What do you look for in a B&T or EDC fixed blade?

Horsewright said:
@cbach8tw


Ain't nothing better than cool ol guns for sure!
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What a nice belt! You all have the midas touch. The white handled Tapadero is also right up my alley, but I'd end up getting the plain steel when the time comes. Beautiful work all round, damascus is just not my thing.

Thanks for the great answer and stories :) I am by no means on your level, but spent a couple of years working on a dairy farm and riding school when I was younger so appreciate the need for "blind" and safe access to one's knife. Luckily, riding schools and dairy farms are much more tame than working cattle so I never had to cut anyone out of an impending wreck. Glad to hear you all are ok. It hurts enough getting thrown, without landing on a knife or pistol.

The retention design on those pancake (?) sheaths are excellent and again the tooling looks amazing. I could probably even make the scout style carry work here in the city, which is hard to do for a fixed blade unless you are a tradesman!

You've inspired me to try find some leather and make a new sheath for my Fallkniven F1. I'll start with a simple dangler style though. Thanks again :)
 
bikerector said:
How do you like the quiet carry? That was one i was interested in as a Kayak camping knife.
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I really liked the knife but hated the kydex sheath it came with. Also, Lc200n seemed soft coming from s90v/d2. I ended up selling the QC and EDC my Altitude and keep the Adamas in the truck.
 
I didn't read through the whole thread but as a lifelong fan of small f.b.'s, I had Daado of B.F make me my favorite in 52100 and old Westinghouse micarta. Not in a position to post a pic but I ended up getting two. Check him out for a great user EDC. Very nice guy and very reasonable prices for the great quality--KV
 
Filthyj24 said:
I really liked the knife but hated the kydex sheath it came with. Also, Lc200n seemed soft coming from s90v/d2. I ended up selling the QC and EDC my Altitude and keep the Adamas in the truck.
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I could see that, especially S90V. Very hard stuff. Not many steels have better edge retention than good heat treated S90V.
 
kvaughn said:
I didn't read through the whole thread but as a lifelong fan of small f.b.'s, I had Daado of B.F make me my favorite in 52100 and old Westinghouse micarta. Not in a position to post a pic but I ended up getting two. Check him out for a great user EDC. Very nice guy and very reasonable prices for the great quality--KV
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I've seen his stuff and honestly I don't like the looks but have had many forum memebers state his knives are fantastic to use. Part of the reason I started the thread was to get other's like without my bias in the way.

I'm not necessarily looking for something to buy but something to design and have made. I like the process of designing something myself that's purposeful but I don't have the skills to make something and likely won't as my training time is spent elsewhere. Can only learn so much.
 
I generally prefer a shorter knife for EDC - 5.5” to 6.5” OAL. My most used knife (Fiddleback Forge Runt) is 5.5” OAL (2 1/8” blade) in a cross draw leather sheath. Very quick and quiet to deploy, people friendly, and conceals easily.

My second favorite has a 4” handle and 2.5” blade. Harder to conceal and cross draw doesn’t work for me at this size, but the full 4 finger grip makes it a joy to use.

I like carbon/tool steel. Generally, 1/8 thick. Pointy spear point with a little belly is my favorite at this size. I also really like a non-stabilized wood handle (Desert Ironwood and Osage Orange are my favorites so far).
 
crumpet8 said:
What a nice belt! You all have the midas touch. The white handled Tapadero is also right up my alley, but I'd end up getting the plain steel when the time comes. Beautiful work all round, damascus is just not my thing.

Thanks for the great answer and stories :) I am by no means on your level, but spent a couple of years working on a dairy farm and riding school when I was younger so appreciate the need for "blind" and safe access to one's knife. Luckily, riding schools and dairy farms are much more tame than working cattle so I never had to cut anyone out of an impending wreck. Glad to hear you all are ok. It hurts enough getting thrown, without landing on a knife or pistol.

The retention design on those pancake (?) sheaths are excellent and again the tooling looks amazing. I could probably even make the scout style carry work here in the city, which is hard to do for a fixed blade unless you are a tradesman!

