What is the functional reasoning behind a swedge?

K

kaizo

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Oct 17, 2014
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Hi everyone :)

So many of the knives I find attractive like the Spyderco Tatanka and Busse TG14 has a swedge but what is the functional reason for having these? The swedge doesn't reach the tip so it's not exactly influencing the sharpness of the tip. Is it just there for aesthetic purposes?

Thanks for your help!
 
craytab said:
Yes, I would say weight and anesthetics. If you are going to baton, a swedge will eat said baton. A sharpened swedge is obviously for stabbing.
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Swedges can narrow down the tip and make precision cutting easier. I'm not sure about being made unconscious for surgery though. Do scalpels have swedges?
 
Planterz said:
Swedges can narrow down the tip and make precision cutting easier. I'm not sure about being made unconscious for surgery though. Do scalpels have swedges?
Click to expand...

Good catch sir! Can't even blame that on the phone, I'm on the PC :o

Seriously though, might be something CS could look into......
 
Thanks for the help chaps :)

Seems like weight saving and precision cutting is the answer.
 
I've seen people use unsharpened swedges for cracking open bones. Smaller surface area = more impact force. But that's not their expressed function.
 
I would think it would certainly make stabbing or piercing the tip into something much more easy/less resistance. Thats why so many fighting fixed blades have them.
 
Jerry Fisk likes swedged spines on blades like the Kabar Becker BK5 and BK15 to aid in slicing performance like the tapered stern on boats - it reduces drag as the blades passes through.
 
EDIT: TravisH beat me to the Jerry Fisk reference.

When I think of swedges, I think of two main reasons.

The sharpened swedge on bowie.

They create a more teardrop shape of the blade profile, which makes the blade pass through deep media with less friction. Particularly softer media.Think of it somewhat like a "reverse ramp", for the media to come down off of the spine more gracefully than an abrupt 90 degree spine.

But don't take my word for it. Here is a link where Mr Jerry Fisk explains the swedge on the BK5.

Link to the specific time in the video.

Having issues getting it to embed the video at a certain time. But here is the full video if anyone is interested.

[video=youtube;p0RHtnkagz0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0RHtnkagz0?t=287[/video]

Then I guess I there are other reasons, like lighter weight, looks, or maybe a finer point. But the above reasons are the main things I think of.
 
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Swedges drop the point profile, offer an increased area of edge surface, and allow de-limbing without damage to the main edge. Limbs are flexible and can trap thin sharp main edges as they bend, and this sometime bends their apex, so damage while de-limbing is common and avoided with the blunter clip edge. It's a fine "Survival" feature...

I don't find batoning to be a good idea, since it tends to micro-roll thin sharp main edges: Eating into a baton is thus not a consideration at all...

The Bill Bagwell "back cut" strikes me as not very deadly... Cutting outward after tip insertion seems to me like it would be infinitely worse, and that is best done with a zero-edge dagger, or at least a slim pointy knife...

Gaston
 
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