Knives..what are your favorites?

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Spyderco Spydiechef vs apple bird

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Anyone know anything about these?  https://www.whiteknucklerbrand.com/the-classics/chestnut-blackout-convertible-ii.html

May I ask what is your intended use of these knives?

(No offense. But, to me, that knife is nothing more than a man jewellery, which screams "LOOK AT ME, I'M A HIPSTER WHO WANTS TO LOOK  / ACT LIKE AN OLD SCHOOL BIKER !".)



Made out of 440C, no mentioning about the hardness and grind.

That blade shape (rather extreme trailing-point) is pretty much useless other than skinning small game (such as rabbits, squirrels, etc). Are you a hunter? If you are looking for a hunting knife (for field dressing small game), there are a lot better options out there.

If you are thinking to use it as utility knife, forget it. That blade shape pretty much sucks for doing anything other than skinning duty.
The point is almost useless because of the shape. it's so frail. You can't use that point for stubbing, sticking, spearing anything. And, because of that, the hardness of the blade wouldn't be so high. (Which is not a bad thing, it's just that it requires resharpening more often.)

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Spyderco Military (in Rex45 steel) showing off !
Cuts free hanging hair and murders bloody strawberry!

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Whittling free hanging hair


Killing strawberry




One of the coolest production knives out there ...

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Mini Tip :  Knife lubricant / oil

Here’s the quick tip for the fellow DMF knife enthusiast.

The first things first.
It is more important to know “what kind of lube you DON’T want to put on your knife”, than trying to find “what is the best lube for the folders” by searching on the internet.

For example, (as you can tell by the videos) I use my folders for the food (mostly fruits, some veggies) quite often.
So, no gun lube for my knives. (NOT saying they are bad lube for the knives. They CAN BE excellent lube for some, BUT it’s not the right choice FOR MY USE of the knives. You don’t want to ingest that kinda stuff.

Avoid anything that says TEFLON or PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene), if you use your knife for foods.
PTFE / teflon might be the king of the slippery dry substances, but it should NEVER be ingested.

Examples to avoid(if you use your knives for food)

Remington Rem Oil




https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1601496041/remington-rem-oil-gun-oil-aerosol

You may have this thing laying around, and be tempted to use it on the pivot of your folders.
It is actually perfectly OK, IF YOU DON’T EVER USE YOUR KNIFE FOR FOOD PREP.
But, stay away if you think you are going to cut an apple or orange with your knife some day.

Chris Reeve Knives Fluorinated grease



https://chrisreeve.com/products/crk-fluorinated-grease

If you buy folding knives from Chris Reeves, this nice grease comes with the knives.
Again, this is an excellent for pivot lube, but, unfortunately it also contains PTFE.
So, if you own Sebenza, think again before putting the blade on the food.
(That said, it is GREASE, not thin oil. It won’t run down on the blade in normal circumstance. )

How about petroleum distillates?
No, you don’t want to swallow that thing either.
Most everyone probably has WD-40, 3-in-1, etc laying around somewhere in the house, but they are not food safe.


Then, what about the food grade mineral oil, olive oil, or coconut oil ?
Well, I guess you don’t want to put those on the pivot, as they attract dust (even worse than WD-40).
They can be used on the blade, to prevent corrosion.
But we will talk about it later.

Okay, next.
Another big No-No on the knife pivot,



Tuf-Glide.

Yes, yes, I know, this stuff gets highly regarded on some places in the world of internet / Youtube.

For example,here. ( If you do the google search “best knife lube”, this links comes up at the top.)
https://authorizedboots.com/2016/07/best-folding-knife-lubricant/

Despite the fact that Tuf-Glide gets 5-star in the website above, this is NOT something you want to put on your folder’s pivot.
Tuf-Glide is NOT lubricant, it is a glorified silicon-based anti-corrosive BONDING AGENT!
Not only this product will “glue” your knife’s pivot, it will destroy phosphorous washers in there permanently, you will NEVER get the nice, smooth action you had before putting this stuff on.

