I don’t like half-serrated knife blades. Do they have some cool real function that I don’t know about yet or are they just there to look “tactical”?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “tactical serrated knife“
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This is from what my father who was a firefighter paramedic for over twenty five years had to say about them.
He said to me “those knives are a pain in the *ss to sharpen, but they’ll cut a seatbelt off. I carry one of my three knives on my webgear with a serrated edge, I carry my usual, and I carry my pocket tool(like a leather men or gerber multi-tool).” His was a cheap tool, maybe $20 dollars. It was one with a window breaker, an actual belt cutter, and the half serrated edge.
I thankfully have never seen him use it on things other than duct tape and medical tape but it does work on seatbelts. Just a thing to consider is that while it might not be that different to fight with, knives have a multitude of uses. I also carry one of these for this reason as well.
His looked close to this:
source: http://www.swordnarmory.com/Emergency-Rescue-Folding-Knife-w-Belt-Cutter-p/tk-367or.htm
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I don’t feel that the half serration is tacticool, I find it very utilitarian. I regularly use the serrations to cut cord, and webbing. Less regularly I cut wire and Romex in a pinch. I use the serration to strip wire and find tune pencil points. I have sawn around saplings and snapped them off squarely. Whatever works for the user.
To flog the subject- I don’t like tanto style knives and single grind blades. I generally prefer a drop point blade but modify the small blade on my SAK.
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I actually bought a knife very similar to this one many years ago, specifically because of the half-straight/half-serrated design. This design was amazingly useful in my job at the time: unbox desktop computers, set them up for use, and break down the packaging. The standard half of the blade was perfect for slicing through the packing tape holding the boxes closed, and the serrated half was able to saw through the corrugated cardboard cartons far more easily than the straight blade I started out using was able to cut through them. If I’d only been setting up a handful of systems, it probably wouldn’t have made much sense to purchase this just for that one job, but the order was over 100 systems. I’ve been in the computer industry ever since, and the combination blade has come in handy on more occasions than I can count. Would I ever try to use the serrated edge as a saw on wood? Nope. But it makes short work of even heavy duty corrugated packaging, so I’m still glad I carry it today.
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I like those knives mainly because I’m indecisive. If the only choices were straight or serrated I’d go with straight, but fortunately there’s an in-between option. Yay!
As for uses; I use the serrated part of my pocket knife all the time. I like to play pool, but I don’t usually carry a tip shaper. With a little skill, the serrated section of my knife blade works every bit as well as one of these.
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In my experience the serrations aren’t necessary if you keep your knife nice and sharp. Most people really don’t sharpen their knives as much as they should or properly, so the serrations always provide an edge that’ll work “good enough” for most daily tasks. It’s a preference thing. I don’t use them anymore, I feel like they hog up valuable blade space and are bad for skinning.
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They’ve been around long before the trend in tactical knives, so no, they are not there to look tactical for the most part.
I saw these when I first got into knives in the 1980s, so no, it is not a fad. I’m sure they were around before that.
Some people prefer serrations for cutting certain materials, generally more fiberous materials such as rope, and the number of people who do seems to be enough to cause companies to offer serrated and half-serrated knives.
Most models of folders with serrations can also be purchased without serrations so it really shouldn’t be a problem if you don’t like them, just buy a plain edge or if not available with that model a different model.
There are some fixed blades I’d rather not have serrations and don’t come in plain edge, but there are so many knives on my list of knives to buy it doesn’t matter.
I just saw your comment and the pic after writing the above text.
That knife, assuming it is well made (it is a cheap company,) should not have a problem cutting. The serrations won’t prevent you from cutting. It should work for most cutting tasks but probably won’t work well for whittling.
If you want a cheap (around $20.00) folding knife with a plain edge that cuts very well, I suggest looking at the Byrd Cara Cara. Byrd is a budget line from Spyderco and the Cara Cara is the cheap version of the Endura. I have two with plain edges and they are very sharp, sharper than many expensive knives I’ve used. Of course it is not as good as the actual Endura, but it is a quarter of the price. It you like it then maybe get an Endura later.
