Aesthetically speaking, what blade grinds excite you.

ebidis

ebidis

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Jun 23, 2012
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I will admit that aesthetics are very important to me when purchasing a knife. For me, sometimes a really cool looking blade grind can raise an otherwise ordinary knife to a new level.

I know some blade grinds are more practical than others for certain uses, but most of my EDC blades don't get used hard. So, practicality aside for the moment, from a pure aesthetic standpoint, what type of blade grinds are your favorites, and how important are aesthetics to you? Have you ever bought a knife based on just looks even if it's totally impractical? I have.

I like (in order):
Bowie style/clip point
Drop point or spear-ish points
Tanto (traditional more than American)

I also like swedges on all of the above.

Fullers can be cool depending on how they are done.

I like harpoons on a drop point.

As far as bevel grinds, I like saber grinds, and I find full flat grinds kind of boring. I love hollow grinds, they just seem more intricate and appealing to me.

I generally don't do extreme recurves, but it can depend on the overall design.

Of course there can be exceptions to any rule, and it's all subject to change without notice.
 
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Like you, my aesthetic preferences vary pretty broadly. The knives that I'm most drawn to aesthetically take their styling cues from more traditional patterns with wood scales and clean lines, and with those types of knives I'm drawn to clean clip point blades, classic drop point blades and the needle-pointed wharncliffe as seen on the #47 Viper.

I'm more rarely drawn to blades that people would describe as badass, but when I am I love a good harpoon with a swedge, regardless of the blade shape other than that. Something about it just strikes me as viscerally nasty.

As far as grinds go, I really like the way a well executed hollow grind looks, but it needs some flats, ideally with some contrast to the grind. I prefer the efficiency and improved geometry of full height grinds for practical purposes, but nice, contrasting flats just make a knife pop a little more to my eyes.
 
My appreciation of designs, aesthetically speaking, is functionally driven. That is to say that the lines of a truly efficiently designed tool for a particular task usually has a certain beauty of form caused by that perfection of functional refinement. I actually find purely ornamental embellishments off-putting.
 
The good old fashioned "cliche" western bowie, followed by a drop point tanto, followed by a spear point. i like saber grinds if theyre good slicers, full flat on smaller blades, and hollow on only certain knives
 
Clip points, especially nogales clip points.

Also leaf shaped blades and spear-point blades
 
Bowie, clip and drop are all awesome but my favorite has to be the wharncliffe/sheepsfoot, not the best performing blade but damn they look mean.
 
From a purely aesthetic standpoint, I love Wharncliffe blades. I think my Leek, simple as it is, just has a simply perfect look to it.
That said, a saber ground drop point is really my cup of tea. It just looks mean, and like it's ready to get stuff done.
 
For my newly-realized fondness of fixed blades , I've really taken a shine to the TOPS Tracker style blade. I just love the look of that thing. I'd prefer an uncoated stainless blade but haven't really found one yet.

Folders , I love a good Wharncliffe blade like to Spyderco Yojimbo2 and some tanto blades too.
 
I tend to like drop point blades but I also like spear points. I tend to like a keen point and sometimes drop points can be a bit blunt. I don't really like the aesthetics of clip points but they are a way to provide a keen point.

Some of my favorite EDC blades are Benchmade 913 Stryker, Benchmade 581 Barrage and Spyderco PM2. Each of them has a different blade shape overall but the cutting edges are somewhat similar and they all have relatively keen points. When I look at fixed blades I also tend to look at the point first. Some of my favorites right now are the Ratmandu and the Bark River Bravo 1.
 
ebidis said:
The grind on that Wayfarer looks awesome. That's what I'm talking about. A complex compound grind may not be the most practical, but it sure looks good!
Click to expand...

The one compound grind that I find really attractive is the hollow primary into flat or convex tip grind you see on some tantos. That's always struck me as pretty darn slick with a bit of practicality behind it.
 
Aesthetically I'm a sucker for anything by Brend or Hossom. For use and whatnot I like regular boring clip points with a swedge on top.
 
The grind and stonewash finish of an Emerson CQC15. I have a serrated one and man, that is a cool blade shape.
 
I like a drop point with a high-shoulder primary bevel and a sweeping plunge line:

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Rocksteads Shinogizukuri and Honzukuri grinds are still my favorites though:)

724C859A-80F0-4DC2-B113-BCB2DF309D87_zpsbmw2t5qz.jpg
 
jmclfrsh said:
The grind and stonewash finish of an Emerson CQC15. I have a serrated one and man, that is a cool blade shape.
Click to expand...

I'm no Emerson fan, but they don't get nearly the credit they deserve for the quality of their stonewash. IMO, it's tops in the production knife world in terms of aesthetics.
 
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With a Spyderco Slysz Bowie, ZT 0392BWBRZ, Thorburn L20, Shiro Hati, and Microtech Socom sitting beside me on the hotel desk, I posed this question to my confused wife. She rated the Thorburn the highest (well, duh), followed closely by the ZT, then the Socom clip point, the Slysz, and the Shiro. According to her, the Hati and Bowie were both too bland due to the full flat grinds. Fair enough. She picked the ZT over the clip point Socom, because apparently the harpoon shape IS that cool, though the black coating is a little too tactical. :rolleyes: I admitted I preferred the Socom by a fair margin, but she was unmoved. Ultimately, the lean sexy drop point of the L20, with that full length swooping swedge and satin finish, was unbeatable in this limited sample set, which I had to agree with. Generally speaking, I'm a sucker for a clip point or wharncliffe with a full length swedge.
 
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