What do large knives do that small ones cannot?

My two favorites are the Lone Wolf Harsey Tactical T1 and T3.
The T3 has a 4.8 inch blade. The T1 is identical with a 3.2 inch blade.
One is sheeple friendly! The other is not! I'll leave it to you to
figure out which is which.
I prefer the large, but use the small more often so as not to scare anyone.
 
Confederate said:
I like knives with longer blades, and there're few things more monotonous than looking at a Spyderco catalog. Just about all the blades are roughly the same size and shape, and you can get the handle any color as long as it's black.
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Never thought I'd hear those words spoken. 'specialy the latter.

EDIT: D*mn I have a thread hijacking tendency.
 
David Lowry said:
Could you get the same thing done with a smaller knife or do you really "need" the length of the larger blade?
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It takes a larger EDC knife to piss off all those anti-knife people who want to ban knives larger than 2-3". Especially if they've been working hard on the internet day in and day out to spin the wonders of small knives for the intelligent. ;)
 
Time is often a factor for me. Sure, I can get the same work done with a smaller blade, but it takes longer. If I could carry a longer blade without risking jail, I would.
 
I spent a time carrying 2" blades, and they were fine for most tasks... but a PITA for others. I then went to 4" blades, which would sail through the bigger tasks, but were a bit OTT and difficult to use for most of the smaller things.

My ideal length turned out to be just over 3".

This is my work knife I'm talking about, EDC is limited to 3" here, and it's absolutely fine for just about all my day-to-day cutting tasks (IE, not at work where I'm cutting lots of different things all day).
 
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Well guys,you better should find way to handle tasks with sub 3 inchers cuz anti knife propaganda is spreading around the globe rapidly.
 
elkins45 said:
It's the mid-sized blades I don't find much use for. For really delicate work I want a small blade that I can choke up on, almost like a scalpel or X-acto knife.
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I recently bought a Spyderco Lava. When I took it out of the box, it didn't quite feel right, but after playing with it for a day it's my new favorite knife. Everything I was told about the knife was true, and it's even better than I could have imagined.

It has a 2" long by 2" wide blade, is razor sharp, and you can get a full grip on it. It's heavy, for it's size, and very secure in the hand. I just ordered another one because they're discontinued and on clearance....

SpyLavaGripOpen.jpg
 
i prefer a bigger blade as well, i cant wait to get my hands on a g10 offsett, it seems perfect for edc for me.

i wonder where e-m-p-i-r-e got his.......
 
If you are unhappy with your Millie you can send it to me :D

I like bigger knives cause I have bigger hands I like to feel like I am actually holding onto the knife instead of it being about to slip out of my hand.
 
I myself have a tendency to carry larger knives---the Spyderco Military, Benchmade's massive models (the Skirmish and Rukus), Cold Steel's Rajah II, Vaquero Grande, etc. As of recently, however, I've taken to the smaller and very efficiently designed production models---the Boker Subcom, and Spyderco's "Little Big" knives (the Cricket, Lava, Spin, etc.).

While they're lacking the weight that lends the feeling of solidity with the bigger knives, or just the flexibility of long edges and handles, they excel at the sorts of chores knives were originally made for. For most EDC intents and purposes, knife size is a matter of personal preference and, in some cases, legality.
 
Confederate said:
I like knives with longer blades, and there're few things more monotonous than looking at a Spyderco catalog. Just about all the blades are roughly the same size and shape, and you can get the handle any color as long as it's black.
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I think that the Spyderco catalog offers a host of functionally and aesthetically unique designs and is hardly boring. Perhaps it's my personal preference, but I felt that I should address this too! :D

And, on the note of any handle color you want as long as it's black...
There are models available with foliage green handles, British Racing Green handles, red handles, stainless steel handles, digital camouflage handles, yellow handles, orange handles, blue handles, olive drab green handles, handles with gray carbon fiber inserts, white micarta handles, and a host of others including the Kiwi series with natural jigged bone, and of course the unbelieveable diverse handle materials of the Kopa series, boasting things ranging from giraffe bone to mother of pearl and countless others. I think they offer a little bit more than black G10 and FRN. :D

Now, if you wanted handle choices limited to black, take a look at Cold Steel and some others in the industry. I just went through the 2008 Fall Special Projects catalog and counted exactly one knife that didn't have a black handle---the Pocket Bushman. That's including the linen micarta models, and counting the knives in the Custom Series with titanium bolsters. There's not a single, solitary thing wrong with black handles, but I just wanted to contrast the diverse level of Spyderco compared with a brand I believe Mr. Confederate has some affinity for (and I enjoy some Cold Steel designs too!).
 
There are no right or wrong answers to questions like this.

What irritates me is for the government to decide what people "need." It's not uncommon to hear people who want to ban anything that can be used for self defense to say: "No one needs a knife with a blade more than 2.5 inches." These are the same people who have determined that no one "needs" a revolver with a 2-3-inch barrel. One woman who was pushing for the banning of all snub-nosed handguns said, with great authority, mind you, that such guns were only good for "tabletop" accuracy. Well, if she would care to take that table top out to 100 yards, a bunch of us would like to show her just how "poor" the accuracy of such guns really is.

