Perfect function/Worst form?

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
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I've been thinking. (I know, it doesn't happen often. ;) )
It's easy to find knives like art knives for example that are pure form over function.
But I was wondering about the other end of the spectrum. What about a knife that is pure function over form.
What is the knife that you would say is perfectly fitted for it's intended task but just butt ugly.

Thought it would be fun to see what everybody came up with.

Patrice
 
I don't know if they're necessarily perfect, but linemans knives are horribly ugly.
 
I'm not sure anything that's "perfect" in function can actually be "ugly".
The excellence in of a high-function design has an appeal all its own which precludes it from being "ugly". If function is compromised by some feature or aspect of a design, that's ugly to me.

I'll be interested to see if someone can show a truly high-function tool that's actually ugly.
 
JCaswell said:
The excellence in of a high-function design has an appeal all its own which precludes it from being "ugly".
Click to expand...

Of course there is beauty in that. I meant more ugly in a purely aesthetic way? And it is also possible that "ugly" is too strong a term. We all love knives after all and they all appeal to us in a way. But something that is less to our liking visually?

Patrice
 
I'm not so sure about the 'art knife being pure form over function' implication.

if it's made of knife grade steel and heat treated to cut and hold an edge, it should function as well as any other knife. Say you just purchased your prized $25,000.00 diamond studded, gold inlaid, engraved, damascus knife and while driving it home you get stranded on a wooded road in a blizzard with nobody around for miles and nobody expected to travel the road for a week and you have to build a shelter and hunt game; would the knife be purely form or would it be purely function in that circumstance. I feel a knife's price is directly related mostly to its form and to a lesser degree its function and somewhat to the makers reputation but a knife should function as a knife regardless of form. These qualities would be on sliding scales dependent upon things like collectibility and steel type and maybe others .

I don't think a 'knife' that can't function as a knife should be called a knife but maybe 'replica' or 'toy'.
 
69_knives said:
I'm not so sure about the 'art knife being pure form over function' implication...

...I don't think a 'knife' that can't function as a knife should be called a knife but maybe 'replica' or 'toy'.
Click to expand...

Sorry I should have been bore specific about what I meant by art knife.
Something like a diamond studded Damascus hunter is more of a high end piece for me than an art knife.
I meant more something like this from Chantal Gilbert:

montagn_g.jpg


And I would still call this a knife, surely not a toy or replica.

Patrice
 
If it is functional and not appealing to me it would be purely subjective issue of it mat be because of bad workmanship.
Here is an example:
DSC02182.JPG


I made it a year ago or so, but I mis aligned the rivets, the rivets are also too big for that handle. This is an ugly knife due to bad execution...
Emre
 
Patrice Lemée;7435599 said:
Sorry I should have been bore specific about what I meant by art knife.
Something like a diamond studded Damascus hunter is more of a high end piece for me than an art knife.
I meant more something like this from Chantal Gilbert:

montagn_g.jpg


And I would still call this a knife, surely not a toy or replica.

Patrice
Click to expand...

I sure wouldn't call it a toy or replica, but I don't consider it a knife unless it can be used as one. I'd call this a "knife-inspired sculpture".
 
I used to think that some of Tai Goo's knives were ugly. Then as I learned more about them, they became more and more beautiful. They don't look finely finished at a glace, but if you look closely, you can see expert craftsmanship.

orig.jpg
 
Here are a couple of my heroes. You're likely to see them, beat up and homely, at just about any slaughtering of beef. They're made out of soft metal and must be regularly worked on a sharpening steel throughout every slaughtering session. Yet, they work wonders and have processed countless tons of beef throughout the decades. Their only charm is their perfect functionality. It certainly isn't about quality of materials or craftsmanship, but man can they work!

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If you can count is at a "knife" I'd go with lawn mower blade.

I don't think that is the point of this topic though.

so probably a plastic box cutter.
 
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