What Design Features Are Your Biggest Turnoffs In Knife Design?

I don’t like finger grooves and I really don’t like fixed blade wharncliffe models like the GEC shown. They sometimes come with a wacky sheath (backwards) and it is too easy to get things handled dangerously backwards (finger on blade not spine) 😬IMG_6658.jpeg
 
Last edited:
In terms of design, I am a traditional guy. I do not find swoopy, angular or exaggerated features attractive. For me the dramatic "tacti-cool" is out. Our elite warfighters (Green Beret, Delta, Seals) do not use these oddball blades, and they should know. Furher, for me, any hint of "fantasy" is out of consideration. I have seen plenty of pictures of ancient weapons. With few exceptions, these so called fantasy blades do not exist in the archeological record . . .which is why they are fantasy blades, right? The bronze age Egyptian sickle sword might be one exception, not repeated in later history. One of the Greek swords had a dramatic blade profile and a split knuckle bow. Some middle eastern scimitars were a little over the top too. . .I invite others to mention other real world examples of fantastical weapons. I could go either way on a sub hilt fighter.

What I do like: Smooth lines that make a coherent whole. Thumb humps are out as are the Spydercvo thumb holes. I want to be able to deploy a folder with ease, so I like a subtle 'flipper" tab. Thumb studs don't work well for me either. Spring assisted and switch blades are cool enough to impress one's brother-in-law, but add mechanical complexity and are superfluous if it is a flipper. A modest choil works to keep that forefinger intact when choking up on the blade . . .but not something so big that it becomes an attention getter. IIn a fixed blade, I alike the look of a modest fuller, not a narrow grove, not a huge trough. The iconic Ka-Bar is iconic for more than its USMC heritage. I like natural handle materials, . . .exotic even . . .for a knife in less than demanding heavy use shuch as antler, tropical woods or any form of LEGAL ivory such as fossil mammoth or beach combed walrus tusk. But when buying a duty knife for a Marine about to deploy to a hot war zone, I opted for rugged micarta.

A big fixed blade is ok if you need it but I do not like the heavy, extreme clipped point Jim Boue style. Damascus is neat to look at in a finely crafted display piece, but in m y mind there is no place for pattern welding in a user. Many forging videos seem meant to show how oddly selected components can be forged into some dramatic pattern, rather than how functional (durable, edge retaintion etc) the blade is in usage. However, I believe that "wootz" steel seems practical as a blade steel . . .but expensive.

That about overs it and my coffee needs a refill.
 
Last edited:
The only one that really kills me is a poorly terminated edge. I won't buy knives that aren't designed to be sharpened and used.

It's one of several things that have kept me from trying a Spartan Harsey.
 
Any blade that’s thicker than 1/8” or so. I won’t use it to slam through a log, so no need for a log-busting blade that’s thicker and harder to sharpen.

Thumb jimping because my thumb is too long to use much of it, and sometimes that jimping is too rough.

Last but not least, offering their knives in a super steel that costs 40-60% [edited, more like 25-35% more, but still…] more than stainless steel models. I’m starting to get a bad attitude about the cost associated with those super steel models, especially when I have to spend a lot of time trying to thin down a super hard, super thick, super steel bevel. I think I’ll go back to regular steel like AEB-L, N690, and nitro V for a while. They’re just easier to work with. And not stupid expensive.
 
Last edited:
I can't stand chisel grinds. I get the reasoning behind them. I just think it's a great way to ugly up a knife real quick for very little benefit. Pisses me off even more if they don't show it in the preview photo when you're browsing a website. They love to bait and switch you with the bevel side in the thumbnails.
 
SkinnyElectrician said:
Any blade that’s thicker than 1/8” or so.
Click to expand...

3/16” stock thickness with taper in both directions. It’s strong, and light, and fast, and oh so slicey:

image.jpg
image.jpg
image.jpg
image.jpg

SkinnyElectrician said:
I’m starting to get a bad attitude about the cost associated with those super steel models, especially when I have to spend a lot of time trying to thin down a super hard, super thick, super steel bevel.
Click to expand...

This is why you’d want to go to a custom maker. If I made you something in 3V or MagnaCut, it would cost more because it has to. These materials and processing them involve more cost because they take more work. But you’d get something that has the geometry you want right out of the box.

SkinnyElectrician said:
I think I’ll go back to regular steel like AEB-L, N690, and nitro V for a while. They’re just easier to work with.
Click to expand...

I’m with ya in that these steels can do the job and do it well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top