Long ago, and far away...Cliff Stamp test program

Kismet-
Thanks for bringing this up again.

I must completely agree with Cliff that this was a very astute observation:

Weight is about double, handle is huge...
Moreover the weight is centered lower to the handle--a full tang, so that more effort is needed to move the blade, the whole arm must be used to utilize the mass of the knife, whereas with the smaller blade, weight is centered out near the bend of the blade and wrist action helps with creating velocity for impact.
Click to expand...

You've discovered for yourself that bringing the balance point closer does not necessarily make the blade quicker to use. This flies against the conventional wisdom of those who make "fighting knives", who want the knife balanced at or behind the guard. I usually let such claims go unchallenged, as it would only catch me flak.

Have you since explored the reasons behind this phenomenon?
It relates to the additional leverage you get by moving the hand further from the balance point, since the knife naturally wants to rotate around its balance point. I'm trying to think up an analogy here... Let's say instead of a knife, we want to spin (rotate) an airplane propeller. The propeller's hub/axle would be akin to the knife's center of balance. If we try to turn the propeller by hand, it's easier to pull by placing our hand near the ends of the propeller tips, rather than close to the hub. Same general idea as when we want to use that extra "wrist snap" to whip a blade around.

These ideas were discussed more in depth in this article on the ARMA site. Note that I do not agree with everything this author says, but I believe there is merit in at least this portion of his ideas.
 
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