just once way back in the early 70's I used a knife for self defense but because of that I got into the habit of ALWAYS having msn's most basic tool with me..
 
Whatever comes up. I’ve got a paramilitary2 in my pocket every day. Today I opened some mail, opened a box of 168 grain Barnes TTSX to reload for my ‘06 and cut open a piece of chicken on the bbq. Yesterday I opened the box of a new poison spyder bumper for the Jeep and a box of Hornady brass to reload for my 308 marlin express. The day before that I used it to gut a moose. Not cause I didn’t have a custom hunting knife in my pack, I just felt like using my PM2.
 
I use either my Praetorian or my xm-18 fatty to open mcc buckets adjust potentiometers or other tasks that require a thick blade where I work
 
Opening mails and boxes, cutting up some cardboard and styrofoam boxes, splitting some lunch items, and making nicks on plasticware.

The only time I really need to use my beloved folding knife is when cutting styrofoam.
Somehow traditional knives work a lot better than a box cutter for it.
 
Plastic wrap, plastic bands and the sides out of heavy Cargill beef boxes. I hate moving 20 boxes at 80 lbs each just to get a short loin.
 
poking_stick said:
Carbon or stainless for that apple?
Click to expand...

I have a stainless #8 in my lunch bag, and I use it every day at work. Since until last week we did not have a sink in our lunch room, I couldn't easily rinse fruit juice off my knife, so stainless was in order. I eat more fruit than most people do (multiple pieces each day at lunch) and this #8 has cut a mountain of fruit.
 
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