What do you use your serrated (folding) knife for?

stevejams

stevejams

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Good early morning everyone. I’m in the early stages of my longass commute to work and realized I’m not going to catch any shuteye so naturally, I started thinking about knives. About two weeks ago, my better half gifted me two wonderful knives for my birthday. One, the spyderco Kapara, which I have been using, carrying, and loving, and the other a dragonfly salt with a fully serrated blade, which has currently remained untouched. Apparently, my girly intended to purchase the plain edge version, but ended up with the serrated version. Now this was a very thoughtful gift and unique knife to join my edc armada, but it’s also the first fully serrated blade I’ve ever owned. I’ve only owned a few combo edge blades, which I have since sold, and now anything I carry has a fully plain edge blade. The point I’m getting at, is where can I put this bad boy to use where it can out perform (or at least be a more convenient option) than my many other knives? I would assume cutting rope, which I don’t do much of, but just curious on everyone’s experiences/opinions with using serrated blades. As a little background reference, I am an electrician working in both residential and commercial construction. My usual go to knives are a pm2/bugout for lighter duty work, and a socom/crooked river for heavy duty work…not a serration to be found on any.
Thanks in advance, happy Friday-eve!
 
My only experience with carrying and using a full serated blade. Was on my Leatherman Wave. I used it to cut the knarly stuff and preserve the edge on the other blade.

So if I were you I’d try carrying it as a second knife and see how handy it is.
 
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Hawkbill or sheepfoot SE for gardening. And any kind of fibrous material, natural or man made. But it works on cardboard, paper, for food prep, most things you can think of as long it is sharp and is not a hawkbill.
 
I prefer an un-serrated edge in general. Blades wikth a partially serrated edge are lowest on my list of preferences.

However, my EDC is a Leatherman Wave which does have a serrated blade. Often this is used to open boxes from Amazon.

Once, I used it to cut my steak at a picnic.
 
They are quite good at sawing off tough, yet soft, materials quickly. Rubber and fiberglass liners (so many applications) are a pain in construction, they were off plain blade fast, metal saw has too much friction and wood saw is too thick, wasting a lot of energy. It is perfect for serrated blade. It also does quick job on some plastic, acrylic and PVC panels.
Look at it as a back up tool than a main tool though.
 
Carrying a fully serrated edge made me step back from the "perfect edge" mentality. By that, over the last 30ish years, like many other here, I chased the dragon of a plain edge so keen and honed that it cut better than a serrated edge. Properly done and maintained, this is absolutely doable.

However, sometimes a knife that is "sharp enough" and doesn't ever get so dull that it can always be pushed into use isn't a bad thing.

There are a lot of days where I carry two fully serrated knives. A Spyderco Civilian and a Spyderco Monarch. I bought the Civilian first and really grew to love the design but didn't want to bugger up a a knife that is clearly designed to be a self defense folder. I purchased the Monarch to be a work knife because I really like the blade shape and it sports a less fragile tip and lower price tag compared to the Civilian.

In short, I keep the Civilian pristine and nearly untouched so that it is at the ready for it's designed use. I use the Monarch like a steak knife. I cut, I tear, it gets gummed up with tape, etc. I clean off the gunk and strop it on a loaded piece of leather to keep it going.
 
I think you should carry and use the Salt, same as you would any other knife.

What annoys me about partially serrated blades is that the teeth "feel different" when they engage a cut, so I want to keep either the plain edge, or the serrated portion, doing all the work.

With a full tooth blade, you don't have that. Moreover, as Steely Gunz mentioned, teeth will keep cutting longer than a plain edge.

If you're cutting something really thin, I bet with a little practice you can "hook" on one of the serrations and use it kind of like a guthook. Ziiip!

Try it, some time. I want to believe that it will be different, but just as satisfactory. Like a new air freshener in the car, it's a small but nice, change of pace.

Oh, and don't think too hard about sharpening serrations. Just do them like any other blade, and it works the same.

Edit: if your sharpening skills are comparable to a low-speed automobile collision, serrations are easier to sharpen to an acceptable standard.
 
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Baling twine, feed sacks, salt sacks, zip ties, cardboard, tarps, weeds, matts in dog hair, ...

But not hard rubber garden hoses.

Cutting baling twine on perennial peanut hay:
Caribbean Salt in Peanut Hay.jpg


Banana stalk:
Spyderco Salt 2 Wharncliffe Serrated Bananas .jpg

Normally I would open these boxes by pushing a thumbnail into the perforations, but sometimes the cardboard get softs and just bends rather than tears. If you accidentally push the point of a knife or even the blade of a screwdriver through the cardboard, it will easily penetrate the soda cans and make a big mess. Even a boxcutter can cut the cans. So the best thing to use is an extremely sharp knife that you can use to just barely penetrate the cardboard, or possibly to just score the cardboard to make it easier to tear. The box corners are tricky, and that's where a very sharp serrated blade can be used to saw very lightly.
Spyderco Salt 2 Wharncliffe Serrated Sodas.jpg
 
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I sometimes carry both. The serrated edge is hell of good for rope like stuff.
Y6OGVtl.jpg
 
I'm not a fan of serrated knives, although there's a little serrated Z-Cut Spyderco in the kitchen drawer that does an amazing job shearing through veggies and the like. I believe Spyderco equipped a mountaineering expedition. I think Mt. Logan in the Yukon, with serrated folders. One of the climbers commented they didn't have to sharpen them during the two or three week expedition.
 
Another Shepherd said:
Baling twine, feed sacks, salt sacks, zip ties, cardboard, tarps, weeds, matts in dog hair, ...

But not hard rubber garden hoses.

View attachment 2392864
Click to expand...
Got one of those in my pocket today! 😉

I like having the option of a serrated edge in my collection and the Caribbean Salt is a great one. That said, pretty much every other knife I own is plain edge because, while I 100% agree with the other posters in this thread about the utility of SE, I don't encounter those tasks regularly enough that I need more than one or two knives to address them.
 
Good input fellas, thank you. Ive occasionally used the serrated blade on my leather man sidekick at work cutting twine and recently used the serrated side of my double edge exocet to break down some cardboard and was surprised at how easily it blasted through it. Again, this is my first fully serrated blade, and I have a general idea as to what tasks would be better (or worse) for said blade, but just curious about every day tasks that a serrated would excel at over a straight. Also, unfortunately at this point, I can barely sharpen a straight edge (god damn do I need to just sit down and learn some sharpening skills) so I definitely wouldn’t be able to sharpen a serrated, and to my knowledge, spyderco does not offer sharpening on serrations
 
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