Category: Knife Stuff (page 3 of 10)

 

I’ve been sympathetic to the complicated relationship between the United Kingdom and knives. There’s no doubt knife crime is a major issue in the country and that something needs to be done about it.

I even wrote a nuanced conversation about how to look at knife crime in the country in a moment when everyone was poking fun at the mayor of London for tweeting that there was never any reason to carry a knife (despite my article listing 101 uses for a pocket knife).

But sometimes people go a little too far. Take a look at this tweet from member of Parliament Scott Mann:

Every knife sold in the UK should have a gps tracker fitted in the handle. It’s time we had a national database like we do with guns. If you’re carrying it around you had better have a bloody good explanation, obvious exemptions for fishing etc.

— Scott Mann MP (@scottmann4NC) March 14, 2019

That’s right… he just said that all knives sold in the UK should have GPS trackers built into the handle. Think about that because Mann certainly didn’t.

How many knives are currently in the UK? There are roughly 27.2 million households in the UK. Let’s be conservative and say each household has four kitchen knives (which is about a dozen less than I have). That’s more than 108 million knives just in the kitchen.

Add the countless pocket knives and fixed blades — both those used legitimately and illegitimately — and you get hundreds of millions of knives already in the country. On top of that, what exactly would putting a GPS tracker on a knife accomplish? Then you’d have to make sure they were all charged all the time.

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It’s pretty rare when you come to the intersection of mommy blogs and knife blogs, but that’s where we meet today.

A woman who blogs and podcasts about parenting recently posted a video that has sparked conversation and even outrage among parents. And it’s something we’ve talked about on this very blog as well.

Take a look:

A woman named Kathleen lets her two-and-a-half-year-old son help around the house in a serious way. In a video posted on Facebook, you see the little guy using a knife to cut up some cucumbers en route to making a salad.

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Kiwami Japan is one of the my favorite YouTubers out there. Not only do his videos show the process of turning some extraordinary material into a knife but they typically follow some sort of entertaining or bizarre story structure.

For example, his latest video saw his toy dog die and he had to make an unbreakable and unscratchable knife to hold its picture. I’ll just stick that here for your enjoyment:

But one of my favorite of his recent videos is a pretty straightforward video on making a primitive knife out of stone. Continue reading

Making a knife is hard. There are so many things to take into consideration — from design to materials.

Criticizing a knife is easy. There are so many little things to nitpick about the design.

While I understand knife designers will likely cringe and complain about this complaint thread from some blogboy, someone’s got to do the dirty work. These aren’t design flaws that completely ruin a knife (well, for normal people anyway), but they can be pretty annoying design decisions or failures.

Here are 10 design nitpicks that I personally find annoying. Let us know your additions in the comments.

Incomplete Sharpening Choil

A choil is that little space between the handle and the edge of the blade. It is typically unsharpened and usually designed to put a finger in to choke up on the blade for more control. However, it can often serve another function as a sharpening choil.

This allows the knife user to sharpen the blade completely with their desired sharpener. For some reason, there are a number of edges that abruptly stop before it gets to the choil. That means there’s an unnecessary unsharpened portion of the edge before getting to the unsharpened portion of the choil.

Nitpicky? Yes. Annoying? Also, yes.

Thumb Stud in Blade Path

The thumb stud is a tried-and-true method for opening a knife. While there have been a number of advances in opening (just check out our popular post on knives with unique opening mechanisms), the thumb stud remains a favorite.

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Designing a knife is hard, so imagine how difficult it is to successfully design a knife that can be made into both a fixed blade and a folding version without sacrificing comfort and functionality.

Well, the designers of these knives managed to do so with a aplomb.

Check out some of the best knife designs you can pick up in either a folding or fixed blade iteration.

Buck 110 & 101

Let’s start with an all-time knife: the Buck 110 Folding Hunter. This is one of the most successful pocket knife designs ever, becoming so ubiquitous that the style is simply known as a buck knife. So you might find it so surprising that it took Buck more than 50 years to turn the iconic knife into a fixed blade.

But that’s what they did with the Buck 101. It’s been met with very positive reviews.

Benchmade Adamas

Shane Sibert designed the 275 Adamas folding knife as a heavy-duty work knife. It’s frequently called one of the most durable work knives out there with its thick handle, liner, and blade. The success of the knife prompted Benchmade to add an automatic version as well as a fixed blade version.

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If you collect or enjoy knives, you’ve likely heard of the knife advocacy group started by knife designer Doug Ritter called Knife Rights.

Well, thanks to an article published in The Washington Post on September 15, people all over the country had the joy of learning all about the group’s effort to repeal restrictive knife laws in the United States.

I highly recommend reading the whole thing here.

Reporter Todd C. Frankel did a pretty good job presenting both sides of the argument and portraying the organization in a fairly positive light.

