What popular knives that you don't understand why

Gaston444 said:
Agree 100%. Bladesforums should really be named "Smallbladesforums"... You look at new threads, and about 90% of them are about folders in the 3 inch range or less... Even 4 inch plus blades are much more rarely discussed... As far as laws are concerned, nobody has any right to look into your clothing unless you give them probable cause... If you really have to cut boxes or rope at work, you can use a box cutter...

G.
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I don't understand your point......

Are you saying that small knives are the same as box cutters, and that we should all carry impractically large folders because you believe they are the best?

Do you mean that no knife is worth carrying if we only cut boxes with it? Should we only be carrying them as weapons in your opinion?

Please explain further, cuz right now I am very confused:confused:
 
I am a huge Spyderco fan but it doesn't bother me in the least when someone says they don't like them because they are ugly/cheap looking, (etc.) because that was me back in the early 90's. I finally gave in and bought a Dragonfly in 1993 to see what all the fuss was about, and the rest is history - I now own over 55 Spyderco's and will own more in the future if I see one that catches my eye.

You can never appreciate the quality, form, and function of a spyderco knife until you use one as and EDC for a week or two. I own 2 Sebenza's, several Benchmade's, and various other quality knives but you will rarely find anything other than a Spydie in my pocket.
 
Krissig12 said:
I don't understand your point......

Are you saying that small knives are the same as box cutters, and that we should all carry impractically large folders because you believe they are the best?

Do you mean that no knife is worth carrying if we only cut boxes with it? Should we only be carrying them as weapons in your opinion?

Please explain further, cuz right now I am very confused:confused:
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There's nothing impractically large about 4" + folders. They could even go to 5" and still be practical, though that is probably pushing it. Since smaller knives cannot do bigger tasks, but a bigger knife can do smaller tasks, I see no really practical reason to go much below 4". This is especially true since the prevalence of pocket clips for folders (before pocket clips it was another matter, yet even then not using the pocket clip is practical at 4").

I did not find the Spyderco Endura gained anything by being 1/4" shorter than 4", and if it had been any smaller, I could not even have a full grip on it...

It isn't that knives smaller than 4" are something I find odd, but that those knives get 90% of the attention in these forums (judging from new thread titles, and even more so when you delve into the posted content)... It does seem a bit lopsided in the wider scheme of things...

G.
 
I also don't like most of the 3 inch and smaller knives and I think the knife companies are catering too much to the market that buys the small knives and they don't make enough models that are 4 inch bladed folders. They need to pump out more big 4 inch and over blades like Cold Steel does.

And then people will argue that the reason these companies are making mostly small 3 inch blades is because a majority of states have length limits, but Cold Steel on the other hand is doing it right where they offer the 4 inch versions of the Recon 1 and Voyager and then they also offer the 3 inch version for those people that live in states that have length limits.
 
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Flagship model is the high end offering. As the A8 is Audis flagship model with all the bells and whistles. The griptillian is BM's bread and butter model, the one that makes them the money. That is all. A comment related to the subjct matter; I personally don't get Emerson knives either. The knives are very basic liner locks with contemporary materials yet priced far above other brands with similar materials. At this point the mystique of the brand name has got to influence that price, not the quality of the knives.
 
Gaston444 said:
There's nothing impractically large about 4" + folders. They could even go to 5" and still be practical, though that is probably pushing it. Since smaller knives cannot do bigger tasks, but a bigger knife can do smaller tasks, I see no really practical reason to go much below 4". This is especially true since the prevalence of pocket clips for folders (before pocket clips it was another matter, yet even then not using the pocket clip is practical at 4").

I did not find the Spyderco Endura gained anything by being 1/4" shorter than 4", and if it had been any smaller, I could not even have a full grip on it...

It isn't that knives smaller than 4" are something I find odd, but that those knives get 90% of the attention in these forums (judging from new thread titles, and even more so when you delve into the posted content)... It does seem a bit lopsided in the wider scheme of things...

G.
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The vast majority of us can do all of our tasks with a <4" blade. Besides that, you may notice two more trends here: First, a lot of the knives mentioned on this forum are relatively high end. Many high end folders are in the 3.25"-3.75" range, so you'll see a lot of those here. Second, most hard use or large blade tasks are left to fixed blades. Many of the commonly mentioned fixed blades are well over 4".
 
I have been hunting and camping and using knives at work for years. I Have carried a knife everyday since I can remember.

For daily use 3" - 3.5 is perfect for day to day life and at work on a construction site. For outdoor I like 5 to 6" cutting edge no more than that. I use my folder a lot outdoor too gutting and skinning deer or just cutting tasks. I love big knives and own a reall 1800s Konemot katana. It's just 3" is just practicall and has wide variety of things it can do.