You know, the (sad) truth is, quite a bit of those internet writers / gear reviewers don’t actually have real world experience with the products they write about.
They just search on the net, find something written by someone else, and just repeating it.
(That’s why Youtube knife community is a full of BS.
The guys who don’t even know how to sharpen the knives talking about the edge retention and “what steel is the best”.
Guys who’s only experience with knives is flipping them open / close while sitting on the couch and watching Youtube video, are talking about “using the knife in tactical / defensive situation”, “hard use knife”.

You got to love those internet heroes.)



Err, okay, let’s get back to the subject. Where were we?

Oh, Tuf-Glue ...

Tuf-Glide “myth” was born from the internet talk by some of these guys.
Don’t put that thing on your knives.





So, what do I put on my knives?

For my folder’s pivot,  I ...



... don’t put anything, actually.



No, I don’t put oil / grease on my folder’s pivot.

Because I use my knives in the real world, no in the fantasy world of Youtube, I  wash the entire knives (including the inside of the handle, pivot, everything. You don’t want food debris getting stuck in there), then wipe the blade dry, use compressed air whenever possible to blow out water from the pivot area / inside of the handle.

Regular wash, keeping it dry & clean is all I need.
(Look at the Spyderco Military & Spydiechef video I posted a little while ago, and see how the blade deploys.
I have never put any special lube on them, I have never tweaked the tension (tightening torque) of the pivot screws on them.)

Modern day folders with phosphor bronze pivot washers (or teflon, nylon, washers) don’t really need any lube/oil.

If you don’t put any oil / grease in there, the pivot area stays a lot cleaner, than having too much oil in there (unfortunately, a lot of people overdo when oiling).
Dry, clean pivot is way better than the pivot covered with oil & dust.

+++++++++++++++++

What about the oil to put on the non-stainless steel blades, to protect them from corrosion?

Well, for the knives that you use on food, you don’t want any gun lube, motor oil, etc. That’s obvious.
Avoid anything with PTFE (teflon).

Food grade mineral oil works (sort of).

Olive oil can be used when you are out in the field. (or, even when you are at home, in a pinch.)
Just, keep in mind that it goes rancid rather quickly.

Coconut oil can be used, too. It hardens below 76°F. You may like it better than olive oil.



Personally, i would use lip balm if I were in that kind of situation. (I’m out in the field, on the road, at someone’ place, etc.)


https://www.burtsbees.com/product/beeswax-lip-balm/VM-11099-00-1.html

You can carry lip balm and some alcohol prep pads in your pocket easily. They don’t add that much bulk /weight.
If it’s not possible to thoroughly wash the knife right after using it, wipe the blade with alcohol prep pads, then, apply thin coat of lip balm.

Lip balm is great, because,

It is small & weigh nothing.

It is food safe.

It is far less messy to use on the blade, than something like olive oil (It won’t be running down all over the place.)

It can be used on the knife’s pivot.

You can make emergency candle out of it.

It can be used on minor cuts and scrapes, to stop bleeding,

Its cap can be used to turn a flash light into a makeshift lantern.
(by putting the cap of lip balm over the front of AAA battery size flashlight, as a light difuser. It will make nicely spread out, soft light, especially with Burs’ bees orangish yellow color.)






Now, there’s a knife specific oil called CITADEL BLACK KNIFE OIL.



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1JGZ3W

It’s getting pretty good review, but take a look at what I have been using before placing an order.



Japanese Tsubaki (Camellia) oil.
https://www.amazon.com/KUROBARA-Tsubaki-Japanese-Maintenance-Camellia/dp/B00362HBPQ




That’s what  I’ve been using on my non-stainless steel blades for all these years.

