without using a brick separator, is it more easy to scratch or break the brick?

[ks6349]

Without using a separator, is it more easy to break or scratch the brick face or edge?

I don't know if I am feeling wrong, but I feel that the quality made of the lego 

pieces compared to 20 years ago, it's worse than those time. Some of the plates I've got don't lie flat and some of the bricks don't have a smooth edge.d 

[Chilis]

Why not use the brick separator in the first place? Kinda unnecessary question..? What works for me may not work for you but the brick separator always works :)

[ks6349]

21 hours ago, Chilis said:

Why not use the brick separator in the first place? Kinda unnecessary question..? What works for me may not work for you but the brick separator always works :)

It's not unnecessary question

Sometimes I just don't want to pick it up when separating pieces, even 500 pieces is bad enough to "think" it every time how to break. Using bare hand will be faster, but if it will scratch the bricks too bad, I will then loyally  use the separator

[Johnny1360]

Something I have not really even thought about. I have many separators, that I hardly ever use, I guess because there were none when I first started playing with LEGO. Also I have encountered quite a few instances where the separator just won't do the job, even two of them. I have also grown out my pinkie nail slightly to aid in the process although it often breaks, thankfully it grows back quickly. I do try to make myself use the separator, it just seems so much quicker to use my fingers, though very tiresome for large builds. 

Having wrote this long-winded response, I must say that if disassembling bricks by hand damages them, I have yet to notice, none broken yet. Neither are they scratched up from disassembling by hand.

[MAB]

You don't really need a separator for bricks. I only use one (sometimes two) for when I have a plate attached to a larger plate, or two when I have two plates the same size completely overlapping.

Just now, Johnny1360 said:

I have also grown out my pinkie nail slightly to aid in the process although it often breaks, thankfully it grows back quickly.

 

Turn the separator around and use the chisel edge.

[Johnny1360]

Just now, MAB said:

 

Turn the separator around and use the chisel edge.

Obviously I am aware of that feature, although it doesn't work as well for me as my fingernail in many instances. 

[Lyichir]

Separators can make it easier to separate bricks but I've never seen anything to suggest that they increase or decrease the chance of scratching or breaking bricks than fingers. Teeth, on the other hand, have a pretty high likelihood of damaging parts, so I wouldn't recommend that.

[dr_spock]

Depends on the hardness of your fingernails.  That'll vary from one person to another.  Brick separators can be useful to prevent breaking nails if you like to grow them long.  I've managed to crack bricks with a separator.  Where and how you apply force is also important to avoid damage.  Another thing to consider is jewelry like rings that can scratch the plastics.

[ks6349]

1 hour ago, dr_spock said:

Depends on the hardness of your fingernails.  That'll vary from one person to another.  Brick separators can be useful to prevent breaking nails if you like to grow them long.  I've managed to crack bricks with a separator.  Where and how you apply force is also important to avoid damage.  Another thing to consider is jewelry like rings that can scratch the plastics.

But even without jewelry it could easily scrach the plastics before a new lego set is opened, during transport, the lego inside already hitting each other hundreds of times before it's opened. Scratch is so easy