those words we keep saying

hardheart

hardheart

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Sep 19, 2001
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Here are some words and terms that seem too vague or far removed from original meaning to really make a lot of sense or clearly describe a knife or its features. Please shre any you think apply.

Tough - blades less than 1/8" thick have been called tough, others think 3/16 is anorexic, very dependent on the culture
Strong - is it different from tough? How so?
Tank - very different knives with very different levels of the above two 'qualities' get this name
Holds an edge - all blades do, what kind of edge for how long, varies by user
Slicer - there is a slicer pattern for kitchen knives, otherwise sometimes just means someone managed to cut a sheet of paper on video
Sharp -again, user dependent and how thin you like you grinds and blades
Razor edge - razors suck as knives, and how many shave with a knife claiming this
Easy/hard to sharpen - skill and equipment, prior experience to compare to
Custom - very beat up, full customer input, go down a standard list, or already on the exchange in small batches?
High carbon - technically almost all cutlery steel (>0.5%)
Carbon steel - technically only the 10xx series
Hand made - most production knives we discuss. Both the sebenza and the sanrenmu 710 need human hands for asembly and function check. Doesn't indicate quality or tolerances. Most other knives have a power tol or twenty involved in profiling, beveling, sharpening, finish sanding, making holes, etc.
Quality - well, how often do you use a knife and how much do you spend on 'em
Cheap - for some its $5, others $50 is the wrong side of the tracks, someon once posted they felt they couldn't trust the 'quality' at a $100 price tag
 
"bushcraft," "survival," and "tactical" are entirely meaningless at this point. Empty marketing.

Your points about "tough" and "strong" are interesting, in that they both have very specific meanings from a "properties of metals" standpoint...and those meanings are very often ignored.
 
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For me, a knife qualifies as a "slicer" when I can cut something like crisp fruit or veggies without the spine "cracking" the item before the blade finishes the cut.
 
I agree and chuckle a bit with your post.

I think we all need to realize that this is a hobby and a fairly large component of the participants engage in this hobby for entertainment and recreation. Accordingly, many of the videos/discussions are geared toward entertainment. The total opposite of this would be manufacturers specifications and technical reviews. While even technical reviews often suffer (deserving) your criticism, they tend to be a bit dry and less interesting than the typical conversation that hobbyists often enjoy.

As you know there is a sub-forum for the reviews, and some of them are quite good/technical. However, I have talked to a few technical reviewers that have decided to stop publicly sharing their results because they get tired of the controversy/criticism/arguments they receive. If you get too demanding of people, they will eventually stop sharing...I am not sure we really want this?
 
"Ergos" you see this one to describe all manner of uncomfortable/comfortable handle.
 
Our hobby is very subjective, both with terms and their meaning. The "ergos" that fit my hand wonderfully hurt someone elses hands. The knife that "slices" my apple just fine may chip or roll its edge cutting your zip ties........etc. It is the same for "fit and finish". Some folks look at the average lower end knife(choose a brand) and will call the "fit and finish" of a good working model excellent. But if you compare it to the "fit and finish" of a higher end model(pick a brand) it is not on the same level and may even be atrocious. So, I try to be careful when discussing my opinions. I try to make sure it is understood that my opinions are based on MY experience with what works for ME. And it may not work for anyone else.
 
Almost all non-technical descriptive terms for knives are highly subjective, and almost all the technical terms for knives get misused on a frequent basis. Most of the time when these terms are being tossed around, the ultimate message is really as simple as "I do/do not like it." :D
 
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