Do dropped edges have any disadvantages?

Matthew:

Check out pic #4

This knife I made I call the Vancouver Rescue knife. It is actually the 3rd knife ever that I made, and the first I designed from scratch. Trace Rinaldi's blades were an inspiration for the design, when I made this a couple of years ago.

The thing I like about dropped edges is you get a guard without having to go through a lot of expense and such to make a "regular" guard. Nothing against "regular" guards, but dropped edges provide safety from the edge and this is a very cheap way of achieving this. I have seen some makers charge upwards of $100 to put a guard on one of their models. There is lots of work to do on a guard! I am just finding this out through experience now, trying to make a brass piece to go on the front of a stick tang mora knife.

Also, I like the width you can get out of the "package". This Vancouver Rescue knife I made I tried to make it a tool knife. It would make a good improvised trowel if it needed to be used that way. That knife I gave to my brother-in-law, and he likes using it, though it hasn't gotten much of a severe using yet.

I hope this adds to the conversation!
 
Let me start by saying I really like dropped edges. I have some kitchen knives that are extreme examples of this where the blade is offset to be more inline with your knuckles than with the handle (the blade is not wide like a chef's knife-the blade is only an inch wide). The disadvantage to these knives is that they can twist in your grip. If you are whitling they can twist to dive into the wood. If you are cutting a real tough material they can rotate around sideways.

You get the greatest advantage to a dropped edge when you are working on a cutting board. I have also been using offset blade knives for boning and filleting.
 
Joe even I was wondering where you were going with that!!:-) Joe Talmadge the first T in TTKK, had a huge influence on my designs very early on..
He got me interested in the forums, and thin high performance flat ground knives back in about 97/98.. At the time I was making mostly CHISEL GROUND blades!! If you can believe that, but I had just started making knives and was able to make a pretty decent one, so thats what I was doing.. Then Joe E-mailed me and asked if I could make what ended up being called the LUK or Light Utility knife. From there he gave me an overall description of what became the TTKK.. Over the next few years I changed a few things and it evolved into what we have today.. And as Joe said its been talked about ALOT in these forums over those years, to where it has sort of a cult following among serious knife users who like high performance cutting tools.
The Tactical Kitchen Knife thing was sort of tongue in cheek but does hold true. It was more the fact that the knife was made from materials most often found in tactical knives, and even had a hint of tactical look to it.. The idea was a knife that could be carried around and used for all Utility type tasks, wouldnt scare the horses when you yanked it out, and could be pressed into a defensive role if need be..
I mean how many scary movies have you see where a person goes to the kitchen drawer for a KNIFE!!!
;) Anyway in the begining of my knife career it was Joe and his philosephy on knives that molded my ideas about what worked well, and from there I went on to make some stuff that people seem to like.
Joe doesnt like to blow his own horn at all, but I dont mind! If not for him, who knows maybe I would be making stuff thats totally different! Glad it worked out the way it did;)
 
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