Why are people making knives so Thick?

hhmoore said:
Do tell
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Sounds like he might of had a contract manufacturing deal with C. Leading it, but Fir is saying he is in a selling position and promoting them, but moderator shut down a previous thread because information was coming out, and acknowledging known that Not having proper membership here with various parties..... Ugh!I

Interesting no matter what
 
Recently acquired a Spyderco Valloton and I love it but this knife is a perfect example for this thread. The blade is 4mm thick! On a pocket knife! But, the blade is a beautiful hollow ground so slices quite decently. I knew what I was getting into with the knife but that 4mm blade thickness still shocked me a bit when I first saw and held the knife.

To add insult to injury for the thin knife crowd, the tip has no distal taper so the tip is unbelievably thick also. And yet somehow, I absolutely love this knife. It’s almost like the designer and Spyderco built this knife to rattle the cage of those thinking that thick knives can’t cut well. 😂

Btw, if you like Spydercos and are a fan of their Taichung factory pieces, this is one to have. The fit and finish is off the charts. I continue to be amazed at how good the Taiwanese are at production knife making

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Wolverine666 said:
I like my edc blades to be on the thick side. I just like them.
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Me too. Nothing too crazy like my SR1 (.19”), but .155-.165 is good for a folder for what I do.
Makes the knife feel more sturdy when cutting through thick material, plus it’s more comfortable if you rest your thumb on the spine.
 
tony281sc2 said:
Me too. Nothing too crazy like my SR1 (.19”), but .155-.165 is good for a folder for what I do.
Makes the knife feel more sturdy when cutting through thick material, plus it’s more comfortable if you rest your thumb on the spine.
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I agree 100%. I understand that thinner blade stock has its place especially for slicing. But for me personally, I like a thicker blade and I like the knife to have a bit of weight to it. I want to know it’s in my pocket. Just my preference.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Sounds like he might of had a contract manufacturing deal with C. Leading it, but Fir is saying he is in a selling position and promoting them, but moderator shut down a previous thread because information was coming out, and acknowledging known that Not having proper membership here with various parties..... Ugh!I

Interesting no matter what
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What in the world are you on...or on about?

I shut down the other thread because:

1. I had no idea that Fir Na TIne was the one who went to CPK with the design to have made...

2. That he had any sort of financial interest in the project, or intention of becoming a dealer at trade shows etc

3. When I was made aware, I shut down the thread because he neither has a "dealer membership" on this site, nor do we allow shilling for self-interested reasons in GKD. (You may remember our discussion on that front.)

4. Your insinuation that it was shut down as a cover-up so that the information won't come out is just as ridiculous as your thinking that your account here was being messed with and that was why you couldn't find your images. Yet when you found out it was the company you entrusted them to that was at fault...crickets regarding your conspiracy theory.

5. Seek help. The moderators here are volunteers with no financial interest in the site. We pay our own mortgages and for our own vehicles without having to resort to shaking down makers, dealers and members to pad our pockets.

I had no idea who Fir Na Tine even was before I became aware of the thread in "General". And I thought he started it as a "satisfied customer", not someone with skin in the game.

So much for the cover-up.
 
I've come to really prefer knives with blade stock of .125-.145" for folding pocket knives and general use/outdoors fixed blades. I don't have any durability concerns at all at that thickness, and that thickness also lends to better comfort when using grips that put a finger on the spine of the knife. A good distal taper on a flat ground blade does wonders for keeping things from being overly beefy, also.

For the kitchen, thin for the win.
 
fullswing said:
I think the simple answer to the OP's question is because it's popular. Consumers demand a thicker knife because they believe it to be superior to thinner. This could be based on the perception that thicker means more durable and they demand the most durable product possible. Is it actually better? Not necessarily, it depends on the use case, see David's answer on the first page.
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I hope y'all can forgive me for not reading all ten pages so far but this is a solid point. Here is a related one.

