WSK design revisited.

[JC in SC]

wow JC, those are some beutiful blades, I wonder though, does the hole in the blade still retain its utility, as a finger hole, with the addition of the saw back?

I think if a reasonable distance (~the width of your hand) is placed between the finger hole and the sawback, yes. If not, then it probably wouldn't provide much function.

I feel just a little bit stupid for having to ask this, but can you explain what a draw knife is? and show how you would hold the knife, especially the top model, as such?

Imagine laying the knife, blade towards you, across your lap with the handle to the right and the point of the blade to the left. Now lay your hands flat on the extreme ends of the knife, right hand on the handle and left hand on the blade. Now grasp the knife with both hands, right hand fingers wrapping around the handle and left hand fingers wrapping around the spine of the blade. With this grip, you can use the knife as a draw knife, using the flat portion of the blade, to make controlled draw cuts toward yourself.

your design turned out alot better than I thought it would, however, I can't under stand at all what the "gut hook" could be used for, I know for gutting an animal, but the location of the hook, as seen in the majority of WSK designs, in relation to the forward cutting edge makes it, IMHO, a useless feature, the point of the hook it to cut the abdominal skin not cut into the gut bag (and destroy the meat).

My design(s) do not incorporate a gut hook. I agree that adding one between the flat portion of the blade and the curved is useless as it places the cutting edges too close to the gut bag. I thought about adding a traditional gut hook to the spine, toward the tip of the blade, but opted not to for two reasons. First, it would compromise integrity of the tip when batoning. Second, I think gut hooks are hard to sharpen, so the funtionality might be lost in a survival setting without means to sharpen.

any way, like I said, they turned out beutifuly, good design work!

Koster sure does some beutiful work too!

Thanks, but to be clear, only the renderings are my work and are actually very close to what Dan Koster has already made, but nothing of my design has been produced yet. All of the photos of actual knives that have been referenced here were made by others. The only photos I've posted have been of Koster knives.

Back to the drawing board...

 

[thwolf]

ah, I see, thanks for clearing all of that up for me.

 

[Macclint]

I like your little drop towards the point. Just something about that shape that's cool.... :thumbup:

 

[Bumppo]

JC in SC,
Don't get me wrong, the recurve is attractive and functional, and what you are doing is neat.. I am flattered you like the triangle for making cordage, just remember to chamfer or smooth the edges so they don't cut the fibers. It is exciting to see where you are going with the design.

 

[JC in SC]

JC in SC,
Don't get me wrong, the recurve is attractive and functional, and what you are doing is neat.. I am flattered you like the triangle for making cordage, just remember to chamfer or smooth the edges so they don't cut the fibers. It is exciting to see where you are going with the design.

I think the cordage holes are an interesting idea that deserves consideration. An extra hole or two in the handle shouldn't add to much effort or expense. I think a lot of functionality could be added to knives like this without compromising performance in other areas and this is a prime example.

After doing a little searching this weekend and finding this, I feel kinda silly even starting this thread.

Looks like Dan has already gone through a similar exercise. Definitely an interesting read if you've got time! I think several of the iterations contained in that thread are more in line with what I'm after.