How to not make a thumb ramp look stupid.

S

skillgannon

Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
991
I have always liked the benchmade Nimravis and was trying to make something similar. I'm having a hard time making it look right with the ramp and guard built in. You guys have any rules of thumb or any advice for making thumb ramped knives look ok?
 
2wcLzKG.jpg

I did my original layout the best I could from pics . It didn't look right so I started trying to bring it in but then decided to stop before I removed to much . That thumb ramp makes the blade a little like a harpoon tip. I just can't seem to make it scale right. Maybe I should make up the scales for it and see what it looks like.
 
Storm,

Let form follow basic ergonomic function. Your hand will tell you what you need to know. To me it looks like the ramp needs to be farther forward. Nevermind the knife blank for a moment. Go grab a broomstick or something featureless like that. Grab the stick normally without thinking about it, with your thumb on the "spine" of the stick. You will probably see that your thumb rests about an inch forward of your forefinger. Take a look at the image below (borrowed from google). The designer put the ramp and jimping where it is but look where the thumb naturally falls. It's perfectly fine to use other peoples' designs as inspiration but trust what your own eyes and hands tell you. Take that into consideration when designing your own knives.

I don't think the ramp on your blade makes it look like a harpoon style.

Krw1nNl.jpg
 
I don't know about rules, other than I typically want the ramp to be forward of the finger choil a fair amount, or if this even looks any better to you, but if what you're trying to do looks wonky to you, draw it first. Draw it to scale and when you draw it, start with some crosshairs as an origin point to help you keep everything lined up where you want it.

XBS94Zd.jpg
 
Thanks guys. I feel pretty stupid now. The pic that I was using was at a angle and it looked like (to me at least) that the prints if the guard and the ramp were even. Once you move that ramp up it ties in the lines from the back of the handle and the spine. I was going for the style but with a little wider blade and FFG. I will turn this one into some sort of drop point and start over. Thanks again.

John your drawing looks pretty cool . I might give it a try.
 
I use a lot of thumb ramps. Kuraki has it right - the bottom of the thumb ramp should be directly above where the forefinger knuckle curls around the bottom of the handle. I generally make the handle 4.5 to 5.0 inches from the bottom of the thumb ramp to the back of the handle. I prefer 5.0 inches which allows the user to move his hand a little forward or back to adjust for hand size and thumb length.
 
It's defenitly a look that i like on the right knife. I think maybe I got it in my head that it's the same layout as a guard. The more I tried bring the lines in the worse it looked. Sometimes the answer is easy but your brain locks on and tries to make it much more complicated.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top