Hyde Tools 20200 2-1/2" Long-point Flooring Knife

pierce with the point, don't saw an entry — the long point is the tool's cut-starter, driven through at a steep angle and then laid down into the draw. The pull: knife drawn toward you, wrist locked, letting the curve feed material toward the belly of the edge; if the blade climbs out of the work, your angle is too flat or your edge is dull, not your arm too weak. Depth: the open point goes as deep as you let it — over a subfloor that matters, cut over sacrificial scrap or switch to a captured hook. Body position: this is kneeling work with the hand inches off the floor; the long point exists so that stays survivable. What the tip will not forgive: twisting, prying, and levering side-loads — that is the documented reason the short-point 20250 exists, and treating the 20200's fine point as a pry bar is how it stops being fine.

carbon cutlery steel, hardened, tempered, honed at the factory and expected to be honed again by you — this is a knife you maintain, not feed. The inside curve wants a slip stone or abrasive on a dowel drawn along the sweep, burr stropped off the outside; a flat bench stone alone flattens the curve's belly and slowly un-designs the knife. Keep the point keen — a rounded-over point turns every pierce into a struggle — and wipe the blade dry after wet work, because adhesive water and damp subfloors will bloom rust on neglected carbon steel. The buyer who won't hold up that end of the contract is better served by consumable 42200 hook blades in a utility knife, and this page says so rather than pretend otherwise.