Your Traditional knife turn-off's

I have to add one more peeve. I absolutely hate those giant reverse blade etches that Boker seems to love. Ruins the whole knife for me.
 
Knives that look like candy, Case candy stripe stockman.
French kates. :poop:
Acrylic any color or style period.
Stag should be symmetrical and smooth.
Blade etches, especially on carbon steel. I know what I bought, a tang stamp is enough.
Shields should be simple or absent.
Overly polished blades, that I have to give a satin finish to.
Single blades that are way off center. There is only one blade how can a company possibly get it wrong.
Very weak springs and nail breakers.
Hollow and saber grinds and thick spines.
Stacked leather handles look good on display but NEVER on a working or hunting knife.

Any company that doesn't tell you what steel they use and the HRC. Stainless, surgical, high carbon and CV aren't steels. I won't take the time search, if it was good steel they would tell their customers.

420HC, there are stainless steels (AUS8) that are easy to sharpen that hold a better edge.
 
Glued shields. :poop: Shields are inessential, a purely decorative feature. If you're going to include them, do it right and pin the things. Otherwise leave them off.

pinned shields > no shields > glued shields

Synthetic handles and covers. You can keep the G10, micarta, carbon fiber, acrylics, and delrin. I want my knives clad in bone, ivory, nacre, stag, and wood.

Sunken pins. I don't care what anyone says, they're butt ugly. At this point in the hobby, aesthetics play as big a factor as anything else.
 
Bails. ;-)
Wavy primary grinds.
Straight edges that have a slight curve.
 
Scalloped bolsters. Hate them. Detest them. I cannot begin to express the depths of my hatred for them.

Chamfered? Lined? Yes. Scalloped? Never. No matter how low the bottle gets. :)

It's one reason I own more tidioute knives than unxld.

Will
 
Aside from some typical things that people don't like in traditional pocket knives, like noticeable gaps between materials, blade rub, blade rap, and too soft or overly tough springs, the number one thing I avoid is bone/stag/any sort of animal product handle covers. To explain, without getting into too much detail (because I don't think the Porch is the best place for that conversation), I don't eat animal products and I don't want to have them in my pockets either. Luckily it's easy to avoid, unlike those other issues I mentioned where I'd need the knife in hand to see if it passes my own QC scrutiny. I just don't buy knives unless they're made of materials I don't have ethical issues with.

I know this can't be a popular position in this community, but this is an exceedingly friendly message board, so I don't mind sharing my opinion. I bet there are dozens of us vegan traditional knife fans out there. Dozens!
 
T. Erdelyi said:
I agree to a point, I think with traditional knives, at least I do, give a little more leeway as far as F&F comes. The more blades the more leeway, at least with production knives. This is why I like older traditional knives. I seem to find better versions of older patterns made in better quality which still have years of usability in them. The order knives when you buy a premium knife, using premium material and manufacturing processes were far superior to many of today's handmade versions.

An old Robeson Stockman from the 40s with that jigged red bone they covered their knives with was gorgeous. Even at a premium price for a vintage knife today you'll still make out better than if you bought a modern knife of equal quality.

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A lot of what I hear in this thread are fit and finish issues, poorly ground kicks bring nail nicks below the liners and scales, it hides behind another blade but all just poor QC on the factory's fault. My post is most older knives if they were properly taken care of and used not abused will have none of the fit and finish issues.



Some blades, especially high carbon steel steel blades tend to repelling rust better with a polished blade so a lot of times the shiny blades are a result of achieving the best low maintenance finish. Check out some of the old blade from the 20s-40s with a crocus finish, it was a non reflective finish but required regular care.

I seem to always defer back to older knives mostly because that's what I collected back in the day but some of the knives where extra monies were spent came with engine turned liners, file worked back springs and inlaid scales with polished filed NS bolsters. These were options on a knife and most didn't want them because they could triple even quadruple the price of a pocket knife. Keep in mind everyone carried a pocket knife back when these old traditional s were made.



When it comes to billboards, my take is if you wanna advertise your brand name on my knife than sell it to me cheaper. I don't need for you to write the pattern on the side of the blade for me but I do like a nice etch job and people have entire collections based on advertising knives. I guess an argument could be made that a modern knife like a Bear Gryllis (sp?) Buffalo Slayer Trapper could be an advertising knife for Bear.

I have an old nickle silver twist ring Schrade Walden with the letters Wurlitzer embossed/stamped into the side, it's a beautiful piece, well designed well made.

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On the deep craggy stag I agree but the smaller and smoother, bordering on smooth bone lookin' stag I like some of the older traditional bomb and chevron shields or the arrows like Northwoods uses. It's dependent on the texture of the stag IMHO

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Lust curious, why the dislike for the California/Turkish clip. Schrade's 81OT is a great example of that blade and when it comes to small game it's a great blade shape, very handy for processing small animals.