Anything bigger than 5-6 I use an axe, machete or my portable saw.
 
Gaston444 said:
Agree 100%. Bladesforums should really be named "Smallbladesforums"... You look at new threads, and about 90% of them are about folders in the 3 inch range or less... Even 4 inch plus blades are much more rarely discussed... As far as laws are concerned, nobody has any right to look into your clothing unless you give them probable cause... If you really have to cut boxes or rope at work, you can use a box cutter...

G.
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The ugly truth is, aside from Bladeforums knife knuts, most people don't care about knees at all. Millions and millions of people go about their everyday life not even carrying a knife. We account for a fraction of 1% of the populace, so when you get right down to it, the cutlery industry is catering to a very very small fraction of the consumer. So when the joe blow average consumer realizes he needs a knife, he's not going to buy some big folder that takes up a lot of room in the pocket. He's not even gonna spend much money on it. So, most people, even those who need a knife, is not going to buy a large knife. This is the market they had to cater to.

Victorinox is the worlds biggest knife company. They make more knives than any two or even three of the 'other' companies. Their most popular selling knife is the little keychain classic. Tiny. But it sells like hot cakes because most people don't want to bother with a knife at all, and if they do, they want it as small and light as can be.

Another truth is, most cutting jobs can be done very well with a couple inches of steel. two to two and a half inches is fine. Look on most construction sites and the most used knife out there is the replaceable blade utility knives. All of a whole inch when extended, but it's used to cut sheetrock, strip wire, and a lot of other very rough work. YOu could say the Stanley utility knife is the most used "hard use" knife out there.

Another truth is, living in the 21st century, there's no wild injun's coming to scalp us, none of use are making a living skinning buffalo, and few of us are high speed low drag operators. Most of the knife industry is pure ego driven and BS hype.
 
bpeezer said:
The vast majority of us can do all of our tasks with a <4" blade. Besides that, you may notice two more trends here: First, a lot of the knives mentioned on this forum are relatively high end. Many high end folders are in the 3.25"-3.75" range, so you'll see a lot of those here. Second, most hard use or large blade tasks are left to fixed blades. Many of the commonly mentioned fixed blades are well over 4".
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And threads about "hard use", "big" and "beefy" and even "overbuilt" folders pop up pretty much every day.
 
Gaston444 said:
USMC KABAR. Many flat ground boy scout knives were always way better, with better designed points and handles, for something that matches period for period...

I never got how a thin low sabre blade could be good...

The other is the Sebenza, not that it's a bad knife, but it sure seems like a big religion for a tiny knife that doesn't seem to have spectacular edge holding...

Conversely, a lot of really good companies never seemed to get very popular: I liked the old Blackjacks fixed blades, plus some of the seki-made Junglees.

Gaston
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Just a question, but have you ever owned a sebenza?
 
i am amazed and impressed that this thread has remained civil for so long... with people making blanket statements on some of the more popular brands, i fully expected some flames by now. nicely done BF!

in response to a few random posts:
spyderco and benchmade make a wide range of offerings and they are not all the same shape/style nor do they serve the same purpose- and ive never thought of my spydercos as fishing oriented knives (aside from my salt)

sebenza not having edge holding ability? that would be a steel issue if it were true and s35vn is one of the best steels, so ill have to disagree there

size- i think 3.5 is the sweet spot for a folder blade, but id go up to 4 before going down to 3. obviously youd stay within legal restrictions where applicable
 
jackknife said:
The ugly truth is, aside from Bladeforums knife knuts, most people don't care about knees at all. Millions and millions of people go about their everyday life not even carrying a knife. We account for a fraction of 1% of the populace, so when you get right down to it, the cutlery industry is catering to a very very small fraction of the consumer. So when the joe blow average consumer realizes he needs a knife, he's not going to buy some big folder that takes up a lot of room in the pocket. He's not even gonna spend much money on it. So, most people, even those who need a knife, is not going to buy a large knife. This is the market they had to cater to.

Victorinox is the worlds biggest knife company. They make more knives than any two or even three of the 'other' companies. Their most popular selling knife is the little keychain classic. Tiny. But it sells like hot cakes because most people don't want to bother with a knife at all, and if they do, they want it as small and light as can be.

Another truth is, most cutting jobs can be done very well with a couple inches of steel. two to two and a half inches is fine. Look on most construction sites and the most used knife out there is the replaceable blade utility knives. All of a whole inch when extended, but it's used to cut sheetrock, strip wire, and a lot of other very rough work. YOu could say the Stanley utility knife is the most used "hard use" knife out there.

