The "Ask Nathan a question" thread

I noticed you mentioned that the turned titanium fasteners are now also hex head instead of torx. Knowing your careful design and manufacturing process, I have been wondering why you chose to go with the hex fasteners?

As I'm not North American, to me torx just seems like the obvious option for something that gets sold and shipped all over the world, as torx bits are common all over the world (and in the knife market in general). Inch size hex keys are not common where I live and I'm guessing metric hex keys are not very common in North America. I suppose most of your sales go to North America though, perhaps over 95 % (would be interesting to know about this too, if you are willing to share), so maybe that has something to do with it.

Probably not the most relevant question for most people, but I have been wondering it for a while. Thank you for your time.
 
I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I was familiar with and using hex head screws and bolts long before I had heard of Torx head hardware. In fact, when they first started showing up on knives, I thought it was the manufacturer’s attempt to keep us from disassembling their knives. I had had, both meteric and SAE hex keys long before ever having torx driver tips. Now days, my handy dandy AG Russell “screw” driver with hex, torx, flat, and Phillips drivers, in the handle, covers most of my needs. Probably doesn’t help with your question, though.

Mike
 
Logon said:
I noticed you mentioned that the turned titanium fasteners are now also hex head instead of torx. Knowing your careful design and manufacturing process, I have been wondering why you chose to go with the hex fasteners?

As I'm not North American, to me torx just seems like the obvious option for something that gets sold and shipped all over the world, as torx bits are common all over the world (and in the knife market in general). Inch size hex keys are not common where I live and I'm guessing metric hex keys are not very common in North America. I suppose most of your sales go to North America though, perhaps over 95 % (would be interesting to know about this too, if you are willing to share), so maybe that has something to do with it.

Probably not the most relevant question for most people, but I have been wondering it for a while. Thank you for your time.
Click to expand...
If it makes you feel better we (US Americans) have to deal with this more often than you. When working on our cars, and many other things, we always have to have SAE and metric tools to get it done.
 
Mike157 said:
I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I was familiar with and using hex head screws and bolts long before I had heard of Torx head hardware. In fact, when they first started showing up on knives, I thought it was the manufacturer’s attempt to keep us from disassembling their knives. I had had, both meteric and SAE hex keys long before ever having torx driver tips. Now days, my handy dandy AG Russell “screw” driver with hex, torx, flat, and Phillips drivers, in the handle, covers most of my needs. Probably doesn’t help with your question, though.

Mike
Click to expand...
Yeah, I agree that Torx wasn't that common back in the day compared to other fasteners. However, these days they are common in all kinds of applications from framing screws to electronics to knives. If I was to choose a fastener for a knife right now, I would probably go with Torx. Best compatibility for customer's tools would probably be with flathead or Phillips, but those are more prone to camming out and maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing ones, if going for form along with function.
Odog27 said:
If it makes you feel better we (US Americans) have to deal with this more often than you. When working on our cars, and many other things, we always have to have SAE and metric tools to get it done.
Click to expand...
From what I have seen on the internet that sounds accurate, you seem to have to deal with tons of different standards. Here (northern Europe) the inch sizes (SAE?) are not very common at all, so many people don't have the tools for fasteners in those sizes.

I hope my question didn't come off as me being upset or whining about it though, I'm just genuinely curious about the design philosophy on the fasteners. For example maybe it was just the type of fastener that was available in the beginning. Or maybe it is the most cost effective one to use. Or perhaps it was a design choice or became a design choice at some point, in which case it would make sense to get even the titanium fasteners in the same type. Though making assembly more straightforward by having all the fasteners be the same also makes sense. You can probably tell that I have been thinking about it for a while, haha.
 
When I was in college, half of our problems were given in terms of metric units and the other in SAE, and maybe it is still that way. I would have no problem, philosophically and work wise, going metric. Is the Torx system of metric origin?

Which brings up the question, at least for me, why do we drive on opposite sides of the road? Was somebody being ornery? At any rate, I''m still sipping on DonJulio 1942, until someone introduces me to better.:p Mike
 
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