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How will the handle size of the MC compare to that of the HDFK ? I don't have very big hands but I do have a huge desire to own a MC and the HDFK handle is right on the verge of being too large for me.
 
Ta2ude said:
How will the handle size of the MC compare to that of the HDFK ? I don't have very big hands but I do have a huge desire to own a MC and the HDFK handle is right on the verge of being too large for me.
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Large.

Mark has extra large hands and my hands look like sporks, but Jo has small hands and Lorien's aren't real big.

We spend more time and development work designing a handle than anything else on a knife. It can be a challenge designing something to accommodate a 5th to 95th percentile person. Some things, like a light switch, aren't real sensitive. Other things like gloves are very sensitive. A handle can frequently accommodate a wide range of people because the human hand is pretty adaptable. So I try to design a handle for a 50th percentile male for the task the knife is intended to serve and I hope (and we test for) that it will function well for a wide range of people from there.

There is not an ideal size grip for a particular person. There is an ideal size grip for a particular person for a particular task.

If you were to hold Dan Keffeler's competition cutter in your hand you would be surprised how huge the grip it. It is enormous. I mean strikingly large. But Dan isn't any bigger than me. (well, his skeleton and hands aren't, though there is more meat in his right arm than I have in my entire body). Yet that huge grip works pretty well even in Jo's small hands. It looks and feels a little weird at first but it functions very well. If fact I'm wagering it's the best grip for the application that anyone has figured out.

Small grips work well in applications requiring dexterity, fine cutting and low force, but jobs requiring impact, heavy usage and extended cutting need the larger size. Part of this is the mechanical advantage from the larger circumference resisting rotation and twisting and part of it is the reduced forearm fatigue from a hand held in the middle of it's range and fingers not touching the palm (reducing the clamp on the handle).

When developing the handle on the HDFK we tested a wide range of geometry, some much more slim. Even though these things may "feel good" in the hand when you just casually grip it, when we went to put them to work we found the most control and the least fatigue with the grip we developed.

My point here in this long wall of text is: give the work a chance. Sometimes it may be different than you're accustomed, but rest assured it was tested with an average size person in mind and anyone remotely average in size is going to be able to use it as intended. The knives with large handles aren't designed for exceptionally large people, they're designed for average people but it's a design that benefits from a larger grip.

All of that said, if you prefer knives with smaller handles you probably won't like the HDFK or the Choppers, they're full size.
 
Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist Right on with the extended use vs casual pickup comment. I think a lot of people evaluate ergos without every really USING a knife. So I appreciate that you’re attentive to this.

FWIW, my first extended use with the FK was slicing up a smoked brisket. This sounds silly, but there was some tasty thick crust and it did take some time! This is where I noted some hand fatigue and thought a little more meat there would be helpful. No pun intended.

The HDFK and EDC2 both were “love at first grab.” Haven’t gotten time on he ends of those but I’m confident they are winners in the handle dept.
 
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Thanks for the detailed response Nathan, as usual it was very educational. My first impression of the EDC was it was a little too thick for me, but as time passed so did that initial impression and the more I used the knife the better it came to feel. I haven't actually "used" my HDFK but I have handled it a fair bit and it feels really good in my hand in multiple grips, other than holding it directly in the middle on the palm swell. For me it feels slightly too large for my hand in that position although I am not even sure if that is a grip one would normally use anyways, but if I slide my hand either up or down about 1/2" it feels amazing. I also really like the grip using the choil and feel like that little concave detail alone in the front of the handle had more time spent on it than most would imagine, including myself. Anyways great job and kudos to everyone involved with CPK and I can't wait for the MC pre-order. I'll be buying one no matter how big the handle is.
 
Had to spend almost a year in Atlanta and fell in love with Ray's on the River. But the Chatahoochee looked a helluva lot cleaner back then, or am I just seeing things?
 
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