Knife power-chopping????

ryan9977

ryan9977

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Feb 16, 2006
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hey guys...this might be a weird question but how do u design a knife with power.....i'll explain where this came from....the other day i had to chop down a huge bush in my yard...i used a tarditional japanese koshinata like the pic atatched....it is very thick and heavy....single edged and has a curved handle....it has a 210mm blade....which in my eyes is short for chopping...it had so much power it was unbelievable...you hold the handle towards the bottom and the amount of energy transfered to the swing was amazing.....so my question is:

1)how does such a small blade chop so well....is it the curve of the handle....

2)would a bowie style chopper blade benefit from a handle like this

any other thoughts wouldbe appreciated....i am not the best cutter by any means....but this knife made short work of anything in my path in the hands of a very inexperienced cutter....thanks for any comments.....ryan
 

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A couple of things in that design really help to increase chopping power. The forward balance of such a design will inherently increase chopping power. A handle or even neutral balanced blade feels fast in hand, but often doesn't have the same umph of a slightly blade-heavy balance. The other thing is the tipped down blade design. You won't see many arrow-straight competition choppers out there. You will see a lot that have the blade tipped down from the handle. This improves your lever arm and allows the blade to take maximum advantage of your shoulder-elbow-wrist-hand mechanics.

For heavier camp knives, I'll often combine a couple of things. The blade will be neutral or slightly forward balanced (though not much) to improve chopping power. Also, I'll design the handle so it allows you to "choke down" on the end of the handle, and though the blade isn't tipped down too much, when you do choke back on the end of the handle, it increases the blade tip-down as well as functionally moves the balance forward.

--nathan
 
nathan...it is balanced very forward...the handle is super light and it is a very thick blade....thanks for your insight....i didn't know that about the comp cutters....ryan
 
can you tell us how your grip felt? was there a lot of mobility for the handle, allowing more "flick"? I have found that blades can cut out of proportion to their size using a 2 finger grip on the very end of the handle.

traditional kukris lock my hand and wrist in, low mobility, not as good chopping
 
well the one i used has the first few inches of th ehandle by the guard paracord wrapped....the rest of the handle is smooth wood...i had a thin garden type glove on....if i held the knife close to the guard you could not get much power and it felt awkward....it was good for delicate work like stripping branches and stuff like that.....when i moved my handle all the way towards the bottom it had awesome chopping power and evn with a simple flick of your wrist it could go thru small brances like they weren't there.....ryan
 
ohh one thing i was surprised about is i thought for sure it was gonna slip out of my hand with my hand that close to the bottom of the handle...just the opposite...it felt very secure and even with me hitting as hard as i could my hand stayed put....ryan
 
The design of your edge and how it's sharpened might also affect how it cuts. The same knife may not be as effective on other materials.

Just a thought, Craig
 
you mention moving your hand forward and back.

is the handle long enough to facilitate multiple grips? aka when you were holding it near the rear, was there still handle left in front of your hand?

Marion
 
That knife made me think of this:
Tai%20Goo%20Bush%20Buddy%2001-3.jpg
 
marion...u can almost hold it with two hands...the handle is huge

sam-most of the sheats r junky till u get to the real higher end koshinatas


david-i got one similar to that too!:D

thanks for all the comments.....ryan
 
I've found that blade width and forward weight of the blade give you more power when chopping. The overall grind/edge geometry will make a difference also. If the edge is too thick, it will make it more difficult to dig in. A near zero convex edge, slight micro bevel, works best for me.
Scott
 
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