DW would get very upset with me, if I took one of the kitchen knives, hung it from my belt and subjected it to abuse.

On the otherhand, I have also threatened to fire on the spot a deckhand for taking one of the knives from the galley out onto a barge to cut a line. However, I have also seen guys deck carrying what most would consider kitchen knives and praised them for it; because they had a knife and it was not from my galley.

As far as not wanting to take things out of the normal function for which they were intended, I understand not wanting to ruin the decent kitchen knives. It's good to have the blades to abuse and the blades to keep nice. I want the nice, clean knives cutting my food.

I could see the same idea with the jacket. If you invested money and time in a jacket for one function, you want it there for that function. If you drag it all over the place, abuse it and trash it, then it won't be there for the reason it was purchased. It's much easier to trash the jacket you bought because it was cheap and not too ugly.