Post by Shorttime on Dec 22, 2017 9:10:30 GMT -8
Some knives work better for EDC than others. Beyond the obvious difficulty of opening a letter with your 8" Bowie knife, there isn't a whole lot of information out there about exactly why some knives just seem to "feel better" than others. All people say is "great ergonomics!", if they say anything at all.
I'm here to kill that magic for you. With one simple line.
I'll apologize now, if these pictures are shitty: I copied them into Paint, and drew a line on them. So they're probably different sizes, and all kinds of things that would send a proper photographer into convulsions.
So what? That's not the point. The point is that little black line across the knife.
This line is part of the "feels good" quality of any knife. It starts at the point, and just barely touches the part of the handle where your index finger should naturally rest. From there, it passes out of the back of the handle.
Let's look at another.
This is a wharncliffe-blade version of the Hinderer XM. RH's knives are one of the things that people generally agree have "great ergonomics!", which is what got me thinking about this question.
Back to this mystery line. If you look at the pommel of the knife, you'll see that it crosses the end of the handle up higher (toward the spine), than it did on the drop point.
One more example.
This triumph of form over function is brought to you by Benchmade. The line is red this time, like it should have been in the other pictures, but Paint is a stupid program to work with. Never mind.
Much of everyday cutting involves getting the point of the knife into the thing you want to cut. Many common materials have great shear- and tensile strength, making it hard to open bags and taped boxes. So the measure of a knife that functions well is how natural it feels to control the tip. For some reason, that "natural" feeling is determined by where that red line ends.
I don't know why. And you're free to disagree with me. In fact, I welcome it! Post below, and tell my why I'm wrong/crazy/possibly right. This is part of a continuing series of works in progress, and it wouldn't be complete without discussion.
I'm here to kill that magic for you. With one simple line.
I'll apologize now, if these pictures are shitty: I copied them into Paint, and drew a line on them. So they're probably different sizes, and all kinds of things that would send a proper photographer into convulsions.
So what? That's not the point. The point is that little black line across the knife.
This line is part of the "feels good" quality of any knife. It starts at the point, and just barely touches the part of the handle where your index finger should naturally rest. From there, it passes out of the back of the handle.
Let's look at another.
This is a wharncliffe-blade version of the Hinderer XM. RH's knives are one of the things that people generally agree have "great ergonomics!", which is what got me thinking about this question.
Back to this mystery line. If you look at the pommel of the knife, you'll see that it crosses the end of the handle up higher (toward the spine), than it did on the drop point.
One more example.
This triumph of form over function is brought to you by Benchmade. The line is red this time, like it should have been in the other pictures, but Paint is a stupid program to work with. Never mind.
Much of everyday cutting involves getting the point of the knife into the thing you want to cut. Many common materials have great shear- and tensile strength, making it hard to open bags and taped boxes. So the measure of a knife that functions well is how natural it feels to control the tip. For some reason, that "natural" feeling is determined by where that red line ends.
I don't know why. And you're free to disagree with me. In fact, I welcome it! Post below, and tell my why I'm wrong/crazy/possibly right. This is part of a continuing series of works in progress, and it wouldn't be complete without discussion.