What impresses you in a knife?

hardheart

hardheart

Joined
Sep 19, 2001
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People often state how the performance or workmanship of a knife impresses them. How much does it take? And what does it mean when you are not impressed? Usually when the statement 'I was not impressed' is made, it means that the person came away with a negative impression. Does that have to be the case? If I drink a bottle of water and say 'I did not contract cholera, I was not impressed.', does that mean I was disappointed in the drinking experience, or that I simply expect to remain disease free when drinking bottled water and it would take more than that to 'impress' me?

I'm asking because people are impressed by the F&F on CRK, some customs, Taichung Spydercos, etc etc. But what about the F&F on BM, Buck, Victorinox, etc? Do they disappoint, come across as average, or impress, but not as much? Is the 'bang for your buck' higher in one case than another, or are the prices right for the quality level? Is it just solid construction, is it more than that, does it take even that much when there is something in the design else to draw one's attention?

Now for performance, people are impressed by thin carbon steel slipjoints, and they are impressed by thick super steel blades, and they are impressed by thin super steel blades, and thick carbon steel blades (basically everything, including any not mentioned). They don't perform at the same level, and the reason for performance is combinations of alloy, heat treat, and geometry. When impressed by one, is it in comparison to another? When incredulous of those impressed, is it because personal experience contradicts theirs? And again, when not impressed, is it disappointment or recognition of average performance?
 
For me, it is F/F, skillful heat treatment of steel, even grinds, and whether or not it is sharp out of the box.

I make mental adjustments to compensate for the price paid; I don't expect a Boker off the shelf to match up to a Menefee in any way. But I don't want a POS either, no matter what I paid for it. I am not one of those guys that says "well, it was great after I flushed out the moving parts and worked the blades for several hours, sharpened out the bad grinds, and the dye has finally stopped leaching out of the scales. And once I tightened up the gaps with a vise it is actually a pretty nice knife."

I have some knives that would embarrass any collector, but if they are workers and didn't kill me price wise, I am fine. I can deal with one or two of the above problems, but not with more than that. After ruining one of my ($90) knives I bought brand new by trying to tighten up the gap in a vise, I don't do that anymore.

If I find I don't like the pattern or it just doesn't carry well, that isn't the knife's fault so I don't mind that. I trade those off or gift them. I guess what I am saying is that the mechanics are the most important part for me.

Robert
 
For me it's about the feeling the knife gives me. Is the opening fluid, is the closing smooth and intuitive, is the balance just right? Those are the important things fit and finish wise (aside from the obvious stuff: quality machining, etc.). Does the knife just FEEL like it took some serious engineering to design and build. Now, obviously a different standard is held to different knives based on price, but overall, those are the features that impress me.

Performance wise, I am never impressed by thick bladed anything. I just don't use knives all that hard and I don't need a sharpened pry bar. Thin, modern slicers are what impress me in terms of blade shape and steels that can take a very keen edge and hold it, like cpm-m4, are what impress me in terms of steels.
 
I'm always impressed when a knife designer/maker has put thought into making an effective cutting tool. That thought is becoming rarer and rarer it seems.
 
I'm impressed with QC across the product. Also how well the knife fits it's intended purpose (to cut).

QC: all Victorinox are more or less identical, sharp out of the box, so close in tolerance from one to another.
Spyderco (Tenacious family), Enlan and Sanrenmu are another example. I got two Enlan from different batch, and they were very close in consistency. The two Resilience I have are equal in fit and finish despite the price point.

Cutting: what surprise me is that Victorinox Alpineer cut cardboard as well as the Resilience, despite the steel being softer. Tested on same pizza boxes. It needed a quick strop on the cardboard to keep it going from time to time, but the end result (decimating cardboard) was achieved without fatigue or sore spots. That is sign of good design & implementation.
 
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Chris "Anagarika";11109877 said:
I'm impressed with QC across the product. Also how well the knife fits it's intended purpose (to cut).

QC: ... Spyderco (Tenacious family)
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I too have several of these from different batches and different suppliers. Both were hair whittling sharp out of the box, and had nearly identical F&F.

QC definitely impresses me.

General toughness of a knife also impresses me. I think that's why I love Cold Steel. Regardless of the actual quality/price of their materials, they make some really bulletproof knives, and they back up their talk with actual torture tests that you can replicate at home with the same results.
 
My knives really only see light use, so I go mainly on look and feel. I really like when they're sharp out of the box too, because I can use it right away and not have to sit down and sharpen it. You don't have to put tires on a new car, so why should you get a knife that's dull out of the box?
 
I'm impressedby fit and finish and the "pocketability" of individual knives I come across.

No matter the price, if I stumble across a blade that visually seems flawless, I'll be impressed. It's always disappointing when you spend your pretty penny on a blade you've spent hours researching on and bargain hunting over the web to see it emerge out of its packaging subpar in quality to its fellow brethren who left the factory just fine. I always enjoy a lower priced buy that feels and looks a lot more expensive than it sold for.