Here is a nice excerpt from the piece:

Ritter, 65, said that knives, like guns, should be considered arms protected by the Second Amendment. He doesn’t support any restriction on knives — not on switchblades or push daggers or even the ballistic knives that shoot like spears from a handle. Todd Rathner, director of legislative affairs for Knife Rights, holds a one-handed open knife during the Usual Suspect Gathering.

That’s become a winning argument. Twenty-one states have repealed or weakened their knife laws since 2010, many of them with bipartisan support, including Colorado, Michigan and Illinois. New York came close to doing the same last year. Ohio could be next. Texas passed its bill last year despite a high-profile stabbing death just days before lawmakers voted. And Knife Rights, with little financial backing, has been working behind the scenes to help make it happen.

“A lot of people said it would be impossible to repeal a switchblade law in any state. Insane. Tilting at windmills,” Ritter said. “Turns out they were wrong.”

The story was not without its faults though.

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If you were to peruse some popular knife forums, you’d think the invention of the assisted-opening mechanism was the worst thing to happen to the knife world.

The truth is that the average user could not care less whether the knife is spring-assisted. As long as it opens reliably and is relatively cheap, most people barley notice.

So, why do most knife nuts seem to hate assisted-opening knives with a passion? These are the most common arguments against assisted blades.

(Note: I’m being the devil’s advocate and citing some common arguments. I honestly don’t have a preference between assisted-openers and manual folders.)

1. Assisted-openers are dangerous

One of the biggest complaints about assisted-openers is that they’re dangerous. There are stories from people across the internet who say an assisted opener engaged while in the pocket. Those with flipper tabs are likely more dangerous because they can open up pretty easily when some pressure is applied to the edge of the closed knife. (This is a problem that can be mostly prevented with right-handed tip-down carry where the pocket would help keep it closed.)

I’ve carried assisted-openers before and never had one open. However, I have had an unassisted knife open slightly in my pocket. I don’t remember the circumstances that caused it, but any type of knife can be dangerous. Take a look at what could happen with an auto:

A first for me. Boker Kalashnikov opened in my pocket. from knives

Some have even complained that the strength of the assisted open is so powerful that the knife feels like it’s going to jump out of the hand.

2. Safety lock negates any advantages

To combat the first complaint, many knives come with safety mechanisms that keep the blade closed. For example, many Kershaw SpeedSafe models have a little peg that slides behind the blade to keep it from opening up accidentally. While it does increase the safety of the knife, it also counteracts the quickness and accessibility of the knife.

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Reddit is a fascinating place. It is an outlet where people with very specific interests interact with one another and share ideas, memes, images, and whatever else they want.

There are also a few fantastic subreddits dedicated to knives — /knives and the sometimes superior /knifeclub.

After lurking on these subreddits for years, I thought it’d be cool to show some of the best or most creative knife mods people have shown on the site. Check ’em out.

1. Toothpick Mod

One of the best things about the Victorinox cellidor scales is the assortment of tools within the scales, specifically the tweezers and toothpick.  Reddit user zuriel2089 modified the G-10 scales of a Spyderco Tenacious to fit a Victorinox toothpick. I personally find the tweezers more useful, but this is something you can do to many knives.

2. Front Flipper Mod

Front flippers have grown in popularity the past few years. Although Spyderco has yet to jump on the front flipper bandwagon, one Redditer bought a Lil Native modified to work as a front flipper. It looks like the scales were sanded down to only reveal the tang. Seems to work surprisingly well.

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It should be everyone’s goal to buy American-made products to support manufacturing and jobs in the country. However, prices and quality of knives compared to foreign competition can be tough to ignore.

But, if you think you can’t get a solid American-made knife for less than $35, you’re sorely mistaken.

Here is a selection of 10 knives you can pick up for less than $35.

Gerber E-Z Out Skeleton

After some missteps over the years, Gerber has really righted the ship by focusing on more US-made knives and ensuring classics are well cared for. One thing Gerber does very well is provide US-made knives at reasonable prices. Just take the Gerber E-Z Out Skeleton, for example.

The E-Z Out line has been a staple of Gerber for decades. This is a highly versatile knife with a long 3.52-inch blade and a polycarbonate handle. Along with a lockback mechanism, this knife is an easy and reliable EDC folder.

Case Sod Buster

This is the first of many Case knives to grace this list. The Sod Buster is a legendary slip joint pattern that has captured the hearts and minds of knife enthusiasts everywhere. The knife has a single blade that measures about 3.5 inches. The handle is black impact resistant synthetic material.

KA-BAR BK13 Becker Remora

Not all cheap US-made knives have to be folders. KA-BAR and Becker make an excellent lightweight fixed blade that can work as an everyday carry. The total length is only about 5.12 inches with a blade of about 2.3 inches — all made with black-coated 1095 Cro-Van steel. Thanks to a skeletonized handle, the knife almost disappears at less than 2 ounces.

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