David Boye Dent?

R

rwasham

Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
650
I just got a yellow atlantic salt today. This is my first knife to come with a boye dent in it and ive noticed that the dent makes it harder to depress the lock on the knife.....which is what its sposed to do. My question is this, Do you guys like that, or do you find it kind of annoying? Or another option....do you just not care?
 
I don't care. It doesn't make it harder for me to close them and it is a safety feature. I have found in the long run safety features tend to pay off. I'm feeling good today, but cold, hungry, and tired I might slip up.
 
I dislike the dent. First on purely esthetic grounds, the dent spoils the otherwise smooth flow of the backstrap. Then, from a practical standpoint, I find the four "points" at the ends of the dent makes closing some models uncomfortable when they hit a somewhat arthritic joint. Finally, I see it as an extra operation to accomplish something that could just as easily be accomplished by making the lock well itself a bit shallower. There also seems to be little or no discernible logic as to which knives get it and which do not. I could somewhat understand it being on hard use SD oriented models like the Manix and Chinooks, where death grips, odd hand positions, and trapping with the spine of the blade are to be expected. But they never had it. But I cannot, for the life of me, understand the need for it on Ladybugs and Kopas.

Paul
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The Deacon said:
I dislike the dent. First on purely esthetic grounds, the dent spoils the otherwise smooth flow of the backstrap. Then, from a practical standpoint, I find the four "points" at the ends of the dent makes closing some models uncomfortable when they hit a somewhat arthritic joint. Finally, I see it as an extra operation to accomplish something that could just as easily be accomplished by making the lock well itself a bit shallower. There also seems to be little or no discernible logic as to which knives get it and which do not. I could somewhat understand it being on hard use SD oriented models like the Manix and Chinooks, where death grips, odd hand positions, and trapping with the spine of the blade are to be expected. But they never had it. But I cannot, for the life of me, understand the need for it on Ladybugs and Kopas.

Paul
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wait, the ladybug isn't an SD knife?
 
Sure it is. A self defense knife is the knife you have when you need to defend yourself. The Ladybug on my keychain is always there, ready to defend me. :D Of course, being attached to a couple of pounds of keys may help its effectiveness. ;)

Back to the Boye dent. It has always struck me as a solution looking for a problem. I managed just fine for forty years before it came along. If anything, I think it tends to make an index point, increasing the likelyhood of having a finger in the proper place to inadvertantly release the lock, but what do I know. I've never managed to accidentally unlock a knife without one.
 
Use it for awhile, then get back to us. Chances are you will find it handy, even if you dislike the aesthetics. I think many who dislike the dent simply don't like the way it looks. But Spydercos are about feel and utility, not simply visuals.
 
xdshooter said:
Use it for awhile, then get back to us. Chances are you will find it handy, even if you dislike the aesthetics. I think many who dislike the dent simply don't like the way it looks. But Spydercos are about feel and utility, not simply visuals.
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I think thats a matter of perspective.

My mother was interested in precisely what it was that she had bought me and asked to see my military which I think is some goofy looking **** (not that I dont like it, I love it) and immediately upon me pulling it out of the box she muttered "its beautiful" which was a shock because she definately isnt into knives rofl.

go figure the person who puts knives in a drawer sees the beauty in a function over form piece and the one who hordes them like dragon's gold cant see it lol.
 
p_mcmanis said:
I think thats a matter of perspective.
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Have you read Sal's quote about designing a knife in the dark?

from Spyderco.com :
"Our recognizable appearance is a result of designing ergonomic functional tools rather than applying lipstick and nylons to a pocketknife. We may look curious, homely, whatever, but we'll never be called unusable or undependable."
 
xdshooter said:
Have you read Sal's quote about designing a knife in the dark?

from Spyderco.com :
"Our recognizable appearance is a result of designing ergonomic functional tools rather than applying lipstick and nylons to a pocketknife. We may look curious, homely, whatever, but we'll never be called unusable or undependable."
Click to expand...

are you suggesting my judgement is not valid because I care how something I own looks? I dont think thats exactly fair.

my point was that some people will actually like the look of something that is aesthetically displeasing from a "normal" standpoint if it has a function (even if they dont know what that function is) for whatever reason. I myself happen to like the way it looks but dont like it in use.
 
I now see that "perspective" was an intro into your story about your mother, not really a response to my statement. Or was it?

I am suggesting that the knife is designed from a standpoint of functionality. That is all I am pointing out: the fact that the Spyderco design team puts aesthetics second, and functionality first, means the Boye dent is there for reason.

Had your use of the term "perspective" been in reply to my statement that "Spydercos are about feel and utility, not simply visuals" you would have been wrong. The designers have specifically pointed out that visuals may be "homely" but that is OK with them.

Hope that clears it up. Everyone's opinion is, in the end, their own.
 
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xdshooter said:
I now see that "perspective" was an intro into your story about your mother, not really a response to my statement. Or was it?
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ok I guess I first have to say Im sorry for not being very clear. The last two weeks have been hard for me as I had a rather radical shift in schedule and I dont seem to be reading things correctly or stating myself as clearly as I should be. I know thats a bad excuse but its all I got lol.

all Im trying to say is that function has its own beauty, which was a sort of response to your comment that people might not like the aesthetics of the boye detent which was designed as a function first thing. To be 100% honest I think I mistook what you said as suggesting that something functional cant be beautiful and so I added my very recent story about someone who doesnt even understand the function of an item itself but can still see its form as a contrast to myself who sees mostly aesthetic beauty.

I do know the backstory behind spyderco designs and I respect that. My original statement was aimed at an aesthetic judgement you made about the boye detent, thats all. Sorry for the confusion and I hope this one is better.
 
I love the dent! I find it makes it easier to close the knife quickly and comfortably.

:thumbup:
 
I think it makes it easier to press. The thumb has less of a chance to roll off.
 
It does seem random about which knives get the dent and which ones don't.

I feel it's more of an indexing point and less of a safety feature. It draws my thumb to the middle more naturally.
 
Yeah I have to agree with some arlier posts though, that, personally, I dont think it solves a problem anyone thought they had until David Boye thought..."hey lets put a dent in this". Ive never accidentally griped a lockback so hard it disengaged the non-dented hole...can anyone say "death grip" And I dont really care about the way it looks....Function is what it comes down to and I feel like this just a function someone invented to solve a problem hardly anyone has....idk though just my two cents
 
I find that is makes the relatively hard backsrping on my Lava easier to depress by giving my thumb a curve instead of a flat or upward curve that will dig into my thumb.
 
Concur. While I understand the reason for the Boye dent, being able to de-deploy the blade is almost as big a safety concern as avoiding accidental unlocks. I find it much harder to do one-handed unlocks on the knives with the dent than on those without it.

yablanowitz said:
Sure it is. A self defense knife is the knife you have when you need to defend yourself. The Ladybug on my keychain is always there, ready to defend me. :D Of course, being attached to a couple of pounds of keys may help its effectiveness. ;)

Back to the Boye dent. It has always struck me as a solution looking for a problem. I managed just fine for forty years before it came along. If anything, I think it tends to make an index point, increasing the likelyhood of having a finger in the proper place to inadvertantly release the lock, but what do I know. I've never managed to accidentally unlock a knife without one.
Click to expand...
 
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