New Bushcraft Knife Design

I'm interested, and impressed.

Blind pins in the handle?

For me, subhilts can be hit or miss for a general utility.

I like the contours on the handle scales, but would have to have on in hand to feel the fit. That is a risk with a knife handle with such defined contours. If it fits the hand, it's great. If the hand is too big or small, it never quite feels right.
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
Interesting design!
Tell us more?
Click to expand...


Thank you! My approach was simply to design a knife that I would personally want/use. Clean and attractive, but functional. I have always preferred sub-hilt designs, but I have always seemed to find that either the forward or rearward grip was an afterthought and that only one was was truly useful. I wanted them both to feel like they were thoughtfully integrated. I went with D2 for obvious reasons, as impact and abuse resistance was more important than fine edge retention to me in this design.

I went through a prototyping process and those versions went to customers who's input was considered in this most recent iteration.

The blade stock is 3/16", heavy, but there is some skeletonizing under the scales, and the full flat grind helps a lot too.

The screwless clean look is just something I always try to do. Nice hardware is great, but I personally like the clean look. It's accomplished by using 3 steel dowels for positioning and VHB adhesive for a permanent bond. I trust this method completely and put the lifetime warranty behind it.

The profile is water-jetted oversize and I bring it to the final dimensions by hand on a 2x72.

I'm not sure if there's something I'm missing. Let me know! Thanks for taking the time to comment.
 
Bigfattyt said:
I'm interested, and impressed.

Blind pins in the handle?

For me, subhilts can be hit or miss for a general utility.

I like the contours on the handle scales, but would have to have on in hand to feel the fit. That is a risk with a knife handle with such defined contours. If it fits the hand, it's great. If the hand is too big or small, it never quite feels right.
Click to expand...

Please see my response to Rhinoknives1.

I agree with you, I've been taking the time to put it in as many hands as possible to be sure I haven't eliminated a group of xsmall/xlarge handers!

I will say that the contours are actually less defined than they might appear. Rearward of the sub-hilt there aren't any offensive protrusions. The crisp finger grooves have hard edges of course, but they are pretty obtuse and don't bother my hands.

Thank you for looking.
 
CarbonHandprint said:
This is a design I've completed prototyping and am now making as a custom! I just thought I'd see if there is any interest/input.

Thank you for looking.
Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/ZWHMo
Click to expand...

I think you will have better success marketing that knife as a "tactical chopper" or "tactical survival" knife.

When I think of "bushcraft" I think something with a 4" blade and a handle that works with all holds, including a draw cut hold. Love it or hate it, the Mora Companion is the design pattern to mimic.

In contrast, knives with handle like yours lock you into s limited number of holds. This grip looks like it would work well for battoning, chopping, and stabbing. I think there's a big pool of people who will be attracted to it but not with the "bushcraft" moniker.
 
Nice design. I like it, especially the low slung blade. Good luck with it and your future endeavors. What is the price range and other handle material possibilities?
James
 
I'm with pinnah on this one.....just to many angles and curves to link with "bushcraft"........pushing towards the survival,hunter or utility genre would satisfy many looking at a forward thinking design.
 
I like it, I'm big fan of the blade profile. I can see how the sub hilt might get annoying, but overall I think it's a very attractive design
 
buckfynn said:
Meh!? Not the least bit interested or impressed with your design. JMHO
Click to expand...

When I read this just now, I was sure you guys knew each other & you were joking around...it appears neither of my assumptions are accurate. I don't know, I'll just say I'm impressed with the maturity the OP displayed with his response to you - and to your credit, your response to his response was equally mature/nice.

OK, anywho, I am very impressed with this design...I absolutely LOVE the blade shape, sans the jimping, and then the handle is a bit busy for my personal tastes....but I bet it's very comfortable. And maybe busy isn't the correct word for the handle...the scales are super clean for sure, it's just that I go for less individual finger placement areas. I find that the handles with a subtle "S" shape along the bottom, and a gentle palm swell, works best for me in a variety of grips.
 
While I find the knife design to be visually unappealing, it absolutely oozes capability and utility. A true working knife, with few real limits to its applications. Well done!
 
I like the design,

Here's some free input.

the finger grooves though don't look comfortable. The transitions could use better blending rather then the abrupt transitions. Also I'd prefer the A2 steel over the D2. I love polished edges for wood carving. D2 is not my kind of steel.

YMMV

Take care.
 
Very interesting looking design, congrats! Overall I think I really like the blade shape. My only concern using would be the front finger guard/groove. I like how the front choil flows into the handle but in hand it could potentially create hot spots between fingers.
 
jfk1110 said:
Nice design. I like it, especially the low slung blade. Good luck with it and your future endeavors. What is the price range and other handle material possibilities?
James
Click to expand...

Thank you! The pricing starts at $250 for what you see here, I'll keep handle options open. I love G10 personally, but I also like experimenting!
 
The goal of this knife is to be a successful sub-hilt design. It sounds like there are a lot out there that aren't. Thanks everyone for the input so far, I'll post more pictures when I finish more of these!
 
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