The "Ask Nathan a Question" Thread

MarbReds said:
Nathan, will the handle materials for the weekly sale FBFKs be the same as the preorder? How about hardware options?

Thanks!
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That is a good question

It depends on if they are all already built and ready to go or if we are still building them as the orders come in.

The intent here was to just build them and box them, but the reality is, they are being made at the same rate they are being shipped and we probably can accommodate different scales options. I don't see a problem with that.

This was supposed to be just a quick and dirty sprint run at the end of the field knives, but the reality is they are kind of time consuming to produce. It's 7:30 at night before Christmas Eve and I'm out here sharpening these fat bastards. It's kind of a slow process unfortunately. I had envisioned a shelf of these ready to go, but that isn't what is happening
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
That is a good question

It depends on if they are all already built and ready to go or if we are still building them as the orders come in.

The intent here was to just build them and box them, but the reality is, they are being made at the same rate they are being shipped and we probably can accommodate different scales options. I don't see a problem with that.

This was supposed to be just a quick and dirty sprint run at the end of the field knives, but the reality is they are kind of time consuming to produce. It's 7:30 at night before Christmas Eve and I'm out here sharpening these fat bastards. It's kind of a slow process unfortunately. I had envisioned a shelf of these ready to go, but that isn't what is happening
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I think I speak for a lot of us when I say I’m just glad to have a second crack at them. Thank you!
 
Moorik said:
I suddenly remembered that take, and in my own thoughts, I ended up agreeing with it too.

But here's another crazy idea:

Two guys who are roughly equal in skill—not super experts, but people who know how to handle blades and understand how to strike properly.

Any duel scenario only works as long as we assume it's going to be fair and that both sides are genuinely fighting to the death.

But remembering Miyamoto Musashi's duels—you know how he won most of them, right? He just practiced throwing his sword into trees in the forest.

And he won by simply throwing the blade and killing opponents who never expected that at all.

So imagine: one guy has a rapier, the other has a K18, and he throws it like in that video you mentioned, where the huge guy who literally looks like a Viking hurls that blade.

And I'm thinking—even the best fencer against a guy who has enough strength and guts to risk throwing a K18 at him 🤔

The blade is sharpened on both sides, so basically, even if you throw it poorly, there's a huge chance you'll still inflict a very serious wound on the opponent.

I'm absolutely convinced that in real life—not in sport fencing—a fight would almost never go the way we imagine it, because with 100% certainty it would be completely unfair/dishonest.

Vikings mostly just threw axes or something heavy.

I'm totally sure that in the Middle Ages, a real sword duel with proper fencing was extremely rare; it would mostly turn into grappling, and then just trying to strip the armor off the opponent.

And if it's a duel without armor, I'd pick the K18 and throw it at a highly experienced fencer with a rapier.

Yeah, it's reckless, but basically, I have no chance anyway.
Essentially, the K18 that I throw at an experienced fencer is like a Glock, only way bigger, and it complies with the "cold weapon only" rules in a duel 🙄


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1) as detailed in one of my posts, a rapier isn’t a fencing foil. Someone skilled with a rapier could deflect a K18, thrown or swung

2) how close are the combatants? Fair chance someone could dodge a thrown sword.

1 and 2 are the reason people generally didn’t throw their primary/sole weapon. It might work, but chances are slim

3) rapiers were generally wielded 1-handed. It also wasn’t uncommon to pair them with a dagger. If someone wanted to throw a blade, the rapier wielder could close, throw the dagger and simultaneously attack with the rapier.

Net result = the guy with the rapier still has the advantage.
 
bluemax_1 said:
1) as detailed in one of my posts, a rapier isn’t a fencing foil. Someone skilled with a rapier could deflect a K18, thrown or swung

2) how close are the combatants? Fair chance someone could dodge a thrown sword.

1 and 2 are the reason people generally didn’t throw their primary/sole weapon. It might work, but chances are slim

3) rapiers were generally wielded 1-handed. It also wasn’t uncommon to pair them with a dagger. If someone wanted to throw a blade, the rapier wielder could close, throw the dagger and simultaneously attack with the rapier.

Net result = the guy with the rapier still has the advantage.
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Yeah, there's some truth to that, I think the chance is really with the rapier.
But, parrying a flying K18 😳

 
Hi Nathan,

I’ve thought for some time that Kephart’s design is pretty ideal for many applications — it’s held up a long time. (Sadly I missed out on your version.)

I’ve bought one of your Field Knives, and my question is about how it differs from the Kephart. Specifically — and nerdily! — the Kephart has a neutral axis, so to speak, but it seems like the Field Knife cants forward a bit. Is that an aesthetic difference, or does it offer an advantage? Always curious about thoughtful design choices.

Thanks for doing such great work.
 
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Jack Lewis said:
Hi Nathan,

I’ve thought for some time that Kephart’s design is pretty ideal for many applications — it’s held up a long time. (Sadly I missed out on your version.)

