Fullrs: Not many knives with fullers out there.

The concept of the fuller as seen on modern blades was apparently originated by Webster Marble on the Ideal model hunting knife....and it had nothing to do with tactical blood sucking or whatever.....

www.usmilitariaforum.com

Marbles Gladstone knife

Picked this up today: a Marbles Gladstone knife, 9.74 inches long, with a six-inch blade. I've been looking around online and haven't yet seen anything about dating these. On this forum and elsewhere there are references to the having been used by GI's in WWII. When I first saw this in the sheath...
www.usmilitariaforum.com www.usmilitariaforum.com

pB2AXO5.png
 
VorpelSword said:
The iconic Kay-Bar looks as butch as it does in part due to it's large fullers.

Yet, there are few serious "combat" knives with fullers out there.

Anyone have thoughts on this.
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some of the first uses of fullers were in medieval swords, dating back to the 1500's.
Literally the fighting-est knives there are.
increasing rigidity with a reduction in weight becomes important when you have big heavy swords.
 
Just to add on to the Marble's thing, they played with their fullers too. The very earliest ones were much wider and longer. It's hard to find an excellent example of them, but this one shows it a bit. but I've seen some from the first couple of years that were even broader and longer than it -

https://stcroixblades.com/shop/prod...usa-marbles-ideal-hunting-knife-old-stag-msa/ .

Even with Marble's, the fuller became more for aesthetics.
 
I know that putting "fullers" into rifle barrels (i.e., fluting) reduces weight while keeping the barrel just as "stiff" (or even stiffer, I forget) than it is in its unfluted condition.

I suspect that putting a fuller into a knife blade -- particularly if the fuller is put in through forging, rather than machining -- makes it stiffer, as well, while reducing weight.
 
Cementite said:
I know that putting "fullers" into rifle barrels (i.e., fluting) reduces weight while keeping the barrel just as "stiff" (or even stiffer, I forget) than it is in its unfluted condition.

I suspect that putting a fuller into a knife blade -- particularly if the fuller is put in through forging, rather than machining -- makes it stiffer, as well, while reducing weight.
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I don't think, and I could be wrong, but I don't think that removing material in any way shape or form makes anything stronger. Like an I beam, they remove material and shape it to maintain rigidity and load bearing capabilities but it's not actually stronger than a solid piece. It is more efficient in terms of strength to weight ratio in some cases though.
 
Arathol said:
The concept of the fuller as seen on modern blades was apparently originated by Webster Marble on the Ideal model hunting knife....and it had nothing to do with tactical blood sucking or whatever.....

www.usmilitariaforum.com

Marbles Gladstone knife

Picked this up today: a Marbles Gladstone knife, 9.74 inches long, with a six-inch blade. I've been looking around online and haven't yet seen anything about dating these. On this forum and elsewhere there are references to the having been used by GI's in WWII. When I first saw this in the sheath...
www.usmilitariaforum.com www.usmilitariaforum.com

pB2AXO5.png
Click to expand...
it's reminiscent of the subtle hollow grind in the backside of japanese chisel ground knives.
 
shinyedges said:
I don't think, and I could be wrong, but I don't think that removing material in any way shape or form makes anything stronger. Like an I beam, they remove material and shape it to maintain rigidity and load bearing capabilities but it's not actually stronger than a solid piece. It is more efficient in terms of strength to weight ratio in some cases though.
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right, at least as it regards fluted rifle barrels, where some material is machined away.

In the case of knife blade fullers, particularly those created by forging (IOW, where the steel isn't removed, but rather just displaced), I suspect they may actually be slightly stiffer, at least in a right-left orientation, than the same blade without a fuller, for two reasons:

First, by putting in the fuller through forging, you're displacing that metal elsewhere -- and very likely making it thicker in (right-to-left) cross section elsewhere. This could make it stiffer, at least in that one plane. Second, the act of forging aligns the "grain" of the steel at a microscopic level to some degree, making it stiffer -- especially after quenching...
 
Cementite said:
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right, at least as it regards fluted rifle barrels, where some material is machined away.

In the case of knife blade fullers, particularly those created by forging (IOW, where the steel isn't removed, but rather just displaced), I suspect they may actually be slightly stiffer, at least in a right-left orientation, than the same blade without a fuller, for two reasons:

First, by putting in the fuller through forging, you're displacing that metal elsewhere -- and very likely making it thicker in (right-to-left) cross section elsewhere. This could make it stiffer, at least in that one plane. Second, the act of forging aligns the "grain" of the steel at a microscopic level to some degree, making it stiffer -- especially after quenching...
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I can see how compacting the steel would make it denser and therefore more difficult to bend. I'm a machinist/cnc programmer by trade, we remove material for a variety of reasons and I have a good understanding of metal working but not forging.

I'd love to get educated on forging and how it changes the structure!
 
J. Doyle said:
On something short-bladed like a knife, a fuller is mostly for aesthetics. I'm not saying it doesn't affect balance or weight at all, but it's probably negligible and often unnoticeable.

Most of the knives they're on it was done because "it looks cool".
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I doubt the aesthetics of a USMC fighting knife were much of a consideration when it was adopted.
 
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