What do you look for in a knife?

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peshkabz

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May 6, 2003
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What do you look for in a folder or fixed blade? What matters to you? The looks? The length of the blade? The handle shape? Blade shape? Color of either one? Compensations?
Historical significance?
Manufacturers name and reputation? Cost?
How much do you care about the blade or handle materials?
Lock style? Bolsters? Rivets vs screws?
What is your priority list look like?
What matters to you:p ?:rolleyes:
 
A sharp blade, mainly.:D.

Seriously...I look for good steel, good handle material, good workmanship, and good ergonomics. That's why the Camillus CUDA CQB-1 is my favorite fixed-blade...(ATS-34 steel, canvas micarta scales, excellent steel to scales fit, perfect grinds, AND it feels GREAT in my hand.).
 
What do you look for in a folder or fixed blade? What matters to you?

The looks? Matters very litte.

The length of the blade? My parents will not allow that much over 3" so this matters somewhat. For primary EDC I like blades of 3" (or as much as 4" or a slight bit over if I was allowed them.) For other folding knives not primary EDC length is not an issue. For a fixed blade for hunting I would want 4" (I don't hunt, but this size would seem to give good control.) For an all around camp/do it all fixed blade I would want in the 6-7" range.

The handle shape? Has to feel good in my hand or it's a no go.

Blade shape? Nothing Tanto... Most other stuff is good. I don't like sheepsfoot by itself though. Only in slipjoints.

Color of either one? No pastel handles...LOL. No black blades.

Compensations? Meaning??

Historical significance? I don't have the money for that type of collection.

Manufacturers name and reputation? Yea, the name does mean alot. When I buy Buck, Camillus, BKT, Spyderco, Benchmade and many others I know I will be getting quality.

Cost? Nothing too much over $100 at this point.

How much do you care about the blade or handle materials? Blade can't be anything lower than Aus8. For handles anything goes.

Lock style? Doesn't matter unless it's a cheap knife. I will only take liner locks on more expensive designs in the 100 dollar range.

Bolsters? Doesn't matter.

Rivets vs screws? Doesn't matter to me. I EDC a Delica and it cleans well with rivets.

-Kevin
 
Quality construction, durability, interesting design or nifty locking mechanism,most of all it has to "FEEL" right.
 
It has to be well built. Nice handle nice set of blades . I'm looking for that speacial knife I can seatle down with . One I can take home to my mother , It has to set off fireworks when I hold it.
One I can spend time with and not get bored with it.
 
These days, among production knives there are brands we all know and trust to produce a knife with various respective predictible levels of QC. This creates a pretty broad selection from which to choose what we like.

That said I look for design. For me this encompasses the visual aspect, ergonomics, and grind geometry. For everyday cutting nothing beats my SE Delica. I don't think it's the prettiest knife but it's comfy and seemingly forever sharp. However, I can admit that most of my knife purchases are not in search of a better cutter. I just like cool knives. For instance one of my favorite knives is my CRKT Ryan Model 7. To my understanding, it's a fighting knife. I don't regularly get into knife fights, not in Yonkers nor some far off jungle. Yet I still got this knife because when I first picked it up it just felt right.

I'm still in search for "my" camp knife however. Frankly I don't really know what to look for. I use a hatchet to chop, an Ontario Field Hop knife to process food and a Leatherman for anything else. I'm seemingly digressing but my point is I am looking for a knife that can replace the hatchet/hop knife combo that I use. But a good chopper isn't a good slicer, or is it? I cede the remainder of my time to the next delegate.
 
I seem to be waffling between using and collecting. To paraphrase Charleton Heston I have more Knives than I need but not as many as I want.

In my opinion the best designs follow function, design is significant. The size and shape of the blade matter in what the knife is designed for or how it will be used.

If you look at a Harsey or a Carson, Terzuola, Brend, of course Loveless. They all have individual characteristics, personality if you will.

On several days of the week, I'm in a suit and it's a bit akward carrying a large folder. So I settle for something more gentlemanly .

I generally prefer lefthanded framelocks but these tend to be more expensive so I have some right hand linerlocks, which tend to have g-10 scales. The linerlocks tend to be lighter duty knives with blades under 3".
My folders all stay under 3.5". Once I need a bigger knife I go fixed. It's just an old habit, I tend to be a little old school in my choices of cutlery.
 
In folders I mainly look for straight designs. When the blade is open and the knife is stood on edge, the edge should not touch the surface. I like handles that are equal end, or slightly larger at the butt (I like big butts :D ). There should be NO exposed sharp corners when the knife is closed. After it passes the design tests, then I'll start worrying about blade steel, handle material, etc.

Fixed blades have to feel good in my hand...period.

Paul
 
First question is: what is the intended use of the knife? User or show piece/collection piece? That drives things into separate directions.

For users, I have a set of design features I look for, varies depending on intended use. A lot of this is ergonomics, which speaks to useability and safety in use. Some of it is a preference for design features or parameters, other is a rejection of some features that I've found to be a nuisance (upper guards in some applications, sawback teeth, trailing point blade profile, etc.)

