Buyer's Remorse.

Discussion in 'Member Casual Chat' started by SiNNiK, Mar 4, 2023.

  1. SiNNiK

    SiNNiK Well-Known Member

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    Keeping up with my knives is not that hard for me, I still have my very first knife, I got it 44 years ago.

    But you probably collect something else anyway.
     
  2. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    I’ve lost a couple knives that had pocket clips that I was stupid enough to use. One of the main uses for a knife is cutting net wrap off round bales of hay. Net wrap is like fine fish net—it grabs anything—shirt buttons, the wiper blades on the skid steer, and pocket knife clips on the outside of your jeans pocket. Once the net wrap gets ahold of something it’s a battle to make it let go. When removed from the bale it’s essentially an 18 foot long 5 ft wide octopus that grabs whatever it can while you are gathering it up. Sometimes you are unaware it has attached itself to something (like a knife pocket clip) until much later. The knife is either disposed of with the net wrap or lost in the snow and mud where the net wrap eventually decided to let go.

    I’ve lost a couple knives repairing/replacing prolapsed bovine uteruses. Like any surgeon you need your instruments set out for easy access before starting the procedure. Your pocket knife is one instrument you will need to cut the umbilical tape used for suture when the uterus is back in place and to remove excess suture when all is completed. You can’t be putting it in your pocket and back out because you are gloved and sleeved up. When your knife is used for cutting the last bit of suture it’s covered in blood, gore, cow crap, urine and mud just like you and all the other instruments you’ve used. So you gather them all up and throw them in the back of the pickup or front rack of the ATV to take home and clean up before putting away. If you end up chasing a cow or calf on the way home the knife may levitate out of the rack and disappear when you hit that frozen cow pie (speed bump) at 30 mph.

    Then there are the more mundane cases where the wife borrows it for a minute to cut twine off a donkey’s hoof that got wrapped up somehow while she was feeding a square bale (animals love to “help” you feed them) and she tells you later which fence post she left it on when finished. When you get there later the knife isn’t. More often though it’s just me setting it on the bumper while re-wiring a trailer light connection and failing to pick it up etc. because I’m in a hurry to get that last load of cows hauled before dark.

    I’ve learned to NOT use a knife I have emotional attachment to. They stay in the house.

    This is my current pocket knife. Yesterday I reached to the bottom of my pocket to get it (don’t use the clip anymore obviously) and it had chewed a hole in the bottom of my pocket and had crawled halfway through. It ALMOST got away. But I captured it and zipped it in my front chest coverall pocket the rest of the day! Ha!

    1C7CCA74-CCD2-410B-A7C7-F85496E6A689.jpeg

    Obviously it was attempting to escape further misuse and abuse. It lost its tip prying dirt out of a plugged seed tube on the planter and a chunk out of the blade edge when I was hammering it into a sapling with a hammer to cut the tree out of an electric fence. A few hundred more sharpenings and I’ll have that chunk out of the blade all fixed!
     
    Last edited: Mar 10, 2023
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  3. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    Get a few freaking 110s and be done with it. Use the leather case and keep it on your belt. That bale netting will try to get it and when it does you'll know it. HF, man, farming and animal husbandry, Oooof! Badass. If I weren't so lazy I would be fully jealous of your adventures with your job. Or life-work balance more accurately. Cheesy corporate terminology sometimes actually works.

    Have you ever considered or tried some kind of work vest?

    [​IMG]

    My very first project in Houston was programming 5 Allen-Bradley SLC 5/04s for a tankfarm / pipeline application between what was then Basis Refining and a GATX terminal facility on the other side of the Houston ship channel. Met this cool alpha cat that was the project manager for the GATX side of the app. Carlos Muncia I think was his name. Imposing dude, fun to work with. He wore something similar to this piece of kit. I joked with him about him being a Darth Vader wannabe and got a laugh out of him. Later I had a reason to see him in his office, and on a shelf he had a Darth Vader doll. Very cool.

