What Design Features Are Your Biggest Turnoffs In Knife Design?

Mistwalker

Mistwalker

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Dec 22, 2007
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Like the title says, what features are most likely to cause you to pass on a knife?

For me one of my biggest turnoffs is an exposed integral guard. I do not like feeling just the thickness of steel rubbing against my forefinger when I'm carving or boring or doing detail work with the tip. I like a hilt or handle scales that come down around my forefinger and spread the pressure across a wider area. It's more comfortable to me and it's more esthetically pleasing to my eyes. To me scales that stop before going down around the forefinger, at least a little, look incomplete, like the maker didn't have enough scale material to make a proper handle. But that's just my opinion. What are your pet peeves?

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Thumb ramps are a mixed bag. The smaller and flatter, the better.

Rattly springs in assisted folders.

Recurves. Serrations. Don't worry about that CQC-7 of mine that you see from time to time.

Deep finger grooves in handles. For example, the Folts Minimalist: hard "no".
 
A handle like this
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Smooth scales that get more narrow as you approach the blade and nothing to stop my finger from getting bloodied up unless I squeeze the handle like I’m trying to choke a rattlesnake to death. Also any knives with super slick shiny scales. I know they make them like that because they look pretty, but it’s like trying to hold on to a greased ice cube.
 
Finger choils. They take up blade length and I don’t like having my finger that close to the work. I just don’t like em !

Another thing I don’t like is slick, smooth handles. I have had a few really bad incidents with a knife that was as slippery as a wet bar of soap and nearly cut my femoral artery missing it by a mere 1/16 inch. I would rather have some texture for a good grip.
 
flexo said:
i don't like a handle to be thinner at the pommel than at the guard side
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This is a good one, I hadn't had a knife like that before, and recently played with one of those Maxpedition MD inspired knives that has that type of taper, and it's very odd feeling.

Sheaths - I don't like busy kydex or leather. A stone pouch or sharpening steel loop is about it for me. I don't like kydex that comes too far up the handle also.

I'd rather a finger choil / ricasso be almost too small than overly large.

I've grown to dislike wide and deep jimping.

I dislike a lot of the jigging/stippling done on G-10. It's fine if the edges are broken and blended well, but a lot of makers leave it too rough.
 
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I’m not big on finger choils. They don’t help with anything, they just waste blade length. Just having a full sharpened blade all the way to the handle would be the same functionally but without a dumb half moon of blade missing from your knife.

P.S. especially undersized finger choils like on a Buck 119. It’s too small to safely use and huge for a sharpening choil.
 
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Agreed with almost everything people have said. I only like serrations now because I learned to make good ones that don’t have the usual drawbacks that make many people dislike them, most particularly their difficulty to sharpen.
 
Mistwalker Mistwalker I get what you say about guards. It’s nice to have handle material that covers the ricasso area and also aids in preventing slipping up onto the blade.

However I believe a knife can be made that doesn’t have material on that part but still looks complete, is safe to use, and comfortable as well.

My EDChef model is an example. The integral guard, if that’s what we call it, is not covered by handle material (except on the limited number of EDChefs Mk II) but it’s chamfered, and at a sufficient angle and radius that there is little danger of cutting oneself outside of very careless use.
 
-Thick blades on small pocket knives
-Slick, smooth finish on handle/scale
-Rough finish on handle/scale
-Rough cheese grater jimping
-Gaudy designs that are trying too hard to be "aggressive" looking or overly "tactical"
-Serrated blades
 
No-No's For fixed blades:
> A guard which extends above the blade and interferes with my ability to extend my thumb onto the back of the blade.
> A handle which does not have a feature to prevent my hand from sliding forward onto the blade.
> Flat handles. Thin handles.
 
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