Is there a place for clip points in a woods knife?

[knifetester]

Personally I do not like sharpened false edges, and don't care for the swedge on the KBar. I would prefer a spear point design.

That being said, since it does come so equipped, and the sharpened false edge can be used for cutting abbrassive material such as carpet, sod for laying atop a shelter, scraping ferro rods (as mentioned above), wood or bone.

 

[kgd]

Clip points definately have a place. If you look at some of the top makers of large knives, they seem to all have clip points. Becker, Busse, Swamp Rat, and even our own Gossman to say a few. The trick is that these makers all carry the thickness in the clip unlike the Kabar which is ground thinner. Then again the Kabar is a fighting knife first where as a lot of these are tough knives first. For field use I believe strength is the attribute I want. I know that if I needed to I could get a spoon into a bear with the right motivation. So I opt for full strength, non-sharpened clips.

My interest is tweaked - can somebody summarize the actual purpose of the swedge on a wilderness knife. So far the discussion has focused on the safety aspect of 2 sharp edges rather than 1. As Shotgun mentions above, the swedge is a really common feature - the question is why.

One person so far mentioned that clip-point/swedge provide a sharper tip. That makes sense to me but is this the reason for its popularity in production models?

 

[Gossman Knives]

My interest is tweaked - can somebody summarize the actual purpose of the swedge on a wilderness knife. So far the discussion has focused on the safety aspect of 2 sharp edges rather than 1. As Shotgun mentions above, the swedge is a really common feature - the question is why.

One person so far mentioned that clip-point/swedge provide a sharper tip. That makes sense to me but is this the reason for its popularity in production models?

The way I see it is that the swedge thins the back portion of the blade, thins the point for better penetration. When it is fully shapened it aids in stabbing where the blade can cut upward and downward. These types of blades are used for boar hunting.
Scott