Design your ideal knife

As most, I would have to say, "Ideal for what?" I have a half dozen kitchen knives alone, to say nothing of fishing, hunting, utility, multitool, and camp/bushcraft knives. Each is wonderful, none does what another can.

But let's play anyway!! 😃 I've posted in the past about my "grail knife," the "Joe Place Sword", a 17th-18th century Spanish Belduque, much in the style of a Mediterranean dirk. I would love it in a modern steel, anywhere from 1095 to a super stainless (though I lean to a non-stainless carbon steel). I could baton wood, skin game, prep food, and defend myself with it. Blade of about 12 to 16", full tang, forged flat pommel, brass or bronze or silver inlays, unsharpened swedge, hardwood scales, it is said by some to be the precursor to the Bowie knife. No matter, it covers a lot of ground for me. It does not do everything, but then no tool does. What it does is make me feel well equipped. Someday I'll have one custom made for me.

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Zieg
 
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The Zieg said:
As most, I would have to say, "Ideal for what?" I have a half dozen kitchen knives alone, to say nothing of fishing, hunting, utility, multitool, and camp/bushcraft knives. Each is wonderful, none does what another can.

But let's play anyway!! 😃 I've posted in the past about my "grail knife," the "Joe Place Sword", a 17th-18th century Spanish Belduque, much in the style of a Mediterranean dirk. I would love it in a modern steel, anywhere from 1095 to a super stainless (though I lean to a non-stainless carbon steel). I could baton wood, skin game, prep food, and defend myself with it. Blade of about 12 to 16", full tang, forged flat pommel, brass or bronze or silver inlays, unsharpened swedge, hardwood scales, it is said by some to be the precursor to the Bowie knife. No matter, it covers a lot of ground for me. It does not do everything, but then no tool does. What it does is make me feel well equipped. Someday I'll have one custom made for me.

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Gg7wHn7.jpeg


Zieg
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My wife got this blade that is kind of similar to that style. Blade length is only 10“, but it suits her well. It’s a scary piece of steel.
The Bell Bowie by Lon Humphrey.
 

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BladesmanUSA said:
Mine would be
3in stonewashed drop point blade in CPM S35V.
4in handle with G10 scales and finger grooves and lanyard hole.
Spring assisted opening with steel liner lock, with the flipper doubling as a finger guard when blade is open.
Gimping on spine of the handle.
Four way deep carry titanium pocket clip in satin bronze with matching torx screws.
The back spacer would be removable and have a small ferro rod concealed within for fire starting.
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Aside from the removable ferro rod it sure sounds a lot like you're describing an XM-18 3" skinny. With the flipper, you wouldn't be able to tell much of a difference with or without a spring assisted opening.

Ron Sabbagh said:
I would like a Sebenza that flips like a Shiro
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What about a shiro perhaps?
 
Depends on the use.
I do more woods work than anything so the first thought that comes to me is a fixed blade of sorts.
Probably more of a Bowie/Spontoon style blade shape, about 6-7" in blade length, with about a 4.75" handle.
San-Mai steel with a core of 80CrV2 and a shell of 410 stainless.
Stainless single guard.
Kevlar liners with a bolster below the guard of carbon fiber and REALLY dark Ironwood for the rest of the handle.
Titanium corby bolts. (Because why not at this point?)
Add a really nice leather sheath, ferro rod, and a leather leg strap + dangler so it moves with your leg and you have a serious outdoors tool.
I can dream, right? :cool:
 
At the moment, my ideal knife is a pair of them actually. A necker for the bulk of the daily cutting tasks, this is a new design, very simple, designed to allow a four finger grip with the right spine angle for me to drive it with my thumb. This knife gets used on packages, cardboard, paper, scoring Kydex, cleaning up glue squeeze out on ricassos, scraping dried glue off my hands, picking my teeth (I never said I was a refined individual lol) and just generally any knife task that comes up.

