This year has led to a lot of challenges for much of the world thanks to COVID-19. We have also seen much of our own personal lives change in many different ways. I know that we are mostly all spending much more money online thanks to our local regulations that have affected how we shop and live. This has led many of us to receive a ton of more cardboard boxes and packages in the mail or dropped off on our doorsteps. It has become a burden for some and fun for others. What I have found is that it is important for me and my family to break down all of our cardboard boxes and to recycle them appropriately. This has led to fun ways to get the boxes to fit in the proper trashcans and we have ended up using both fixed blade knives and folding knives to accomplish the same task. What we have learned may help some more than others.
What we have found is that not only does the handle make a big difference on how we are able to break down packages, but the blade steel and also the grind of the blade really do matter. These three elements end up deciding rather we are going to enjoy breaking down all the packages or are going to struggle with it. I want to go over these topics to help others choose the best style of knife that works well for them rather it be a fixed blade or a folder.
The folding knife is simple and easy to carry around. It fits in your pocket and is usually thin in the handle and the blade. When only cutting a few boxes we found folding knives to be OK at the task. They are easy to keep on you so it is simple to break down a box after it comes in and get it in the recycling trashcan. But if you have a ton of boxes to break down then the thin handle even if really ergonomic tends to cause hot spots or overtime blisters after a few boxes. It was only the mega overbuilt folding knives that overcame this issue and at that point, the convenience of having them was the same as a fixed blade just not as comfortable.
On the flip side, a fixed blade is generally large and not able to fold. So it takes a full form of its size all the time and you must carry around that length and width. What we found was we could generally get a fixed blade that had a better handle that fits us more ergonomically and in a thicker way. This allowed us to not get hot spots with the correct handle and to be able to go through up to 30 or 40 boxes with no issues.
The difference was getting a good steel and grind on the fixed blade to go through boxes. Most folding knives come with a thin, flat blade that works well to cut through boxes. Many fixed blades are thicker with wider grinds that cause more drag when cutting. This means more work and a harder time. But if you can get a thin flat grind on your fixed blade with a CPM steel that is meant for edge retention then you can do the task the best.
Unboxing Concepts 