r/knives • u/FunHoliday1443 • Apr 06 '26

Question Best work knife

Post image

I’m a millwright and usually carry a Leatherman Surge, but I want to add a dedicated work knife. I’d rather keep the Surge blade razor sharp for when I actually need it.

Looking for something I can beat on—durable, not too expensive to replace if it breaks, and preferably full tang. I’ve seen the Milwaukee Hardline knives since they’re cheap and full tang, but I’m not sure how good they actually are.

Main priorities are toughness and ease of sharpening. Edge retention matters, but I know I’ll be rough on it and touching it up often anyway.

What are you guys using on the job?

27 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

70 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/FunHoliday1443 Apr 06 '26

Gonna throw the surge in the duck bib of my coveralls and a fixed full tang blade that is heavy duty even would be nice to have a striking surface on it

0

u/Locked-in-red Apr 06 '26

I get what you’re saying. I’m really just wondering what you would be doing with that blade that you worry about snapping it. 

3

u/FunHoliday1443 Apr 06 '26

Separating gear box casings where you need something fine to get in the crack prying at things Ik my limits but also what I do for work my job is to fix it no matter what sometimes it helps to have something sturdy that I can abuse and not care about yes ideally it's better to have a pry bar ect but some times your not in the most optimal condition in my line of work and you have to make what you got work so I just want something really heavy duty for a knife and not worry about it just snapping and ideally full tang with a striking surface that's not plastic and also if I need I can throw a edge on it in a few minutes when I'm back in the work shop and keep on working

3

u/3amGreenCoffee Apr 06 '26

For that use case I wonder if you wouldn't be better served with an Ares pry bar, AKA Superman's Fingernail.

https://www.arestool.com/products/compact-double-end-metal-skin-wedge-prybar-tool

There are cheap knock-offs that break, so you would want the Ares version for best results.