Is there a final frontier for knives:?

golok

golok

Joined
Oct 20, 2000
Messages
4,453
Almost everything conceivable about knives has been made.

There is probably nothing left or nothing extraordinary anymore that can be conceived in the minds of men as far knives are concerned.
Is that possible? Is there nothing stupendous or marvellous that can be added to the design of a knife that is likely to stun and thrill knife collectors?

Before the next knifemaker can add: "Wait till I finish my project", I would like to add that I have seen and read some of the more important knife books, and I haven't seen anything extraordinary that has taken the world of steel by storm in the past two decades.

Who wish to differ?
 
They say the same thing about movies, art and songs but we still keep going to the movies, buy art and I hear a new song nearly everyday and I still like new music.

So I guess we can think the same way about knives.

Being a designer now I know it is a bitch to think of something completely new, but it happens.
 
The next big invention is right around the corner. The way that grinds are getting thicker and thicker, for no good reason, I'm awaiting the invention of the miraculous forged blade with a completely round blade shape. Many will scoff and call it a pipe, but others will exclaim the virtues of the blade edge that can't be chipped or rolled. Put a couple slabs of micarta or stag on it, so it has an integral round handle, and the masses will herald the achievement. We’ll have round blade neck knives, choppers, fighters, and ones that may even have a point on the end. And oh the grind lines on these babies!!!

My guess is that enough makers know steel and blade geometry well enough that the next useful change will be in the area of ergonomics.
 
Almost everything conceivable about knives has been made. There is probably nothing left or nothing extraordinary anymore that can be conceived in the minds of men as far knives are concerned.
Click to expand...

No, guys, let's admit it. Mr. golok is right. It's time to close the patent office.

In the last decade, I can think of at least four major new lock designs. So, with that spurt, I'm sure that every conceivable lock design has been invented. No new designs are possible.

They keep tinkering around with the alloys resulting in a alphanumeric soup of new steels, but let's face it: they're all basically the same. Well, there is Talonite and Stelite. But other than that, they're all basically just steel.

And liners made of Titanium are really not that much different than any other liners.

In my own niche', balisongs, we've been using Titanium for twenty-five years. Of course, twenty-five years ago, a Titanium-handled balisong would have cost you as much as a new car, literally. Today: about a hundred bucks.

Benchmade just invented the spring-loaded balisong latch, so that's been done. I can't think of anything more we might do to improve balisongs anymore.

So, yes, it is time to close the patent office.

Or is it?????

Watch The Balisong Forum. In the next week or so, you're gonna see the introduction of something new...

of course, it's already patent pending, so I guess it is ok to start shutting the patent office down.
 
Along the same note you could say that nothing major has happend to the wheel, cloths are the same, knive simply cut like they did millenia ago, food is still the same, entertainment hasn't evolved drasticly. It goes on and on.

Things don't change all that much. Its simply that people are born and die so each generation thinks it has its own "new" thing.

Anyway I think I'm babbling so I'd better shut up!:footinmou
 
The final frontier in knives??

Simple!!

http://pages.globetrotter.net/jjobin/knives1.html

Okay, you asked about the "final frontier" in knives, and this site has always amazed me........

In all honesty, I cannot recall correctly if Mr Jobin is still making knives. I thought I saw an article a few months ago about his passing, I'm just not certain.
 
If you consider that knives will always use steel (metal) for the blade
then it may be an end game after all. However, if , just if, new materials
and method of creating cutlery then I'd say no we've got a long way to
go Mabel.

Who says that knives must forever be made of metal? Who says that
blade and handle shapes must be as they are now and still be useful?
Who says that knives can't be electronic? And who says the last knife
design has already been drawn? Not me that's for sure.

People thought that man wouldn't fly but ....well, you know. So the only
thing impossiable or improbably is that mankind has invented his last cutting
tool. :rolleyes:
 
...maybe self-contained laser knives, similar to what are used in surgery now ;)

...or some new fangled self-sharpening system that actually works.
 
I remember reading in a sci-fi story about a molecular knife: maybe it was a Larry Niven story. The knife uses a super strong, single strand of a chained molecule, mounted like a wire on a cheeze cutter. The "blade" was actually a wire, invisible, and the cuts were barely visible.
 
I wonder when making synthetic diamonds in large quantities would be cheap enough to make one big indestructible knife.....maybe never, but I guess I can still dream about a knife that never needs to be sharpened, or eventually wearing it out, or dealing with rolled edges and chips....
 
I also remember seeing a movie with the same theory as what Rodmeister has stated . The knife itself consisted of some sort of wire/string of chained molecule, which could cut through just about any thing including steel/stone etc. it was held by two rings like one of those emergency survival saws. I see this as a plausible evolution of the knife as we know it! That would be awsome !
:D
 
People are always tinkering. I've corresponded with a knifemaker who is working on a knife that uses a solenoid to open a knife blade. The thing has a battery and a motor to open itself. I'm not sure of the utility of such a thing but it goes to show you that tinkering certainly isn't dead.
 
David your thinking about Johnny Neumonic with Keanu Reeves, the guy cuts off somebodys head with that device.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top