Modded my new Izula.

[jeffrice6]

While I'm sure Rat has thoroughly thought out their designs, I have a small imput...... This was taken from a relatively cheap cabela's blade, but I must admit that the right angles & space between them provide a very positive thumb grip/stop. I have no idea if this "jimping" would effect the strength/integrity of the steel.....Just thought I'd throw it out there

 

[stoffi]

I personally don't understand why people want jimping. It's unnecessary and it only makes your thumb sore.

 

[jonnyghost]

If you use a round file and cut the grooves down to the bottom of the valleys you would maintain the sharp edges at the top that you want but would remove the shear point at the bottom.

 

[artmichalek]

The sharper they are the easier for a break to start in the knife under stress.

Has this been tested under any meaningful conditions? The only case where I can see that spot being in tension at all is very heavy lateral prying and twisting, which in a knife as short as the Izula will not be very high.

 

[R.A.T.]

When we were doing the Ontario RAT-7 D2 blades, almost every one of those that broke did so in the valleys in the jimping. We had a lot of experts look at it, maganflux blades, microscope them, destructive test, etc. Just about without fail, the stress risers created by sharp edges in the jimping caused problems.

As far as the Izula not being a prying balde, I agree, but we do have people that have to use them for that every so often. So, the sharper you make the valleys of the jimping the more likely it will fail under abuse.

 

[EricV]

I had a knife with similar jimping and handle shape that i picked up in Canada at a surplus store.

The knife broke while batoning through 2" pine on the second jimp(sp?). I'll see if I can find a pic. Point being though that jimping like that does significantly weaken the blade.

sorry for the horrible pic, my cell's camera is almost as bad as my photography.

 

[Bierkameel]

Oke so this is not a recommended mod if you are a hard user and I think it's not fair to use the warranty on a modified knife if it breaks because of the mods, even though RAT will cover it, I think it's unfair.
For me this modification was no problem because it's just a EDC knife for food prep and EDC tasks like cutting up boxes, I'm not going to baton it or use it as a prybar so it's never going to break, I have never broken a knife and used SAK's for a loooong time and they are much weaker.