Where should knives be balanced?

S

sasqualogist

Joined
Mar 26, 2004
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Just wondering where good knives should be balanced in relation to the task in which they were built i.e. fighting,chopping etc.
 
Generally speaking, chopping knives should be balanced as far forward as possible, and fighting knives, I believe are balanced best when the center is under your forefinger.
 
Balance is more involved than just heft in hand, it is also how hard it is to move in rotation, which can be increased or decreased even if the heft in hand is exactly the same. It also depends on where you want the point of impact. If you want to use the tip to be the focus point of the impacts the knife should not be balanced the same way as if you are cutting towards the center because how the mass is distributed on the blade effects where the vibration will be felt strongly at a given point of impact. It is fairly useless to have a knife which is very powerful on the swing and feels good in hand, nice and light, but when you cut with it the vibration is far too high.

-Cliff
 
sasqualogist said:
Sounds logical....How about throwing knives?
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It depends. Most like it near center, however there are those who like it more forward, which makes it spin similar to a 'hawk. Some manufacturers make their throwers with movable weights.
 
Yeah, had the idea balance (center of gravity) would be a difficult topic.

Intended use, how the user actually uses it, the knife's construction, etc. probably all have a hand in determining what is ideal.

I have a suspiscion it all eventually will come down to what the final user likes.
 
The center of gravity is only part of the equation, consider two simple rod a foot long, now put a two lbs weight in the center of one, and two one lbs weights on each end of the other. Both rods have the same mass and the same center of balance, but it you try to swing both around and smack something with each while holding them at the center of mass, they will not behave similar because their moment of inertia, or what possum calls "dynamic balance" is different. Additionally where you feel the vibration when a knife is impacted also needs to be considered, a knife can feel very good just holding onto it, but can vibrate severely if impacted against something so much so that it causes injury to the hand.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
Additionally where you feel the vibration when a knife is impacted also needs to be considered, a knife can feel very good just holding onto it, but can vibrate severely if impacted against something so much so that it causes injury to the hand.

-Cliff
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This is so true. I have had knives that should have been excellent choppers, but the vibrations that were translated to the hand were so great that it became painfull to hit with them. Blade design and handle materials can make such a huge difference in how vibrations are translated. In my experience, the large tanto style blades translate this vibration more so than the typical camp style knife.

Great topic by the way.:thumbup:

As for balance point, I guess it depends n what it is to be used for. A fighting blade will be very light in the tip to be able to whip around fast and do back cuts. A utility knife will be more blade heavy. But the ideal location depends on the user, I think. My choice will be different than Cliffs on where the ideal point is based on many ergonomic factors including my build versus his.
 
It is user dependent because the person using the knife has their preference for the ideal point of impact which controls how the weight must be distributed to minimize vibration. Of course their strength/power strongly influences the maximum weight of the knife. If you use a 28 oz hammer all day long with the center of mass about a foot in front of the grip, a 600 g knife with a center of mass slightly infront of the handle is near weightless. Similar if you use parangs and khukuris which are a couple of feet long and weigh pounds, or use axes for traditional limbing. Swing a forest axe for a year or two one handed limbing sticks and see how it effects perspective on "speed" of blades in hand.

-Cliff
 
I've often seen it repeated that a fighting knife should balance at or behind the guard. I think for me this would also depend on a lot of things including the size of the knife. On a smaller blade, maybe this would be fine since you're not really trying to rotate it like a sword, but moving the entire knife as a whole. But then again, the smaller the knife is, the less difference it makes. On great big knives or cut and thrust swords, I believe balance like this would generally be "less than ideal", to put it mildly.

Right now I'm in the middle of modifying one of my big knives to change the dynamic balance, but it's turning into a bigger project than I hoped. So maybe in the next couple weeks, I'll post it somewhere...
 
Most like it near center, however there are those who like it more forward
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... and there are some that prefer throwing knives with heavy handles that designed to be thrown by the blade
 
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