They are goofy sometimes-designers/makers

Yo Mama

Yo Mama

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Am I the only one that thinks there are a few examples of goofy designers or makers?

1. Lynn Thompson-goofy vids, cheasy, corny-I actually get ammused watching him, passes the time
2. Gil Hibben-he always looks so serious. Am I wrong, but did he ever make quality stuff, or just movie props?
3. "Jared"-the man with no name, and a militia, and wow those threads were epic
4. Ken Onion-got on my list for the worksharp monstrosity, it's a portable belt sander, really Ken?


Who else makes your list, or who do you agree with me on?
 
1. Cold Steel has some really goofy marketing, but the products are pretty darn solid. It helps that, when it comes to the vids, they're in on the joke.
2. As I understand it, Mr. Hibben was one of the first, if not the first, to make custom knives using 440c which was a huge leap when he did it. As I understand it, his chops as a custom maker were what got him the jobs making hollywood props. There's not much from his company I would bother spending money on, but he's been a huge influence in custom knifemaking and the industry.
3. What a weiner.
4. I would argue that in the current world of production knives Ken Onion ranks only behind Sal Glesser when it comes to innovation and raising the bar on what we can expect from a knife. He's churned out many solid, affordable designs and seems bent on single-handedly rehabilitating CRKTs image.
 
There are a lot of knifemakers out there who can make a knife very well, but not many who can design one to come up with a good marriage of form and function. Even then, those who get combination right, don't get it right all the time.
 
Yo Mama said:
4. Ken Onion-got on my list for the worksharp monstrosity, it's a portable belt sander, really Ken?
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Nothing wrong with the Worksharp. With a little practice you can get very nice edges with one. Plus the old belts can be used for polishing an edge, etc. Not everyone (even knife people) enjoy sharpening and the Worksharp is great for them.
 
gooeytek said:
There are a lot of knifemakers out there who can make a knife very well, but not many who can design one to come up with a good marriage of form and function. Even then, those who get combination right, don't get it right all the time.
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:thumbup:

There are a handful of makers/manufacturers/designers that I choose not to support for reasons that have nothing to do with the knives they produce. Some I don't agree with their business ethics, others it's more of a personality/attitude thing that just rubs me the wrong way. Such entities do enough on their own to alienate their customers, imo; no need for me to call them out or bash 'em. I just take my money elsewhere... :)

-Brett
 
Bigfatts said:
Nothing wrong with the Worksharp. With a little practice you can get very nice edges with one. Plus the old belts can be used for polishing an edge, etc. Not everyone (even knife people) enjoy sharpening and the Worksharp is great for them.
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Like me i use the work sharp and I love it and my knives stay extremely sharp
 
There are designers and designs that IMHO, are different just for the sake of being different. I don't like those.
 
Ken Onion is a very venerable, knifemaker, and innovator IMHO. The WorkSharp is a solid system, especially without the guard for sharpening convex edges, and axes, or machetes, I don't know how much better his signature model is though.
 
Yo Mama said:
Am I the only one that thinks there are a few examples of goofy designers or makers?

1. Lynn Thompson-goofy vids, cheasy, corny-I actually get ammused watching him, passes the time
2. Gil Hibben-he always looks so serious. Am I wrong, but did he ever make quality stuff, or just movie props?
3. "Jared"-the man with no name, and a militia, and wow those threads were epic
4. Ken Onion-got on my list for the worksharp monstrosity, it's a portable belt sander, really Ken?


Who else makes your list, or who do you agree with me on?
Click to expand...

1. Well Lynn Thompson isn't a knife designer or maker.
2. the stuff her personally makes is very good.. the cheap licensed knives obviously aren't.
3. who?
4. it seems like a good tool...
 
Goofy sells. Especially goofy and cheap. Turn on your TV or radio, you'll see what I mean. Yeah... millions of people actually watch/listen to that stuff.

In other news...

Lynn Thompson is indeed a designer. He didn't "invent" anything exactly, he just took smart concepts and blended them together.

Like him or not, he almost single-handedly brought the "Americanized" tanto and modern ABS-style bowie knife (TrailMaster) to a vastly wider market in the '80's, and seriously raised the bar for production knives at the time - by using top-quality steel and employing American factories (most notably, Camillus) to produce them and, perhaps most importantly, meeting very reasonable price-points. Let's not forget the Master Hunter, one of the finest general-purpose factory fixed-blade knives ever produced. He not only kicked the factory scene in the behind, he brought a lot of attention to custom/handmade makers.

There's been a lot of very goofy water under the bridge since then, and his ethics re:stealing designs are a source of endless controversy, but his contribution to the industry is frankly pretty remarkable.

As for Gil Hibben... you don't get to be President of the KnifeMaker's Guild, have your work in many, many movies and TV shows, and sell about a bazillion knives by being a chump. Mr. Hibben is definitely a real knifemaker, as well as a designer and savvy marketer.

Ken Onion? A genius. More power to him.

I'm old enough to remember when Spyderco knives were largely dismissed as "goofy". Turns out, they just plain work and they've spawned a lot of copycats.

What I'm seeing coming out of many newer makers and designers today has more to do with visual appeal and funky grinds just for the sake of being funky and weird.

And we cannot possibly have a thread about goofy knives without mentioning Dark Ops. :D
 
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As for Ken Onion, his Ripple is a very, very good knife. Easily one of my favorite modern knives. So is the Blur and the Eros, and on and on...

And the Worksharp KO, well, it isn't his invention. The Worksharp existed for quite awhile before KO got involved. But the changes that he made to the device are excellent and are the reasons that I now own one. He took a basic device and worked with Worksharp to modify it such that it is more usable and more flexible for the knife user. Nice piece of equipment.
 
Yo Mama said:
...
4. Ken Onion-got on my list for the worksharp monstrosity, it's a portable belt sander, really Ken?
...
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He didn't invent it, as someone already said. But from what I have seen, his version is even better than an already great existing tool.
 
For me I'd say Medford knives meets the criteria of unusable, overbuilt pry bars. Unpractical, uncomfortable designs that just do nothing but keep your oat from drifting and papers from blowing away.

Ken Onion has designed some of the absolute best knives ever made in my opinion. I can say this because I've used a number of them throughout the years and I have not found em hard to sharpen, maintain, or use.

Cold Steel hit a homerun with the addition of Andrew Demko. His designs are among the best ergonomically as well as the TriAd lock is excellent.

I cannot speak to Gil Hibben knives, but the man has a long list of accomplishments that not just anyone can acquire.
 
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