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Old 02-26-2020, 06:50 PM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Now live in Las Cruces NM.
Posts: 1,345
Did I miss something? Food for thought.

I have been looking at a lot of knives for sale, some custom, some factory or even Kit knives. I have been seeing a lot of knives with 3 to 4 inch blades that are 5/32, = .156 or 4 mm thick. I would never make a blade less than 4 inches long thicker than 1/8 inch thick or 3.2 mm.

I saw a blade 2 1/2 inch long at 5/32 thick and I bought a (Chinesium 9cr14MoV) kit knife of it (on sale). A cutter it isn't, even with a hollow grind I really had to lengthen the cutting bevel for it to be useful, but it does hold an edge once you get it on there. It's an envelope opener now as that's the only use I could find for it. Well that's what I use it for anyway and I certainly wouldn't go into the woods with it. Handle is too short too. 2 1/4 blade with 2 1/2 handle.

It is just an extreme example of a lot and I do mean a lot of fixed knives I'm seeing at 3 to 4 inches and too thick. A blade .100 to .125 is best for cutting in that length range, so why the big move to over thickness on what are essentially hunting-utility knives? I mean a wood-crafting knife would run 4-6 inches and have a longer handle for batoning. I can't see myself batoning with a 3 1/2 drop point even if the blade is 4 mm thick. Plus thicker blades just don't slice very well as I pointed out with that 2 1/4 blade.

So, Is this just a fad or did I miss a meeting somewhere along the line?
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