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I guess it's not so much options I don't like as much as it is common sense manufacturing processes I've come to expect. Sunken joints so there's no exposed tang when the blade is closed. Easily accessible nail nicks placed in a common sense position, no gaps, evenly ground blades that come sharp outta the box. These are things I've come to expect from a quality knife old or new but with so many patterns and so many blade configurations why wouldn't you just buy a knife with the blades and configuration you want?

If it's a quality made blade/knife most if not all of the things described here would be a non issue, well except for Emspop's dislike of Cali clips ;) but even this is addressed when just buying the pattern you like with out that blade the rest like I said are non issues with a quality knife.
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I've got to agree with most of that Ted :thumbsup: Blade rub is something I've only come across recently. My old knives don't have it, irrespective of how many blades they have, even the cheapo Richards knives :thumbsup:

Always a treat to see your Wurlitzer Ring-Opner :thumbsup:
 
"Aside from some typical things that people don't like in traditional pocket knives, like noticeable gaps between materials, blade rub, blade rap, and too soft or overly tough springs, the number one thing I avoid is bone/stag/any sort of animal product handle covers."

Spencergarden - my understanding is that stag and elk covers are shed antlers, a natural process with no harm to the animals. If you don't care for them as an animal product that is your prerogative but just thought I would throw this in for clarity.
 
jrawk said:
Bails. ;-)
Wavy primary grinds.
Straight edges that have a slight curve.
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I didn't even think to clarify that I had features and styles in mind over QC issues when I started this thread, but they do matter and are a big turn off for a lot of people.

You just reminded me that I really can't stand sheep's foot or other straight edge blades that they couldn't keep straight.
Why they think it's ok not to make sure the edges are straight is a mystery to me.
 
This is a fascinating thread, mostly because some of the things that some folks love about traditional pocket knives other folks absolutely hate. :D

I agree with a few things that have been mentioned already. I'm not big on slim clip blades (California, Turkish, etc.), though it looks alright on some knives and I even own a few.

I don't really like high-polished blades, much prefer satin finish.

Size is a big determining factor for me, too; I've been carrying a Tidioute #81 Bull Moose this last week, and at 4 inches closed and two springs, it's just about too big for my liking (at least for pocket carry).

Bad factory edges are irritating, especially when they're bad in a way that isn't easily remedied by sharpening them yourself.

I don't like it when the tips of blades are close to being proud of the liners. Depending on the blade shape, that can sometimes mean they're just a sharpening or two away from actually being proud. Sure you can file the kick down, but some cases that will cause the blade to rap the backspring.

Another thing I don't think I've seen mentioned yet in this thread are sharpening choils, or rather, the lack thereof. That's a big negative for me. I like a nice, deep sharpening choil. It makes putting a nice even bevel along the entire edge of the blade much easier. GEC generally does a decent job with this, although it sometimes varies from knife to knife. Thankfully, Charlie (@waynorth) gave me some good tips on deepening a sharpening choil using needle files, which has come in handy a few times.

Although I don't own one of his knives (yet, at least), @T.A.DAVISON does some great work when it comes to nice, deep sharpening choils. :thumbsup:
 
btb01 said:
This is a fascinating thread, mostly because some of the things that some folks love about traditional pocket knives other folks absolutely hate. :D

I agree with a few things that have been mentioned already. I'm not big on slim clip blades (California, Turkish, etc.), though it looks alright on some knives and I even own a few.

I don't really like high-polished blades, much prefer satin finish.

Size is a big determining factor for me, too; I've been carrying a Tidioute #81 Bull Moose this last week, and at 4 inches closed and two springs, it's just about too big for my liking (at least for pocket carry).

Bad factory edges are irritating, especially when they're bad in a way that isn't easily remedied by sharpening them yourself.

I don't like it when the tips of blades are close to being proud of the liners. Depending on the blade shape, that can sometimes mean they're just a sharpening or two away from actually being proud. Sure you can file the kick down, but some cases that will cause the blade to rap the backspring.

Another thing I don't think I've seen mentioned yet in this thread are sharpening choils, or rather, the lack thereof. That's a big negative for me. I like a nice, deep sharpening choil. It makes putting a nice even bevel along the entire edge of the blade much easier. GEC generally does a decent job with this, although it sometimes varies from knife to knife. Thankfully, Charlie (@waynorth) gave me some good tips on deepening a sharpening choil using needle files, which has come in handy a few times.

Although I don't own one of his knives (yet, at least), @T.A.DAVISON does some great work when it comes to nice, deep sharpening choils. :thumbsup:
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I also love sharpening choils, but I kind of like them small.
I don't like when you get that little bit at the base of the edge that a stone digs in to when sharpening.
Victorinox does it to even the classic, and imperial did it to even the teeny tiny knife GT sent me so why doesn't everyone else ?

