What I learned about knives in 40+ years on the job as a mechanic.

[T. Erdelyi]

I've worked it the trades for 40+ years, everything from automotive to industrial maintenance and all the building trades in between. The knives I used in 40 years the most for work in the order I owned them, why I liked them and why I eventually replaced them. Now I carried an average of no less than four sometimes upwards of a dozen blades at times. Mostly because my job allowed me to and no one looked at me sideways and partly because some of my knives were task specific. Here we go...

My first work knife was a Schrade LB8, mostly because everyone back in the 70s had a Buck 110 a similar and more popular knife and I had to be different.

This knife was used to cut and strip wire, scrape off gaskets and trim gaskets, cut up oakum for pouring lead joints on cast iron drain pipes. Trimming PVC pipe and cutting tie wraps and plastic banding. Most of the work if not scraping and trimming was spent stripping lots of wire.

The clip point blade was great for picking out o-rings and doing the fine cutting needed to make your own gaskets. The belly or curve of the LB8 was great for trimming, scraping and push cutting through cardboard. It's adequate in a pinch for stripping wires and it seemed that I used it a lot for that early on (now I'm smart and have wire strippers). You'd take the wire and lay it on your thumb and roll the blade over the wire taking care not to cut the wire or the pad of your thumb , bigger wire you would bend in half and as the insulation stretched you'd make light slices across insulation till you hit the wire then you flip it over and do the same to the other side till you can pull off the insulation (this works really well with SJ cord)

The lockback was a feature that was a must have for a work knife that I later learned was totally unnecessary which led to the reason I carried more than one knife. Nonetheless it was the norm in the trades at the time and it made sense to have a locking blade for strength. Logic came into play and that's why I started carrying a fixed blade too.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Come into the 80s and I was doing maintenance in the food industry for a company that made frozen institutional foods like the kind they used to serve at prisons, nursing homes and some schools (we did have a higher quality brand that was really quite good and we sold that to the hospitals and some of the bigger restaurant chains back then. Here I found myself in a situation that was hindered by having a pointy knife with a delicate needle like tip bur I still needed a little belly for scraping and wire stripping so having carried the Schrade for 8 years or so I bought another one, why not the last one served me well so I bought an Old Timer 51OT, another lockback but a drop point flat ground blade that was so strong I used to cut steel banding with it regularly. Now it did all the same jobs the other one did but had the added advantage of one hand opening by doing a pinch drop. The heavy handle lent itself very nicely to one hand opening where your only option back then was an auto or a tactical knife which was something new and like a good auto, very expensive. My average price for a knife back then $20, the $30 I spent on the 51OT was a big jump, I couldn't afford $100+ for a work knife back then.

So throuhg the 80s I carried the 51OT and later paired it with an Old Timer Trapper slid into the same sheath after a good soaking and stretching to accommodate the extra knife. At this point I carried the 2 Uncle Henrys the 51 for all my heavy cutting and the Trapper for the more delicate work and wire stripping. Now about this time I ventured into the tactical market and made my first buy which was really a step back but because of the materials, design and cool factor of the knife I spent my first $80 on a knife for work. I bought a Buck 186 Titanium folder which was just an update to the 110 except it had take apart titanium scales and a detachable belt clip making it the coolest knife of the year. Unfortunately they discontinued the model because too many people took them apart and couldn't reassemble them. Buck removed the screws and replaced them with rivets.

I used this knife for about 10 years on and off till I found out how much they were worth and retired mine, At the time though I carried the 186 and a new knife some guy selling knife sharpeners at the first ECCKS, it was an ugly little knife with a hump that had a hole and a wimpy belt clip. I bought a Sharpmaker of him and this ugly knife he was hawking, IIRC it was called the Worker and the guys name was Sal Gleason, no Glesser that was it, (I wonder what ever became of him and his funny lookin' knife with the hole in the hump? )

 

[T. Erdelyi]

I used both those knives and a new twist on an old design, Pliers Knives, so I bought an original and a mini Leatherman that first year which set a precedent for what my EDC consisted of for the foreseeable future and till this day.