So the topic should reside only in forums like this. When politicians begin trying to decide what you "need," it's time to head the other way!

A knife with a longer blade will do just about anything a knife with a shorter blade will, except, possibly, cleaning one's fingernails. The "reach" of longer blades can act as a deterrent to evil doers, it can provide a tactical advantage if you're forced into a corner, it can generally cut much faster in emergency situations and often longer blades have more room for plain edge cutting or serrated edge cutting.

In the ocean, if you come nose to nose with a shark, or, if you are in the woods and come face to snout with a bear, an 8-inch cheap knife will come in much more handy than a 3-inch bladed knife. I recently heard of an account where a guy saved his girlfriend from a black bear with a 4-inch folding knife. The next day, rangers followed the blood to the wounded bear, where they dispatched it with a round from a rifle. I also knew a fellow in Hawaii who used an inexpensive fixed knife to saw off the head of a Moray eel. It had clamped down on the fellow's left elbow and was thrashing around. It most likely wanted to let go, but eels have to close their mouths before they can open them, and this guy's bones kept the mouth from shutting all the way.

All knives can be useful. I went years without carrying one. Now I can't go one day without a knife. I also EDC a flashlight and am amazed how often I use that as well.

P.S.—Regarding the color of Spyderco handles, yes, there are other colors, but mostly in practice or Salt varieties. I'd like to see other colors from all knife makers. The stainless handles I've tried and just don't like. They scratch easily, are slippery, etc. The G10 and FRN handles, too, are mostly black. Again, colors would be nice. One different color for each day of the week. And as far as Cold Steel knives go, their variety of blades sizes and shape more than make up for the handle colors.
 
Confederate said:
I like knives with longer blades, and there're few things more monotonous than looking at a Spyderco catalog. Just about all the blades are roughly the same size and shape, and you can get the handle any color as long as it's black.
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Confederate, why do you continue to speak blatant misrepresentations about Spyderco? Really, what do you get out of it?

Anyone can go look at their catalog and see the Captain, Tasman Salt, Kuhkuri, Barong, Kiwi etc. Anyone can see they offer yellow, orange, purple, green, white, silver, carbon fiber and other handle options.

Yes, they make a lot of black handled knives with leaf shaped blades, but it's not like that's ALL they make. You know what? Cold Steel makes a lot of black handled knives too. Why aren't you complaining about that?

I clearly demonstrated in response to one of your previous posts the variety of blade shapes Spyderco offers. Look at my EDC rotation even, which is only a sampling of the blade shapes they offer:

oku3oo.jpg


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Regarding the original question:

I find a larger blade works better for certain tasks. For general utility I think something like the Spyderco Urban is ideal. thin grind, handle design gets you right up on the blade for maximum control, light and easy to maneuver etc.

However for most any sort of food prep, the larger blade works better. Quarter apples, slicing meat and cutting veggies on a cutting board, cutting up large melons and so forth are much easier with my Spyderco Police 3 than UK Pen Knife.

Also large knives usually have bigger, more palm filling handles. When doing heavier work or long-term cutting I really appreciate this aspect of the knife.

The extra reach they give can be useful in certain situations.

For me it's mainly for the big, comfortable handles and food prep concerns. I also like how they cut certain things more efficiently, because with a longer cutting edge fewer slices are needed to cut through objects.

My solution? Carry both. Usually a Military or Police 3 + a Cricket, which offers unprecedented tip control.
 
When I look at the larger blades in my collection, then the ones that get carried most are those typically used in a food prep/eating context. Especially my beloved laguioles. There are 3" laguioles but they just feel so very wrong! A laguiole blade should in my opinion be 4 to 5 inch. I have a few awesome bigger blade knives such as the impressive ZT0200 but it rarely sees pocket time. In truth, I find them a bit vulgar, a bit ostentatious for general use. Fun to play with at home or in the garden though.
Otherwise, when I look at my utility/gentlemen kind of knives then for me around 3" is pretty much ideal for general use. For example, my strongly made Spyderco Caly3 or Klotzli Walker 06 can handle in essence anything I throw at them.
 
slimshaneee said:
I guess you could look at it this way. In the movie "The Shawshank Redemption" The main character fella digs through a stone wall with a jewelers hammer (Very very small hammer) Now he was able to get it done, but it would have been easier with a sledgehammer or some explosives.

...

That was the devils advocate talking. I was just trying to come up with things. I'm finding I like non-locking traditionals these days. A knife is to cut with in my book, and nothing zips through cardboard like a peanut blade! Or a swayback blade!
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Until I read that "devils advocate" caveat, I was chuckling at the irony of using a situation from a Hollywood movie to illustrate the value of carrying a whoppin' huge knife. ;) That would have fit in with the notion of a drugstore cowboy who carries a huge folder in all four pockets so he'll be ready when the Ruskies or mall ninjas or terrorists or Methodists attack (all at once, if you believe Nostrodamus). Meanwhile, the only cutting he does is quartering apple for his kids from time to time, opening a box of doggie treats for Precious, and trimming a string off his wife's sweater once in awhile.
 
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