have knives hit a lull in the last few years ??

ericdraven

ericdraven

Joined
Jan 31, 2013
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225
what i mean is unless you go real custom and buy a knife for the price of a nice gun , i feel as knives now in last few years have shown the same ole. kinda a bunch of reboots . i do not see really anything innovative or different .

i mean i look at the for sale section daily , its over half full of spyderco knives daily .

i reckon to get a different blade you gotta pay to get a custom job or buy a production that looks like every other one with the same steel .

i might be wrong it just feels that way
 
I guess that this perspective really depends upon what you are looking for. At lower price points, I think that there is less variation. I just came from the So Cal Custom Knife show earlier today. I saw a fair amount of variation in design, materials, quality, price and level of art. In fact, as I have often seen at these shows, there are always a number of makers who go "over the top" in trying the differentiate their products from others to the point that I would consider them to fall into the category of fantasy knives. I saw a lot of traffic at the tables of makers who were selling products with well thought out and executed designs. Not so much so for those offering the more artsy, unusual goods. Demand drives product development.
In my case, when I look at purchasing a knife which will be used only occasionally, I search for a product that has a solid, common sense design, excellent fit/finish and generally incorporates natural materials. For knives which I intend for more daily, hard use, I look for something that is utilitarian but evenly finished, holds an edge, and which is unencumbered by unnecessary design features. In both cases they have to be capable of work and feel good in the hand. It is also important to me that they will last over the long haul. I will not buy anything that is poorly put together, overweight, or incapable of performing the basic functions that I expect to use it for. I also will not buy a knife with a blade design that can not perform multiple cutting functions. Warncliff and tanto blade designs won't work for me so I have no interest in them even though I understand that they are favorites for some.
 
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Did you see any new user folders or any solid built tank s. If so let me know what new is offered that caught your eye is appreciate it
 
It has always been the case that there is little about knives that can be truly innovative. It is not an area where we see patents awarded on an ongoing basis. Knives have been with us for a long time and the number of designs that have been and still in used around the globe is near astronomical.

But, we have seen growth over the last 10 years. Fixed blades, especially the larger competition types and various "zombie" hackers have been plentiful, We have also seen more fast deploying knives: automatics, assisted, flippers, and plenty of pivot bearing systems. Beyond that, the manufacturing technology has developed to the point where even mid-range production knives can feature very detailed 3-d shaping, sculpturing and finishing.

Granted, the industry has been under attack in many regions and if you live in one of the freedom limiting realms you may have missed out on many of these knives. Also, traditional brick and mortar stores have all but disappeared, so it is much harder to get a hands on feel for many of the newer knives.

n2s
 
ericdraven said:
Did you see any new user folders or any solid built tank s. If so let me know what new is offered that caught your eye is appreciate it
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I saw one maker of Japanese folders with prices that were quite reasonable, appeared fairly well made for the price and yet interesting in design. They were pretty nice user knives although the blade shape was not what I would have chosen. I also handled some small fixed blade knives with a unique, yet confortable style made by an older gentleman from Cal. These would have served well for whittling as well as small camp chores. I recently purchased a bird and trout knife made by Jeff Morgan from Santee, Cal.. Very good quality for the price and the knives from this other gentleman reminded me of those made by Jeff Morgan.
 
They all still seem to cut things fairly well.

Here’s a sort of custom.
9604.jpg
 
I haven't noticed a lul in the traditional knives.
Case brought back their Barlow this year after not producing one since sometime in the 1979's I think.
(Maybe they finally realized how many sales they were losing to the companies that were producing that pattern while they weren't?)
I think Case might be bringing a few more patterns "out of the vault".

Some patterns, even by Rough Rider are still selling out in a short amount of time ...

Buck is revitalizing their 300 series line, possibly bringing back some that have been out of production for a spell, and are going to start producing some of the 300 series off-shore contract knives in-house.

I'm guessing GEC and related are doing well. (I can't afford anything they make, so I don't pay much mind to them.)
From what I see over in the Traditional sub forum, all the various runs by GEC sell out quick, at any rate.
 
I agree that there aren't many knives that stand out, anymore. But I think that's inside my head, not some kind of industry trend.

Extrema Ratio is still producing unique knives. So is Hogue, and Protech. They're just not knives that I'm interested in.
 
ericdraven said:
what i mean is unless you go real custom and buy a knife for the price of a nice gun , i feel as knives now in last few years have shown the same ole. kinda a bunch of reboots . i do not see really anything innovative or different .

i mean i look at the for sale section daily , its over half full of spyderco knives daily .

i reckon to get a different blade you gotta pay to get a custom job or buy a production that looks like every other one with the same steel .

i might be wrong it just feels that way
Click to expand...