As tactical knives became more popular and Spyderco became more accepted with the "Thumb Hole" opening mechanism I bought more, First was the first collaboration knife for Spyderco ever and with Bob Terzuola to boot, one of the fathers of the tactical knife, it was the C15 and it was perfect, I also became a fan of the Sheepsfoot blade at that time. It's the perfect compromise, strong tip, a little belly and a tip made for scraping and cutting gaskets. I also exposed me to combo blade with serrations which became useful for the tough dirty work.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

So now I'm entering the late 90s and I'm carrying a custom Bud Nealy Aikuchi which is the longest continuously carried knife I own.

The Spyderco got replaced with with a Benchmade 730 Ares with the Axis Lock which brought me back to the basics for my knife needs, one hand opening, pocket clip, strong lock and a good utility blade shape that was not so task specific.

Fast forward to today, I'm semiretired disabled so my needs are different but I still occasionally have the same needs of my edc knife that I had 20 years ago, one thing I did learn is that any knife can be used as a knife in maintenance. It doesn't have to be a sharpened prybar with a pocket clip it can be a traditional Medium Stockman and do most any job you need, almost.

So my recommendation is a sturdy fixed blade, almost anything from Becker or Esee will fit the bill dependent on what you ask it to do, and a good one hand folder like a Rat 1 or 2 folder a brand name multitool, Leatherman is my favorite but any quality multi tool will do just remember you'll be asking a lot of your multi tool so buy the best you can afford. Finally every mechanic should carry a Traditional Slipjoint just to remember where we came from and as a non confrontational alternative around non knife people

If I had to own one work knife this would still be the Aikuchi, this coupled with a Leatherman Supertool which after trying them all is the most dependable and safest of the Leathermans and the one I use till this day, a Small Sebenza 21 because I can and I believe it is the epitome of the cutlers art married to modern production techniques.

So today I carry a Sebenza, an Alox Victorinox Farmer, the Nealy Aikuchi, the most recent 2015 Traditional Forum's a Canal Street Cutlery Serpentine Jack plus the Supertool.

 

[Urban redneck]

Awesome story! Like to see a Spyderco Worker live up to its name :thumbup:

 

[T. Erdelyi]

I still have all these knives except the LB8. I might have to pick up a Taylor brand one just for the memories it'll take some time and luck to find the real deal but half the fun is the search right.

 

[JackstrawIII]

Great thread, thanks so much for sharing!!

 

[Insipid Moniker]

One of the better posts I've read on here. Thanks for the breakdown of what, when and why.

 

[mogmz]

Great post to read in the morning, love the picture story that unfolds through the years. Made me think of the knives I've owned and how my tastes have changed in some ways and remained the same in others. I imagine it's like that for most users/collectors.

 

[Hackenslash]

Great post, thanks for sharing your knife journey!

 

[ConBon]

Very good summary amd history, quite a good and well based idealogy on working knives.

Connor

 

[palonej]

Awesome!!

 

[Ccc]

That is some cutlery history! Thanks for sharing.

 

[BluegrassBrian]

Very cool. Fun, quick read and good pics.

 

[knifewhore]

Great post, I enjoyed reading it as well.

 

[Rupestris]

Thanks Ted :thumbup:

 

[slg98]

Ted I've been sitting here in this recovery phase and going thru the different forums reading threads to try and keep myself occupied. This is probably one of the most interesting and best written threads I've seen on Bladeforums in quite some time.
Thank you

..

 

[Charlie Mike]

Mad Hungarian

Great chronology post. I need to do one.

 

[eon blue apocalypse]

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

Any chance you would post more photos of that Buck 186? I'd love to see it opened up, both sides if you have the chance. I had never seen one before.

 

[Topcatpt]

Great thread brother best I have read and enjoyed in awhile.