    Back in the 80s in the Army we would get similarly hung up in camo net. When we returned from a field exercise after a week or two we would haul out all the nets and repair sections that had been cut during the exercise. Many months after having done this, possibly as many as 24, I was bitching about getting tied up in the f..rs and Rick laughed at me and condescendingly advised me that I simply had been too stupid to figure it out. Figure what out Rick!? He pulled out a small pocket knife and smiled. Ooof! We're repairing half of these patches because you're too lazy to pick the net off your LBE!? Damn right, he said. Couldn't really argue his point at that point. Getting tied up in those nets was a hassle that a snip in the field versus some sewing back in the motor pool was at least a wash. It's not like we had anything else to do anyway.....
     
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  4. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    The sheath is a good idea. I have occasionally worn a sheathed multi tool but was annoyed by the sheath. I’m already annoyed by a plier holster on my belt. I’ll give your suggestion some thought though. It would help with the net wrap, not so much with my other loss cases.

    The pictured knife is a Buck. I hoped it would hold up better than it did. Are the 110’s pretty durable?

    That’s pretty cool. It would be great in the spring and fall. Probably hot in the summer and would have to go over coveralls in the winter. Room for lots of stuff though. And would fit perfectly with an idea I’ve been toying with lately for carrying a suppressed pistol. I’d like a back holster like you see for sawed off shotguns. A suppressed pistol appendix or side holstered is out of the question—too much hassle and very dangerous for causing a broken hip etc. if you fall hard on it or it gets kicked by a cow or something. I figure on my back it would be out of the way 90% of the time. Food for thought.

    LOL. Yeh that makes sense and probably a good habit to quickly extricate yourself as you would want to be well practiced in quickly getting untangled in a real combat situation.
     
    Last edited: Mar 10, 2023
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  5. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    Interesting. I hadn't even considered those nets in the context of a combat sit. We were in the lone aux battalion stationed stateside for PIIs. For our real combat troops stationed over in W. Germany, combat = WWIII.

    Yes Mon! The 110 is the Buck Knife! As reliable as any less than full tang single blade knife could ever be. Currently $65 at walmart.com. Have you never tried a freaking 110!?

    You could consider a 120 fixed blade model, not sure it's a full tang though.

    Or, actually, wow, the current version of my Mum's 40 some odd year old Christmas present is available on Amazon for $20.21!!!

    https://www.amazon.com/Old-Timer-Sharpfinger-Skinning-Outdoors/dp/B000IE3ZKA?th=1

    Full tang, kinda soft steel though, unlike the 110, this blade would work for the animal surgery you mentioned, but not so well for the fence post and mechanical type stuff.
     
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  6. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    More of my collection. The small fixed blade with the tan leather sheath is a Case, naturally that was $65.

    Then we have the $20 harbor freight knock off of the genuine full-sized Buck fixed blade. So far I'm very impressed with that for a $20 knife.

    Then there is a k-bar skinning knife, the one next to it with the folding enclosed sheath is a genuine Buck fixed blade and then a genuine Swiss army knife. And my homemade slingshot of course


    IMG_20230310_135903_107.jpg
     
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  7. SiNNiK

    SiNNiK Well-Known Member

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    Sounds like you're living the life. I can't say I've not lost a knife, but it's been decades since I have.

    Working on my uncle's farm when I was a kid, I didn't have any knives with clips, for the reasons you stated. I wasn't elbow deep in cow though.
     
  8. SiNNiK

    SiNNiK Well-Known Member

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    I was 11B, 1/48th 3rd Armored in 86/87. We were probably there at the same time.
     
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  9. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  10. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You could get one of these. It'll clip to and fit in your change pocket.

    Kershaw Shuffle/Shuffle 2 (Think one of em has screwdriver bits too).

    32526.jpg
     
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  11. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    A bit would be good. I tried multi tools but just break them. People have recommended better quality ones but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet.

    I’m afraid net wrap would grab a knife clipped to a change pocket as well. Now my knife goes to the bottom of my pocket. Harder to access but at least it’s there!

    I know a couple folks who swear by Kershaw. I lose so many knives I’ve never spent that kind of money. Every knife I’ve used for the last decade was either given to me by a seed company, feed company or other ag related retailer. The exception was the PSA knife I bought for a dollar. LOL

    I kind of like that blade design. I seldom need a long blade anyway.
     
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  12. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Turn the knife so that the clip goes inside your change pocket, and the knife hangs in your main pocket.

    That's what I do when I'm workin on stuff.