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This is my half-serrated knife.
It’s my baby, and it’s come in handy a ridiculous amount of times. The straight edge is excellent as a letter opener, for slicing through packaging tape, and oddly enough, for prying partially opened cans fully open. The serrated half is great for shearing through cardboard, opening popsicle wrappers, and cutting vines and branches.
It also helps that it could do a good bit of damage if anybody ever tried to attack me, for whatever reason, though that’s pretty unlikely in most scenarios (I’m a pretty big guy and I carry myself confidently, so I’m not the easiest target). Though one look t that jagged thing would hopefully send at least some would-be attackers packing- sure, a straight-edge could do the same, and it does help that my knife is really curved, but the serrated edge just makes it look scarier, and that’s good enough for me.
But for what I use it most for, all the hacking off chunks of thicker materials, it does its job even better than it does at looking scary, and that’s what counts.
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These types of combo blades have actually been around for a while so I don’t know that they’re recently becoming popular and it really is just a matter of preference.
In my view, the serration is used to slice through a more fibrous type of material, such as a thick piece of rope. I’ve used it as such. The plain edge portion of the blade is typically known to be used for push slices.
The smaller the overall blade, and subsequently smaller portion of plain edge and serration, well, the less practical the combo would become.
This link gives a good opinion: Serrated vs. Plain Edge Knives
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The only serrated blades I have any use for are steak knives (which don’t have to be serrated) and bread knives. Okay – maybe grapefruit knives. To me, on a belt knife or pocket knife, serrations are worse than useless, just get in the way and are a waste of space where the knife could have a real edge. I keep my knives sharp, often carry a pocket stone and have yet to encounter anything serrations could do that a good, sharp, plain edge couldn’t do better. That includes cutting the kind of cordage I am likely to regularly cut, opening packages, etc. A sharp, plain edge will slice seatbelt material just fine. That said I am not regularly cutting wrist thick rope nor am I daily cutting up high volumes of cardboard so maybe serrations do come in handy for certain, narrow niche use since the folks who do perform such tasks, based on the other answers to the questions, seem to find them useful.
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I agree with you that a half serrated blade really limits the slicing edge of the knife. However, I view them as more of a utility blade. They are useful if you know you’ll be cutting cordage, such as rope or seat belts or vines or anything similar. I wouldn’t suggest a partially serrated blade for anything other than that. I carry a Leatherman ST300, which has both a regular blade as well as a serrated blade and a separate saw. This solved that problem for me. Now I’m free to carry whatever knife I choose.
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Those serrations are sharp and they will cut. You can use them like a traditional saw to cut other wise to large of and object for a regular blade. It basically adds an additional way to cut material in the same package which depending on the users needs is very beneficial.
I have found the serrations with very well suited to cut though rope especially thicker rope.
I personally carrie a box cut with removeable disposable blade, razor sharp and when dull just change the blade.
Had this one for over ten years hasn’t failed me yet
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A knife like that is less of a weapon and more of a dangerous tool. As a sailor who spent some time I’m the deck department, where a knife is all but mandatory, the serrated portion is more useful than the straight blade. Cutting through line is a job that it’s easier to do with a serrated edge. The straight edge I didn’t use for anything other than prying cans open, as a screwdriver, and to pick grime out from under my fingernails.
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I use the serrations more than the straight blade. They’re very handy for all sorts of little tasks. They’re great for cutting the plastic off wire, cutting anything thick, like rope, fabric, etc. They make nipping off small things easier, and generally add a lot of usability to the knife. Carry one for a while and try the serrations out. You might find you’ll like them.
I carry a Benchmade that looks like this:
But I have the serrated blade. I’ve had it for ~15 years or so.
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Serrated blades are good for cutting tough and fibrous things — rope, seatbelts, cloth, overcooked steak, etc.
They are a pain in the ass to sharpen, but a serrated knife is king when you need to saw thru something tough without using a lot of pressure. That’s why bread knives are serrated, you can saw thru the bread without smooshing it into a pancake.
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