Then I examine fit and finish, action and lockup on a folder, etc. Particularly important on a folder, a much more complicated gizmo to design and fabricate well than is a fixed blade.

Then I want to get a feel for whether the maker takes the craft seriously with respect to the knife's intended use (if it is going to be a user). This gives me a clue on both durability of fabrication, and quality of heat treat, and design's fitness for purpose. Maker reputation fits in here.

Of course I have preferences on handle materials and such.

I want to understand the cost vs. quality vs. likelihood I could get most of my money out of it should I choose to sell it.

I'm another who doesn't choose to spend money chasing historical significance. I can relate to why others might.

Blade steel: I might not care on a show piece, where I wanted a mirror polished blade (440C or RWL-34, not sure I'd care). Damascus is obviously for looks... I don't ascribe any performance benefits to damascus. For a user, blade steel is important to me personally, along with specs for hardness and understanding about ability of person doing heat treat.

For a field carry knife, sheath matters. For a pocket carry, a small sheath helps in carrying a folder in dress clothes, and a good clip for a user or routine daily carry in jeans.

Example: I've often spotted a neat looking design that looked like it would be a comfortable, practical using knife, and thought "don't know much about this guy, I'll save pic and think about having Joe Blow make something like it for me out of CPM 3V at Rc61 and an inch longer, but in ironwood handle and minus that feature (recurve, top guard, etc)..."
 
For me, what the knife looks like is what stops me to take a second look at it. After I stop and look at it, I take into consideration what kind of steel is used, how the knife feels in my hand and in my pocket (if it has a clip), how much it costs, and the overall quality of the knife (blade play, lock engagement, fit and finish, etc.). After those "major" categories, I look at the little details like the kind of grind, blade shape, etc.
 
For folders I seem to key on ergonomics, fit and finish, materials, ease of function,lock up (including lack of blade play), appearance and price. I'm not really into fixed blades so I'll pass on that part of the question.
 
I'm really not very interested in fixed-blades, but in folders here's what I look for:

Appearance: I'm not likely to even handle the knife if I'm not attracted to it in the first place.

Manufacturer: While I certainly don't rule a knife out because I'm not familiar with the maker, there are some makers that I have come to trust and some that I don't like at all.

Craftsmanship: This is the fit-and-finish, attention to details, and overall quality of the knife. It has to be well made. I want to be proud of what I carry.

Handle: I have recently discovered that FRN, Zytel, and similar plastics no longer interest me unless they have dual liners or steel or titanium. And I'm really becoming more interested in all metal handles.

Steel: I'm really not a steel snob and I'll give any steel a chance (my Victorinox knives cut just fine and they certainly don't use advance steel like ATS-35 or VG-10). I do prefer ATS-55 and ATS-34 however.

Locks: In a one-hander-pocketclip folder, I prefer lockbacks, Axis-lock, and frame-locks. I really am distrustful of liner-locks because it's the only lock I've ever had fail the spine-whack-test. I suppose if a liner-lock knife had something like LAWKS, then it would be okay.

Allen.
 
Sometimes, it's just the name of the man who made the blade is good enough for me.
 
Function first, then form. Always. Unless it looks really cool, then I might find a function for it because of it's form.

Aw screw it I like cool knives, and I can't explain exactly what "cool" is to me in any less than 2 hours. :D
 
I buy different knives for a variety of reasons but if I'm looking to really use it these are the things I look for lately:

I like a good slicing blade, tall profile with a thin grind right to the top. I don't need a pry bar. None of these fancy whoopdee doo grinds. Drop point is my favorite but a wharncliffe is a close second. Ease of sharnening is important so recurves or serations are down on my list. I'm tired of worrying about corrosion so a steel like s30v or 440c is my on the top of my list. D2 is another of my favorites and I'm willing to spend a little more effort in keeping them clean and oiled just for the edge holding characteristics. I like my talonite blades but overall I think I'd rather have the steel (not to mention it's $$$). I love beautiful wood scales or stag but titanium or micarta are hard to beat for a user. Textured G10 is great too expecially for gripping in slippery conditions. I like frame or liner locks the best. They are simply the most natural for me to close using my thumb. An ergonomic handle is very important. My favorite users at the moment are a small classic Sebenza, Buck Mayo & a Dozier folding hunter.
 
Thats easy im looking for the perfect knife. I have over 300 in my collection right now and still havent found it.
 
Guess I'm really from the "Old School", but wouldn't be caught without a traditional pocket knife, like a Case 47 pattern or the little Puma Junior I usually carry. Really like a knife with a punch blade, but those are getting harder to come by these days, Have 2 though an old Ward Cutlery 4 blader and a Case 6447. After all if you've used a traditional stockman or whittler for forty years you're gonna find it hard to reckon with one of those newfangled Spiderco's or their counterparts.:eek:
 
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