Knife design features that you now find unacceptable in new purchases

Pharmagator

Pharmagator

Joined
Apr 17, 2010
Messages
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Long ago I purchased a 'screw-on' thumb stud to make my Buck 110 'one hand opening'

I thought I now had the greatest knife! Years pass and I now am not really interested in a knife that opens with thumb studs... I prefer flipper tabs or 'Spydie holes'

same with Assissted Opening... couldn't get enough of those... now, pfft...

So, what are some knife features you find you no longer prefer/appreciate?
 
Gut hooks!!!

For more years than I can count, I thought having a gut hook was the greatest thing on a "real" hunting knife. I can only see one use for it now when field dressing game and it has nothing to do with actually gutting the animal.
 
Its probably quicker for me to say what is acceptable to me now. Lol. Long list of unacceptables.

I dislike flipper tabs, tanto blades, and compound grinds...to name a few.
 
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Choils. Especially on large knives. Although I still buy knives with them.

How does choking up on a 8” knife to make it 7” help with detail work? I’d rather have the extra edge and the heel of the blade next to the handle where I can exert more pressure and have control over the back edge.
 
No:

Thumbstuds
Assisted
Plain Ti, really metal handles in general, except for automatics
"Tactical"
Heavy overbuilt
Thick blades
Framelocks
Black blades
Partial serrations
Tantos

When I was in my 20's, I was all about tactical and assisted. I owned 6 SOGs, two with partial serrations, one with P/S and a tanto, P/S tigerstripe fixed, and one straight edge clip point. 3 were assisted. Two blacked out. I also had a CRKT M16-12Z, partially serrated tanto.

I only have one of those left. The rest were sold, traded, or given away. The CRKT was disassembled and thrown out. The lock failed reliably.

Now, it's spydiehole, flipper, or auto.

Going from Mr. Badass to Mr. Crippled sobered me. I'm walking well but will never be able to run again. This means my dream career of becoming an assassin is over.
 
Let's see:

- No China made knives. No, I don't care if it's a midtech for an American designer.
- No combo blades. I have zero need for serrations.
- No tanto points (I have a few knives with them I still like, but as a general rule, if a knife is offered in multiple blade styles, I'll take a wharncliffe, or drop-point).
- No front flippers (I really don't understand how these have gained traction)
- More recently, I'm starting to come out of my "tacticool" phase of life, so some of the knives (and companies) I used to be into, I'm not really into anymore.
- No assisted open
- No automatics or OTF. I was into OTFs for about five seconds, but have no real use for them in my collection


The above are all things that at one time or another WERE in my collection. Those that are left I'm slowly continuing to gift/trade/sell away.
 
Kershaw AO

When I got my first Kershaw years ago (Leek) I thought it was awesome, but now as my tastes have changed and I have much nicer, more expensive folders I'd never consider buying an AO knife again.
 
I guess it would be knives that can't be opened with one hand.
I still love my stockmans and peanuts and barlows, and my Swiss Army knives...but I seldom carry them these days.

But I'm not in to assisted or automatic opening knives either.
 
1) Folders that "require" a sheath. I EDC'd an Adamas in pocket & a Buck 112 in a sheath for years. Multi tools are excluded.
2) Two handed opening or closing folders? Nope. Open & close w/ one hand.
3) Assisted. That got old quick. Always worried while closing, the blade would slip & fly open in my face.
4) No serrations. Pain to sharpen.
5) Folders w/ one thumb stud. My Inkosi has two. There should be two. I have two hands.
 
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