Makers, what is your opinion in "Jimping"?

here here. I do like checkering, but unlike Kuraki, I'm more refined and prefer the front strap on a 1911 at 30 LPI. He's a savage.
 
I had one customer ask for them and specifically told me it was necessary while wearing heavy work gloves, he wasnt worried about them being to deep or aggressive.

I think they look cool sometimes on a thumb ramp but cant stand them in the fore finger area.
 
My own opinions... and nobody can tell me I'm wrong, cuz that's cyber-bullying.

Jimping for indexing the edge on a symmetrical handle or the like?... Sure
Jimping for enhanced purchase on a handle or blade spine?... Ridiculous... use better handle geometry.

Ha!.... I kill me.

This is what I think of jimping...

2v2u4e5eCxAhgEC.jpg
 
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john april said:
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 :D just my two cents, but i do not think a guard is required to be functional. Jimping by john april, on Flickr
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Sorry, but this is checkering. Not good checkering, but it is flat checkering.
 
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I like jimping and so do most of my customers. Mostly they don't know what it is until I show or tell them and then they usually ask for it. It's not hard to do and raises the price of the knife a bit. Even so, I rarely do it unless it's asked for.
 
Col Defender said:
I like jimping and so do most of my customers. Mostly they don't know what it is until I show or tell them and then they usually ask for it. It's not hard to do and raises the price of the knife a bit. Even so, I rarely do it unless it's asked for.
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So what do you tell your customers it is? This is a very confusing post...

You do but you don't unless they ask but you tell em and then they do... but you normally don't?
 
I'm with Kuraki - that Loveless example is checkering. I put jimping on my skinners and fillet knives as a standard because that's where your hand may slip in blood and guts The cost is figured into the base price. I also put a thumb ramp, with jimping, on the blade at the front of the scales because I don't like guards. Everyone who has bought a skinner likes it. Just my thoughts on the subject.
Tim
 
Rick Marchand said:
My own opinions... and nobody can tell me I'm wrong, cuz that's cyber-bullying.

Jimping for indexing the edge on a symmetrical handle or the like?... Sure
Jimping for enhanced purchase on a handle or blade spine?... Ridiculous... use better handle geometry.

Ha!.... I kill me.

This is what I think of jimping...

2v2u4e5eCxAhgEC.jpg
Click to expand...
This.
 
Ok, so I'll defend the beleaguered jimp a bit here.

1. If your jumping is tearing your flesh, you're doing it wrong. I took several runs at jimping with plenty goes of wrong before figuring out what gave a grip but was comfortable. I found the best was a small half round needle file, making the jimping wider than it is deep, and of course rounding/smoothing the edges. I find things like knurling tear at flesh much more than smoothed jimping. I kind of hate knurling and checkering personally to be honest.

2. If you don't understand how jimping would help your grip, you've never used a knife to cut some fishing line with wet hands ;). The posts talking about stabby stabby I don't get. I've never viewed jimping as having anything to do with stabbing. It's useful when pushing down with your thumb and when pulling. I don't know anyone that puts their thumb on top of the blade for stabbing. Then again I don't know anyone that actually uses a knife for stabbing o_O. I guess I have a more "utilitarian" circle of folks.

3. Connected to 2, I don't quite get the "tacticool" association. We aren't talking about fake saw teeth etc. here, and it's not a feature I see as "combat" oriented. It's really a utility thing.

The first friend I made a knife for, I went with him to look at other knives and observed what he seemed to care about, liked, didn't like, etc. Every knife he inspected the jimping and tried it for feel and grip. It was probably the most important thing to him. Before making his knife I tried a lot of different knives in the hand then tried and failed a few times at getting it right. In the end I was pretty happy with what came out. I gave him an extended section of jimping so it worked in multiple grip points. Is it right for every knife? Absolutely not, but on something like a little utility neck knife I think it has a place. This is that knife:
kjCbk0o.jpg
 
lanternnate said:
If you don't understand how jimping would help your grip, you've never used a knife to cut some fishing line with wet hands
Click to expand...

Oh man, I have been a fly fisherman for 40 years and never once cut my line with a knife LOL. I use clippers made for cutting line :)

Honestly I find egg shaped handles hard to hold onto when wet and slippery, when the scales have flats on both sides and on top to index on,radius edges and a choil or guard the hand just does not slip
 
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This is one of those immortal debates, I suspect. Aside from someone mentioning use with gloves, I can't see where better handle ergonomics wouldn't prevail. To me jimping is a band-aid not a design feature.
 
AVigil said:
Oh man, I have been a fly fisherman for 40 years and never once cut my line with a knife LOL. I use clippers made for cutting line :)

Honestly I find egg shaped handles hard to hold onto when wet and slippery, when the scales have flats on both sides and on top to index on,radius edges and a choil or guard the hand just does not slip
Click to expand...

Oh boy a fly fisherman! That explains everything. You fancy shmancy fly fisherman with your little specialty vests and line snippers ;). I try to fly fish sometimes, and if there is ZERO wind I can half succeed at casting a quarter of the time. Ok, maybe I'm not quite that good.... Us less sophisticated fisherman might use one knife to cut bait, line, a hunk of something for snack time...

Your egg shaped handles are hard to hold because they aren't jimped duh! In seriousness, what you say may be true, but user preferences come into play there too. Some folks don't like the feel of four flats even if it does equal great indexing. Again, my sample size is limited to my circle of friends, but even in that small sample I've hit pretty different opinions on how something should feel in the hand.
 
Hmm I’m with John, I’ve referred to checkering as jimping, unless it’s on a guard or liner, where I’ve referred to it as coining.

This reminds me of an argument two guys had at work over the words buffalo and bison. :rolleyes:
 
john april said:
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 :D just my two cents, but i do not think a guard is required to be functional. Jimping by john april, on Flickr
Click to expand...
John, The crisscross filing shown in your photograph looks kinda neat and makes the knife interesting. I don't think it will grip the thumb like a more aggressive jimping but it looks cool on that knife as a decoration and I can't say anything bad about it. Larry
 
lanternnate said:
That explains everything. You fancy shmancy fly fisherman with your little specialty vests and line snippers
Click to expand...

You got that right LOL. With a split cane bamboo rod, reel and line I can have easily $2000 in my hand. If I go down a notch it is only a $1000 :)
 
I'm not a fan. I seldom hold a fixed blade in such a way that the jimping would be useful. On carbon steel blades, it's just an invitation to hold moisture and speed corrosion. They also look an awful lot like stress risers in some cases. I feel the same way about coining on guards/bolsters - looks impossible to keep clean, especially when made of some sort of material that will corrode.

That said, I love the jimping on my Spyderco folders. Of course the material is all stainless, and they tend to be thin and smaller, benefiting from a bit of extra traction. They also get manipulated one-handed in ways that fixed blades don't.

Gotta say tho, I have always liked looking at J. Doyle's jimping. :thumbsup:
 
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