Design critique please!

tedinatl

tedinatl

Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Messages
893
A colleague of mine asked me to make him a general hunting knife with a hidden tang. I came up with the attached design, which he likes, but something seems slightly off to me, and I can't put my finger on it.

Please critique the design - brutal honesty, please! All the details are in picture.

Thanks for your help!

FKBowie2.jpg
 
Great looking knife. I'm guessing the lower part of the handle is a bit thick, maybe put more drop towards the butt on the handle too... maybe more rounded lines on the butt. :eek: I don't know though, looks pretty good to me. It reminds me of a Loveless, classic design.
 
i like it! although i liked it the first time when it was called the fallkniven f1 :) i keed i keed :)
 
Over all I Like your design. For myself I would use a 3/4 radius on the guard. I like my guard width to be 3X the width of the blade so, if my blade thickness is 3/16Th's I like my guard width to be 9/16Th's then tapper the handle up to 3/4. I might also extend the length of the guard below the blade to about 3/8Th's. But thats me. Good luck and post a pic of the completed project.
 
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just cut it out of frozen pizza box and get a feel for it. Id recomend a longer handle. NICE DESIGN!!
 
Thanks for all the replies, everyone. Some good food for thought. I'll cut it out of hardboard tonight, and see what it feels like. I agree that the handle probably needs to be about 1/2" longer.

Thanks guys!
 
At the guard to blade transition area, from the top view it's visually too sharp/harsh and square-ish on the outside corners of the guard. Consider breaking the 90 degree angles, and rounding them off a little. It'll be more comfortable and tie in better with the rest of the curvilinear lines of the knife.

If you decide to do that, you may have to make other adjustments in the guard to accommodate it. Changing one thing always seems to have a ripple effect and affects other parts. Try to look at it mostly as a whole, but with certain attention to minor details. In the end, it's the finer points of the design that will make it really fly.
 
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I agree with Tai in that the front shoulders of the guard need some radius. IMHO you could make the handle 1/2 longer and the blade 1/2 shorter. You will still have over 4 1/2" of cutting edge and that is plenty for a hunter. The lines are classic drop point and it should be an excellent all around knife.

You could do what I did when I worked up what I call my standard hunter. I made several out of 5160 and tried them out worked out any bugs with the design, the grinding and the assembly before I went to making them out of D2. Even then the process has kept getting refined as I make more of them and receive feed back. But, that is how it should be.
 
Looks very good overall to me. If I had to nitpick I' say drop the point maybe 0.25" and the ricasso looks a little wide in relation to the smallest part of the handle (right after the guard). But it's all about personal preference of course.
 
Just an observation and a question: Doesn't the plunge line go in the center of the Spanish notch a.k.a. the choil? At least most all the photos of knives I have seen seem to follow this rule.

Boezaartknifedesign.jpg
 
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Yes, as Patrice said lower the point a bit. It will have a tendency to be in too deep when opening up if you don't. And get rid of thje choil. On a true hunting knife they become a problem when the knife is inserted all the way the blade will hang up on it. Frank
 
As Tai Goo and R Appleby have said, I think the guard is to thick. Lengthen the handle a bit as well. Talk to the buyer and hand him a ruler, take note of how many inches his hand covers and use that as a guide for your handle length. Overall it's a nice design, and I always think if it looks right, it is right.


-Xander
 
On knives that are going to see a lot of wood working it is of benefit for the handle width to be about 0.75” where the web of the hand will rest in a full fist hammer grip, but as others have said, on a hunting knife, which is often used in a pinch grip, it can be a little too fat at that thickness.

I don’t have large hands (about 3 inches across the base of the fingers), but I find that a handle that measures 4.75 inches from the butt to the point where the blade leaves the handle is pretty good for me. It allows for a range of grips and doesn’t seem to get in the way.

Quite a few people seem to like the lines of a knife when the line of the cutting edge lies pretty close to the curve at the bottom of the handle where the index finger wraps around. Something like this maybe?
pattern.jpg
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think I have incorporated most of the comments. How's this?

FKBowie2-1.jpg


Thanks again for your honest comments!
Ted
 
C_Claycomb said:
Quite a few people seem to like the lines of a knife when the line of the cutting edge lies pretty close to the curve at the bottom of the handle where the index finger wraps around. Something like this maybe?
pattern.jpg
Click to expand...

I like this profile better. The dropped point and what CC described better than me in the statement above.
 
Overall I like the profile very much, especially in the new-and-improved version which incorporates some of the tweaks that have been suggested here.

My suggestion is a lanyard hole, unless the intended owner specifically doesn't want one. Having had my hands covered with blood and fat and operating deep inside a carcass when it's cold and my fingers aren't working well a few times, I really like having a tiny little lanyard that can loop around my pinky--keeping the slick handle from twisting around in my hand, and my hand from sliding up onto the blade. I know your design has a guard but my cold-numbed fingers have slipped right over just such a guard in the very situation I've described, and a hunting trip is just downright less fun as you watch yourself bleed (but can't feel it) and start wondering just how much damage you've done. :)

Just a thought. Great, classic design. :thumbup:
 
I like the design, and the added tweeks make it a really nice and user friendly design. Funny how most good hunting knives have similar apearances.

The only thing I would add, is the tang pin, I've done them with and without a pin. If the wood you mentioned is solid and you make the tang wide and long enough and properly prepare the handle and tang you won't need a pin. A pin allows another avenue for moister to enter then handle, makes for a week spot on the tang, and when the handle material shrinks or expands a pit the pin won't and it can be "proud". That's if your using a solid handle, if morticed it needs pins or bolts. As long as the handle has "key ways" notched in it and the tang is the same way and you use a quality epoxy like Accureglass and do a proper prep before glueing up you won't have a problem. I do like to add decorative pins sometimes, but if done rite there not needed.

Hope this helps, and make sure you post pics when you get it done.
 
I like all of them. Make one of each and go with the one that feels best in your hand. You can also make the handle big and whittle it down until you like it.

Mike
 
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