Dearth of "low-height" blades a result of lock designs?

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gomipile

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Apr 17, 2010
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I really like blades with low "height" from edge to spine for many tasks. Unfortunately, the only knives I have like this are fixed blades or traditionals. I like these, to be sure, but I vastly prefer modern knives with ambidextrous easy one hand opening and lock designs.

Is the proliferation of "tall" blades with more than 1/2" between the edge and spine a result of the space requirements of lock designs? Alternatively, is it the result of fashion and consumer preference? A little of both?
 
I think it is a result of fashion.

Spyderco of course has the big hole in their blade that adds to its height, although there are some blades that have the hole but aren't that tall overall. The ones that come to mind are the Benchmade AFCK and the Spyderco Lum Tanto.

I don't know who started this fashion but Hinderer and ZT seem to be big proponents of it. I like blades that are somewhere in the middle, such as the Benchmade Barrage.
 
I think it might be consumer preference too. I'm kind of just speculating here, but there was a thread recently over someone griping about how a lot of knives are too thick and sharpened with really obtuse angles. Some correlations drawn about hard-use/abuse knives, etc., and it could be related. Thick edges, wide (your "tall") knives, more durability and hard use.
 
You could always get one ground to the height that you like, there are a few guys on here that do regrinds I'm sure they would be happy to help ya out.
 
Kershaw has a few of their lower end models that have narrower blade widths.

There are multiple lock designs that will work fine with your design preference.
 
I like the look of taller blades, from edge to spine, where appropriate.


I really love the use of shorter blades from edge to spine with thinner spines for useful cutting!
 
I think there is considerable choice of modern-type knives with narrow blade. BM/Harley Davidson Nagara and 943 are the ones which come to my mind. Sure there must be more.
 
BluegrassGuy said:
You could always get one ground to the height that you like, there are a few guys on here that do regrinds I'm sure they would be happy to help ya out.
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Unless they can make the lock and handle the same height to match, that'd be a non-starter for me. I'm talking about the whole package. As in: a knife which is designed from the beginning to have a low-height blade, like a Case Peanut or an A.G. Russell Fruit Testing Knife. The Kershaw Double Duty is a rare liner lock example, but even that has a blade that it taller than I'd like for the purpose of this thread.


Let me be clear: I like the taller knives for most purposes, but it's nice to have a much narrower blade for things like whittling the flashing from the inside of a hole on a molded plastic part. Also, when one wants to use one's knife as a portable paring knife, it is helpful. I really like the CRKT PECK for that(when using it right-handed,) but it's a chisel grind and not in a great steel/finish for food prep.
 
unwisefool said:
Benchmade 940 might be a good choice
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The 940's blade is about 3/4" tall, that's much taller than the knife profiles I'm talking about. What I wish there were more of is locking knives with blades only 1/4" to 1/2" tall. Preferably closer to 1/4" for the purposes of this discussion.
 
gomipile said:
The 940's blade is about 3/4" tall, that's much taller than the knife profiles I'm talking about. What I wish there were more of is locking knives with blades only 1/4" to 1/2" tall. Preferably closer to 1/4" for the purposes of this discussion.
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I don't really like tall blades. My Spyderco knives have much taller blades than I like, and I'm not going to buy anything like a ZT 350, but I'm not going to buy anything with a 1/4" or 1/2" blade either which might explain why you don't find very many of them. You might have to look for knives with 2.5" or shorter blades in order to find blades that aren't very tall.
 
A 1/4" wide blade is like a spike. You need a taller blade to be a reasonable thickness at the spine and still achieve a thin edge.
Look at the Al Mar Eagle/Falcon Ultralight for narrow blades.
 
AF said:
A 1/4" wide blade is like a spike. You need a taller blade to be a reasonable thickness at the spine and still achieve a thin edge.
Look at the Al Mar Eagle/Falcon Ultralight for narrow blades.
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1/16" thick at the spine with a full hollow grind seems to work well on my traditionals. I don't see why there aren't many (if any) big-name production locking knives like this.
 
They're out there.



One of Benchmade's popular designs:

bm_470.jpg



One of Spyderco's popular designs (Spyderco is probably the worst about having the thick blades with their Spyder-Hole):

sp_C90PGRE.jpg


One of Kershaw's popular designs:

KR1660BB.jpg
 
gomipile said:
1/16" thick at the spine with a full hollow grind seems to work well on my traditionals. I don't see why there aren't many (if any) big-name production locking knives like this.
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1/16" thick and 1/4" wide? What would be the length of such a blade? Could you show some pics? I feel sort of confused: why would you like locking for such a small blade? The lock would probably be an overkill for it.

I thought also about Kershaw Chill that I have got: very nice small knife. Kershaw has got many models with narrow blade: with back lock or liner lock. But I guess they all would still have bigger blades than the one you describe.
 
bdmicarta said:
A lot of traditional folding knives, mostly slipjoints, are like this. Most have blades of 2" or 2.5" max. length.
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OK. 1/4" just struck me as really narrow for a blade of that lenght. I thought of more like 1/3" as a minimum. I do not know traditional folding knives that well of course.
 
I have an Endura 4 FFG that I did a wave mod on by removing material from the top of the blade. It is too light to wave open reliably, but it cuts much better than it did before its steel diet. The difference is most noticeable in rigid media like corrugated cardboard. I also like how it can more easily be turned in a cut than the stock configuration.
 
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