The other day we had hay delivered in a dump trailer. As he was closing the trailer gates the hay guy pulls out his locking folder (I didn't catch the model) and uses it to chip accumulated ice out of the latch mechanism.

When my wife and I finished putting the hay away and were back in the house, my wife turned to me with a smile and said "You were cringing when he used the knife to clear the ice, weren't you?"

YES I WAS!!! I was dying!

Does anyone else do that?

I think if I carried two knives - one for "abuse" and another for "non-abuse", I could live with it.

I once bought a dirt cheap fixed blade knife to dig plants out out of the rocky ground during a college botany class. I beat the crap out of that knife and was amazed how well it tolerated the abuse and stayed sharp. Ten years later I realized that was a stainless steel Mora knife.

There are people that manage to snap the tip off a swiss army knife blade.

It's like the whole point of having a SAK is it has a flat screwdriver/bottle opener for the prying tasks exactly to protect against knife abuse.

I just stumbled across this Horace Kephart quote:

"Knicks and dull edges are abominations, so use knives and hatchets for nothing but what they were made for."

That makes me feel better.

P.S. I asked Santa for the Becker Knife & Tool BK62 Kephart knife and Kephart's Camping & Woodcraft book. The older I get the more interested I become in learning about ye olde ways.

On the one hand it does make me wince but I also accept that it's not my knife. If someone borrows my knife and does that they're likely to get backhanded! But if they want to trash their own stuff that's their business.

I remember once when I was standing next to someone who was trying to get a screw in a light switch cover plate out with his knife. He looked at me and asked if I had a knife with a smaller blade. My answer was a resounding "No!" ... even though I had at least two in my pockets at the time.

And a few months ago my sister was visiting, and one of her friends joined us for a day out. Starting our hike in a local park, that friend noticed a tree where a bunch of idiots had carved their initials into the bark. She asked if I had a knife that she could use. My answer was "no". She thought that meant I didn't have a knife. It actually meant she couldn't use it.

Yes, I cringe at abuse. But abuse is also field testing, proof that the tool is fit for purpose.

I also cringe at shelf queens that are shiny and scratch-free and untested in the field. They look so pretty. Can they do real work?

I have a bunch of 30 year old blue handled Moras, worn down to 40% of the original blade size, that have endured young nephews and decades of abuse on my acreage and in my gardens.

In a spam-hits-fan situation, what tool would I reach for? The beater Moras or the shelf queens?

I don't really care how people use their tools. As long as it's not a safety issue, as I don't spending much time patching people up.

Before i borrow things to other, i'll ask their intend. Depending on the answer, they will get the correct tool for the job or a no. Or in some cases i fix it for them.

It annoys me more when the knife doesn't stand up to the abuse, particularly if it was an expensive one.

This.

It's a tool. Use it.

I pull things with my truck (it's not a tractor), I check reflexes with my stethoscope (not a reflex hammer), I've hammered with pliers.

It's a tool.

I would say the caveat should be, "Use it" ... "for its intended use". I can't blame a knife, even an expensive one, for breaking if someone is trying to use it as a prybar or a screwdriver. I can't blame a pair of pliers for breaking when someone is using them for a hammer.