Is it harder to make a miniature knife or a large knife?

[T. Erdelyi]

Is a large folder easier to make than a smaller one, does it change with fixed blades or multi blade folders?

I can see where a larger knife becomes more difficult to maintain consistent grind lines than on a smaller knife but there's a point where the smaller knife becomes more difficult than the larger one because there's less material to work with and if you mess up on a smaller blade most likely you have to scrap it because there's less room for mistakes.

Folders complicate this even more because the tolerances in smaller knives becomes more critical as a result of having moving parts to contend with. As you get larger you have more mass to deal with, larger surface areas that past a certain point in size magnify/exaggerate the error in the specs.

I was just curious if one was harder to make while maintaining specs over the other. I know another factor is the amount of hand work vs machine work makes a big difference in that with hand work you remove material so slowly that you have the opportunity to catch yourself before the error becomes too large and with machinery, a belt grinder for example you can remove material so fast that by the time you catch yourself you may have ground away too much material to recover.

One last variable I'd like to add to the question is forging, does forging afford you the opportunity because you moving metal, to fix pretty much any error by just starting over and making a new billet from the old?

I know in asking a lot and appreciate any discussion this post elicits, I know you are all very busy and if this post garners any interest I'll do my best to keep it alive. Have a good one folks.

BTW I placed this in general in hopes of getting a larger cross section of the knife community from consumers to makers and manufacturers. If the mods feel it should be anywhere else by all means move it but if it stays here I believe this will enlighten everyone involved in the community by allowing everyone to see the other sides perceive the difficulty in relation to size and size does matter.

 

[RevDevil]

I remember Sal Glesser wrote something to the effect of making a knife smaller (existing model) is harder than making that same knife in a larger version.

 

[jac_solar]

Rick Hinderer said, in the video where he's talking about his new ZT/Kershaw designs, "Small knives are actually a lot harder to design than large knives."

Here's the video: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1150441-Kershaw-Hinderer-Ember?highlight=ember

 

[stonproject]

ive often wondered this myself.

Im curious to see where this goes. Thanks for the thread

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Part of the problem in transitioning the same pattern to a different scale is to make it look and work properly, smaller springs tend to be stiffer making blades harder to open and on a larger scale with the mass of the blade it gets harder to make a spring strong enough while keeping the size small enough to stop the blade from flopping open from its own weight.

I've only made a few knives but I've been a mechanic/machinist for nearly 40 years and machines whether it's a knife or a trip hammer have to abide by the same laws of physics, is the job of the Cutler to find the happy medium with these considerations while making the knife appealing and functional.

You can mask a small frail knife or a big, think boxy knife that does job but how well does it work and look?