    A lot of Kershaws are cheap. I think that one is like $15. Steel is of a decent quality too that won't dull too fast.
     
    Last edited: Mar 10, 2023
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  13. ToddWB

    ToddWB Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    [​IMG] [​IMG] Quality makes the difference.. these tow are of exceptional quality. Don't even mess with a cheap multitool.. darn near guaranteed to cause injury
     
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  14. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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  15. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    CRKT

    Columbia River knife and tool company.....
    Makes some pretty good quality stuff for the money.

    Another brand that has suffered the same fate like Gerber, buck, and many others who evidently sold the label to Walmart because though you get a good knife for the money they are not the same knife they were 20 and 30 years ago
     
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  16. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Schrade is one of em making a comeback.
     
  17. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    I don't know that it's proper to say that they sold the label to Walmart but I do know that those brands they sell in Walmart that should be a lot more money or not the same knife that you can go online or someplace like that and buy a lockback buck knife that cost you $80 versus the $20 Walmart version
     
  18. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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  19. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    The Buck standard 110 at Walmart costs about $65 today, about the same price available through Amazon.
     
  20. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    I noticed a weird trend back in the 90s. Lots of Unix guys seemed to sport a Leatherman multitool. I never figured it out until I had to support a project down on Trini. I decided that that was an excuse for me to finally fork out the cash to get one. Bought a Wave at REI. Down at site I ended up using it twice. We had some Daniels analyzers and I wrote a very small addendum to the spec for them requiring that they be setup for RS485 rather than RS232. Nope, didn't happen. A phone call from site back to Daniel's informed me that I "only" had to re-pin the comm chips. Easy enough, except that the board with the comm chips was all the way back in the explosion proof housing and required about a 16" 5mm flat-tip screwdriver to get the board out. I had the Leatherman Wave and a couple of pretty nice Wiha 5mm flat-tips that I had previously scored at this insanely bad-ass local joint called EPO, Electronics Parts Outlet. It's what Radio Shack dreamed of being after having dropped a hit of acid and smoked a couple of bong hits, maybe. Seriously, some of the kit available at EPO was sick, hopefully still is, haven't been there in years.

    Anyway, after some consideration I went ahead with what was my only option to get these things integrated to the most insane Honeywell HPM serial interface scope-of-work I'd ever encountered before or since. CCC surge and performance controllers, a couple of dozen GE MultiLins, and these analyzers. Popped the spin cap off one of the screwdrivers and sawed a slot in the knob with the Wave's saw blade. Balanced the business end of the other Wiha 5mm in the newly created slot and very patiently released the comm board from the back of the housing. Reset the chips and then, again, tediously reseated the boards. I think there were maybe three of them all together. Mind you, I am completely unskilled as a craftsman and I am a perfectionist. The stress level was high. Hahaha, shoulda skipped the Eng degree and moved onto something else after Pershing, but it is what it is. IMG_E4729.JPG
    IMG_E4730.JPG
     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2023
  21. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    The Swiss I've heard is the only tool that won't rust in a marine environment.
     
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  22. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    Carlos actually unnecessarily invited me to chat with him in his office in the middle of some knarly rainy day testing we were doing. I pushed back. Then conceded. His intent was to have me see that doll. Kinda fun, eh?
     
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  23. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    5160 is a really good steel. I've tested that alongside 1095 though and prefer 1095 because it tends to keep an edge a lot longer than 5160.

    They're both fairly comparable, and the flexibility of 5160 is incredible. Really hard to break them.

    I've got a lot of nostalgia for Bucks. Everyone used to carry one of those.
     
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  24. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They're imitating the Kershaw model where they don't just produce cheap knives, they have 3 ranges from low to high end.

    Most of the really really cheap knives in Walmart use the worst steel you can buy. They're brittle and are dull after using it for a few minutes.

    The difference in price is mostly in the steel used.
     
  25. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    The 110 was required according to my buddy Tommy. The set of these that I bought as surrogate steak knives was a superb decision if I do say so myself. Super tight lock mech and seemingly excellent blade composition. However, I don't keep one on a boat in the Caribbean, so that's one thing I've no experience toward, and I don't depend on a knife much in my daily activities and when I do it's usually the Olfa box-cutter.

    Did you see the bend test they did on the Phalanx Deuce in the zombie tools video?
     

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