I’ve bought one of your excellent Field Knives, and my question is about how it differs from the Kephart. Specifically — and nerdily! — the Kephart has a neutral axis, so to speak, but it seems like the Field Knife cants forward a bit. Is that an aesthetic difference, or does it offer an advantage?

Thanks for doing such great work.
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I don't make significant design choices for aesthetic reasons. It is designed this way for ergonomic considerations.
 
Jack Lewis said:
I figured! I was just curious about those ergonomics. Any insight? Seems like the forward cant might help with chopping action?

Thanks, Nathan
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If you take a glob of modeling clay and squeeze it, it will come out of your hand bent like that, it won't be straight. The inside of your grip is curved.

If a designer wants to make a handle that conforms to that curvature they have to make a choice how to incorporate that curve to a relatively straight blade. Dropping the butt is the natural solution. It helps your hand stay in a relatively neutral position when using the knife. Our hand wrist arm geometry is well suited to hanging from a limb, but our use of tools frequently has us cock our hand to it's forward limit of travel. Angling the blade forward is a more natural position for our wrists and hands.

Lastly, dropping the handle down below the edge increases the length of the moment arm that you can use to apply torque to the blade. This gives you more control and reduces how tight you have to squeeze the handle to prevent the blade from rotating. As a thought experiment, imagine holding a hammerhead in your hand, and try to prevent me from spinning it in your hand with the handle of the hammer. It's impossible because I have leverage. However, if the handle of the hammer was not perpendicular to the head but was instead aligned and I had to try to apply torque just by squeezing the handle and spinning it, you could prevent me from spinning that head in your hand. The farther away your control surface is from the axis of rotation, the more torque you can apply. A dropped handle does this.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
If you take a glob of modeling clay and squeeze it, it will come out of your hand bent like that, it won't be straight. The inside of your grip is curved.

If a designer wants to make a handle that conforms to that curvature they have to make a choice how to incorporate that curve to a relatively straight blade. Dropping the butt is the natural solution. It helps your hand stay in a relatively neutral position when using the knife. Our hand wrist arm geometry is well suited to hanging from a limb, but our use of tools frequently has us cock our hand to it's forward limit of travel. Angling the blade forward is a more natural position for our wrists and hands.

Lastly, dropping the handle down below the edge increases the length of the moment arm that you can use to apply torque to the blade. This gives you more control and reduces how tight you have to squeeze the handle to prevent the blade from rotating. As a thought experiment, imagine holding a hammerhead in your hand, and try to prevent me from spinning it in your hand with the handle of the hammer. It's impossible because I have leverage. However, if the handle of the hammer was not perpendicular to the head but was instead aligned and I had to try to apply torque just by squeezing the handle and spinning it, you could prevent me from spinning that head in your hand. The farther away your control surface is from the axis of rotation, the more torque you can apply. A dropped handle does this.
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Well. The reasoning here is even cooler and more thorough than I expected. Love it. Thanks, Nathan
 
I have 4 of your blades: SDFK, HDFK, FK, Medium Chopper.
There will be 2 more.
And honestly, I missed one detail (I just forgot, honestly).


I always sharpen my blades, even at a slightly higher angle.
Some people sharpen so that the knife cuts a lot while keeping strength.
I, however, just damage the cutting edge by striking very hard materials.


My sharpening and tests are mostly some kind of compromise: the maximum angle so that the cutting edge can withstand a lot of damage while still cutting well.


Here’s what I missed, as I remember—or I think I remember.
They had a micro-bevel.
And it looked polished (the abrasive was clearly softer than the rest of the cutting edge).


I know that in theory, this gives strength.
I did some tests, and honestly, I just can’t figure it out (I think I haven’t broken enough knives to understand, and it seems that, considering the number of broken blades, you clearly know something about it).


Does it really give more strength or edge retention?
And, say, with or without a micro-bevel, what’s the difference in durability and retention if I hit or cut something hard?
Or, if the cutting is more standard—meat, cardboard, household stuff.


I’m trying to understand this and have taken microscope photos, etc.
But I lack both experience and the number of damaged edges.


I always set an even higher angle for my knives; I just like it.
I can’t convince myself that more cuts on rope are “better” than the ability to chop through a bolt or a cinder block with a blade.


If I have a knife with a micro-bevel and want to preserve the knife through a huge number of resharpenings without removing a lot of steel, should I be sharpening just the micro-bevel instead of the whole cutting edge?
Or just pick a bigger angle and not complicate things with a micro-bevel?


I don’t like a convex grind.
I’m choosing between:


  • V-edge with a higher angle
  • V-edge with a micro-bevel

Which one will save me steel on the knives and be stronger in real-world conditions?


I think I’m just running into the problem of lacking enough tests and experience.
 
Nathan (or anyone who knows that can confirm),
The new LC/SC; is this essentially a carbon copy of the original MC? I had one for a while and quite liked it for my use and wanted to double check it is pretty much the same (the photos looked like the MC originals*).