And the Prevail, my thinnest iteration of it yet, as both these knives are from .084" stock (I have made the Prevail in everything from .084" up to .140", and I currently have a batch out for heat treatment in 1/4"). Design includes negative blade angle for aggressive cutting leverage without compromising wrist alignment, a leafy spear point tip for a good balance of piercing ability and strength, and a large, neutral handle allowing for a firm hold of the knife in any grip imaginable. This one will do daily tasks, utility, food prep (tip slicing, but obviously not heel to tip cutting board chopping), and is also an ideal knife for MBC.

And materials wise, I have done it in 15N20, 8670, AEB-L, but since this one is mine, and meant to be my ideal knife, it is in LC200N, with a comfortable, grippy and secure freehand textured handle of Suretouch, which has been my favorite user handle material for at least the better part of 2021, and still is to this day.

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Drop bear said:
I think a really good bar b mate style tool would be a fun custom knife.
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iu


One of these? What an funny but interesting idea! I'd be curious to know how you'd set it up.
 
David, the Prevail looks great ! Seems to be very capable knife. About your choice of the steel - I’m curious what made you pick the lc200n instead the new trendy Magnacut ?
‘Never had knife with LC200N, seems like a very good steel, what’s the hardness of it ?
 
POCEH KOCEB said:
David, the Prevail looks great ! Seems to be very capable knife. About your choice of the steel - I’m curious what made you pick the lc200n instead the new trendy Magnacut ?
‘Never had knife with LC200N, seems like a very good steel, what’s the hardness of it ?
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Hey Jordan, thank you for the kind words. I chose LC200N because it is significantly tougher than MagnaCut, and I like the option to use my knives carelessly. Its edge holding is not quite among the high carbide steels, pretty good (some have likened it to S30V), but the gain in toughness, is worth it to me, especially considering that 1) I tend to touch up my blades frequently anyway, and 2) I grind very thin, thinner than one might want to on a harder, more brittle steel for a hard use knife. The knives I showed above are ground to under .005" behind the edge.

LC200N maxes out at around 60 RC, which is still very tough (almost AEB-L tough) and the hardness I have Jarod run my knives in this steel at. They test between 59.5 and 60 before he sends them back out to me.
 
Not sure about all the details, but the handle would have finger notches for a secure grip when the heat index is 115F and my hands are sweating, a combo blade about 4 inches long with 2 inches smooth and 2 inches wavy serrations, probably Magnacut, OTS auto, definitely orange scales and a built-in GPS locator. I do not use a pocket clip, but I would need a sheath that would allow me to open carry wearing a winter jacket and be able to take the jacket off without fiddling with the knife.
 
David Mary said:
iu


One of these? What an funny but interesting idea! I'd be curious to know how you'd set it up.
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D Drop bear
David Mary David Mary

I've been trying to get Becker to make these for a couple years....haha
I'm on my second prototype.

Spatula, Spatula! wherefore art thou Spatula?

I've been dreaming of a good spatula for over 5 years. I feel that I've been needing a real good one for a long time now, without any end in sight..... So.... I decided to make one.... I'm probably 75% finished. I still need to clean up the grind lines, remove some milling marks, touch up the...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
David Mary David Mary thanks ! It was interesting to learn few things about the steel of your choice,
totally make sense. I wasn’t very familiar with this one, in fact I don’t follow much all the different steels,
I usually do research when need to find out something.
‘Yes, IMO, the negative angle and the blade geometry seems well suited for the tasks you describe.
I think I would also like thin ground blades, I got few of those and when they got steel that will handle such thin grind,
they are great users…
I really like the knife and thanks for clearing my question ! :thumbsup:
 
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Crag the Brewer said:
D Drop bear
David Mary David Mary

I've been trying to get Becker to make these for a couple years....haha
I'm on my second prototype.

Spatula, Spatula! wherefore art thou Spatula?

I've been dreaming of a good spatula for over 5 years. I feel that I've been needing a real good one for a long time now, without any end in sight..... So.... I decided to make one.... I'm probably 75% finished. I still need to clean up the grind lines, remove some milling marks, touch up the...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
Click to expand...

Yeah. That's cool.
 
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