Btw I also love how people can be the exact opposite but keep this thread civil.
I love carbon steel while others can't stand it, I can't stand swedged spear blades while many absolutely love them, some only love natural covers while some don't, in the end they're just opinions and there's a traditional knife for everyone.
 
BigJim2x said:
"Aside from some typical things that people don't like in traditional pocket knives, like noticeable gaps between materials, blade rub, blade rap, and too soft or overly tough springs, the number one thing I avoid is bone/stag/any sort of animal product handle covers."

Spencergarden - my understanding is that stag and elk covers are shed antlers, a natural process with no harm to the animals. If you don't care for them as an animal product that is your prerogative but just thought I would throw this in for clarity.
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I just did a bit of reading about shed antlers, a process I didn't even know existed. Thanks for sharing. I can't find any info about cutlers that use shed antlers only, but I could be looking in the wrong places. Have any links? I still likely wouldn't be interested in owning that kind of knife, but it could make them more palatable.
 
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I googled "sambar stag knife covers come from where" and this was at the top of the list:

5 - Stag. Naturally shed or dropped deer antlers are used for the Stag handles in Case knives. The most desirable Stag comes from the Sambar or Chital deer in India. Stag covers are burned lightly during the completion process.

Also GEC uses elk antlers on their acorn shield stainless knives as the elk antlers come from the USA to keep the Acorn line all American.

Cheers
Jim
 
Another one no one's mentioned, burned tips from the grinders. The smaller/thinner traditional blades require extreme skill or new machines to get those razor sharp outta the box blades we all want. We had a run of Northwoods medium stockmans made for the 2008 forum knife, (beautiful knives with really knice burnt stag scales, almost every tip on every knife had their tip overheated and turned blue. Most likely losing the temper at the tips, that was 200+ knives IIRC.

Again not an option but a QC issue. Outta all the posts so far in this thread how many are actual options? We all agree that we want sharp, non rubbing, reasonably nested symmetrically ground blades with well place nail nicks and appropriate blade pull but other than etchings, blade finish whether or not the bolsters cover the square "tang tower" :) the majority of the complaints are quality and not option issues.

What type of options are generally available on a traditional knife, covers. liners, locks? Here's an option, screw assembly. Most and all older traditional knives are pin and rivet, permanent construction. Screw assembly is a new option. :thumbsup:
 
T. Erdelyi said:
Another one no one's mentioned, burned tips from the grinders. The smaller/thinner traditional blades require extreme skill or new machines to get those razor sharp outta the box blades we all want. We had a run of Northwoods medium stockmans made for the 2008 forum knife, (beautiful knives with really knice burnt stag scales, almost every tip on every knife had their tip overheated and turned blue. Most likely losing the temper at the tips, that was 200+ knives IIRC.

Again not an option but a QC issue. Outta all the posts so far in this thread how many are actual options? We all agree that we want sharp, non rubbing, reasonably nested symmetrically ground blades with well place nail nicks and appropriate blade pull but other than etchings, blade finish whether or not the bolsters cover the square "tang tower" :) the majority of the complaints are quality and not option issues.

What type of options are generally available on a traditional knife, covers. liners, locks? Here's an option, screw assembly. Most and all older traditional knives are pin and rivet, permanent construction. Screw assembly is a new option. :thumbsup:
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Well I personally dislike swedged spear point blades, mirror polished stainless blades, 2 primary blades on a knife , easy open notches, lack of sharpening choils, extremely crinked blades , multicolored acrylic or kyrinite, more than 3 knife blades on an EDC class knife, and humpback spey blades.
These are pretty much all features or traits that aren't QC issues, crinked blades can be excessive on accident I guess but it's usually on purpose because they can't be bothered to properly offset the grind.
 
There ya go, all options except the crinked blades. :thumbsup: All things a good blade doesn't need and all a matter of preference and none of those are a result of quality control issues.
 
Travman said:
I don't like blades that are too small in relation to the handle. Case's Teardrop is an example of this. View attachment 797363
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You would HATE several of my more useful work knives then. I have two Cold Steel Ti Lites (one a six and one a four) that I can't even show here . . . I have been tossed out in the traditionals forum for attempting to post pics of such alien hardware. Picture in your mind a Ti Lite VI with a three and a half inch razel blade. Frightening huh ?

Hopefully I can get away with posting these. I often say the little gold colored box knife is all many people need for cutting threads and opening packages.
The craft scalpels are more bad ass than you would think . . . they are "one hand openable" . . . ha, ha, ha.
The Opinel is made from a #12 . . . a pretty useful tool.IMG_3313.JPGIMG_3308.jpgIMG_3340.jpg
 
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