Blade Tech Riptide

Insipid Moniker

Insipid Moniker

Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
27,509
If you told me there was a new knife coming out with the Emerson wave and an IKBS pivot system it would immediately go on my must buy list. If you told me it was a karambit I would be a little less excited, but it would still make the cut.

But this thing...I don't know. To me, it screams 'Tacticool' louder than a pair of digicam underwear with built in Glock holster. I want to like it, I really, really do, but the aesthetics just kill me.

Blade Tech, if you're reading this, PLEASE combine these features on another knife, but avoid a look that makes me think Dark Ops should get a collaboration credit.

Anyine else seen this abomination?

Edit: As Blade Tech replied to this both graciously and professionally, making me deservedly feel like a jerk, I thought I should add this. I applaud them for making the effort to put these design elements together and I really hope they don't stop. This is more a reaction to my excitement and then disappoinment than a substantiative critique.
 
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We're always listening ;) I'll see what I can do. Appreciate the feedback!

Tessa Kravitz
Blade-Tech Social Media Manager

Insipid Moniker said:
If you told me there was a new knife coming out with the Emerson wave and an IKBS pivot system it would immediately go on my must buy list. If you told me it was a karambit I would be a little less excited, but it would still make the cut.

But this thing...I don't know. To me, it screams 'Tacticool' louder than a pair of digicam underwear with built in Glock holster. I want to like it, I really, really do, but the aesthetics just kill me.

Blade Tech, if you're reading this, PLEASE combine these features on another knife, but avoid a look that makes me think Dark Ops should get a collaboration credit.

Anyine else seen this abomination?
Click to expand...
 
aplaceforyourgun said:
We're always listening ;) I'll see what I can do. Appreciate the feedback!

Tessa Kravitz
Blade-Tech Social Media Manager
Click to expand...

I sincerely appreciate it. I'll freely admit that I'm being harder on this thing than I should, but I saw the list of featurez and was extremely happy before I saw the knife which was a bit of a let down. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if you make a more conventional blade with these same features I promise with all sincerity that I will put my wallet where my mouth is.
 
Oh My!

That is a lot of curvy on that blade!

I think I understand one (possible) line of logic, but explaining it might be a little difficult.

I have tendonitis, and I pay attention to the angle of my wrist, because if I do the wrong thing, I get this shooting pain up my arm.

This has led me to thinking about blade design, and especially the location of the point, relative to the midline of the grip.

Put simply, I like wharncliffes, because they make it easier to start a cut.

As you cut something, your arm moves in an arc. What may be going on here, is that the angle of the recurve changes, to allow a more natural arm motion while using the knife.

Whew! I hope that made sense.
 
That made sense. I like hawksbills for similar reasons. The tip is pointed forward when you extend your arm, and leads the way down to the target like a karambit when you slash.
 
I'm just not sure that the point where the changeover occurs isn't going to drag in the cut, especially with rubber-based materials.

Of course, I'm thinking about this from an everyday carry perspective. There are places where the karambit is EDC, but my observation is that it has become somewhat more focused on, um, more serious purposes. If that is the intent, stated or not, of the Riptide, then it may work very differently...
 
ron finkbeiner jr said:
Gotta be the most impractical blade design I've ever seen.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. If you think about blade geometry in respects to how it performs for a certain task, the Riptide's blade is actually more effectively designed that a conventional, single-stage blade, if your purpose is to pierce and severe clothing, tissue, muscle, ligaments, tendons, arteries, joints, etc. Single-stage blades require the user to operate them based on a specific arcs and angles. An example would be the Emerson. It is much more aligned with the handle than a 5.11 Tarani model. The Emerson has a more open design so a sweeping cut is extremely effective. The 5.11 has much more curved profile, so while it may hook-and-pull more effectively than the Emerson, it's curvature closes it off in the front, meaning it requires the user to have the blade wrapped around something more than the Emerson.

btriptide.jpg


With the Riptide, you get the best of both. It's fairly open like the Emerson, so a sweeping cut is more likely to have an effective edge-to-target angle than it would with a more closed design like the 5.11. However, the second edge (closest to the handle) gives it more hook-and-pull power like you achieve with a 5.11. Instead of looking at it like a blade that has had a large angled hump put in the middle of the edge, think of it like a conventional blade that has been ground down near the tip, and near the handle. It's thin profile on the tip enhances its ability to pierce, and as the curvature rises toward the hump, it widens the cut significantly. Once you're past that point, the handle-side of the hump gives it a more powerful pull-through cut, much like you see with a recurve blade like on a ZT0300, or the recurved section of the Nightmare Grind on a Strider. Additionally, Ray Dionaldo discusses edge structure in his "Principles of the Karambit I" video, which I own and am completely unable to locate. I would reference what he says, but I have no idea where that DVD is.

Just to clarify, I am in no way am I stating that this knife is superior to either the Emerson or the 5.11. Having owned both, each of them have their pros and cons, but both being outstanding knives and both serving their intended purposes well. There are a lot of other factors that go into which karambit suits a person better, including the blade steel, handle construction, locking mechanism, overall profile, thumb hole profile, and so on. I'm simply making the point that Blade Tech did not take a karambit and attempt to match its appearance with something from the Klingon Empire. It's geometry was well thought out and is very purpose-driven. It might not be practical in the sense that it works well for every day use and is easy to sharpen. Having the softer AUS-8 steel would make grinding it less painful than the Emerson's 154CM and 5.11's S30V, but the dual-stage edge definitely doesn't make it any easier. And while I prefer the hard, 60+ RC super steels on EDC knives and kitchen cutlery, a blade that is designed for getting you out of a violent, life-threatening situation with a few cuts and slashes doesn't require an expensive, fine-grained steel. My Microtech's SF-M's S35VN blade takes a nasty edge, lasts a long time, and is fairly resistant to chipping. But for something that will only be used once or twice, I would always take a softer steel that is easier to sharpen to a deeper, thinner edge, especially on a blade like the Riptide's. And AUS-8, while not the best steel out there, can take a screaming edge.

Plus, I highly doubt Emerson would allow their patented wave feature (along with their name) to be utilized on a knife that was nothing more than a mall-ninja toy catering to the Call of Duty armchair commandos and the tacti-cool blackwaters samurai SWAT team SEAL delta recons.
 
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