Do blades dull this easy?

[Barms 98]

Bought my first pocket knife to keep in the room where my cardboard stays until recycling day. The knife is there to break down the boxes. I bought a Milwaukee (the tool company) brand spring action, impulse buy from Home Depot.

 

Wtf? After like 3 weeks I swear the blade is dull already? Just cardboard boxes??? It was sharp on day one I could slash through the tape and occasionally sliced the actual cardboard like butter. Now I find myself like having to MUSCLE past just the tape. Clearly the blade has dulled. Do all knives get so dull so fast? I mean I'm not being a wimp here I'm just shocked the frigging thing doesn't cut TAPE fast now,

 

The knife was like 12 bucks. Do you get what you pay for in blades? Or is it common that ANY knife needs a stone after a couple of weeks.

 

(I don't want to use razor blades because I find they dull out too. The whole point of the knife was longevity)

[JohnnyB 4,326]

You definitely get what you pay for in the steel of the blade! Take my word for it, use utility knives, the razor blades are cheap and each one has 2 edges. They are easily replaced in your cutter and DeWalt

makes 100 packs of good quality blades for around 10 bucks.

 

Cardboard is one of the hardest, most damaging materials to cut with a knife. Cardboard is very abrasive on an edge, and will dull it very quickly. I don't care what grade the steel is or how well it is heat treated cardboard will dull an edge fairly quickly. That is what utility knives were made for. Save the good knives for other purposes.

[joshroz2 4]

You definitely get what you pay for in the steel of the blade! Take my word for it, use utility knives, the razor blades are cheap and each one has 2 edges. They are easily replaced in your cutter and DeWalt

makes 100 packs of good quality blades for around 10 bucks.

 

Cardboard is one of the hardest, most damaging materials to cut with a knife. Cardboard is very abrasive on an edge, and will dull it very quickly. I don't care what grade the steel is or how well it is heat treated cardboard will dull an edge fairly quickly. That is what utility knives were made for. Save the good knives for other purposes.

I agree with this

 

 

 

A good high carbon steel blade or high carbon SS (expensive) will hold an edge a lot longer than your typical Stainless pocket knife blade.

Definitely not all blades are created equal and blade metallurgy is a topic you could spend a lifetime on.

Either way, Cardboard is really tough on edges and if your cutting a lot you really want a throw away blade. Hence the recommendation of razor blades and the popularity of box cutters. also cheaper in the short and long run anyway.

 

IMO if your gonna get into knives you should be sharpening them yourself anyway. And they do need regular sharpening after use like any good sharp edged tool. There is a learning curve but it's not too hard and its rewarding.

And then I guess if you wanted to you could even just keep sharpening the $12 blade; although, I think that would get old real fast.

[maintenanceguy 510]

A $12 knife will never hold an edge like a $50 knife will.  But...no knife will hold an edge after weeks of cutting cardboard.  A good knife with a really sharp edge is a fragile thing.

 

For breaking down boxes, get a $3 utility knife and just change the blade every time it starts to get dull.

[raz-0 1,259]

Cardboard is abusive. The most evil thing I have found for edges was some old shag carpet I had to extract from a crawl space.

 

As for the best cardboard cutter, there were these bulk pack Chinese knives. Total junk. Not really sharp to begin with. But they were like those kid safe pumpkin cutters but for cardboard. You could saw through it pretty quick.

[Barms 98]

A $12 knife will never hold an edge like a $50 knife will. But...no knife will hold an edge after weeks of cutting cardboard. A good knife with a really sharp edge is a fragile thing.

 

For breaking down boxes, get a $3 utility knife and just change the blade every time it starts to get dull.

Go figure that cardboard is the krypnite to knives!

 

Here are my thoughts. I don't like tha "breakaway" razor blades you can't get any real leverage behind them. I don't want any sort of utikity knife that cant retract the blade I could leave it open around my kid. The old school utility knives with thumb retraction you need a screwdriver to replace the blade. PITA.

 

Jeez who knew a cardboard blade was such a conundrum.

[Scorpio64 5,156]

Any paper product in general is kryptonite.  But you can also use that kryptonite to your advantage.  When my $20ish Home Depot knife starts to dull I run it over cardboard the same way I use a strop.  It helps get a little more mileage out of a blade before it goes on the stone.  If you cut a lot of boxes you are probably getting adhesive gum all over your blade.  While it does not dull the blade it coats it and makes it less effective.  Maybe that's what I'm rubbing off when I run it over cardboard, dunno for sure but it works.

 

You could look at some of the folding utility knives they have at HD.  They use standard reversible utility blades and when they are folded they look, more or less, like any other folding knife.  You can also set the cut depth on the utility folders.

[JohnnyB 4,326]

Like this one. Much safer with kids around.