Length of the ricasso

I have progressed toward shorter ricasso's over time. I find them esthetically more pleasing, and no less useful.
A few years back.

Recent.


Darcy:)
 
HallHandmade said:
I won't deny that I've found inspiration in the work of many of this site's makers

Primarily, I prefer the looks of it. A ricasso that is long enough to choke up on comfortably adds a lot of length to the knife with no added usable blade length. Generally, if I were to make a knife longer, I'd rather do so by adding to the usable edge.

Normally I only use a slightly longer ricasso on guardless designs or those where it is aesthetically suitable, or where ability to choke up is a non-negotiable design aspect.

Edit: I wanted to add, I'm still a pretty new maker, and for a while I was worried that I was doing something "wrong", because I saw longer ricassos on so many knives. It just seemed that it never looked right to me when on the drawing board, so I just went with my gut. I will admit, this thread makes me feel a bit better.
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I really agree with this.

I haven't really been making knives that long and I have played with what "looks right" to me. I find that I like the looks of a shorter ricasso. Mine tend to but just around 3/8", sometimes shorter. However, when I try to make bigger knives blades longer than 8" and make them wide, it moves up to about 1/2".
 
DEllis said:
I have progressed toward shorter ricasso's over time. I find them esthetically more pleasing, and no less useful.
A few years back.

Recent.


Darcy:)
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Nice job, thanks for showing us, I like them both, but I'm liking the the short ricasso better. I wonder if the same would be true if the longer ricassoed knife had all the embellishments.
 
I think that dang Wheeler guy is responsible for the short ricasso because he only uses his last name in his logo. :)

That said, I like it. I don't care for large ricassos and especially the kind that you can put your finger in ahead of the guard. I feel the longer edge is a far superior design.
 
Bruce Bump said:
I think that dang Wheeler guy is responsible for the short ricasso because he only uses his last name in his logo. :)

That said, I like it. I don't care for large ricassos and especially the kind that you can put your finger in ahead of the guard. I feel the longer edge is a far superior design.
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I'm with you Bruce
 
I completely agree with Bruce and Mark, the short "Nick Wheeler ricasso" look is
most typically the best looking and most advantageous treatment,imo.
These aren't Randalls were talking about.

:)

No disrespect meant towards Randall, just have had and have seen some with
exceedingly long ricassos on different models.
Just an observation.

Doug
 
Bruce Bump said:
I think that dang Wheeler guy is responsible for the short ricasso because he only uses his last name in his logo. :)

That said, I like it. I don't care for large ricassos and especially the kind that you can put your finger in ahead of the guard. I feel the longer edge is a far superior design.
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As I stated earlier, I think the overall knife design dictates whether a shorter or longer ricasso looks best, however IMO one that may be a little too short is better than one too long.
Seems like about 3/8"-5/8" looks good on must knives.
Bruce's knives always seem to look just right, with ricassos not too short and not too long.

Not sure many knife designs would benefit from a ricasso this short, however certainly looks good here.

11656936835_4c1e84f94f_b.jpg
 
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Kevin Jones said:
As I stated earlier, I think the overall knife design dictates whether a shorter or longer ricasso looks best, however IMO one that may be a little too short is better than one too long.
Seems like about 3/8"-5/8" looks good on must knives.
Bruce's knives always seem to look right, with ricassos not too short and not too long.
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I agree on all counts Kevin, thanks for putting your paddle in the water.
 
Ben Seward's most recently posted knife has a really sweet looking ricasso area...
 
Mark, You used the term "formal school of thought". The Golden Mean is just that in my thinking. It is a mathematical formula to fall back on when there is no other compelling factors. It's a rule of thumb. When other factors enter, it affects the rule. If one balances out the factors with the rule it can still look good.

If I were to make my blades straight, my guards straight, my plunges square, etc. then I would use the Golden Mean in a more precise and recognizable way. However I think that Ben's knife, maybe my knife, and Nick's knife all use it too. It is just harder to measure. If the trained eye thinks it looks good, then there is probably some relationships in the related curves and transitions that are using the Golden Mean. It's harder to see but it is there. Think of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.
 
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I'm with Lin on this. When I used to build boats, we had a saying "if she looks sweet, she'll work sweet". in that respect, the golden mean even transferred from the looks to the actual performance of the boat in the water... The same may be true on the knives as well.

Adam.
 
wrt the golden mean, one word; fractal!
 
lwrhea said:
Mark, You used the term "formal school of thought". The Golden Mean is just that in my thinking. It is a mathematical formula to fall back on when there is no other compelling factors. It's a rule of thumb. When other factors enter, it affects the rule. If one balances out the factors with the rule it can still look good.

If I were to make my blades straight, my guards straight, my plunges square, etc. then I would use the Golden Mean in a more precise and recognizable way. However I think that Ben's knife, maybe my knife, and Nick's knife all use it too. It is just harder to measure. If the trained eye thinks it looks good, then there is probably some relationships in the related curves and transitions that are using the Golden Mean. It's harder to see but it is there. Think of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.
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I follow you Lin, I have heard the term before and studied it a little bit in art classes. That's why I asked the question, I always understood the "Golden mean" or golden ratio to mean something near 2/3s of the width. We are seeing length of ricassos 1/4 of the width and to me anyway, they look pleasing. Are we seeing a departure from the golden mean?
 
DesRosiers said:
I'm with Lin on this. When I used to build boats, we had a saying "if she looks sweet, she'll work sweet". in that respect, the golden mean even transferred from the looks to the actual performance of the boat in the water... The same may be true on the knives as well.

Adam.
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Yeah, where I fished we built 21 foot skiffs with beams of about 7 feet, there's the golden mean again. I think with knives what looks sweet for us is widening, at least in the area of width of ricassos.
 
A short bladed knife and a lightweight knife is okay with a short ricasso or a no ricasso at all.
Anyhow if the handle is short then a long ricasso helps in the usage of it.

Long bladed knife and heavy bladed knife is okay with a long ricasso especially when it's expected to have a two hands grip in some of the applications.
After all we seldom make use of the cutting edge very near to the handle.

mohd
 
I find the combination of the guard/ricasso/choil treatment on the Seward piece very pleasing as well.
 
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