sunk joints on customs

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abcdef

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Oct 28, 2005
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I've looked at pictures of hundreds of custom slipjoints. Very few have sunk joints. Why? It seems like this would be a very desirable feature to have, especially when paying $300+ for a knife.
 
Pray to the lord I can run and hide after this, some folders just were not designed
to be sunk joint, on the other hand a large amount of them can be just by making
the front of the knife a wee bit wider. I used to be obsessed with sinking the joint
untill something snapped and I realized some of them just look better with a smaller
front bolster.
Ken.
 
I agree with Ken. To me it's a matter of aesthetics. The knife has to "flow" when in the open position my opinion. Knife patterns that look good closed may not look as good open, and of course it stands to reason that it works the other way as well.

All that said, I think some patterns have the best of both worlds!

Now function......That's another discussion all together!
 
Uhh...just in case a person reading this somewhere happened to be a dumbass, what are you guys talking about?
 
The first knife where the blade, when closed, is tucked into the bolster is a sunken joint. The other one has a blade that is raised above the bolster and is not. I hope this helps!
 
joe-bob said:
Uhh...just in case a person reading this somewhere happened to be a dumbass, what are you guys talking about?
Click to expand...

A sunk joint allows the edge of the blade back (where it bears against the spring) to lie below the edge of the handle, protecting your pocket from that sharp corner. Look at this picture of three knives from Rick Nowland:

nowlands.jpg


The sowbelly has regular joints at the front (obscured in this photo) and sunken at the rear. The Saddlehorn has regular joints. The Copperhead has an enlarged front bolster that covers the "point" at the back of the blade, similar to a sunken joint.

Ray Cover is the one maker I associate with sunken joints, but I have no good pictures of the one I have from him. This is from his son Jeff:

cover1.jpg
 
Pockets wear where the ends of knives ride in the pockets...NOT where the run up is. I agree with Ken as well.
 
Some knives look much better with a common joint. You can make a sunk joint out of any knife but when you open it there is this little weenie tang coming out the end of the knife and it doesn't look right. Most sunk joints are round bolstered knives, not square bolstered knives.
 
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