- Joined
- Jun 25, 2011
- Messages
- 694
Guy, why the change from skeletonised to solid tang? Just curious, as I really like my GSO 3.5 exactly as it is.
There are several reasons for the move to solid tang on most of the knives. For one, it will reduce the cost of cutting the blades. Since we're moving away from less expensive laser cutting to more expensive water jet cutting and then machining the blades to size, deleting the skeletonizing will help offset some of the cost increase.
On the functional side of things it will eliminate the air pocket in between the handles, where corrosion can sometimes form more aggressively. We've gotten a few blades back where the heaviest corrosion is hidden right there in the middle of the knife. Also, I really like having 100% mating surface between the handle and blade tang on these medium and large knives. If your bowdrill divot would happen to burn through after extended use, the tang will stop it for sure, keeping the divot useable, where a skeletonized pocket wouldn't. The full tang also helps eliminate blade flexing under hard use and while I've only ever had the one failure with a Bohler M-390 blade, I figure it is better safe than sorry. I know for sure the issue was because of a flaw in the steel and a perfect storm of circumstances BUT it would have never failed if the blade has been a solid tang. I've only ever had that one warranty replacement but even that one still eats at me.
To me even one failure in the field is unacceptable. I offer a lifetime warranty, so it was taken care of but that isn't really the reason I offer the warranty. I offer it because I truly believe that my products should last you at least a lifetime. Deleting the skeletonizing didn't substantially change the weight or dramatically affect balance point, so I went for it.
I'll still offer the smaller knives skeletonized because they can't physically be subjected to the same forces as the larger blades and for something you're going to wear like a neck knife, every few grams of weight reduction helps with comfort.
I would pay 5.00 extra for jimping.
Save your money Sir, the new GSO-3.5 will have spine jimping!