What is your "Icing on the cake" ?

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A nice swedge combined with a long pull (non-match striker) :thumbup:

 

I'd have to say domed pins would be my "icing on the cake." I love the tactility of smoothly rounded pins rising just above the surface of the covers. A real sign of quality.

 

Being able to attach a lanyard, be it a via A bale or a lanyard tube-pin....

 

The OP got me thinking hard about what really was the "icing on the cake" for me. All of you have some truly great answers but I came to the conclusion for me it was a gifted knife. I have some fine knives that were made significantly better by the fact a fellow knife nut thought enough of me to gift it to me

 

Wrap around springs(like on the eureka jack), all steel construction, a really nice random jigging pattern, and a classic shield, any of those things would be worthy of being "icing on the cake".

 

I am becoming partial to cam tangs. Makes them much easier to open one handed. That is icing on the cake for me. Slip joints I can open with one hand.

 

despite all of these things about half stops, i remember one of the most interesting things that keeps bringing me back to traditional is the ole silence of the lambs scene. "ready when you are Sgt.Pembry" in fact i had asked the question on the traditionals in movies thread of what knife it was and it was answered, cause it was what it looked like when i paused the movie. and for all my inclinations towards single blades, i did try to get a two bladed trapper today, lost all three auctions lol, all gec 48s in stag. but that's ok. funds went towards a vintage watch instead. (if anyone was curious, yes i do love Dr.Lector's knife choices, Hannibal is the only reason I even buy spyderco, bowels in or bowels out? , but that doesnt belong here in the traditionals well maybe, that model is a lockback)

 

A smooth spine. When it all comes together just so and you can no longer identify liner or spring with your fingertips. Just one svelte piece of craftsmanship.

 

If icing means non-essential but delightful when it happens, then for me that means a nice tight blade configuration with no blade rub. Makes me smile every time!

 

Smooth grip! That is; good seamless fit between bolsters and scales, no sharp tangs on closed blades when you are using the knife.

 

I like the knife and can afford it?

 

+1 :thumbup: Such a rarity it definitely seems special when it happens!

 

Down here, we call that little something extra "lagniappe", and I have to agree with others about the flush springs in all positions and the long pull main blade. Those two things seem to add that something special to a knife for me.

 

Light shining through the springs: the more the merrier! Make mine the Grand Canyon!

Sunken pins: where else would I put my lint and tarnish? I'll take every pin sunken, please! And sink the pivot pin while you're at it!

Dull factory edge? Yes please, Ma'am! I have more diamonds than my wife and love to get them out!

...but when I get a new slip joint, I check 2 things: blade centered and spring flush when open and closed. Those two things are certainly the icing on my cake!

 

i'll take meticulous old-style jigging on red bone over stag. a two-pin conspicuous shield will also do it.

 

Icing on the cake for me is not having to finish making the knife when I get it . . . to just be able to use it out of the box.

In a traditional, for me, I suppose one bit of sweetness would be

Sharpening bevel ground for cutting real world stuff rather than some of the obtuse nail chopping and brick chiseling edges that come on some blades . . . Victorinox I’m talking to you.

I just plan on reworking most knives that I buy in one or more aspects but it is sweet when I don’t have to.

The Case Trapper in Stag was really usable right out of the box. I am quite pleased with it.

PS: this trapper's stag is no where near as ORANGE as it looks here. More browns, tans and black and white. I could not have been more pleased.

 

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If having cake means getting a new knife and the icing is what makes it great then I'd say walk and talk. I love that wife pestering "clicks" as she calls it when there's great audible and palpable snap. It's music to me and, I like half stops. W & T mean more to me than gaps and blade centering by far. My wife isn't a knife person, and I don't do it to annoy her, yet she was able to tell I was playing with one of my 77s on the main floor while she was upstairs. That's impressive!