Knife or Death

I was just watching the episode and thought "hey I recognize that knife!" (I lurk the custom forums and have seen the heavily commented on Nathan the Machinist sales threads :p ) so I searched and found this thread. I think it's so cool to see our fellow BF members and their work on TV! Good job Jeannie, and I look forward to Jonny's run!
 
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thanks for the link, that was a good one! Pretty cool to see two women compete and one make it to the final course against a fit, 6',6" dude. If it weren't for that dang chicken butt, we might've seen two women in the final:thumbsup:
 
Gotta be honest folks, last night's episode (S2-E4) felt quite flat to me and with Travis's decision to disqualify that Kukri, the program kinda jumped the shark for me. Granted that handle scales with full on finger grooves and weirdly designed exposed tang and with an almost pinkie size hole are not the greatest of designs when it comes to a commercial type application, but that kukri was made for that particular contestant. I din't know, maybe real experts can weigh in as to whether the disqualification was justified. For me, I have seen far worse blades making that course up to that point!

Anywho! I will be waiting for Jonny's episode to air and if he should not continue on, oh well, I will just go back tony usual routine of flipping and surfing channels :D
 
Casinostocks said:
Gotta be honest folks, last night's episode (S2-E4) felt quite flat to me and with Travis's decision to disqualify that Kukri, the program kinda jumped the shark for me. Granted that handle scales with full on finger grooves and weirdly designed exposed tang and with an almost pinkie size hole are not the greatest of designs when it comes to a commercial type application, but that kukri was made for that particular contestant. I din't know, maybe real experts can weigh in as to whether the disqualification was justified. For me, I have seen far worse blades making that course up to that point!

Anywho! I will be waiting for Jonny's episode to air and if he should not continue on, oh well, I will just go back tony usual routine of flipping and surfing channels :D
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While the kukri was specifically made for KoD, it was a poor design. choice to make the pinky hole for a chopper.

If you looked at the handle geometry, it was quite obvious, that it was designed to slip the pinky in that hole. Recall how many times you've seen blades twist in contestants hands when they chop hard, and you can see that the chances of winding up with a snapped pinky are inordinately high.

As-is Travis refused to put his pinky in the hole while testing it, and the bird's beak design at the end, made it too uncomfortable to maintain a grip with the pinky on the outside. He realized that once the contestant got tired, he'd either have a snapped finger if he used it with his pinky in the hole (which is how he designed it), or the blade would slip out of his grip, due to the bare metal putting pressure on the pinky, if he held it the way Travis did.

Good safety call.
 
The pinky sized hole in the protruding "beak" style tang was just very stupid, granted if that was the intention and I understand the safety call. I mean, I'm not even a big fan of tang attached lanyards for a big and heavy chopper (forward lanyard only for me) but as stated, I understand the safety hazard issue if that guy was indeed going to stick his pinky in the hole!
 
91bravo said:
That big guy with that big 1095 chopper destroyed the course last night! He was a BEAST! One of the better runs I've seen on KoD!
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Not only was he a beast, he's one of the rare few so far, to use the perfect technique on the falling melons. Why none of the other contestants use that technique boggles my mind.

I mentioned it immediately after seeing the obstacle in S1E1. It was the 1st thing I thought, upon seeing the obstacle, and posted that, "unless they specified in the rules, that it wasn't allowed, that's what I would have done".

I also find it amusing, that when discussing longer vs shorter blades, I happened to mention big guys involved in SCA/HEMA, and 2 HEMA guys have made it to Dead Run so far (with the 6'6" guy destroying the course with a 4:10 Dead Run time in S2E3).

Neither one of those HEMA guys has the level of chopping form that the guys with shorter choppers do (or used the smart technique the beast did on the falling melons), and they still did remarkably well due to the advantage of those long (not very well made) blades, and enough practice to handle them decently.

Based on 30 seconds per penalty, the 2nd HEMA guy would've beat the beast, simply by using the same technique on the falling melons (and the HEMA giant would've had an even faster run).
 
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Casinostocks said:
The pinky sized hole in the protruding "beak" style tang was just very stupid, granted if that was the intention and I understand the safety call. I mean, I'm not even a big fan of tang attached lanyards for a big and heavy chopper (forward lanyard only for me) but as stated, I understand the safety hazard issue if that guy was indeed going to stick his pinky in the hole!
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Yeah, the contouring of the handle + curvature of that beak, made it obvious that he designed it so the pinky was supposed to go in the hole.

Even a woman with tiny hands would not find that handle comfortable to use with their pinky not in the hole. Once they got a little tired, and their hand slipped down the grip a little, that bare metal curve would put a lot of pressure on the pinky.

Any average male-sized hands, would already place the pinky on that bare metal when held with the pinky outside the hole.
 
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