Was he nuts? Why the curv?

It actually looks like it would feel very good in the hand when filleting a fish against a table or the ground (for a right handed person).
 
It's obviously a Kloppenheimer Sminglsdorf...or a ingenious mod to a filet knife. I think i'll go with filet knife.
 
OldSarSwmr said:
It's obviously a Kloppenheimer Sminglsdorf...or a ingenious mod to a filet knife. I think i'll go with filet knife.
Click to expand...

Yep, he put that curve in there to give his hand a little room when he filleted his catch on a table. Cool design :).
 
Looks like to me it is antler. he just used what was availble and as you say probably felt good in his hand so he left it that way.
 
My grand father had a similar knife, he used it for cutting roasts into jerky strips. he made a channeled cutting board the roast was pinned to, and he rolled out the roast and sliced it at the same time. Then he had a long flat uniform 1/4 inch thick or so slab he could cut into long strips for jerking. since this was done on a table, the sideways curve kept his wrist and back from getting sore, and it allowed him to stand a bit closer to the table for stability. He could cut flank steaks this way as well, and a few other cuts. He grew up on a farm, and his family was pretty self sufficient, but at 103 he is old enough to have been around before band saws and machine tools were common.

Thanks for this thread, it gave me one more thing to ask my grandfather about before he moves on to "something else", as he says.
 
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I spoke with a wood carver once and asked him why the shape of a box he made was not square. He responded saying that you must work with the materials and not force them to fit your desires, but rather how they will function best.

Perhaps the antler (prior to him cutting it) was curved and felt good in hand...so he went with it.

Humans often want to see symmetry, but the truth is, very few of us are truly symmetric. Even if I was perfectly symmetric, I generally use a knife in predominantly one hand and a curved handle that maximizes comfort in that hand seems like a worthy experiment.
 
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