0 - Come on, guys. 10-15% of the population, and by extension 10-15% of your potential customers are LEFT-HANDED. I'm not saying you have to duplicate your entire production line for lefties (I understand that would be cost-prohibitive), but at least put holes so I can mount the clip on the other side of the knife. This is especially baffling with especially popular series of knives (e.g. Kershaw Leek, pretty much everything by Emerson, etc.).
1 - Framelocks and linerlocks. I understand the utility and functionality of the locking mechanism, and from that standpoint they're great. For some reason I just can't get excited about a knife with these lock types, though. And it's not because of the left-handed thing (I've never had a problem using them, they just don't tickle my fancy from an aesthetic standpoint).
2 - Damascus, but not for any of the reasons mentioned in this thread. I generally like how it looks (though I think of it as largely superfluous), but I don't understand why someone would want a blade where the edge has zones of different kinds of steel (pretty much unavoidable with folded steel). Murray Carter does a good job of addressing this by forge-welding damascus to a core of a homogeneous steel so the edge is consistent but the flats are swirly. In ancient times, damascus steel might have given a better blade than any of the other available steels, but with today's metallurgy you can make a pure steel do anything (function-wise) that a folded steel could do, and more. Damascus is great for aesthetics, but is neutral-to-worse for functionality.
3 - Tactical. If I never have to use my knife as a weapon, it'll be too soon. I'd rather have a knife designed to do what I use it for every day than one that makes sacrifices in daily functionality in order to make it better for the barely non-zero chance that it might have to see use as a weapon. Even if you are carrying a knife solely as a weapon, in this day-and-age's largely urban environment a better "tactic" might be to have a knife that doesn't scream, "I'm a weapon." Obviously, none of this applies for military/LEO/etc.
4 - Serrated combo-edges. Aesthetics aside (ew
), close to 100% of them get it bass ackwards. The part of the blade close to the handle is best for detail work and should be plain-edged. The belly of the blade is best for slicing, and if you need a serrated edge this is the part that should be serrated.
5 - Recurves. These are such a pain to sharpen with stones. I'd have bought a Benchmade 710 three times by now if they had one without the recurve.
And a response:
I noticed a couple of people comment on not "getting" the short grind (one bevel angle on each side, no secondary, i.e. Scandi) on bushcraft knives. For woodwork, this actually works surprisingly well, and there's a reason that pretty much all woodworking tools have this general blade geometry of no-secondary-bevel (though it usually manifests in the form of a chisel grind, same functional principle in this case). If you're primarily planning on cutting wood with the knife, this is a solid option. Try it and see. I was amazed how much better it works for wood.
Edit: I almost forgot!
6 - Tantos (please don't hit me). I find the belly of a blade to be really useful. I'm sometimes willing to sacrifice the belly for a wharncliffe to gain usefulness for tip work. For a tanto I sacrifice the usefulness of the blade belly for...what, exactly?
