What Design Features Are Your Biggest Turnoffs In Knife Design?

Thumbstuds. If it has one, it better have another method of opening as well.

Full metal handles.

There will always be exceptions though.
 
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Boattale said:
Locks that put body parts in the way to operate. Karambits and other just plain weird blade shapes. GEC's way of jigging - just butt ugly compared to a good peach seed jigged Case. Overly thick blades on folders. Mammoth Ivory and Ram's Horn scales - just ICK to both. I've got more but those come to mind straight away.
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Finger choils on the blade or handle. Too thick steel, bad blade geometry so it doesn't cut well. Skinny handles that aren't comfortable for long use. And of course some company's using dog shite heat treat and or running steels too soft, burning edges, mislabeled steels, etc.

Spend enough time on here with great makers and their quality work makes you really appreciate a great tool as opposed to a crappy one
 
Shallow pocket clips, and thin handles or handles with no gaurd.
Above all else, cheap hardware that strips easily is a PITA
 
I like finger choils on small folders like the Spydie Chaparral or Cold Steel Tuff Lite, where you have to have a choil to get a 4-finger grip. For folders that already have enough grip, I definitely prefer no choil. It's not a deal-breaker if I love the knife, but I would throw money at Spyderco if they would release a run of no-choil PM2s.
 
Stringjam7 said:
I like finger choils on small folders like the Spydie Chaparral or Cold Steel Tuff Lite, where you have to have a choil to get a 4-finger grip. For folders that already have enough grip, I definitely prefer no choil. It's not a deal-breaker if I love the knife, but I would throw money at Spyderco if they would release a run of no-choil PM2s.
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Or could you imagine a no choil military?!
 
Unnecessarily thick blades, especially on folders.

T6 or proprietary hardware.

Permanent thread-locker.

Recesses and fill-plates on the "show side". Yeah, I know lefties need love but what was wrong with unobtrusive screw holes? I have lots of knives where a deep-carry clip isn't recessed into the scale and it is no big deal. While fill plates usually look bad to me, having an empty void makes it look like a part is missing!

That said, screw heads should not be sticking up under a deep-carry clip. Honestly, I wish all clip screws fit flush. The only marginally legit excuse I see is people counting on the extra traction from screw heads above non-deep-carry clips when drawing from the pocket but for the hundred or more knives I've carried since last century, it was never an appreciable benefit for me. What does matter is knives scuffing or hanging up on a pocket because of screw heads.

Further, clips resting on rough textures can be rough on pockets over time. Spyderco generally solves this by giving the clip a smoother landing spot. More companies should think about that.

D2. Seriously, it isn't very tough, it has poor corrosion resistance, and the edge retention isn't good enough to justify those drawbacks versus so many other steel choices in the current market. Sure, there are benefits over 8Cr13Mov at the $30 level but still...

Last but not least, edges smiling up as they run into the plunge. I see this a lot on production folders. For all the hate I see on choils here, I'd much rather have the edge terminate cleanly in a choil.
 
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