Finally switched from folding to fixed blade knives for landscaping work

For years I carried a folding knife for cutting open soil bags and trimming small roots. Changed my mind after I was trimming some heavy weed fabric in my client's backyard in Nashville and the blade locked up on me mid-cut. Picked up a $25 Mora fixed blade the next day and honestly it's way safer for this kind of work since there's no hinge to fail. Anyone else find fixed blades more reliable for hard outdoor cutting jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

jason_kelly813d agoMost Upvoted

You make a fair point about hinge failure, but I gotta push back a little. A good folding knife with a strong lock like a liner lock or axis lock is plenty reliable for yard work. I've been using the same Kershaw for three years cutting through all kinds of tough material on my property and never once had it fail mid-cut. Mora blades are solid for the price, sure, but they're not as quick to put away when you're moving between tasks. Folding knives give you that one hand open and close convenience that saves time when you're switching from cutting roots to trimming bushes.

the_seth12d ago

One thing nobody's brought up yet is how a fixed blade handles mud and dirt compared to a folder. When you're knee deep in damp Nashville soil cutting through roots and weed fabric, that gunk gets into every crevice of a folding knife. I've seen guys spend five minutes trying to rinse out their pocket knives just to get the blade to close again. A fixed blade you can dunk in a bucket of water, wipe it on your pants, and keep going. That sealed handle on a Mora doesn't collect debris the way a folding mechanism does.