You've inspired me to try find some leather and make a new sheath for my Fallkniven F1. I'll start with a simple dangler style though. Thanks again :)
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Thanks. My wife does the flower carving and I do the oak. Thats like the 5th belt she has carved for him. You bet, glad it helps. Thats what got me started on the retention trail. Years ago (before we were married actually), I saw my wife riding this horse for someone else and it went to bucking pretty bad. I saw her knife go flying about three jumps before she did. And said to myself, hmmm self thats bad, we need to fix that. We did. When you start your leather project if I can be of any help don't hesitate to ask. There is also this resource, a place here on BF that many folks don't even know about:

https://www.bladeforums.com/forums/sheaths-such.820/


Lots of leather workers there that sure will answer questions for ya.
 
Horsewright said:
As a user I prefer a full flat grind. As a maker a hollowgrind is much easier to do well. A small drop point works very well for me. Huge on cross draw horizontal sheath. These two blade styles have been my personal EDCs for some years now. Both knife styles are a little over 5.25" oal.

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I'm huge on natural materials for handles going with horn or stag but have also carried wood handled knives. I do like a bolster. The front part of the handle is your weak link in knife construction. A bolster allows this area to be sealed better. Bout it I guess.
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Those are pretty and practical! Visually, I like the one in the middle. Stunning blade.
 
WillB said:
Those are pretty and practical! Visually, I like the one in the middle. Stunning blade.
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Thanks yeah it lasted 3 or 4 seconds on the website, well maybe 3 or 4 minutes but it was outta here fast!

bikerector bikerector have ya come up with a design yet?
 
Horsewright said:
Thanks yeah it lasted 3 or 4 seconds on the website, well maybe 3 or 4 minutes but it was outta here fast!

bikerector bikerector have ya come up with a design yet?
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Right now I'm still working on a pocket skinner idea but have a few I'm still working out that are more all-purpose. School has been kicking my butt the past 5 weeks. Really cool and interesting course, really time intensive compared to the others this year.

This one from page 1 is one I'm having made next month and then something with a straighter back. I'm still using the straight handle from the maker to focus on the blade design piece while I work up some models in wood for the next few months, as time allows, to figure that out without outright copying what others are doing. I'm a little more excited about the straighter spined version but I think the one below could be really interesting.
6Q0wiOgl.jpg

The rough handle shape I'm working out is kind of like this one I carved out in 20-30 minutes. Rough design but gets a little bit of slip guarding, reasonable rounding except around the butt which I never finished. Kind of taking the traditional Kephart approach of taller and flat sides with the hope it will hug to the body nicely but still fill the hand enough to be comfortable for all but hard cutting tasks. I need to get some hard cutouts of the other 2 designs first so they can get made but I'm also going to go get some basswood so I don't have to fight the knots in the scavenged cedar I'm currently playing with.

Turning out to be a slow process for me so I'm doing more about getting some opinions, taking notes, sketching out a lot of different things, finding and taking picutres of a lot things (some interesting pairing knife handles out there) and thinning out the brainstormed ideas. I should have 5 live prototypes by the end of January that I hope to then get into some BF buddy's hands to test out. Maybe gift them out for the assistance since the knives should be functional but the designs not wholly thought out and vetted. The reason for the clip point below is simply because I like clip points aesthetically and I find carving relaxing, even if I'm no good at it yet, and that's kind of what happened after a little bit.
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I think the decisions I've come to are: micarta handles, 3/32" thick O1 steel, saber flat grind (one will be scandivex because one buddy likes it, so probably going to him afterward) and then a handle just under 4". For now at least. Trying to minimize variables a bit to create some design constraints, for now at least. Probably over-thinking a lot of it, but that's part of my process until I can get some in-hand evaluations and quickly go one direction or the other.
 
haha, I know what you mean and I used to be like that with some things. Now, I just figure I spend more time enjoying whatever it is if it’s being used rather than sitting in a drawer. I probably wouldn’t lend it out to anyone so quick though :)

WillB WillB
 
crumpet8 said:
haha, I know what you mean and I used to be like that with some things. Now, I just figure I spend more time enjoying whatever it is if it’s being used rather than sitting in a drawer. I probably wouldn’t lend it out to anyone so quick though :)

WillB WillB
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I think yours is the healthier approach.
 
Finally coming back to this and based on the feedback here and around the forum, this is what I came up with for a first draft.

3" blade, 3 7/8" handle. Full height grind (flat or convex). The handle came off of my Sick Nasty model in my signature (basically a mini-skinner design).
BNeQiaBl.jpg
 
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