Alright guys. A drawing of my first knife

R

Ryan J

Joined
Jul 14, 2014
Messages
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Here it is. Not sure if I like it or not. I'm intending it to be worn under the arm like a shoulder rig because I dont like carrying a belt knife. It was going to be a neck knife originally, but the handle had to be to short. So I lengthened the handle. Now to big for a neck knife. In the pic the blade looks a little short compard to the handle. Looks better in person. I had to keep it under 4 inches for legality purposes. What do you guys think?
I like the look of the wide blades in the Tanics and Praetorians. Was going for something similar. The handle is very comfortable. I mocked it up out of wood and tried it with several people with varying hand sizes and it was a good fit in general. Something seems wrong with the grind line on the blade.

Dimensions:
Handle length-4"
Blade length-3.5"
Blade width-1.5"
Tang/blade thickness-1/8"

I've customized all of my knives and gotten fairly proficient with g10 so I'm going with that for scales. Planning on using 1/4" and after I sand the pattern it will be thinner. The other pic is to show the mess I made lol. Couldn't sleep last night because I was excited so worked on the design. Its amazing how changing one line by just a 16th can change the whole flow and feel. The blade is tipped forward slightly to present the belly for slicing. And I like the tanto design but thought maybe giving it a "mini belly" would ease sharpening and increase usefulness. Anyway. Whadda ya think?



 
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The basic idea isn't bad. The details are where it went a little off track:

The first thing I would change is the spine line of the handle. Get rid of that dip. Make the spine a more or less continuous slight curve from tip to butt ( with a slight drop point).

The double finger grooves are unneeded, but that is much less a problem.

Unless the knife is to puncture oil drums, I would change the tanto tip to a regular curved blade. It will be much more functional.

The whole blade looks a bit wide, too. It shouldn't normally be that much wider than the handle on a small knife. On a 3.5" blade, 1" wide is good.
 
Okay went back to the drawing board. I like the wide blade. And the double finger grooves are traced from the most comfortable knife Ive held. Aside from that, I eliminated the thumb groove in favor of a slight thumb rise, slightly dropped the point, and rounded the belly slightly more. I like that the tanto is strong and can do delicate work. I also like the straight edge before the point for chopping. And even if I dont punch holes in oil drums, if the design is strong enough to accomplish that then why not use it? The only thing i dont like on the one I carry sometimes is having to sharpen it as two seperate knives. That's why I'm trying to round the belly. The cardboard cutout is the original the drawing is the new one. I'm afraid its starting to look too plain though.

 
I think it's better. It looks more decisive now. It won't be too plain. Your earlier design was quite 'busy' (i counted about 11 'corners' on the knife) and that can make the design look uncertain - too many small areas of focus but maybe not working together as a whole.
I was going to suggest going for more flowing lines and smoother transitions, which you already did.

But so much is down to taste - personally I love simplicity and less decoration. To me, a design is complete when there's nothing more to take away. In my opinion, that's when a knife is not plain, it's bold and decisive. But you might have a different taste that prefers a more intricate and detailed look.

I think the revised design is better. Not sure that it needs the small finger guard and the long curved front edge of the scale. If you lost the finger guard you could move the plunge line further back, giving you more blade. But that's just personal taste - I'd look for even more areas to simplify.
 
Thank you. I cant really get rid of the guard and add more blade because I have to keep it under 4" or my Dad wont be able to carry it in Colorado. I did move the plunge line back about 5/16 though by just moving the sharpening choil.
 
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