And neither do I, Wayland. I've thought of this topic many times and I've come to realize a few things. A few days ago I joined bladeforums.com not with the intention to post, but specifically to read and learn a few more things about knives.
Generally, the main point that I saw posters continually hammering down is that almost all knives in the EDC pocket category are "useless, too soft, terrible steel" etc etc....the list is almost endless. Myself, I've used quite a few knives in that category such as Victorinox, Schrade, Camillus, and Leatherman. I've never really had any complaints about them, provided that I use them for what I believe they are intended for.
There is a certain website out there where one can find tests done on all makes and types of knives and whether these knives are good or bad. One of the tests was done on a Victorinox pocket knife, and such tests included slicing through enormously thick hemp rope while counting each individual slice and then moving on to thick carpeting while measuring the grams of pressure on the blade for each slice. The opinion was something along the lines of the SAK being a "low" hardness (less than 60) and not at useful as a blade. In fact, a Opinel also happened to have "low hardness" "poor abrasion resistance" "good as long as only soft materials are being cut"
Personally, I think that such tests of a knife and almost entirely useless and do not at all generalize to real world applications. The website seems to think that any blade with a hardness of below 60 is "soft" and not a good knife. But when I thought about it, I realized that EDC knives actually excel at what they designed for. SAK's are not really out there to be used to slice carpeting or massive hemp rope. They're used for simple daily tasks that do not require a large blade. I think that another way of looking at it is this: Although Mors Kochanski could hammer his four inch Mora through a sapling, would he be able to use that Mora to open a small can of tuna for lunch, or tighten a ski binding with it? Of course not, and I highly doubt that he would've been able to hammer his SAK through a sapling!
I understand what steel snobbery is now, and I really don't like it. Perhaps people seem to forget that there are different tools for different jobs? Or maybe I'm completely wrong on all of this.
After all, it's just my two cents!
Adam
