Look at the knife.
You notice anything ???



Its ONE solid piece of stainless steel.

I was in a restaurant having dinner , and I started to think of the knife in my hand. It had a robust handle. half of the edge was serrated and the other half wasnt sharp at all. But that wasnt a problem, I could grind it to a razor sharp edge and it would become a great survival knife in ONE piece.

OK, I wouldnt use it in freezing weather, but in general it seems OK.

Any thoughts ?
Do you think it is not strong enough for example ?

Two things real quick before I go to make my daughter lunch..

1. As is, a butter/table type knife can easily 'stab' into flesh, my uncle and aunt were 'rambo knife fighting' with butter knives back just after the first movie came out and my uncle had to go to the hospitle and get stitches (yah, I know, not the smartest thing theey ever did) so butter knives, just because they are not 'sharp' are still knives...

2. As a kid I sharpened a butter knife with a grinder in a friends fathers toolshed, then wraped it tightly in wet leather (so it would shrink tighter to the handle when it dried and wouldn't loosen up too much if it did get wet) and it made a very sharp knife that could shave hair easily, though it was thin so it was more like a filet knife then a utility knife though.

Walk into the kitchen and steal the cook's high carbon knives.

If you're in TEOTWAWKI, there's no electricity and you need a couple of knives, find a bicycle and build a grinder as seen here:

youtube video

How cool is that? I know it's probably an old system that's been around but it's the first time I see it and think it's pretty cool. You'll have to pedal for quite a while if you want to sharpen kitchen knives!

Frankie

Dip the handle into a container of that rubbery stuff that they use for tool handles. Several coats.

Sue

I have taken one like that on a plane before with no problem just to see if I could. I also had a spoon and fork with it wrapped in a napkin along with some food in my carry on bag.

At the checkpoint, I just told the TSA guy I had it, showed it to him and he waved me through. The round point and non-sharpened edge complies (at the time) with TSA guidelines. Also in my carry on was a Sterling Superior sharpener.

One of these days, I am going to try to sharpen a butter knife at home to see how long it would take and how sharp I can get it.

Most of the time, that kind of steel is not very hard, en would loose it's edge very fast.

Stainless doesnt hold an edge too well though. It would work, most definitely, but, I suspect after several sharpenings, you may run out of knife.

Tableware stainless is more "stainless" ie., nickel and chromium in the alloy than stainless steel used in any decent knife. It won't take or hold the hardening/tempering necessary to have a decent edge for long. But, it would work if you just had nothing better to use.

What I've encountered with some knives even in some of the more expensive restaurants is they seem to almost never have a full tang even if the metal is good. Then I go to some el cheapo diner and find the best quality steak knife, fully serrated with a full tang. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />