Modern vs traditionnal knives

Excellent topic!

What about art knives where do they fit in?

There have always been art knives, and they have always been dedicated a prime location in a display case. Whether its a beautiful new creation or the golden dagger found with King Tut, they should be admired rather then used.

The difference between modern and older knives are:

1) Older knives were intended for a more experienced user. Much of what we see marketed today is overengineered in order to reduce the number of broken knives returned to the maker.

2) Older knives tended to be relatively lighter. These things were ment to be carried on the belt rather then the car trunk. They often used elegant blade tapers (the stock would narrow towards the point and pommel), and broad fullers, and relied more on balance then bulk weight to get the job done.

3) Older knives benefitted from cheap skilled labor. Even on mass produced 19th century military pieces you can see degrees of blade polish, fit, finish, and decoration, which are seldom available today; even from most custom knife makers. The best of the stuff was just amazing; modern tooling is a poor substitute for highly skilled hands.

4) The knives were often easier to sharpen due to thinner blades, carbon steel, and better blade profiling (usually convexed).

But, not everything old is golden; there were plenty of fantasy knives and junk knives sold during the last century. Most of it was aimed at the uninformed, the uncarring (think military procurement), or the newly evolving urban literates entralled by the pulp fiction of the day.

n2s
 
Isn't that what's great though, we don't have to choose if we don't want to or we can choose to have it all :D .
 
I'll start by answering a couple of your first questions. Yes, I own an Opinel - a carbon bladed #8. Yes, it's the sharpest blade I own. Yes, it was extremely easy to sharpen - I sharpened it for the first time last night - (see below).

For the last 10 years or so I've been carrying one of the first mass-produced "tactical knives" - a Benchmade Emerson CQC 75, i.e. the large (4") chisel ground ATS34 tanto with G10 handles, and titanium liner lock. I bought this knife online at the age of about 22 after seeing it in a magazine. While this really was an extremely innovative design, it was never such a great knife. It always had a fair amont of blade play (unless tightened to the point that it couldn't be opened one-handed), was always difficult to sharpen and never really took a hair-popping edge. Now, after admittedly quite a bit of use, the liner lock travels almost all the way over. In other words, I needed to find a new knife.

As a law enforcement officer without the benefit of being able to carry a firearm, I needed a self-defense blade that I could deploy quickly and rely upon not to fail. These qualities, and my inability to spend $300 or more on a knife, basically took folders out of the picture. After MUCH deliberation and research, I decided to buy a knife from HideAwayKnife.com :D A modern knife indeed.

If you haven't seen this website, do yourself a favor. This is one of the only new ideas around (if you can consider anything relating to knives "new"). I'll post a review soon.

Now I was stuck with a slight dilema. My hideaway claw, while useful for utility, is not a knife that can be casually drawn from the pocket while in public - especially not in California. I needed a knife that I could carry and use that wouldn't attract attention (something that my BM Emerson didn't exactly do well either), and I couldn't exactly justify going out to buy another folder after having spent $150 on my HideAway (I'm sorry honey, it's just that now that I have this new knife I need another knife - really, it's quite simple if you'd just stop yelling and think aout it for a minute). After seeing a couple of posts about Opinels in the forums, I realized I HAD one sitting in my "knife box" in the closet.

Last night I took it out. It's not a "cool" looking knife by any means, especially as the blade (having received no care and apparently having been exposed to oxidizing materials) is stained and blotchy. I'd never bothered to sharpen it before, but I decided I'd give it a try. After about 4 minutes on my Sharpmaker this knife is now, literally, scary sharp. The closest any knife has come is my Kershaw chive (another thin, high ground blade). The Opinel will GRAB hanging paper and walk right through it all the way down to the tip.

This is the only knife I've ever handled - and I've handled LOTS of knives - that can shave hair above the skin. It's beyond hair popping sharp. Last test: I just used the knife to skiv about a 1/2" long strip off of the top of my thumbnail. It rolled up as it went.

BTW: The knife has no blade play, is extremely light, has a strange but apparently fail-safe "barrel-lock" (I came up with this term for lack of a better word). One neat aspect of this lock is that it looks as if it will self-adjust with wear for almost unlimited use (unlike my liner-lock). One draw back is that it can't be opened with one hand - but wait - that's why I bought the HideAway!

Too late to make this long story short, but may it suffice to say that in my old age I've finally been awakened to the possibilities offered by a "cheap, old-time knife".

Vive la France!

SCDUB
 
I love my Hideaway claw too! FS made a real innovation with it.

You could easily turn your Opinel into a onehand opener by fitting a thumb stud or a one armed bandit.
 
The right tool for the right job is all that it boils down to. I love traditional folders and fixed blades, but I’m not going to be so sentimental that I let tradition cloud my judgment. For everyday, my Victorinox Climber is plenty durable with the right tools for what I need. But although I love Victorinox knives probably more than any others I have used, I would not be stupid and use them for something they were not built for. If I had to cut a thick, binding material, or if I had to cut through something hard to penetrate like leather, I would want a locking blade for the job. If I loved that locking knife, say it was my Benchmade 550, and I really thought it was great, it would still be foolish to use it for something like slicing or skinning on a hiking/hunting trip. The blade is thick, and for those purposes I would need something of thin geometry with little or no dynamics. If I was absolutely enamored of a Spyderco Delica, with a serrated blade, I could use that to cut ropes and such, but I wouldn’t want to use it for many applications because serrations bind easily. Or, for example, say I bought a Swamp Rat Camp Tramp or Battle Rat. I got a good-paying desk job at a corporate facility. It would be superfluous and stupid (in today’s world, especially) to go to work with a big nylon sheath hanging from my leather belt, which is holding up my chinos and constricting a polo shirt. For that use, I could get by with a slip-joint or some lightweight locking blade. But for chopping in the woods, I might not want to use an older-style knife that might have a lesser tang construction, worse grip, or poor edge retention when I have that Swamp Rat, which is designed for heavy outdoor use and has proven itself to be superior. Companies adapt to what sells and what is superior, though the two do not always go hand-in-hand. There is a place for traditional knives and a place for modern and tactical knives, and you have to say “What do I really need to carry today?”. If you’re a sheeple or have but one knife, it won’t be a problem, but if you’re a knife knut, you have to decide if there’s anything that your Sebenza can do that day that your Case or Opinel can’t. Why drag around a heavy Buck Strider when you could confidently replace it with a Wenger Teton?
 
I like the looks of traditional knives, but the only tradiational knives that i ever actually use are SAK or Scout Knives. Day in and day out, I much prefer modern,one hand locking knives.
 
I found your posting very interesting. I know very little about European knives, and I'm intrigued by your statement that some regional knife designs date back 1000 years. Can you mention a few? Does one have to be in Europe to acquire one?
 
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