Y'all might think I'm crazy, but...

Casinostocks said:
From what I've found out by being around Nathan's subforum and his knives, by reading his WIP writings and generally very informative posts, I have come to find out that Nathan spends a lot of time and thoughts, almost obsessively, via multiple handle scales designs and constant improvements to minimize the dreaded hot spots, which I think is the issue which you are raising, am I correct?
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Yes. I am referring specifically to the Wustof Classic 4582/26 Chef's knife with the slab-sided scales. The discontinued Grand Prix line eliminated the hot spots but wasn't offered across the entire line. My go to kitchen workhorse was long the 4584/26 extra wide Chef's knife.
 
Casinostocks said:
Apologies to Tony if this is construed as derailment.
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Not in the slightest! If we cannot geek out on our favorite brand, than that would be too bad.

I am going into this knowing full well I will be altering the actual balance of the base knife, relative to the existing handles. I am also going into this with specific purposes to challenge myself, and alter (note I did not say "correct") the handle form at the back end to suit me a little more.

The critique and different perspectives are as welcome as any sideline cheering. I'd love Lorien Lorien 's thoughts, and even Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist 's if he'd care to chime in.
 
Sorry if I went off script here too. I’m interested in what you will do. And also hope Nathan adds his expertise regarding balance goals.
 
I know from following through reading a good while before stepping into CPK knives .... that Nathan and Lorien both think 101 times and cut once ... and then tweak that a dozen more times until they hit what they set out to do ...

and that's a big reason I got into CPKs and why I continue to support them ... well thought out knives that are made to actually use ...

that being said I have also had the pleasure of handling and seeing the skill Tony has with handles ... and talking with him seeing he puts the same process in gear ... I look forward to following the thread and discussion.
 
marchone said:
Sorry if I went off script here too. I’m interested in what you will do. And also hope Nathan adds his expertise regarding balance goals.
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Fighters usually balance near the guard. Due to the short blade length there was no need to keep weight in the butt of the tang to get achieve this. Being a utility knife it would also be appropriate to balance on the first finger. This knife balances at a point about midway between those two points.

A problem with many classic ABS style fighters is they make the tip and the butt very light with distal taper and a stick tang and a weighted guard which makes the knife rotate quickly and feel really light and lively at their table but historically stabbing weapons were not like this and had more weight on the ends to resist deflection. You would often see a very stout point and a weighted pommel. This little knife, however, isn't really a full-on fighter and its moment of inertia is somewhere between an "ABS style knife" (which in my opinion are wrong) and a real historic weapon. It's a "tactical fixed blade" that can pry open a glove box (a pure fighter isn't intended to pry, but soldiers frequently do) defeat body armor, hammer through masonry and function as a utility fixed blade to open boxes and clean your fingernails. It just also happened to be designed to also function as a weapon. Some aspects of this design are a grip (contouring, guard and thumb ramp and handle flare) that fit while laid across the hand at an angle in order to project reach. The Shiv is specially contoured to sit straight and will align naturally with the arm (not jut out at an angle, try that with other knives) but there were some minor compromises to this grip on the UF to help it stay compact and lay flat which was important to the other collaborator, Jason. Still, the point location is intuitive without having to look.

A key element to functioning as a modern tactical fixed blade is accommodating a reverse grip. If your thumb can't get around the end of the handle while held in a reverse grip it isn't a proper modern tactical fixed blade. It might be a very nice knife, but that wasn't what we were going for. That said I really like the design the OP put forward. It looks beautiful and I'll bet it feels great. But it won't be optimized for the function we envisioned for this knife, though it may be perfect for his goals, which is cool. :thumbsup:
 
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Casinostocks said:
I went to find the original link to the UF WIP, but sadly it seems that gem has also fallen victim to certain data that did not migrate to the new Blade Forum servers since the migration :( Has anyone else noticed this with the original UF WIP thread?



To me, the balance is the weight size ratio and the way that Nathan dials in the pivotal (balance) point, aka the center of the gravity of his knives, for a lack of better technical term.
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https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/wip-machined-knife.1153472/
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
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Fighters usually balance near the guard. Due to the short blade length there was no need to keep weight in the butt of the tang to get achieve this. Being a utility knife it would also be appropriate to balance on the first finger. This knife balances at a point about midway between those two points.

A problem with many classic ABS style fighters is they make the tip and the butt very light with distal taper and a stick tang and a weighted guard which makes the knife rotate quickly and feel really light and lively at their table but historically stabbing weapons were not like this and had more weight on the ends to resist deflection. You would often see a very stout point and a weighted pommel. This little knife, however, isn't really a full-on fighter and its moment of inertia is somewhere between an "ABS style knife" (which in my opinion are wrong) and a real historic weapon. It's a "tactical fixed blade" that can pry open a glove box (a pure fighter isn't intended to pry, but soldiers frequently do) defeat body armor, hammer through masonry and function as a utility fixed blade to open boxes and clean your fingernails. It just also happened to be designed to also function as a weapon. Some aspects of this design are a grip (contouring, guard and thumb ramp and handle flare) that fit while laid across the hand at an angle in order to project reach. The Shiv is specially contoured to sit straight and will align naturally with the arm (not jut out at an angle, try that with other knives) but there were some minor compromises to this grip on the UF to help it stay compact and lay flat which was important to the other collaborator, Jason. Still, the point location is intuitive without having to look.

A key element to functioning as a modern tactical fixed blade is accommodating a reverse grip. If your thumb can't get around the end of the handle while held in a reverse grip it isn't a proper modern tactical fixed blade. It might be a very nice knife, but that wasn't what we were going for. That said I really like the design the OP put forward. It looks beautiful and I'll bet it feels great. But it won't be optimized for the function we envisioned for this knife, though it may be perfect for his goals, which is cool. :thumbsup:
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Thanks for that. Now I understand what you accomplished for your stated goals. :thumbsup:
 
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