Another truth is, living in the 21st century, there's no wild injun's coming to scalp us, none of use are making a living skinning buffalo, and few of us are high speed low drag operators. Most of the knife industry is pure ego driven and BS hype.
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Most people could get by with an SAK for EDC or a cheap paring knife from the kitchen for stuff around the house.

That would cover likely 98% of real knife use I believe.

The other 2% would be the trades and people like us here on BF.

Kinda like watches since cell phones have a clock on them why would one even wear a watch today, I haven't worn one in over 20 years myself.
 
Ankerson said:
Most people could get by with an SAK for EDC or a cheap paring knife from the kitchen for stuff around the house.

That would cover likely 98% of real knife use I believe.

The other 2% would be the trades and people like us here on BF.

Kinda like watches since cell phones have a clock on them why would one even wear a watch today, I haven't worn one in over 20 years myself.
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Exactly. The people who are enthusiasts of a particular thing, usually have a very skewed view from the rest of the people around them. Knife people, gun people, car people. All have their own obsession that influences their view. Like the car guy who thinks he needs a Porsche to commute to work or run down the street for a loaf of bread. Or the watch guy who thinks he needs a high dollar watch on his wrist, yet young people today don't even bother with a watch at all. Their cell phone is their everything. Watch, navigator, computer. They even may make a phone call now and then.

I guess I don't understand the whole tactical knife thing.
 
jackknife said:
Exactly. The people who are enthusiasts of a particular thing, usually have a very skewed view from the rest of the people around them. Knife people, gun people, car people. All have their own obsession that influences their view. Like the car guy who thinks he needs a Porsche to commute to work or run down the street for a loaf of bread. Or the watch guy who thinks he needs a high dollar watch on his wrist, yet young people today don't even bother with a watch at all. Their cell phone is their everything. Watch, navigator, computer. They even may make a phone call now and then.

I guess I don't understand the whole tactical knife thing.
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True, it's like most things people get into like clothes as an example. everyone has their thing that they feel strong about or like.

Never understood the watch thing myself, a $20 watch will tell time just as well as those $30K ones will, and a cell phone will be dead accurate.

Cars, well, don't get me started on that, biggest black hole to dump money into on the planet... LOL
 
Gaston444 said:
There's nothing impractically large about 4" + folders. They could even go to 5" and still be practical, though that is probably pushing it. Since smaller knives cannot do bigger tasks, but a bigger knife can do smaller tasks, I see no really practical reason to go much below 4". This is especially true since the prevalence of pocket clips for folders (before pocket clips it was another matter, yet even then not using the pocket clip is practical at 4").

I did not find the Spyderco Endura gained anything by being 1/4" shorter than 4", and if it had been any smaller, I could not even have a full grip on it...

It isn't that knives smaller than 4" are something I find odd, but that those knives get 90% of the attention in these forums (judging from new thread titles, and even more so when you delve into the posted content)... It does seem a bit lopsided in the wider scheme of things...

G.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's because enough people find 3 inches to be plenty for most Edc needs? If you find that you need a 5 incher, that's cool too, but I certainly Have no practical use for one. As a result, I fail to see the point in adding extra weight, bulk, and cumbersome length to the end of my knife. I've tried carrying bigger knives, but I find that it only does two things......scare more people and make small tasks a harder. With length also usually comes greater thicknesses, meaning that your cutting geometry typically starts to suffer as you get into larger and larger blades. I feel much better carrying a nice thin 3inch cutter than a big old 5 inch tactical blade that WEDGES stuff apart;)

For me 2.7-3.5 is right about perfect for my needs. Anything else is unnecessary, and just makes me feel like I'm doing it "because I can".
 
Little blades are good for precision tasks, especially when doing a lot of tip work. I'm a big knife guy, as a whole, but there are usually practical reasons behind the design of most traditional knife styles, and I carry and use smaller knives when they are appropriate for the tasks at hand. The tool should be in proportion to the task, neither above nor below, though a less-than-ideal tool may often be shoehorned to get the job done. :)
 
Ankerson said:
Most people could get by with an SAK for EDC or a cheap paring knife from the kitchen for stuff around the house.

That would cover likely 98% of real knife use I believe.

The other 2% would be the trades and people like us here on BF.

Kinda like watches since cell phones have a clock on them why would one even wear a watch today, I haven't worn one in over 20 years myself.
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What blows my mind is people who are content to carry a dull knife every single day until someone points out that it is dull and offers to sharpen it. Why do they even have it? Also, when someone asks you for a recommendation and you point out a $20-$30 knife in their price range, and they still end up getting a $5 gas station knife.
 
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