WE-Knife-Co-Isham-Arrakis-Champagne-Ti-CF-Black-SW-906CF-B-BHQ-96058-jr-2.jpg

WE Arrakis - Hybrid Integral Ti/CF frame and skeletonized blade

CRKT-Ikoma-Fossil-Black-G-10-Small-5462-BHQ-51854-jr-2.jpg

CRKT Fossil - Budget style-heavy flipper

CRKT-Provoke-Earth-Kinematic-Morphing-Karambit-Brown-4040E-BHQ-102503-jr.jpg

CRKT Provoke - weird articulating karambit thing

Spyderco-Autonomy-2-Auto-Black-G-10-Satin-BHQ-80844-jr.jpg

Spyderco Autonomy 2 - LC200N plain edged auto from Spyderco!
LionSteel-ROK-Integral-FL-Gray-Ti-Satin-ROK-G-BHQ-94391-jr-side.jpg

Lionsteel ROK - Integral flipper with a retractable pocket clip

These are just a few examples off the top of my head. There's also the Kershaw Launch series that saw the return of USA made Kershaw autos at super reasonable prices and the rise of neo-trad slipjoints with updated materials and screw together construction.

I'd say it's been a rather fruitful few years. Spyderco seems to have figured out the buy/sell/trade knife culture though so their stuff ends up in heavy rotation.
 
I'm not sure I agree with the premise. I feel like we are more spoiled for choice than anytime before. While the market is primarily frame lock flippers there are plenty of more unusual things floating around. For example (even inside the Spyderco world) there are the...

Spyderco Meerkat with its phantom lock in a number of recent sprints
Spyderco Parata with the new stop lock (as an aside, I think this is a major lock innovation)
Spyderco Smock (and the custom it was based off of the SK23)
The rise of front flippers at almost every price point from Boker to Gareth Bull
All the Buck Marksman variants
The Cold Steel AD15 and Demko's custom and mid grade versions
The use of different (and improved) variants on the axis lock from the Massdrop Perpetua to the Wilkins Leafstorm 9 on the high end to the WE Double Helix in the middle.
All the new G&G Hawk stuff that has been coming out of Millit over the last few years (Dauntless, MUDD auto, Orbit).

Etc. Plenty of variety if you look around and there's nothing wrong with a frame lock flipper either!
 
Seems like the world is full of things to cut with but no new things to cut.

It's all still wood, cardboard, rope and and nails or pennies.

I would like to see a parallel industry develop of new and exciting things you can cut. That would for sure spark excitement.
 
Probably not going to see alot of innovation under 100.00.

All in I think there are lots of great choices.
 
Will Boos is doing some interesting things with the Smoke. I think that's the perfect genesis of art knife, instagram front flipper and actual usable, well designed EDC tool. Been checking the emails enthusiastically hoping to get a shipment notification on the Mini Smoke the past week. I carry my Smoke a lot and think it's an underrated design from a user, everyday EDC standpoint.

Putting together Benchmade Bugout's has kinda become a hobby onto itself for a lot of people. It's not just one or two aftermarket makers either. It's a whole cottage industry on one knife.

The Strider SNG and SMF secondary market has bounced back up to astronomical heights. I think the community would be ready to consume a lot of those if Mick could get some more volume in the production line. Can't think of a maker who's left more dough on the table.

Microtech stock seems to be up. The new run of SOCOMs are really popular and actually great value pieces at the price point for the construction that you're getting. The Dirac and Exotech are both really cool.
 
Danke42 said:
Seems like the world is full of things to cut with but no new things to cut.

It's all still wood, cardboard, rope and and nails or pennies.

I would like to see a parallel industry develop of new and exciting things you can cut. That would for sure spark excitement.
Click to expand...

This guy has the right idea.

Anybody out there who is running out of new and interesting things to cut, I strongly recommend rubber and plastic. Glass fiber reinforced plastics are an especial treat, and you will learn a lot about edge retention.

Tires are an easy source of rubber, but if you have a contact in the industrial world, conveyor belt scrapers and belt skirting are very dense, and some long, deep cuts will show you every hot spot on the handle of your knife.

You could say that this is expecting rather a lot of your knife, and I would agree. Especially since some of these materials have steel reinforcing in them, and it's a nasty surprise when you encounter it. I guess you could try chopping a cinder block, but make sure you really trust your knife.

Cutting meat could be a challenge, but that's mostly because some of it will run away, or fight back. I don't think it's a good idea though: the consequences can easily take away your ability to collect more production knives.
 
Front flippers, the Provoke's mechanics, integrated combination lockbar insert/stabilizers, and floating stop pins are all things that felt like innovations to me, all of which seemed to come about (or maybe just came to my attention? It's sometimes hard to tell!) in the past few years.

Toss in the escalation of super steels, the Overton window-like shift to D2 as a "budget" steel, and myriad sprint runs -- especially from Spyderco -- putting exotic steels into wider use, as well as the rise of Chinese OEM partners like Reate and WE (and budget lines like Tangram and Civivi) bringing high levels of fit and finish to relatively inexpensive knives, and this feels like a golden age to me.
 
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