Blade to handle ratio

[Mr Blonde]

I must say that whenever I hear or read a post on the forums about the Military having a too large handle for the blade I get a little disappointed. I really like a well designed folder that has a larger handle than the blade. Of course, not just any design whose blade happens to be smaller than the handle. But, after using my new Native for a while I really appreciate the full grip one can get on this medium sized blade. As with the military, I feel that I can get more control on the blade, and in the case of the Military, it even allows for multiple grip styles. IMHO, this contributes to the hard use/survival design philosophy of the knife. For example, you can get a one-and-a-half grip on it with two hands for tougher cutting chores, gripping the Military with one hand at the end of the handle towards the busk you get a nice chopping & slashing type grip making it perfect for Martial Blade Craft applications. Still, if you grip the Military or Native with the index finger in the choil area, you have perfect control for delicate cutting chores. I am an urban knife user, which in the case of the Military may not fully make me appreciate the longer grip for those harder survival type cutting tasks, but still, it is nice to have options! Whenever I hear someone say in a knife store for example “well that Military is nice but it has a very ineffective blade to handle ratio”, I always think “well use it first!, or get an Endura or something”.
I realize that it is far more cosmetically attractive to have a larger blade and a shorter grip, but why sacrifice looks for function? I am glad that Spyderco is not ‘afraid’ to put these rarer and maybe at first awkward looking features in their knives. In that respect Spyderco truly puts function and performance before anything else. What I would really like to see is a Spyderco with a Navigator sized blade with a Delica-type or even a little larger handle. Something like a folding scalpel (not too say that all Spyderco’s are not folding scalpels

). I must admit that I haven’t tried the Navigator yet, I understand that as is, it already has a superlative grip for such a small knife. In short, I like the Military style oversized thumbhole, and handle a lot, if only it came with a smaller blade…which reminds me about the Military Junior project, any updates on its development???

Cheers,

Wouter

 

[Sal Glesser]

Hi Wouter. thanx for the comments. There are many different points of view to this question. IMO, handles are for holding, blades are for cutting. Yes, there is a definite relationship between the two, but for me, it's based on function. It depends on what you want in a knife.

Many (probably most) purchase their knives by "how they look", rather than how they function.

That's why most designers design their knives for looks.

sal