The black thing in the photo is an applicator. While it is not necessary, it is a pretty handy tool to have.



https://www.amazon.com/Sakai-Takayuki-applicator-Maintenance-Aburatsubo/dp/B00U3PLGWI/

I usually buy stuff like these from here. (They are local, to me.)
http://www.hidatool.com/miscellaneous/camellia-oil-and-tool-maintenance

Now, compare CITADEL BLACK knife oil to Kurobara brand Tsubaki oil.

CITADEL BLACK knife oil is $13.97 for 50 ml (1.69 fl oz.), and it’s a mixture of white mineral oil and camellia oil.
Japanese Tsubaki oil is $8.99 for100 ml (3.38 fl oz.), and it’s 100% pure camellia oil.

CITADEL BLACK’s product description says “The perfect blend of White Mineral oil and cold-pressed Camellia seed oil also known as Tsubaki Oil”, but doesn’t tell you the ratio. And, mixing mineral oil (with camellia oil) has no effect on the function of the oil, but greatly reduces the production cost. (You have no idea how many % of CITADEL BLACK  oil is camellia oil and how many % is just a plane mineral oil.)

If you want  to pay extra $ for fancy packaging and advertisement, go ahead, jump to Amazon link and order it.

It’s not a bad product. It’s just massively over priced product.
And, they send free sample to famous Youtube knife reviewer, and they put out a product review video like this.

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Well, I forgot to write about the candles and zippo in the photo.

Sometimes, you'd see the knives (like, old slip-joint knives) that aren't really happy with "dry" pivot.
In that case, I light a candle and put a drop or two of the melted wax in the pivot. It doesn't collect all of the lint, dust and grit like oil does.

Like I said in the post above, today's folding knives don't need any lube on the pivot.

It amazes me how people fall into the snake oil trap so easily.

Some people (couch potato knife flippers) believe drop shut is the sign of "high quality" knife, so they try to make their knife's blade to drop like a guillotine, by loosening the pivot, then by putting tons of snake oil in there, not realizing that the folder's action is heavily dependent on many other factors, such as lock-bar tension, detent along the blade, etc, etc.

Buttoning and drop shut, tip-up carry are the worst three biggest BS on Youtube knife community.

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Blast from the past.
Spyderco C05 from 1985 or so, I can’t remember exact year ...




“Seki-Japan”, because back then, Spyderco had no knife manufacturing facility in Golden, Colorado.
Al-Mar introduced Sal to knife making companies in Seki city, Japan.



Clip is part of the handle scale. This was originally called “standard”.
When current style screw-on type clip came out, it was changed to “economy”.
In case anyone interested in Patent # on the clip, here’s the link.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US4347665?oq=patent+#+4347665

You can see handle scale is all scratched and has some stain spots.
Because I didn’t like this pocket clip, I mostly carried this inside that pocket.



All stainless steel construction is too heavy for my preference now, but aesthetically speaking, this knife is better looking than a lot of current Spyderco models.




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Chris Reeve knives "Sikayo"





The only kitchen knife currently on the market that are made of S35VN.

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Sharpening knife on Ducati Corse coffe mug (and edge test)



So, I just made up this video.


Knife sharpening can, and should be, fun.


Sharpening (touching up) on the bottom of the coffee mug, ceramic plate,etc, itself is nothing new, and it’s been shown on the web so many times.
The sharpening sequence is uncut, unedited. So that you can see how much time it actually takes to bring the sharp enough working edge back on.
No music to cover up the nice sound of knife edge sliding back and forth on the coffee mug.

Enjoy the madness of the sharp edge obsession.

[Privateer]

I don't remember if I posted this already and I didn't feel like looking through ~45 pages of posts to check:

but, my edc since like 1992:

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That's the 1st generation Endura (I had one, too), around $40 back then.
Pointy tip, integrated clip, no liner ... I kinda like 1st gen more than current version (4th gen.)



Now, something totally different, kitchen knife.




270mm Yanagiba (sashimi slicer), Hitachi Blue #2 steel, made by Shinichi Watanabe, in 2005

This is a work horse, pretty mirror finish is not for the looks ...





