Ugly knife: Part Deux

Status
Not open for further replies.
stephanfowler said:
I think (hope) that this whole thread is really a misunderstanding of meaning.
Click to expand...

If this were the first time he had walked this particular path, then misunderstanding of meaning might be in play. But this isn't the first time.

I linked one of his more recent efforts in my first response - it was an "ugly knife" thread that got locked by the mods essentially for being in extremely poor taste. How often does that happen?

Roger
 
2knife said:
For me if any "custom" knife had true merit or advantages beyond the norm, I would start by trying to beat the Busse company on individual knife tests and destructive tolerances.
David
Click to expand...

So is this the reason you have sold a bunch of your Ed Fowler's ?
 
...nope, not sure I can see the bottom of this thread yet...


451px-maelstrom-clarke1.jpg
 
John T Wylie Jr said:
So is this the reason you have sold a bunch of your Ed Fowler's ?
Click to expand...

"Bunch" haha. Not exactly. I've sold one of a few extras, lately. When you have a collection (as if you don't know) you move things around Buy/trading, . There's no yard sale coming if that's your thinking.
d.
 
RogerP said:
If this were the first time he had walked this particular path, then misunderstanding of meaning might be in play. But this isn't the first time.

I linked one of his more recent efforts in my first response - it was an "ugly knife" thread that got locked by the mods essentially for being in extremely poor taste. How often does that happen?

Roger
Click to expand...

Roger,
Thanks for your well worded arguement as to my poor taste in presenting this thread. I still have not decided for myself if it is truly poor taste to show pictures of ugly knives on the internet.
David
 
D. Bostic said:
I definitely understand the sentiment you're making, and I don't entirely disagree with it. The goal of zero-failure is one I'm aspiring to, but it also troubles me. I don't think a knife should be expected to be capable if withstanding heavy use far outside it's original intended task. To give an example; I'm currently in the process of finishing up two knives, one for use as a small utility/hunting knife, and the other designed for EDC. The former has a more robust tip and a slight recurve. I designed the EDC with a steep hollow grind with a very fine needle-like tip. With this second one, could someone still use it for hunting/heavier duty tasks? Well, I guess so, but I kept it at a higher hardness because of my intended view for it's use. So if someone accidentally digs the tip into something hard or get stuck, like in the joint of a deer, it might snap at that point due to the high stress over the thin cross section. Did I make a "bad" knife?
In my mind, no. If a person used the knife for it's intended purpose, which is light cutting mediums(paper, cardboard, ect.) I don't believe it will fail them.
But I'd just have to pray they never tried to pry with it.

(also, if there's still an insistence on seeing ugly knives, I'll go out into my shop and take a few pictures this weekend.)
Click to expand...

Not sure how robust an EDC needs to be. I think in most cases a thin edge would stand up okay, but IMO at least, the tip needs to be sturdy. Slicing with the edge is fine but once you need to chip or pry you won't have much of a useful tool once the tip snaps off.
 
Last edited:
2knife said:
Roger,
Thanks for your well worded arguement as to my poor taste in presenting this thread. I still have not decided for myself if it is truly poor taste to show pictures of ugly knives on the internet.
David
Click to expand...

Not trying to pick a fight here, just going to the logical destination of this thought.

Is it in poor taste to ask a maker to commit the marketing equivalent of hari-kari by showing their failures? Is it in poor taste to ask a collector/owner to denegrate a maker by showing a knife that, in their subjective opinion, is ugly?

Any maker you ask will tell you they've made ugly knives, my Mom has the first kitchen knives I ever made. I've offered to make her new ones so I can melt those ugly things down into scrap, but to her they're beautiful so she has refused (but I'm gonna get them eventually:D). I can have an opinion on aesthetics that differs greatly from yours, but it would be extremely poor taste for me to give you my unsolicited opinion.

Have a good one,
Nathan
 
If I get the gist of David's thread, I agree with Stephan that a different title would help. We don't need to see pics of "ugly" knives but maybe discuss functional versus superfluous design features and materials.

I can also attest that David does do a fair bit of trading and selling, but he always seems to end up with a "stronger" collection. I'm as big an Ed Fowler fan as they come but have to admit his collection has surpassed mine.
 
Jose,
Do you think this was a crazy thread of me to start? Or is it the least bit entertaining?
David
 
2knife said:
Jose,
Do you think this was a crazy thread of me to start? Or is it the least bit entertaining?
David
Click to expand...

See my post above... :D

The production knife line of thought though I disagree with. I remember at a Blade show examining one of Bill Burke's big camp knives and thinking it was just too heavy. Then I checked out the M.O.A.B. at the Busse table and it was much heavier even than that. If you want unbreakable you can build a tank, but where cutom knives excel IMO is in efficiency. You pay for it of course, but there's a level of refinement that can't be matched by a production piece.
 
Last edited:
Jose,
Got it! :) I get your idea.. should have thought it through better.

Nathan's story makes good points. No good could come of a collector choosing to denegrate a specific maker's knives.. showing poor character. And There is truly no such thing as "ugly" if you love the old thing.

See how easily things change..
David
 
Jose Reyes said:
If I get the gist of David's thread, I agree with Stephan that a different title would help. We don't need to see pics of "ugly" knives but maybe discuss functional versus superfluous design features and materials.
Click to expand...

Whatever David's significant shortcomings, I feel he has sufficient ability with the English language that if it had been his wish or intent to solicit photos of functional knives, he would have done so. Particularly since his last and very recent attempt to generate an "Ugly Knife" thread got shot down by the mods.

He led with "Ugly Knife" not only in the title, but in the opening post, because that is precisely what he was after. He even called it "Part Deux" just in case anyone should fail to understand that this was a continuation of his previous thread.

As to WHY he is so persistent in pursuing this questionable goal - that's for a qualified psychiatrist to answer.

Roger

PS - Is he doing this on Ed's forum, or just here?
 
Roger,
Please read the original post again. I was asking to see knife designs that "didn't cut it" for one reason or another- my intent for this thread did get sidetracted, and it was my fault going astray with the art-knife debacle.
In truth, it would be nice to hear what mistakes can be made or are often made, including what some of these things turn out to look like.. That's all i'm getting at- not trying to sabotage anyone's concept- (if i did, i'm sorry).
David
 
I'm curious why didn't you post this in Shoptalk instead of where customers hang out? There are several "first knife" and "ugly knife" threads there. I'm not about to post my trash where collectors hang out. I KNOW you guys come into Shoptalk but feel that it's different when you visit "our" house and see a bad knife compared to a maker showing his mistakes in "your" house.
 
Thanks guys.

This one has run it's course. I'm going to let it drift down the bottom of the page.. hopefully we can agree on that.
David
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top