What makes something a gimmick?

[Jiantbrane2]

I believe the definition is something along the lines of "any means of tickery". I don't feel like looking it up, but the definition doesn't really matter. At what point does a knife feature become a gimmick?

We don't NEED locking blades... gimick? At one point, the chisel grind was all the rage... gimmick? (My take on that is that it is not a gimmick, but a name which sounds good, and therefore "cool", especially to non-knife people. They do, of course, have their merits; I just don't need one). How about the bi-leveled handles on the Benchmade 730?

Or is it about the executtion of the feature, rather than the feature itself? The first one I thought of ('cuz I happened to be carrying a Delica) is the new Spyderco clip ('98 revision) with the hole through it. I will go on record saying that I'm not crazy about it, either. There are better ways to retain the hole and have a reversible clip. Another gimmicky clip idea (IMO) is the way one knife I saw (I believe it was a Myerco) has a clip that pivots at the but of the handle. Maybe the idea of a reversible clip itself?

Perhaps the flipper on Kit Carson-designed knives (not a shot against him or his work)?
I don't know. What are your takes?

Howie

 

[Jeff Clark]

A feature is a gimmick if it claims to have a performance advantage, customers buy the knife because of this advantage, and yet they never get any benefit from this "advantage". I would say that a chisel grind would be a gimmick for most knife applications.

You know it's a gimmick if you buy the knife partly because it has this feature and find yourself wishing you had a more normal design afterwards.

When I was a teenager I bought an Astra 9mm automatic, partly because it would accept several different kinds of 9mm and .38 auto ammunition. Not long after I got it I wished I'd bought an Astra 600 which would more reliably use the common 9mm parabellum ammo. I'd bought a gimmick.

[This message has been edited by Jeff Clark (edited 02-13-2000).]

 

[AlaChoctaw]

Sometimes, a gimmick is just a good idea that the other guy thought of first!

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AKTI Member #A000934
"Always just one knife short of perfection!"