Smoking has largely fallen out of favor but cigars are still "cool". I enjoy them in moderation. With everything else going lightweight and titanium becoming more popular, the challenge of finding a good titanium jet lighter surprised me. I ultimately had to get a titanium zippo shell direct from China and test-fit butane inserts until I found one that worked well.

Talking with others in the cigar community, an old and ultimately stupid idea seems to persist: heavy equals high quality and light equals cheap junk. So lighters are often made with heavier materials and more material than is needed. (Adding insult to injury, most of the modern lighters I've tried, including relatively expensive ones from major brands, feel very cheaply made compared to just a few decades ago.) So it's largely the opposite of modern EDC philosophy, except for a segment dedicated to superfluously overbuilt (or tacticool) folders and/or blades that are much thicker than they need to be.
 
Well everybody is different and has different needs, I never go into the woods with just one knife even if it's just a hike.

But first reason for me to own a giant thick prybar of a blade, is years ago I volunteered for some search and rescue in the aftermath of tornadoes and hurricanes, and a guy who regularly did that stuff had advised that the two main tools you needed to have on you at all times, was a high-quality flashlight with a lot of re-chargeable batteries, and a big prybar of a knife.

Sure you should have real prybars and a host of other stuff in your truck, but you're mostly not in the truck, you are on foot and searching rubble, and sometimes having a big knife that can cut, chop, and pry, can literally be the difference between life and death when somebody is trapped and seconds count. I would add that having a glass-breaker pommel would be invaluable, my big knife didn't have that but my big Maglite has one I added.

Second, if the most unlikely scenario ever occurred, lol, and I could only carry one blade, I could still manage the small tasks that a smaller blade would excel at, but a small blade would not work for the large ones very well at all.
 
texpat said:
Well everybody is different and has different needs, I never go into the woods with just one knife even if it's just a hike.

But first reason for me to own a giant thick prybar of a blade, is years ago I volunteered for some search and rescue in the aftermath of tornadoes and hurricanes, and a guy who regularly did that stuff had advised that the two main tools you needed to have on you at all times, was a high-quality flashlight with a lot of re-chargeable batteries, and a big prybar of a knife.

Sure you should have real prybars and a host of other stuff in your truck, but you're mostly not in the truck, you are on foot and searching rubble, and sometimes having a big knife that can cut, chop, and pry, can literally be the difference between life and death when somebody is trapped and seconds count. I would add that having a glass-breaker pommel would be invaluable, my big knife didn't have that but my big Maglite has one I added.

Second, if the most unlikely scenario ever occurred, lol, and I could only carry one blade, I could still manage the small tasks that a smaller blade would excel at, but a small blade would not work for the large ones very well at all.
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I see the case for thicker fixed blades, in certain circumstances. What I generally don't see is much of a case for thick folder blades.
 
Chronovore said:
I see the case for thicker fixed blades, in certain circumstances. What I generally don't see is much of a case for thick folder blades.
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Have to agree here. I don't get this at all. You could make a folding knife with a blade made of the toughest, most impervious steel on the market but it won't matter because the pivot and liners/scale material won't be made of that material, sooooo.....?
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Yes, I fully agree with you.....

and, That actually prove the whole argument better..... Knives were really good back then.
a thick knife, back then was a Hudson Bay.
It was thinner than what we commonly find today with bushcraft knives.

Steels (can) be better today.
We don't NEED to make them so thick.......... We do it because we Want to, for whatever reason, not because we Need to.
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I think it would be cool to make something, say a Bowie knife, as thin as possible and still pass a series of tests designed to validate the intended purpose of the blade.
 
HPD said:
I think it would be cool to make something, say a Bowie knife, as thin as possible and still pass a series of tests designed to validate the intended purpose of the blade.
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I made a handful of full height grind Barax machetes in .09" 15N20 (15" blade) a couple years ago, and they proved more than sufficiently tough for chopping hard dead wood.
 
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