I am NOT a knife snob so to speak. I don't own super high end blades that cost several hundreds of dollars, not that I don't understand the draw, as I do.

That said I have always had "good" knives. Spyderco, Benchmade, higher end Kershaw, ZT, Victorionox etc. and I like good knives and appreciate them. That said we all like a little trailer trash now and then so I give you my garage knife and its story. I was sharpening this little beauty tonight.

Here she is in all her 1045 surgical steel glory.


Now my dad knows I have carried a knife on me since I was about seven years old. He also knows I tend to take pride in my knives.

So both my parents and my family moved together about 3 years ago. About a month after the move my dad comes over and says, I found one of your knives that you must of left at our house. So I am thinking, I don't think I am missing one but with all the moving and unpacking and cutting etc. could be I am missing one. He proceeds to hand me that little beauty above. I proceed to look at him like he has had a stroke and ask WTF is this??? He says totally seriously, I guess its one of your knives you left here. I shake my head and say do you REALLY think I would own a gas station, skull knife???? I chuckles and says I dunno. I figure it was one of the movers or construction guys knives that got lost.

So anyway my little trailer trash knife has lived in my garage for like three years now and to be honest gets used quite a bit. Its got shitty steel, shitty, lockup, shitty centering, a shitty finish and an awesome 70s van bit of artwork on it and damn if it hasn't become sort of endeared to me. Yeah it sucks and yeah doesn't hold an edge for more then 12 minutes but its a great beater knife for the garage and has a little story to it and like I said.......we have all loved us some trailer trash at some time or another.

So what trailer trash mistresses do you keep secret?

Take care, Shoot Safe
Chris

I have one of those skeletonized Spyderco knives with a spider web cut out of the blade.

Collectors kind of like them, but they aren't very good knives.

Husky folding utility knife. Reach for it all the time in the shop, and grin a little bit when it snicks open every time.

I have a super-crappy chinese knockoff of a Cold Steel Voyager my little nephews gave me for Christmas about 15 years ago. It lives in the door pocket of my truck to hack stuff in pieces when necessary.

I have a couple of cheepies that were given to me as freebies or swag here and there. They live in a drawer, because I don't trust the sketchy liner-locks to not close on my hand, and I'm afraid to use them. I should probably just get rid of them...

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I have a couple of cheepies that were given to me as freebies or swag here and there. They live in a drawer, because I don't trust the sketchy liner-locks to not close on my hand, and I'm afraid to use them. I should probably just get rid of them...

Several years ago had a back lock fail on a cheap knife, China Spyderco. I was just getting good at sharpening, blade was fairly sharp. Deep cut into my thumb tip, cut through the nail, lots of blood on the machine I was repairing! As a repair tech I was miserable for a week or so wearing one of those bumper guard things on my thumb. Shortly after that bought a Emerson CQC7A.

While they're not "crappy", I use and abuse the hell out of my various Mora fixed blade knives. I have them stashed all throughout my tools, my cars, my camping gear, etc. They're by far the best of the inexpensive knives out there. But considering they're less than $20 each, I don't feel bad about treating them roughly and beating them up.

Personally, I would never trust the liner lock on a cheap off-brand folding knife. I'm kind of attached to my fingers, and want to keep it that way.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
I have one of those skeletonized Spyderco knives with a spider web cut out of the blade.

Collectors kind of like them, but they aren't very good knives.

The Spyderco Q. I had one of those stolen out of my car and am still pissed off about it.

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I have a couple of cheepies that were given to me as freebies or swag here and there. They live in a drawer, because I don't trust the sketchy liner-locks to not close on my hand, and I'm afraid to use them. I should probably just get rid of them...

Several years ago had a back lock fail on a cheap knife, China Spyderco. I was just getting good at sharpening, blade was fairly sharp. Deep cut into my thumb tip, cut through the nail, lots of blood on the machine I was repairing! As a repair tech I was miserable for a week or so wearing one of those bumper guard things on my thumb. Shortly after that bought a Emerson CQC7A.

I just did the exact same thing to my thumb on Christmas except with an actual Spyderco (Police). Miserable is right. I have to load/unload my duty firearms at the beginning and end of shift. My thumb would scream if put any kind of pressure on it. Basically one handed for a week or so until it started healing properly.

Lock didn’t fail though, just bad judgment on my part. Was cutting a zip tie.


Cslinger that knife looks like exhibit A from a bar fight gone sideways.

Traveling for work has caused me to lose more than one expensive knife to TSA, so several years ago I started looking for a cheaper alternative to the Spydercos and Benchmades I was carrying, and found this K2 line by KaBar. At the time they were like 20 bucks on Amazon and turned out to be a solid little knife.

Then I was at Blade Show on the last day and swung by the KaBar booth and asked if they had any good deals. The girl pulled out a cardboard box of these and said she was selling them for 5 bucks each. I had a $100 on me and she just gave me everything in the box which was 30 something knives. I’ve given a bunch away and lost a few more to TSA but I’ve still got a few left.