Books/Sites Concerning Design?

Kevin Zito

KNIFE MAKER
Hello all! I'm wondering if you guys can recommend any resources that address the artistic side of knife making? As of now, I'm doing what I'm sure a lot beginners do .... look at lots of knives. I love doing this for ideas.... I really just love doing it lol. But I'm looking for a more detailed, educational treatment of the subject. For example, what are "reasonable" ratios of bolsters to handles ... as in "should" bolsters "normally" be "about" 20% of handle length, 12.5%,...???? I'm just making these numbers up, but you get my drift. I also don't care necessarily about the answer to that question... because I have LOTS of other similar questions. I'm willing to bet that the best sources for this type of info are experience and time, but I thought I'd see what you guys could recommend. Thanks!


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A fantastic book for design "101 Knife Designs" by Murray Carter. He goes into detail about angles, proportions, and overall design characteristics. The back of the book has pages and pages of templates you can use to get started. Find a pattern that catches your eye and then you can tweak it to your own taste if you like. Bear in mind that Murray Carter comes from the Japanese school of bladesmithing and his opinions are deeply rooted along those lines, although he spends lots of time on everything from hunting knives, kitchen knives, to fighting knives. The photos alone in this book are worth every penny that the book costs. It is a treasure trove of inspiration.

A great take on old school knife making, which is right up your ally, is "Step by Step Knife Making" by David Boye. The methods he uses in the book are proof positive that works of art can be made using the most basic of tools. When Boye wrote this book, the grinders we take for granted today weren't even available. The book is full of great design ideas and the thinking behind it, as well as all of the how-to stuff for making knives.
 
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A fantastic book for design "101 Knife Designs" by Murray Carter. He goes into detail about angles, proportions, and overall design characteristics. The back of the book has pages and pages of templates you can use to get started. Find a pattern that catches your eye and then you can tweak it to your own taste if you like. Bear in mind that Murray Carter comes from the Japanese school of bladesmithing and his opinions are deeply rooted along those lines, although he spends lots of time on everything from hunting knives, kitchen knives, to fighting knives. The photos alone in this book are worth every penny that the book costs. It is a treasure trove of inspiration.

A great take on old school knife making, which is right up your ally, is "Step by Step Knife Making" by David Boye. The methods he uses in the book are proof positive that works of art can be made using the most basic of tools. When Boye wrote this book, the grinders we take for granted today weren't even available. The book is full of great design ideas and the thinking behind it, as well as all of the how-to stuff for making knives.

Thank you very much! That is exactly what I was looking for.


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Hello all! I'm wondering if you guys can recommend any resources that address the artistic side of knife making? As of now, I'm doing what I'm sure a lot beginners do .... look at lots of knives. I love doing this for ideas.... I really just love doing it lol. But I'm looking for a more detailed, educational treatment of the subject. For example, what are "reasonable" ratios of bolsters to handles ... as in "should" bolsters "normally" be "about" 20% of handle length, 12.5%,...???? I'm just making these numbers up, but you get my drift. I also don't care necessarily about the answer to that question... because I have LOTS of other similar questions. I'm willing to bet that the best sources for this type of info are experience and time, but I thought I'd see what you guys could recommend. Thanks!


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Since I started making knives, I've just done what you've been doing: looking at lots and lots of knives and getting my hand on as many other makers work as I could. And then, just making....
Seeing what looks right and feels right to me. I agree that research is a great thing, but in the end - you've just got to try things out and see what works for you. There are a lot of things that a lot of makers do similarly probably, but in the end, each one of us eventually find our own way of doing a lot of things...


However, these are great suggestions from John. I don't own either one of these books so I may pick up a copy of each because it never hurts to look at more knives and how others do it!
A fantastic book for design "101 Knife Designs" by Murray Carter.

