SDFK is Glorious

Never thought this would bring so much debate… i’am super happy with how my little experiment turned out. I’ve done it because I also have an original that feel absolutely perfect by the way, they will both be use and cherish. But I totally understand that seeing any dumbass somehow disfigured something you’ve put lots of effort to bring in to your perfect vision of it might be frustrating and I do apologize for posting it. It was useless, should’ve only post the original being use. Peace!
 
Casinostocks said:
#stillnotnatahn

You missed the choil Boss!

View attachment 2035977
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I'm not sure that the choil is necessarily better or worse. Not passing judgment there. Same thing is true for the vertical texturing on the scales. I'm not sure that it's better or worse, except down there by the pinky. That is definitely worse.



I'm a pretty critical knife snob. I'm insufferable at knife shows. So I will break down my critiques of this modification for you.

The tip, as I had it, was perfect. The shape of this blade point was for use as a large skinner. This is a good application for a drop point and one of the reasons that I like it. It's not always skinning an animal either, it can be opening a box without cutting the contents inside etc. The modification for his drop point is to abrupt and has too much curvature. It needs to be straighter and blended in. When's cutting an animal with a correctly shaped point, you can turn the knife around edge out and lay the spine against the animal and simply unzip the skin like it's a zipper. You can make fine adjustments with the depth with a relatively large input on the handle. But the way he has it, the tip is just going to come out of the cut unless the knife is dull enough to stretch the skin up and over quite a bit. Otherwise he would have to angle the knife quite a bit to keep the tip in the cut and that large amount of angle, and the relatively low control, is going to lead to excessive nicked meat. Modifying the point like that does remove a weak area in a design, it is stronger, but it's already strong enough to be driven tip first through about anything with the use of a hammer. I don't think the design needed to be stronger. I guess if you're stabbing at wood and prying with the point the reduced penetration of the blunter point might prevent a careless person from running into trouble, but I just don't see a practical advantage to this modification.


Maybe a person doesn't like a thumb ramp or jimping. But at least apply a proper chamfer because this is where your thumb frequently rests.


The area on the handle where your pinky rests is actually a difficult place to design. Look at it, and it just looks random geometry there but it isn't. We went through many iterations and minor tweaks to get this area right. The original design had a little bit more hook to it which led to unuseful pressure on the pinky and pain during long-term use. The sculpting of the scale there is also fine-tuned, we don't just pull these geometries out of our ass. That one spot is where your pinky and ring finger go to a lot of work when using a knife as a tool and that is a terrible spot for a hotspot. I'm not sure what function is being served. Increasing grip? Maybe you have it stuck in the head of a zombie and you're trying to extract it and you need a little bit more grip in that direction? We do extensive testing and development work and the way I have it is the best way to do that, that's a bad tweak.


I see shitty knives at knife shows all the time with features that were done the way they were done for appearance. I actually think a lot of production knife companies design knives on a computer and make choices based on appearance and never actually test any of their stuff aside from gripping a prototype in the hand and saying "hum that seems to feel good". I've been fine tuning knife designs with real extended heavy use for quite while and have formed some strongly held opinions. I see a lot of dumb shitty knives. They're everywhere. But I don't usually see one with my name on it. Except that Bowie I did.

That Bowie will haunt me to my grave.

I'm going to go sit in the corner and think about what I've done.
 
resinguy said:
Harsh!

Nate, we know that you have strong ideas re the carefully balanced design elements of your blades. But once it's sold, it's not yours anymore. The paying customer is free to make a blade their own. I generally celebrate the concept, regardless of whether I like the results or not. Many I like, some are fugly.

Try raging and venting to all around you, just not on the keyboard.
Click to expand...


I'm just giving Mr godbout a hard time. He's being a dumbass and I'm just ribbing him a little. There's no ill will or hate here, but I could see how a person might read that into the tone. It's hard to discern meaning in text on the internet. We're cool.:thumbsup:
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I'm not sure that the choil is necessarily better or worse. Not passing judgment there. Same thing is true for the vertical texturing on the scales. I'm not sure that it's better or worse, except down there by the pinky. That is definitely worse.



I'm a pretty critical knife snob. I'm insufferable at knife shows. So I will break down my critiques of this modification for you.

The tip, as I had it, was perfect. The shape of this blade point was for use as a large skinner. This is a good application for a drop point and one of the reasons that I like it. It's not always skinning an animal either, it can be opening a box without cutting the contents inside etc. The modification for his drop point is to abrupt and has too much curvature. It needs to be straighter and blended in. When's cutting an animal with a correctly shaped point, you can turn the knife around edge out and lay the spine against the animal and simply unzip the skin like it's a zipper. You can make fine adjustments with the depth with a relatively large input on the handle. But the way he has it, the tip is just going to come out of the cut unless the knife is dull enough to stretch the skin up and over quite a bit. Otherwise he would have to angle the knife quite a bit to keep the tip in the cut and that large amount of angle, and the relatively low control, is going to lead to excessive nicked meat. Modifying the point like that does remove a weak area in a design, it is stronger, but it's already strong enough to be driven tip first through about anything with the use of a hammer. I don't think the design needed to be stronger. I guess if you're stabbing at wood and prying with the point the reduced penetration of the blunter point might prevent a careless person from running into trouble, but I just don't see a practical advantage to this modification.


Maybe a person doesn't like a thumb ramp or jimping. But at least apply a proper chamfer because this is where your thumb frequently rests.


The area on the handle where your pinky rests is actually a difficult place to design. Look at it, and it just looks random geometry there but it isn't. We went through many iterations and minor tweaks to get this area right. The original design had a little bit more hook to it which led to unuseful pressure on the pinky and pain during long-term use. The sculpting of the scale there is also fine-tuned, we don't just pull these geometries out of our ass. That one spot is where your pinky and ring finger go to a lot of work when using a knife as a tool and that is a terrible spot for a hotspot. I'm not sure what function is being served. Increasing grip? Maybe you have it stuck in the head of a zombie and you're trying to extract it and you need a little bit more grip in that direction? We do extensive testing and development work and the way I have it is the best way to do that, that's a bad tweak.


I see shitty knives at knife shows all the time with features that were done the way they were done for appearance. I actually think a lot of production knife companies design knives on a computer and make choices based on appearance and never actually test any of their stuff aside from gripping a prototype in the hand and saying "hum that seems to feel good". I've been fine tuning knife designs with real extended heavy use for quite while and have formed some strongly held opinions. I see a lot of dumb shitty knives. They're everywhere. But I don't usually see one with my name on it. Except that Bowie I did.

That Bowie will haunt me to my grave.

I'm going to go sit in the corner and think about what I've done.
Click to expand...
The SDFK does have the perfect handle.
 
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Mark4444 said:
The SDFK does have the perfect handle.
Click to expand...

I'd argue that all CPK models have perfect handles.

One of the things that I can always be confident of when getting a new CPK is that there isn't any guesswork in the design - every element is thoughtfully executed. In my opinion, that is what sets them apart from so many others out there.
 
Pàdruig said:
I'd argue that all CPK models have perfect handles.

One of the things that I can always be confident of when getting a new CPK is that there isn't any guesswork in the design - every element is thoughtfully executed. In my opinion, that is what sets them apart from so many others out there.
Click to expand...
I think the others are all really good, The UF2 us about perfect, the Kephart is supposed to be budget, so that one s really good for the price. The light chopper is good, but I think if it's ever made again, there will be a light chopper 2 with some handle improvements.
 
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