What I mean by pocketability as I said above is whether or not the knife ceases to exist in my pocket and comes back to life either when I want to admire it or perform a task with it. For example, my Caly 3.5 I purchased some time ago. Sure it was VG-10, had G10 scales, and milled out liners, etc, but what I really enjoyed is how a 3.5 inch blade could just disappear in my pocket. Of course not every knife I own will act similar to this, but I will appreciate this quality.
 
i love a knife that is very grippy, a knife that carry's well and is not obtrusive and a knife that has a lot of sheer force cutting ability. the spyderco military does all of these for me!!!!!
 
Performance first, comfort/ergos second, F&F third, design and aesthetics fourth. If it excels in all 4 categories, color me impressed. Most knives, IMO, drop the ball in at least one category. I hate blocky knives that are only contoured in 2D, for instance. Spyderco, for instance, has the 2 dimensions down, but if they'd just do some 3D machining on a folder, I'd be all over it.
 
Hmmm, very good topic.

Myself being impressed in a knife is a combination of things. Lets just take for example, the Spyderco Techno. The first knife that has totally impressed me in awhile, so far.
The Techno has a massively thick blade for its smaller nature. To me that is impressive. Why? I suppose because the knife is smaller than many of the big, bulky, " tactical " folders, yet. It has a thicker blade than most. That impresses me, probably more so in Marcin's design of putting the beefy blade in a small knife.

Fit and Finish. I seriously have no compaints with the Techno. Not many production knives have came to me with zero issues. That's impressive. The small details on the design. Symmetry of the bevels and lines. How the blades lines continue those of the handle. No bladeplay. That is a biggy for me, as it drives me nuts. The blade is thick, yet ground pretty thin, as far as I can tell as thin as the Paramilitary 2. Rendering the thick blade still useful. The handle is very comfortable for such a stocky knife.

So for me, its all the little details and thought that you can tell that went into the design and execution. And that detail being done with precision in the manufacturing.

Sorry for the essay.
 
what impresses me in a knife is not really everything i look for in a tool, its everything i look for on a cell phone, easy to carry as where it becomes second nature, cool looking, precision in the parts, fun to just have in you hands and play with, compact, and strong.
 
I'm impressed when a knife lives up to my expectations. While I appreciate f&f, I don't necessarily expect it in a 50.00$ off the shelf knife. But if it performs the way I need it to, when I need it to then I'm impressed. All of my knives are users BTW. No safe queens here.
 
mkjellgren said:
For me it's about the feeling the knife gives me.
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This. Although for me, fit and finish don't have to be outstanding for me to love the knife. I love my Emerson CQC-7, and yet I don't care much for tantos or black blades and that's the variant I went with. A knife doesn't necessarily have to be all function for me. It just has to turn me on in some way, whether it be with function, fit & finish, or something inexplicable like the way I feel about Emerson.
 
"Bang for buck" or value.

Secondly, I have this thing on how smooth it is. I fondle a lot of my knives.
 
1) Performance.

2) Not over designed for the task, I really hate over designed knives.

3) F&F is good for the price range.

4) Materials depending on the tasks the knife would be for.
 
This is an awesome subject.
For me, it's the craftsmanship, quality, and attention to details that really impresses me.
But this also comes with price point.
For example - I am impressed by the Spyderco Tenacious line. The craftsmanship and attention to detail(you can tell they really took time into designing it to be good) for $30 is amazing. The knife is flush in all areas, has solid lock up, no play, a sharp edge, and is just not built like say... a $30 Gerber. It has quality and craftsmanship that many would pay double the price for.

On the more expensive end - I am very impressed with the ZT 0560. The quality and craftsmanship of that knife screams $300+ knife(to me). I am more impressed with it than many other(more expensive) knives. The attention to detail on this knife is also just amazing. You can tell a lot of thought and work went into perfecting the design.

So that is what impresses me.
 
I love it when a knife is well thought out. It needs to be an intuitive design and fit my hand well. When I first put my hand in my pocket to draw the knife, how smooth does it slide out? How quickly does my hand line up to the handle and all the knifes controls (thumb stud/hole/button/flipper, the safety, locking mechanism, choil etc..) as I start to open the blade? If I have to reposition my hand on the handle as I'm drawing or opening the knife it loses points with me. When the knife is clipped in my pocket, I want to be able to put my thumb in my pocket on the handle of the knife and not have to reposition it when I draw to be able to open it, use it, close it, and then re-clip it back into my pocket. I have yet to find a knife that made me happier than the Benchmade Lg. Griptilian. It is hands down the *PERFECT* edc knife!

After ergonomics/ease of use (intuitive) and cutting performance comes fit and finish to make the best knives in my opinion
1badcj_7
 
marcinek said:
I'm always impressed when a knife designer/maker has put thought into making an effective cutting tool. That thought is becoming rarer and rarer it seems.
Click to expand...

This. My question to myself is always "is this a well-thought-out design for its intended purpose and/or my tasks?" Firstly the knife bust be designed well for it to have the potential for exceptional performance, but then ALSO I have the responsibility of employing that knife in line with its strengths in order to personally experience that level of performance.

Generally it's the design overall that I consider most impressive. The profile, the geometry, the ergos, etc. Following that I'm impressed by fit and finish for the price. Following that the heat treatment is most important, and finally the materials (including steel.)
 
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