On most of the revews of the multie tools on this site it seems your not so keen on a solo serated blade on a tool. now of course you not going to want to have only serated blade with you in a survivcal situation but it's not as if you going to go off with the multitool and no knife.<br>so my feeling is it's better to have a serated blade on a tool since you wont be carying one any where else on you and you've allredy got a straigt blade (hopefully).<br>-james

Serrated blades are a gift of the food industry. Serrations seem to last longer because a portion of the edge is always lifted from hard surfaces ( bone, cutting board, dinnerplate.) What you have is a tearing instrument like the canine tooth. A plain blade is a shearing tool, like the incisors If you have a hammer pommel you even carry molars. Personally , I've found serrations popular with rope cutters; sailors and horsemen who may have to part company with a towline or leadrope. What I found doing both, is half these folks can't select or maintain the proper plain blade to accomplish either.

Chris,<br><br>At the risk of sounding stupid, or more correctly, ignorant, just what are the right type of regular blades for the uses mentioned? I carry a serrated blade for the very reasons you mentioned in your post. It isn't my main blade, or my prefered one for most uses, but I've found it to be ideal for rope, seat belts, the occassional stuck cargo strap....What am I missing?<br><br>Andy

I have an SAK picknicker knife with a serrated blade and i think this is the best for gutting a deer. I goes through the skin and hair like a hot knife through butter. I can sharpen an straight blade to a a shaving condition, but still the serrated blade works better on gutting a deer, and I agree on the other uses u mention, but I still carry a knife with an straight edge that I use for the rest of the jobs. I dont want the<br>serrated blade to loose its edge, since I dont know I can sharpen it well.

I hope I didn't flame serrated blades or their owners! For ripping into a wet towline, heavy webbing or a cast 1200lb horse serrated certainly does the job. As for "everything else?" The consensus is pretty much what Doug discusses in gear. My battery of knives has evolved as I found out what works FOR ME. This translates into a few retired as something proved superior, or a "Walter Mitty Moment" overwhelmed my calm, rational demeaner. My personal main assembly is a Falkniven Forester knife and Grohman Russell Bird and Trout. For marine use I have the superb Myerchin. Sitting in my drawer is a G.I. machete in case I get back into a jungle and a Finnish Lueko- Puukko combination and Inuit Ulu for the snow.My urban carry is a P-38 can opener and a german officer's pocketknife ( a simple take on SAK.) I guess this will start a thread on "My ultimate Knife can beat up your ultimate knife" LOL.

Having cut several people out of seatbelts, pluscutting the occasional fan belt or radiator hose, I can tell you that the serriated blades are great for that. But I can't even trim a broken fingernail worth a [censored] with one. Slicing serriated, everything else straight blade. Plus the straight is much easier to sharpen...

there is no way I'd have serated edge for most thing iether. I use and carry a straight edge. what I was saying is if you've got multi tool with you as well, might it not be an idea to have serated adge on that since you've allredy got the straight one. since thers not much point in haveing 2 straight ones when you could have the added benifit of a serated one to acompany your normale one.<br>-james

I understand your point now. Yes, it would, assuming the multi tool could be accessed readily for the serrated blade's normal uses. My observation is most people carry a serrated ( the one handed spyderco being popular) for emergency cutting where the finess of a straight edge isn't needed. My multi tool is a first generation Shrade, clumsy to access. Perhaps the latest models are better.