What is the smallest blade you'd use on a folder?

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
27,654
I had the little William Henry Humming Bird, blade just over 1", perfect to trim those annoying hang nails, and trim about anything else as well.

What is the smallest blade you guys/gals would or have used? There was a pic in a Blade mag of Bailey Bradshaw piece with one long thin narrow blade and on the other end are two very short utility blades.

Looked to be very handy!

G2

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"The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions!"
Take the time to read your Bible Now, don't be left behind...


G2 LeatherWorks
 
Hi Gary, I use a GT Mini a lot at work for opening plastic bags and such. The local Baa Baa's are now so used to me whipping out a blade, they don't even notice it's automatic. I'm not going to push it too much and whip out a HALO in front of supervision though.
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The smallest blade I ever used on a knife was barely 1". Last year, on a flight to a conference in South Africa, I was served meat that couldn't be cut with the little plastic knives that were supplied. Fortunately, I had a tiny Spyderco, I don't know the model; it is smaller than the Ladybug and has scales made of table top material with a 1" 50/50 blade. To make long story short, it cut my meat just fine.
 
Probably the smallest blade I use on a regular basis is the pen blade on my SAK Executive; it's cutting edge is one and an eighth inch long. It's good for lots of package opening and similar chores.
But if I could get away with it, I'd always use a fixed blade, like my D2 Cetan, but the office I work in now frowns on that sort of carry ! Silly huh ?
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Buck Collectors Club Member # 572
Dedicated ELU
Talonite fan
Knifeknut(just ask my wife)
 
Sheathmaster:
No such thing as too small of a blade. If you carry a small knife it gives you an excuse to carry a larger one
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I carry a Griffith neck knife just under 2" and it works very well for a bunch of things. I don't even know I have it until needed.

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~Greg Mete~
Kodiak Alaska
 
The smallest I have ever carried is my small Sebenza.

It is the first time I have ever carried such a small knife, and I love it.

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Louis Buccellato
http://www.themartialway.com
Knives, Weapons and equipment. Best prices anywhere.
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"only the paranoid will survive":)


 
yep have the SAK Executive and use that little blade every now and then, comes in handy. The Ladybug by Spyderco is also a useful small knife, I've had several and so now do the folks where I work, thanks to me?

G2
 
Small Shinobu from Cold Steel. About an inch and 3/4, hangs from a keychain and gets pressed into service as much as the keys with which it rides! Plenty of size there, if ya ask me...(and you did
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)
 
The most used knives I own are my work knives. A Pegasus and a Ladybug, and now that I've found my Cricket again, it'll go back into the mix. BTW, before I lost it, the Cricket was THE work knife of choice for me, since the knife phobic sheeple I work for won't tolerate anything with a larger blade.
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The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become the captive of others.
Sun Tzu
 
How long is the blade on the new Spyderco Mouse? That's about as short as I'd go, and at that length the blade would cater to a rather limited selection of tasks.

So I guess you could say 1", but I wouldn't exactly start collecting them
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.

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You could put nacho cheese sauce on it...
 
I have Gary's Hummingbird (the blade is actually almost 1-3/4" long), as well as a WH Kestrel (2"), the CRK Umfaan (2-1/4"), and the California legal GT mini auto. I find that they are all very useful little knives for all those mundane chores we face on a day to day basis, and are acceptable in most any situation. I guess I have started to collect them.
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James Segura
San Francisco, CA
 
Thanks for reminding me James....glad to assist in your collection, but it was a tough one to let go.

G2

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"The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions!"
Take the time to read your Bible Now, don't be left behind...


G2 LeatherWorks
 
Greg :

I carry a Griffith neck knife just under 2" and it works very well for a bunch of things.
Click to expand...

I carry a MNK as well and it gets used often as I always have it. The only time I really want a longer blade length is on deep cuts or when I am doing a repeated slicing motion. The latter could be fixed if the blade had a longer handle (which Lynn offers).

A small size is not always a negative either. Last weekend I was down on the breakwater with my dog who started freaking out looking over the side. There was a sharks head down in the rocks. I took the MNK and removed the cord from the grip lashed it to a piece of 2x2 railing and hooked the sharks head and dragged it up. I was wearing a WB at the same time and could have done similar with it but it would have taken much more time - especially to get the cord back on.

For reference sharks teeth are fairly hard (duh). I cut out two for my nephew (the point of getting the head) and grated the MNK against the teeth while doing so and impacted the edge visibly for about 3 mm. After a few strokes on a ceramic rod the rest of the edge was back to shaving sharp though. I will eventually sharpen the whole thing but don't want to remove about .2 mm of metal from the whole edge to touch up one small section.

I also have a leatherman supertool on me (it was in the pouch on the WB sheath - really , really, really like that feature). I tried to haul out one of the teeth using that by just kept cracking them off. Yes, I know it would have been more sensible to use one of the leatermans's blades to remove the teeth - i was just curious to see how much damage the MNK would get - nothing significant as it turns out.

I don't carry folders much anymore, but the same applies, a good cutting edge and a ergonomic handle will go a long way even with on an inch of two of blade length.

-Cliff



[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 04-23-2000).]
 
Gary -
Ever stop to think about a scalpel? -any doctor worth his degree can go anywhere in your body he wants with about 1.5 blade! -I always have an SAK classic on my keys and use it for everything .. like I've said before on Forums... on a bet once I even field dressed and skinned a deer with it.
sometimes small is good! the SAK is NOT the only knife I usually carry however.

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Don't wrestle with the hogs - they enjoy it and you get dirty !
Jonesy
 
G2,
For the better part of a decade, my daily carry was a tiny little Boker ceramic with a blade of about 1.75 inches. Then of course I stumbled across the Bladeforums and it's been a roller coaster ride ever since. Although my daily carry is now 4 inches of 420V ala Kit Carson, the Boker is still looked upon very favorably.

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Semper Fi
 
For reference sharks teeth are fairly hard (duh). I cut out two for my nephew (the point of getting the head) and grated the MNK against the teeth while doing so and impacted the edge visibly for about 3 mm. After a few strokes on a ceramic rod the rest of the edge was back to shaving sharp
Click to expand...

Cliff,
That is is the first time I have heard of one of my knives being used to remove Sharks Teeth. That is pretty cool
smile.gif
Thanks for sharing the story.

Your friend,


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Lynn Griffith-Knifemaker

See you at Blade Show (table 13c)

griffithknives.com
GriffithKN@aol.com
Griffith Knives Forum
 
The smallest blade I carry is the Spyderco Ladybug. In fact, although I carry one or two bigger folders in addition to the Ladybug, I use the Ladybug the most! What a great little knife!
 
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