Design ethics

U

unky_gumbi

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Aug 28, 2009
Messages
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I am going on a hike this weekend and went and bought a cheap throw away knife, not that I am going to toss it, because I currently have no fixed blades in my stable. Well it turns out that I really like the shape of this blade but feel that i could tweek the design a bit to improve it.

things tht I would change about it are:

[1]use better steel, its made with 420ss
[2]make it a high flat or scandi grind
[3]put some gimping on the back of the blade
[4]give it a nice wood handle and polish the blade, instead of the cheap imitation wood and the painted on look satin finish.

The over all profile would stay the same, would it be ethicly wrong to call it my knife or would it be better to call it what it is, my idea of an impoved copy of the knife?
Just incase you are wonder what knive it is, it's a Knives of Alaska Trekker Drop Point Skinner, they don't even list it on thier site and I bought it at Cabelas for a whopping 18.49 canadian plus tax and they don't list it on thier site either
 
If it can be done, it most likely has been done. Some designs are timeless and are reproduced daily. Others are just good designs that someone appreciates.

Here's my suggestion. Use the knife you bought as inspiration and make your improvements. Draw it out on paper free hand and adjust it to your likes. Don't just trace the profile, but make it your own.

We are all influenced by blades we've seen over the years. If you look at my recent bowie post, you'll likely notice similarities to other makers who work in bowies. I would be remiss to say that I wasn't influenced by many makers here. However, when I drew the knife, it was all free hand, and I didn't look at a picture. I just drew, adjusted, modified, and changed until it just "clicked" in my mind. Is it similar to other bowies? Sure. Is it my own? You bet.

--nathan
 
I'm with Nathan on this one. Use knives you see as inspration don't just copy them. Doing one for your self is one thing but making a bunch of Copy's to sell is another.
 
Sounds fair enough to me, but I don't free hand my designs. I use a cad program so tracing is out of the question. I do my cad work free mind though.
I was going over my original design though and found that the 2 knives are very simular to start with. The original design can be seen here post #29. The cheap knife I bought has no finger guard and som reliefs cut into the scales at the finger cut out, so instead of starting from scratch I think I will just add the things I like from the cheap knife that way its still basicly my design.
Thanks for the input everything said was taken in advice and will be put to use in future prodjects. Ordered 44" of 5160 earlier in the week and once that gets here it will be time to start cutting and shaping:D
 
Not sure who said it.

When you steal from one, it's called plagiarism.

But when you steal from many, it's called research.

Leadfoot
 
Don't sweat it, knives have been around for 3 1/2 million years (National Geographic) so there is nothing new out there. Go ahead and use whatever for inspiration, that is what everyone else has been doing for a long while.

It is a matter of pride that you have combined the elements in your distinctive style however.

George
 
Like silver-pilate said, it's probably already been done and probably a number of times. If each of us had to dream up a totally new design to make a knife there wouldn't be many knives made.

I'm not computer competent so I just use a sharpie to draw my design on the steel I will use for the knife. :D
 
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