Well, here we go again, another attempt at creating my ideal general carving knife.
Just to recap, I love to design things and knives are one of my passions, so what better item to design eh? I like to carve while I’m out walking with the dog or with friends or both. I want a knife that is small enough to carry in my pocket but large enough to use. I’ve always had a bit of a thing for simplicity and functional perfection and so I like bare blades with not scales but I do understand that scales give a more comfortable grip. I suppose my single overriding design criteria is simplicity of form and that is why I feel drawn to a simple bare piece of metal. I often find that the knives people make and post on blogs and social media are just too fussy or too much effort is put into making the knife look fantastic. Don’t get me wrong many knives are just beautiful but for me the beauty is in simplicity. If the form of the item suits it’s function perfectly then for me that is the ideal shape. I don’t like extras, twiddly bits or unnecessary embellishment.
This particular knife started out as a file and I started by forging the lanyard loop on the end. I then ground the blade and used a file to shape it. The result was this knife which I posted on Google+. Here is the post for those that didn’t see it. https://plus.google.com/+TrevorLeedham/posts/jiyrbUfyUTB
As I like to do I then tried using it as a kind of user trial. I wasn’t too happy with the knife in use, it’s length was just a bit much and the amount of belly in the blade was wrong for me. So, what to do with it eh? Well, if you are me you just go back to the grindstone and reshape it to something better, (most of the time). I wanted to shorten the handle and remove some of the belly in the blade. I also wanted to make the plunge lines on the grind a bit less severe and to reduce the angle of the main grind so that it was better suited to my style of carving.
What I am looking for in a general use carving knife:
- Blade of no more than 2 -3 inches (50 -75mm).
- A straight back to the blade.
- Slight curve and upswept (puuko style or kwaiken)
- Thick blade, I like the feeling of rigidity.
- I love a really shallow grind on my knives, I don’t use a blade as a screwdriver or crowbar and so I don’t need a steep grind and can indulge myself in my love of exceptionally sharp and highly polished edges.
- I don’t like heavily profiled grips as my grip on the knife changes constantly and so I prefer a neutral grip that can be used in a variety of ways. For this reason I don’t like choils at all, to quote from “Knifenews” “Choils are ergonomic instructions: they obligate the user to hold the knife in a specific way. If your hands don’t fit the choil – tough luck! A knife without a choil can offer more ‘neutral’ ergonomics that allow for many different grips” (see reference 1 below) I actually find that a choil gets in the way when I’m carving and causes me problems, so I don’t use them.
- Extremely polished edge, When I cut through wood I want to leave a clean surface, I don’t like to use abrasives to finish my carvings and I like to leave the cut finish you get from a really exceptionally sharp blade.
This is the result.
The detail. 50mm (2 inch) blade, 22mm wide and 6mm thick. Overall the knife is 140mm (5 inches) long and fits just nicely in my small hand.
This knife feels lovely in the hand and is sharp enough to split hairs. The polished edge just slips through wood and it carves just fine. To protect both the edge and myself I’ve knocked up a wooden sheath for it which is rigged for either neck or pocket carry.
Since I took these photos I have made the mistake of smoothing off and polishing the corners and rough edges of the handle. Unfortunately this means the knife is more slippery and doesn’t sit quite as well in my hand. I’m now faced with either putting scales on it in which case I would need to re-make the sheath or find some way to texture the handle so that it sits better in my hand. Perhaps there is some mileage in doing some pattern work around the edge… what this space.
Carved by Trev 