... it's all about cutting performance.



Forget the (ridiculously expensive and unnecessarily complicated )Edge Pro and Lansky sharpening system.

Knife sharpening is, 99% skill, 1% equipment.

If you are relying on jig-system sharpener, you are limiting your own possibility.
(In fact, you are not going to learn anything, you are not going to develop any skill.
It's like putting training wheels on your motorcycle.
Also, clamp type jig-system doesn't work on certain type of blade.)

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Blade HQ exclusive Spyderco Military in M4 steel !




Splits free hanging hair into half!



Kill’em all! (by Pike Bishop)



Guess what I ended up buying with that M4 Military ...



Cheep (was $20 on sale), big (full 4-inch blade), and big fun (wave),
Kershaw / Emerson CQC-4KXL.

[triangleforge]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge - I've learned a bunch by catching up on this thread!   

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Glad you find something useful!.

so ...

What it’s like to have inexpensive steel on inexpenisive knife, from the major manufactuer?




This is Kershaw/Emerson CQC-4KXL, that I purchased from Blade HQ when it was on sale, at $19.95.


The balde of this knife is made out of
8Cr14Mov(there’s also 8Cr13MoV, but I guess nobody really pays attention)
which is supposed to be Chinese version of AUS-8. (Which is supposed to be similar to 440B.)
It really doesn’t matter, because I don’t remember what it’s like to sharpen / use 440series steel knives , don’t even remember how AUS-8 blades performed.

Anyhow ...

Right out of the box, the knife was pretty dull
(by my standard. Anything less than hair popping is dull, for me. You may have different “sharpness standard”, and that’s perfectly understandable.)

So, I sharpened it, like 20 - 25 min. on (my usual) ceramic stones.

I stopped it when I got the edge sharp enough to catch the hair.

It can be sharpened fairly easily.
And the level of the sharpness you can get from this blade is more than enough in the real world use.

I wouldn’t bother spending more time to get even sharper edge out of this knife.
It’s just not worth it.
In the end, this is a $20 knife. (That’s how I feel about it. And that's how much I paid.)
There’s no way I’d pay full retail price for this knife.
Not even $35.
(Then, I would add $5 more, and get RAT 1, which is a whole lot better knife.)

Really can’t tell about the steel itself.
Unless I buy a few more knives that are something similar (meaning, either 8Cr14Mov or 8Cr13Mov, but from different companies, other than Kershaw/KAI.)

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Regarding inexpensive steels ...


Online knife / Steel reviews,
How to spot fake reviews

https://besurvival.com/tips-and-tricks/7cr17mov-steel-in-budget-survival-knives-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-care

The link above is telling you about the inexpensive knife steel, 7Cr17MoV.

So, can you believe what this guy says?
Is $20 knife really be able to perform like $200 knife?

Well, unfortunately, this is an example I would call "the fake".

First, the writer (which we don't know who he/she is) says (about steel composition)
"according to Wikkipedia ..."
which is a clear indication of this writer did not do the proper research.
There's no Vanadium contained in 7Cr17Mov.

The way this writer writes, it is clear that he just did the quick online search and wrote this article up.
He probably doesn't know that much about the steels and knives in general.
You can clearly see the shallowness of his knowledge / experience when he talks about "Hardness".
How can he say things like "56-63Rc is considered ideal for most knives." ?
Doesn't he know that Rockwell hardness is NOT linear?
(Also, it's NOT Rc, it is HRc.) From HRc56 to HRc63 is a HUGE jump.
This is like saying "Good motorcycle engine displacement for the city commuting is from 50cc to 1800cc".
The writer who doesn't even know about the Rockwell Hardness writing about the knives and steels ?
...

Anyhow, ...
I am not bashing the inexpensive knives / steels / any knife manufacturer .
And I am not attacking anyone personally.

And, I am not a "steel snob".