Opinions 10 knife styles everyone should have

[Spartanwarrior]

10 knife/blade styles everyone should have like what you use them for like a chopper, a skinner and so on. what would be your list and why. Thanks -Calvin

 

[Cereal_killer]

So are we talking specifically blade style/ profile or overall knife type?

I'm not sure I can list off 10 of either and why but here's what I do have specifically about blade shape/profile

- a smaller and a large FFG (full flat grind). Knives with a full flat grind are well suited for slicing and delicate work, they can serve equally well as an EDC knife (as long as your not doin really hard work) or even a kitchen knife.

- small pen blade, everyone should have a small folding knife with a "pen blade", this could be a small stockman or a Vic classic or any of the many well liked traditionals. The pen blade is good for detail work, wether your whittling or coring an apple or making a tinder pile for the fire.

-a Hawkbill and/or "reverse S" preferable in serrated edge, this can be used as a scary defense tool but more than likely you'll put it to work in more practice situations. Cutting rope and fabric (albeit not cleanly but very efficiently), cardboard or at work in a garden, pretty much any fiberous material can be quickly and easily ripped threw with a "reverse S". The spyderco ladybug hawkbill is probabily the most capiable [single blade] cutting tool you can put on your keychain.

-A recurve, tho they're almost always a real bit** to sharpen (not that its a different technique- you still do the same steps, but you can't use flat stones) many times I'm thankful for the curve, it seems to provide a little extra force when you put the material your cutting right at the curve, just before the belly of the blade, another good choice for the garden/small shrubs, I have a kershaw speedbump (which has a very agressive recurve) to thin out shrubs and prune small branches. Also, and I'm not recommending or condoning carrying a blade for self defense, but 2 out of the 3 knives I carry (in a rotation, only one at a time) specifically for SD have rather pronounced recurve's, tho its mostly coincidence.

And finally a sheepsfoot blade (and not just the ~1" blade of a multi-blade SAK or stockman) I'm talking abot a larger, single blade knife with a sheepsfoot blade (such as my personal favorite knife- the Benchmade Min-Grip 555). Alot to do with personal taste but one huge advantage of a sheepsfoot(over say a drop point or tanto point) is its a heck of alot easier to sharpen, especially if your just learning. The reason being the nearer to the point you get, as its curves up you have to lift the handle off the stone to keep the correct angle, with a sheepsfoot there is little or no upsweep towards the tip of the blade so you have to lift up very little if at all to maintain the angle.

-drop point, the good old drop point, many many people out there, when asked to draw a knife, will draw a drop point blade, its just such the typical blade style, its good at about everything, I also like my skinning knife to be a drop point, probabily just personal preference/the technique I was taught but its what works for me.

 

[Spartanwarrior]

Thanks for all the input. That's one thing I love about bladeforums, I can talk directly to experts and get some great info