Stretched Cricket

[Carl Jacobsen]

I was going through some large stacks of (mostly) junk mail the other day, with my Cricket in my palm, and was impressed at the way that it could remain nestled in my palm, retained by just a thumb or finger, allowing the rest of my hand to attend to the work, yet producing a sharp edge at a split-second's notice, and almost without thought, ready to slice open defenseless envelopes .

And I started thinking (I know, I know, bad idea)... I think I'd really like a longer Cricket. I think that with an extra 3/4 inch of blade and handle (keep all the other dimensions the same), it could nestle in my palm nearly as well, yet be capable of handling a wider range of cutting tasks. (And it'd give the lovely S-curve that is the blade, room to breathe, room to maybe be a bit curvier.)

I think it could also provide a nice alternative to the Delica and other ~3" folders; a little hook for delicate work, a nice curve on the belly, and a handle with zero straight or pointy edges.

(My apologies on the image quality; my first knife scan, and I was trying to keep the image size way down to appease the gods of bandwidth. Pink only because that's what I have on hand. A "real" one, vs. a stretched scan, would not need a stretched choil , and could thus have a bit more edge.)

It could be done in Zytel (maybe in colors) to be sure, but I'd prefer to see it in Micarta or thin slabs of G10 (fairly smooth, more Starmate than BF Native), allowing the sturdier material to counteract the increased forces likely to be encountered by the longer blade (while still keeping the slim profile). In any material, the handle would need to retain its heavily rounded edges...

Another possibility would be Micarta or polished G10 that tapers at the edges with a bit of swell in the middle (as seen on the Kershaw Mini Task). This would serve to further the sensation that you were holding a polished river rock in your hand (though it'd make the clip more problematic).

Steel with kraton inserts would certainly be sturdy and slim, but wouldn't exactly be lightweight (and steel by itself is too slippery)...

Anodized titanium with an integral lock, if you want to go totally overboard.

A plain edge model would be very pretty, would show off the blade curve (and would appeal to those who find serrations too menacing), but I would want a fully serrated one to carry in conjunction with my plain edge Starmate.

(And I think Micarta, with a steel backspacer serving as the blade stop pin, would be my personal favorite.)

Blade steel could stay at 1/16" (?), or go up to 3/32" -- I don't think 1/8" would really be necessary for a 2 3/4" blade that's not intended for brute force use.

The concentration on rounded shapes in a not-quite-so-tiny knife might also appeal to a wider (and hitherto non-knife-buying) audience. True story: the very first time I saw a Delica (under "New Arrivals" on the back page of the Cutlery Shoppe catalog, many years ago), I thought, "gee, that looks really useful", but at the same time, "gee, that looks like something a sadistic dentist would pick up from a tray of instruments in a Sci-Fi movie". I've since gotten over this feeling, obviously, but certainly there are many others out there who haven't...

As to names, "Super Cricket"? "Cricket Sr."? "Grasshopper" might be nice, but "Locust" is right out

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Comments?
-- Carl

 

[Dirk]

Carl, if you take a look at the Matriarch, I think you'll see the same "s" curve blade of the Cricket and not a Civilian with less tip.

Just my observation. Keeping in the spirit of the Cricket name, I am nicjk naming the Matriarch the Jeruselam Cricket. I remember seeing somewhere a picture of a very large cricket approx. the sixe of a Praying Mantis and it was called the Jeruselam Cricket. I know part of the Cricket mystique is in the shape of the handle, but the blade of the Matriarch looks very close.

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Paranoia is only smart thinking
when everyone is out to get you.

 

[Sal Glesser]

Carl - interesting that you would bring that up. Especially the "holding of a river rock" in your hand. This is where the original concept began.

Santa Fe Stoneworks makes up a Yin Yang (Pearl & Jet) version which the original design was supposed to have. Their rendition of this is quite beautiful.

We do have a longer Cricket design that has been around for some time. I'll try to dig it up although at this time it is difficult for us to scan & post pictures. It is longer than you propsed though. As I remember, we made the blade about 3 - 3.5 inches without making the model any wider than the Cricket.

Jerusalem Cricket is cute. Although probably more people will think of the Jerusalem in Israel than the actual cricket by that name.

sal

 

[Carl Jacobsen]

Dirk:
I'm intrigued by the Matriarch, and might order one, but I feel there are a couple reasons why it can't fill the niche I see for a stretched Cricket (if that is, indeed, what you were suggesting):

• The blade of the Matriarch is (and is intended to be) very agressive, rather than artistic, and the handle is both large and chock full of odd angles -- I was thinking of something that could be everyday-useful and very non-threatening; thus less likely to set off alarms in peoples heads, and more likely to intrigue/appeal to not-yet-knife people.
• Again, I was thinking of something that would appeal to a wide audience, maybe give Spyderco more potential customers; but it sounds like the only people (here in the US) who'll ever even see the Matriarch will be Forum members and some LEOs.

Sal:

Interesting that you would bring that up. Especially the "holding of a river rock" in your hand. This is where the original concept began.

Well, great minds think alike, eh?

I'll have to look around for the Yin Yang version, it sounds quite nice. (Though I suppose it's based on the aluminum handled version -- I never liked the feel of the aluminum handles very much.)

When you say "...which the original design was supposed to have," do you mean that Spyderco was intending to inlay their version, or that the original plans called for contrasting metals, or anodizing, or some such, to show the design, or ...?

Intriguing to hear about an even larger Cricket; after starting this thread yesterday, I began musing on just such possibilities ("the Cricket family: ~2" blade, 2.75" blade, 3.25" blade"). You wouldn't happen to need someone to beta test that longer Cricket for you, would you?

Seriously though, could you share some insight as to why the small one made it into production while the larger one didn't?

-- Carl

 

[James Mattis]

How about calling it a Weta?

That's one of a family of flightless cricket-like insects in New Zealand, that range in size from "cricket on steroids" to the size of a mouse. They're now protected by law there, and New Zealanders seem to be rather sentimental about them.

Here's an illustration of a Tree Weta:
www.artworksnz.co.nz/s102.htm at a New Zealand wildlife art commercial site.

A web search for the bugs revealed that "Weta" is also the name of the NZ studio that does the special effects for the Xena series.


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001

 

[Sal Glesser]

The aluminum version was a "tester" before going to the tooling of a plastic injection mold. There are almost always glitches of some time when introducing a new model. I didn't like the aluminum version either, but Santa Fe Stonewroks did make it very nice.

The original design was to depict the Yin Yang in any way possible, but nothing came up that wouldn't put the item out of the range of most ELU.

The larger version was designed after the regular Cricket was already in production.

sal