Makers, what is your opinion in "Jimping"?

[AVigil]

I feel jimping is a good way to ruin a good knife experience.

I don't like it, i have done some on customer request but try to talk them out of it. The fact is those knives were never destined to be used anyway and sit in a knife case.

I have seen many a bloody finger due to jimping. In my 50+ years of knife use I have never found the need for jimping on any knife

So, how do you feel about it and what is the argument for it?

 

[Josh Rider]

I like it...on certain knives. I don’t think it’s necessary, but I like the contrast and texture occasionally.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

One can never be too rich, or have too much jimping.

 

[Matthew Gregory]

It’s a perfect cure for a knife with bad ergonomics.

 

[LARRYZ10]

I think jimping can look really nice on some knives if it is not too large and if it is well placed for a thumb rest. It adds a little interest to an otherwise boring knife blade. Having said that I do not care for jimping much and would rather shape my blade with a thumb rest area with out jimping. Also knives with jimping seem to catch a little more debris when being used for dressing game but that is not much of a problem to clean.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Adam, Surely you know that knives are nothing more than a medium for jimping.

Its the whole point. It would be absurd to have even a single inch unjimped!

 

[lanternnate]

I currently only make as gifts to friends and family, so my sample size is infetisimily small, but people seem to want/like jimping. I personally tend to rest my thumb there instinctively whenever I hold a knife, so I kind of like it as well. It wouldn't look right on every kind of blade, but it seems right on little utilitarian user type knives.

 

[AVigil]

I personally tend to rest my thumb there instinctively whenever I hold a knife, so I kind of like it as well.

This is kinda my point about jimping. That thumb would, with heavy use, start to get shreaded from the jimping.

When we look at hand tools there is no jimping because it tears at flesh. Typically Jimping or knurling is used to give traction for finger or hand tightening something.

I just never had my thumb slip while using a knife.

 

[Mitchell Knives]

I generally don't care for jimping.

If the knife is designed well, it's not needed.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

Jimping is the picatinny rail of the knife world.

 

[kuraki]

I only do it if requested. Mostly because it's more work.

It doesn't bother me on a knife any more than coining or the like, but I like 20 LPI front straps too.

 

[john april]

it seems to be used as a decoration mostly. some bob loveless knives have it, i am guessing it is to help keep grip when the knife is covered in blood.

 

[Minnesota Man]

I have mixed feelings about jimping. Some knives I don't mind having it but seldomly need/use it. I do appreciate "thumb ramps" often but they usually have minor less obtrusive jimping. I don't consider jimping when buying knives.

Edit: I missed the "Makers" part I'm sorry! Would you like me to delete post?

 

[Matthew Gregory]

I’m not the original poster, but I sure hope it’s not deleted - our opinions really only matter if the USER feels the same way!

I have mixed feelings about jumping. Some knives I don't mind having it but seldomly need/use it. I do appreciate "thumb ramps" often but they usually have minor less obtrusive jimping. I dont consider jimping when buying knives.

Edit: I missed the "Makers" part I'm sorry! Would you like me to delete post?

 

[javand]

This is a pet peeve area of mine also, and I have to agree that to me, jimping is mostly bullshit.

I can see under some highly limited circumstances, maybe, that it could be arguably of minor utility, but basically only in an actual combat situation, on that style of knife, where the user is operating with gloves on. Stabbing their sharpened crowbar (as many tactical knives essentially are), through a tank door, with all their weight, utilizing the otherwise useless, "hamfisted" grip. Even then, I agree that it's kind of a substitute for thoughtful ergonomics/design in the first place.

OTH, I'm not a tactical knife maker, but I can see how it's practically fucking expected in that market, and may lead to a lot of explaining if you don't have it.

Even the "appropriately" done jimping that's chamfered and toned down, that my friends who do make this kind of knife, and know what they're doing, implement, doesn't seem to add any actual traction to me. Hell, checkering or knurling, would be significantly more effective, as it's a simple question of adding more traction through changing the surface area of contact, and most importantly, increasing it, at different angles. Not really sure how the "standard" style jimping even came to exist? Anyone that's into contemporary knife history have some insight?


In fairness, what I think we're describing as much as anything is this "feature" being done with very little regard to the user, i.e. sharp jimping (I don't want to use the word "aggressive" because I think that may be part of the reason we're dealing with in the first place; you describe *anything* as aggressive, and there's a certain part of the market that will find it massively appealing based on that description). Almost all of my friends that make tactical style knives, most of them ex-SF/combat vets, have described to me that they hate jimping done wrong, and think most of the makers are doing it wrong. Obviously, they're much more qualified to understand the users of their knives than I am, so if they see the necessity of it, from an actual use scenario, maybe I'm just missing something.

 

[javand]

it seems to be used as a decoration mostly. some bob loveless knives have it, i am guessing it is to help keep grip when the knife is covered in blood.

That may sound good on paper, but I can assure you it'd have little to no affect on that.

Honestly the only situation I can see it remotely affecting is to stop your hand sliding forward over the choil of the blade, from an immediately "hard stop" in a forward stab. Even then, to me, the efficacy seems questionable. A guard would definitely solve that issue. Although in fairness, I've never understood the lack of guards on combat/tactical style knives at all. Seems like the first feature you'd want IMO.

 

[john april]

i respectfully beg to differ. although i do not own one, but have handled loveless knives with the jimping at knife shows. i can feel that it would serve its intended purpose. and i also trust that bob would not put something on the knife that functions poorly. i cannot find a photo, but here is a pic of marcus lin's jimping in the loveless criss cross style. i have not been making knives that long, but i have been a user since i was a kid. perhaps a hundred times i have stabbed full force into live and dead tree trunks with saber grip, and ice pick grip. never once did i feel like my hand was going to slide forward, even with a chef knife having zero contour on the handle, and no thumb over the end of the pommel. i have skinny boney hands, so it does not have to do with strength. i got in trouble a few times because i would take moms big carbon steel chef knives in the woods and pretend i was jim bowie or a samurai just my two cents, but i do not think a guard is required to be functional. Jimping by john april, on Flickr

 

[AVigil]

i also trust that bob would not put something on the knife that functions poorly

Well, Bob did say when stag was wanted on a knife "Why would you want to use inferior material?" Yet he still use a lot of stag when requested.

I have seen some jimping on Loveless Stiff Horn Sneaks. Now I do not know if Bob did it because of a custom order or if he thought it was a good idea.

Good jimping can be a cosmetic enhancement that is certain.

 

[A.McPherson]

I'm definitely in the "it's ok for cosmetic use" camp. I kinda view it as I do other file work on the spine. Looks good sometimes but really doesn't add anything to the functionality of the blade, and might actually take away from it...

 

[kuraki]

Is that jimping? What is jimping in the context of the question? To me it refers only to single line cuts of a radius or triangular profile on the top of the blade where one might rest a thumb.

That Loveless example to me is checkering, and the further you get away from what I described above the more I think it's "filework" or checkering and not "Jimping."

Not that I'm right in that, just curious how others define it.