I been thinking a lot lately about knives ( duh! ) and things I want, and decided I found something I wanted but had never seen made.....odd.....did I just miss it? Let me explain..... Was thinking about my current Bushcraft setup....I tend to run a 3 knife rig, depending on where I'm headed to for the weekend... Usually a BK9, BK16, and Silky Gomboy saw if I plan on having to process much wood....if not its usually a BK9, BK16, and SAK 1h NS Trekker.... I carry the Trekker for the can and bottle opener, super sharp thin slicing blade and more than anything, the little wood saw which is FAR better than a lot of folks give em credit for...I use the snot out of that little saw for notching pegs and trap work...things that require a VERY clean cut. This got me to thinking....and to the point of my post. Why has no one ever put a folding knife built into a fixed blade knife handle?..... Lets take the near perfect BK16....remove the handle scales, cut away a very slight section of the tang....and install a SAK saw blade that would unfold and be usable out the back of the knife when held by the handle with the sheath on..... Kinda like a saw back, but that actually works and would be FAIRLY easily replaceable.....now put the BK scales back on, and they come up to cover the folding blade perfectly as though it were still a simple single blade fixed knife. Hell I guess one could go to extreme with the idea and do the same thing with a folding BK16 blade on a BK9 for the perfect single woods knife?...yea, I know that's pushing it.... but the idea is solid. Fixed knives, especially some of the larger chopper style blades have a TON of unused real estate in the handle area....and it would not be hard to design the folding blades to eliminate hotspots so they" felt invisible " has anyone ever seen anything like what I'm talking about?...keeping all the robust parts of the fixed blade that make it worth having, but adding some utility by having a folding item designed and built into the handle? Million dollar idea? hell I'd buy one....seems like a natural progression step that for some reason has never been taken. and yes, I understand trying to use a smaller blade with a BK16 as a handle is less than ideal....but to be honest, I'd rather have a SAK folding saw on my 16 than not have a saw at all...as long as you understood it's limitations and how to use it safely /head scratch
Closest thing I could thing of is the SOG revolver: The original series used AUS-8, but has now been downgraded to 5cr
Interesting thought. 1.5 problems come to mind. (I say 1.5 because you do address the first problem but that creates the second) 1.) If the small blade sticks out the back end of the knife that would mean you are cutting with your main blade pointing towards you. Leaving the sheath on does remedy this but... 2.) Having the sheath still on (for protection) means that you have to take the sheath off your belt just to use the smaller knife. Seems like more trouble than it's worth IMO. There is a decent amount of real estate on larger knife handles. Now if you had a small SAK or folding knife that could slip in and out of the handle (like the toothpick/tweezers on SAKs) that would be just as convenient and easier to use.
the sheath issue could be pretty easily fixed by using a 2 piece sheath with something like a Mora blade cover that slides down into something like an AK bayonet frog made of a ridged nylon or heck even a hard plastic or something....something so that the belt loop and dangler stayed put with the retaining ring attached but tubular part of the sheath would slide up and out readily if you depressed a thumb ramp or something.... I have it in my head, and it would be cake to make, but yes, I agree doing any kind of work with a blade pointing back towards you would be less than ideal.... likely its a Lawyer killed design sitting somewhere as forgotten blueprints.... oh well, it was just a thought....
Closest thing I can think of is that axe/saw combo Zippo makes. It's an interesting idea but it pretty seriously complicates the operation of the tool.
The Leatherman Steens was a fixed blade knife with a saw blade that opened from the handle and covered the blade.
The double ended open blade thing has me unenthusiastic about this concept. At first I though the OP was asking about a hollow shaft with a little slip in folder - like the "survival knives" with matches . His real idea is better than my imaginary idea but I still wouldn't buy one - just sayin'.
Wouldn't making the handle like a folder remove the benefit of the fixed blade in the first place? A fixed blade gets its strength from being a solid piece with no weak points or welds. This idea would eliminate that so why not then carry a folding saw/folding knife combo? Also I have the old Sog Revolver. Its a good last option knife, but I wouldn't trust it as a user. Too much handle flex. Stupid too as they could have used aluminum for the handle and maintained its rigidity...
