Pet peeve: knife graffiti

Rhesus Feces

Rhesus Feces

bombastic simpleton
Joined
Jun 9, 2002
Messages
11,876
Maybe I need to get out more, but I absolutely cannot stand what I refer to as "knife graffiti".

I can't count the number of times that I've passed on a knife because it has too many words written on the blade.

I like things simple, functional, and elegant.

To me, when a manufacturer has to list the serial number, month of production, steel type, brand logo, model #, series, and whom they did the custom collaberation with, it cheapens the appearance greatly.

Benchmades especially!!!

Example, the new aluminum Osborne Axis from Benchmade. Strong, reliable lock, legal blade length, classy knife. Would make a great workweek EDC, but the Osborne logo on the rh side makes me pass on it!

Maybe I sould be asking, is there an easy way to remove these markings?

I dunno, how many bricks shy of a load am I? :eek:
 
Rhesus Feces (a proud family name, no doubt), said: "it cheapens the appearance greatly. Benchmades especially!!!"

Die Heretic! Just kidding.

Personally, I think the way Benchmade puts information as to designer, steel, etc. on the blade is classy and relatively unobtrusive. I would agree with you when the whole blade is covered with writing, though. That looks tacky.

And it should be relatively easy to remove the logo etc. Just polish the blade for about 17 hours, 12 minutes and it should come right off! :)

Dean
 
If you think Benchmade is bad have you taken a look at any of the Masters of Defense offerings????? I still laugh every time I open my Trident.
 
The height of simplicity-:)

GRECO 8

even better, on his folders-

GRECO

That's it.....:D
 
*hugs his heavily vandalized Camillus Enhanced EDC, yeah it looks a lil tacky, but it cuts like a sonuva :P*
 
Originally posted by Mongrel
The height of simplicity-:)

even better, on his folders-
GRECO
That's it.....:D
Click to expand...

Speaking of the Greco Folder, what do you think of it, overall?

I bought one, and words cannot properly express my utter disappointment...I ended up sending mine back to CQC, and they were nice enough to take it back after I "worked on it" a bit..

I politely suggested a few design tweaks and modifications that, in my opinion, would make a big difference.
 
Well, rather than interrupt this thread with a long drawn out review, I'll try to put my complete thoughts down in the 'reviews' forum.

I will say that at first I was (to be polite :) )a bit surprised\disapointed! I just kept telling myself..."only 50 bucks...only 50 bucks....

But it really has grown on me.

Give me a few hours or a day and I'll have something up.

Good question though....

Mongrel
 
Call me old fashioned.
Maker's name on the ricasso & (if necessary) model # on the other side.
What really gets me going are names, logos, etc. that go over grind lines, ie. start on the flat and continue into the hollow grind.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Knife blades are not the place to advertise :mad:
 
Mongrel,

Ah yes, good point, and I'll keep an eye out for your review.

Speaking of wordy blades, the worst are the MOD blades, no doubt about it....great knives, but truly cheezy bio's and such. The least they could do is offer a sterile version, but they don't seem to want to do that...
 
I'd say that from the consumer point of view it kinda sucks...but from the designer point of view (depending on what it is of course), I like to stick my name all over the thing o people know that it was my design so I can understand it. It's not like the writing's going to get in the way of cutting so I don't mind it.

-Z
 
I also think that if you can't fit it on the ricasso, then it's to much. Benchmade is better than most and at least they at least design their marking with a good sense of graphic design.

A lot of this excess of marking is a recent thing. In the old days, you'd have to engrave a lot of that by hand which is a very costly process. Stamps were not capable of outstanding detail. Etching was even worse. And ink, of course, wore off easily.

Today we have the laser. The laser can basically take anything you can draw in photoshop (or Visio or any other drawing tool, or scan in for that matter) and etch it with remarkable resolution. Logos, pictures, text, graphics, whatever, can be easily and inexpensively marked onto a blade.

But, just because you technically and economically CAN do something doesn't mean that you ascetically SHOULD do it.

The laser also means that no, it is not practical to remove the markings from the blade.
 
I agree about writing over the grind lines, it sucks! As far as benchmade I feel that the little balisong logo adds something to the knife, don't know what but I like it. I think as long as the markings are in a good location on the blade it makes no difference. When it runs down the whole blade like the golden dragon balisong on knifezilla I think it looks cheap.
 
I also think that writing on the blade is unattractive. I prefer just a heel stamp and nothing else.
 
I don´t like too much writing on blades. Company and perhaps Name of Designer. Like "Spyderco-Terzuola". Blade Material, Name of the knife are ok sometimes, but all of this should be on the ricasso, not directly on the blade like MOD or MT do it.
And: I know what my knife is made of, by whom and why. Other people normally aren´t interested in such details or can´t figure out what it means.
So keep it simple.
 
All these companies that try to condense entire paragraphs of advertising on their blades should take a look at the knives from Chris Reeves. Clean, simple, tasteful CR logo. Thats it. No full name, birthdate of designer, or what the weather was like on the day the knife was made, etc, etc.

If the knife is good enough, it speaks for itself.

Andrew Limsk
 
I like them clean and simple too and agree that CRK does a great job.
My favorite mark belongs to my favorite maker. He uses a micro stamp that needs to be read with a loupe. It is a challenge to find it.
 
You guts beat me to it. CRK is a great example of what to put on a blade. NOTHING!

The only thing worse than words plastered all over a blade are those plastered all over a coated blade. They look really good all scratched up and unreadable :barf: My BM 730HSCF now reads "4**/50*" ?????? So much for collector value ;)
 
I would prefer most identification to be somewhere other than the blade. On the other hand I buy a lot of old knives and I do like to know what they were called, who made them, when, what alloy was used in the blade, and what is the RC of the blade. I guess I'd kind of like a full identification plate on the butt or handle. Sort of like a milspec ID.

I'm not much into art.
 
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