And that being said, is the LC a little too thin for brushing and limbing during the winter months ie. frozen branches would they trash the primary?

Cheers
Andy
 
never.truly.lost said:
Nathan (or anyone who knows that can confirm),
The new LC/SC; is this essentially a carbon copy of the original MC? I had one for a while and quite liked it for my use and wanted to double check it is pretty much the same (the photos looked like the MC originals*).

And that being said, is the LC a little too thin for brushing and limbing during the winter months ie. frozen branches would they trash the primary?

Cheers
Andy
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With good technique, a LC will be fine. If you're snake slapping it, you can expect some bent primaries. People like Jo, Ben, Sue and Dan can run these really hard and have no problems but I have to focus. I have a bent primary on my own Light Behemoth. I'm hard on stuff. 😞

I like the LC in the woods because I can arrest swings without hurting my wrist, and it really does hit above its weight, but the SC is a more capable tool and the weight difference on your belt is not noticeable.

The Light Chopper is a carbon copy of the old Medium Chopper profile. The 10" Standard Chopper has been tweaked a hair to add a little bit more weight to the tip. It will have a tiny bit more power than the original MC at the expense of being slightly less flickable in a snap cut. Most people would never notice a difference. I think it will be the best general purpose 10" Chopper out there with an unmatched combination of cutting capability, durability and edge retention. It would be competitive in a blade sports event and you're unlikely to tear it up in rough use. If you liked the old MC, I think you're going to like the SC about the same. The MC was one of the best CPK we ever produced and I'm confident the SC will be viewed the same.

I would take the LC on a camping trip. It is an outstanding option for a large Camp knife that can do double duty with meal prep. I would take the SC into the woods in your line of work, it's the more capable tool.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
With good technique, a LC will be fine. If you're snake slapping it, you can expect some bent primaries. People like Jo, Ben, Sue and Dan can run these really hard and have no problems but I have to focus. I have a bent primary on my own Light Behemoth. I'm hard on stuff. 😞

I like the LC in the woods because I can arrest swings without hurting my wrist, and it really does hit above its weight, but the SC is a more capable tool and the weight difference on your belt is not noticeable.

The Light Chopper is a carbon copy of the old Medium Chopper profile. The 10" Standard Chopper has been tweaked a hair to add a little bit more weight to the tip. It will have a tiny bit more power than the original MC at the expense of being slightly less flickable in a snap cut. Most people would never notice a difference. I think it will be the best general purpose 10" Chopper out there with an unmatched combination of cutting capability, durability and edge retention. It would be competitive in a blade sports event and you're unlikely to tear it up in rough use. If you liked the old MC, I think you're going to like the SC about the same. The MC was one of the best CPK we ever produced and I'm confident the SC will be viewed the same.

I would take the LC on a camping trip. It is an outstanding option for a large Camp knife that can do double duty with meal prep. I would take the SC into the woods in your line of work, it's the more capable tool.
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Will the SC be next up for Friday sales after the Fat Bastard? Thanks
 
jmgruber said:
Will the SC be next up for Friday sales after the Fat Bastard? Thanks
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No, the LC will.

The last LC are coming off the horizontal today and I will change over to beveling the SC by the end of next week.

The horizontal has two tombstones. The other tombstone is reserved for beveling K20.

Profiling the SC is on the same mill that I'm using to CNC sharpen the fat bastards, so there is a balancing act to prevent a bottleneck feeding the other machines.

The big Mori is slowly chewing on the K20's. There was a pause in that process because we needed to replace a big vacuum pump that we use to help with fixturing.
 
We have Makino graphite mills in the other building that we use for scales production and they use a lot of air.

We have a small Atlas Copco rotary screw compressor as our primary air compressor with a relatively low output Quincy reciprocating compressor as the backup. Being a reciprocating compressor that Quincy is not rated to run 100% duty cycle and it has been tricky getting the Atlas copco pressure settings high enough to prevent the Quincy from running constantly. Setting the pressure on the Quincy lower creates a low pressure situation in the shop so that's not an option.

So I picked up a larger Kaeser air compressor at auction a few months ago. Chris and I pulled the Quincy out and put the Kaeser in there as the primary. Well, unfortunately, it's causing some electrical issues. It's twice as powerful and that big motor going directly to line is dropping our wild leg of the delta three phase out of range which is making the CNC machine tools alarm out. So we can't run it until I fix the power problem. Which I'm in the process of trying to do with an enormous Liebert Npower system that I bought from General Motors that they were using in their engine building plant in Tennessee. They were having some issues with it so they replaced it with a new system however Chris and I were able to debug this one and I have a new board on order so hopefully we can get that going so we can get both compressors (and the little DMGs that need the neutral from WYE three phase) going so that we can get all 10 machine tools online.

However I'm the only one that can actually do the finish sharpening on the fat bastards. So I'm spread a little thin right now.

Good Lord man. I really need to fix my driveway.
 
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