A great take on old school knife making, which is right up your ally, is "Step by Step Knife Making" by David Boye.
Good stuff John! Thanks for sharing these.
 
two come to mind. the first is Jay Fisher's site(http://www.jayfisher.com/Patterns_Knives_Custom.htm#How_to_use_this_page). he has 450 designs and pictures/data of the ones produced. All of his designs are copyrighted, so I would use them as starting points. the second is here (http://www.zknives.com/knives/kitchen/misc/usetype/all/index.shtml), a listing of most Japanese kitchen knives, some with reviews.
I think knife design falls into 2 categories, nice to look at and nice to use. In nice to look at, there are no rules, just do what you think would look good. Jewels or stone in the handle, mirror finish, zombie apocalypse shapes.
Nice to use, start with the use and work backward. A kitchen slicer: very thin edge yet a stiff enough spine to limit flex, a handle that would be comfortable in the hand and light weight for hours of use, a satin finish because a mirrored one will be scratched very quickly in use, no bolster as they get in the way when sharpening. A camping/hunting knife will have a different list.
 
I think knife design falls into 2 categories, nice to look at and nice to use. In nice to look at, there are no rules, just do what you think would look good. Jewels or stone in the handle, mirror finish, zombie apocalypse shapes.
Nice to use, start with the use and work backward. A kitchen slicer: very thin edge yet a stiff enough spine to limit flex, a handle that would be comfortable in the hand and light weight for hours of use, a satin finish because a mirrored one will be scratched very quickly in use, no bolster as they get in the way when sharpening. A camping/hunting knife will have a different list.

Excellent comment.

The hardest part of knifemaking for me was learning proportions. A hard one in particular is handle size, both length and thickness. Hands vary, but few people complain about a handle that is a hair big versus a handle that is just a wee bit small. A handle that is too small feels uncomfortable and under some circumstances, unsafe. Again, it depends on the function of the knife. A scalpel doesn't need palm swells, it needs to be nimble and it needs to tell the user where the edge is pointing without looking. On a kitchen knife balance is key: the handle is as much a counterweight to the blade as much as it is something to hold onto.

Rules are meant to be broken, but not until you understand what the rule was meant for, which is usually to provide a good starting point. For instance, on a knife with a full guard the the lines of the spine and bottom of the ricasso should flow unbroken into the handle as if the guard was not there. That rule helps you determine how tall your ricasso should be and how thick your handle needs to be where it meets the guard. Do you *have* to do it this way? Of course not. But it's a great starting point until you know *why* you want to break the rule. To most people it just looks right.

Another great rule is for kitchen blades. Thou shalt not point the heel toward the handle. It looks really sexy to point the heel of the blade back toward the handle.... on paper. Until you stab yourself on that sucker a few times. Then you grind off the point of the heel and realize that's why the rule is not to do that. I still love the way it looks but it is enough to really piss you off when you get bit by it, so I don't do that anymore. In fact, I'm a serial heel-rounder and my customer have really responded well to having the corner of the heel rounded.
 
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Excellent comment.
The hardest part of knifemaking for me was learning proportions. A hard one in particular is handle size, both length and thickness. Hands vary, but few people complain about a handle that is a hair big versus a handle that is just a wee bit small. A handle that is too small feels uncomfortable and under some circumstances, unsafe. Again, it depends on the function of the knife. A scalpel doesn't need palm swells, it needs to be nimble and it needs to tell the user where the edge is pointing without looking. On a kitchen knife balance is key: the handle is as much a counterweight to the blade as much as it is something to hold onto.

that is why I make three knives with almost identical blades but 3 different handles; small, medium and large. I wear extra large gloves and have early artheritis, so I prefer a larger handle. I also use natural wood for handles. maple is lighter than walnut, then oak, locust, then dogwood. handle wood, tang length, tang width, and handle hardware all effect the balance point which I prefer to be where handle meets blade. overall weight can also be a goal, I made an 8" chef's knife that weights 2.75oz.
 
I wasn't particularly impressed with Murray Carter. He's sort of full of himself, and he thinks he's become Japanese somehow. Admiring a culture is fine. Studying a culture is fine. Immersing yourself in it is fine. Believing that you've become Japanese is fantasy.
 
I'm thinking about getting this video also, but I'm not sure I trust the author.


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