Esee 4 stainless vs Fallkniven S1 vs??

[GODSPEED TACTICAL]

I've got some catching up to do later today but....

ChiralGrolim, I read the first part of your post and I totally agree with that (surgeons scalpel,etc.) but I'm confused because I thought that I wrote the same thing?

I think your assessment of fat/skinny heel/top is exactly backwards, and the BM162 agrees with me. The reason for tapering the handle thickness at the guard is to provide more precise control for fine cutting (e.g. cutting soft tissue or very straight lines) by providing a flat wide+thin surface for pinching with the thumb and index or middle fingers as close to the cutting-portion of the blade as possible without interfering in the cut itself. This is precisely why surgeon scalpels and scissors (which i have a LOT of experience with) and even box-cutters are so designed.

The flex-cut knives were a similar example... ? Anyhow I re-read it tonight.


Eli

 

[chiral.grolim]

No problem, and I do not mean to appear aggressive. Here is your quote:

... I know that larger design helps with fatigue for prolonged use over a thinner handle.

When I look at fat/skinny parts of a handle for me it breaks down like this:

Fat heel/Skinny up top= more power & less control for fine cutting/carving task
Skinny heel/Fat up top= more control for cutting/carving & less power

Again this is just my opinion and experience... I'm thinking of an axe handle or machete when I picture the larger heel and of a carving knife when I picture the top of the handle being larger.

In reality, the heel has to do with balance, retention on a swing, and increased leverage (power) from the lower portion of the hand. This last one doesn't require a fat heel, only a curved (dropped heel). But near the handle-blade transition:

Skinny up top = less power & MORE control for fine cutting/carving task
Fat up top = LESS control for cutting/carving & MORE power

For fine cutting/carving, less power & more control is required. Your fingers exercise greater dexterity but less power than your palm. For fine cutting, you don't use your palm as much as you use your fingers. A palm prefers a fat handle to reduce fatigue and provide material support for the increased level of power able to be transferred to force. The fingers prefer a lighter, thinner handle for ease of manipulation. Level of control/manipulation does not affect fatigue-rate, POWER affects fatigue-rate. The more force required to complete a cut, the more power must be spent generating that force, and also less control can be exerted over the progression/direction of the cut because it requires so much power to exert that control.

Now, that is not to say that power isn't required to complete a finely controlled cut, but that level is much lower and doesn't require the same amount of handle support that a heavy high-power cut requires. For fine cutting (e.g. scalpel-work), positioning the blade close to the index-finger presents the optimum transfer of energy (power into force) from user to blade, and this requires a thin neck = skinny up top. However, this position and structure provides very little support for transfer of a greater amount of energy, but that extra energy does not equate to higher cutting performance because the goal is not maximum power but maximum control. If you attached that scalpel blade to a fat axe-handle, you could put a LOT more force into the cut, but the cut would be much harder to control and the blade might not even be able to support the amount of force.

To summarize:
For higher level of control, handle should be thin, light, rigid, close to the blade for utilization of the fingers.
For higher power, handle should be strong and hand-filling for utilization of the entire arm.

 

[chiral.grolim]

I should add to this that carving wood requires a great deal more power and less control than cutting soft flesh during surgery. As such, the palm is required and the handle must be designed to accommodate it comfortably. If you look at the Flexcut chisels, the "handle" is designed for palm comfort, but the neck is left thin for ease of control by the fingers, like a scalpel: