Is it possible...

[Bush Monkey]

...to overbuild a knife? Since no one knows what any particular knife may be called upon to do, where it might be used or what dire circumstance the hand holding it might be in, I don't think so. The tendency to overbuild should be balanced with performance - making a bombproof tool that fails to perform is a waste of time and material.

Any thoughts on this?

[ARCustomKnives]

Interesting question.

I think the answer is yes and no. One thing to consider is that the finished product on any knife is a culmination of give vs. take.
Example 1: rockwell hardness: based on it's intendid use you don't want to make it too hard or too soft, so we as knife makers try to find that happy medium for a given blade steel of a given knife type.
Does it need to flex? Does it need to be extra tough? Does it need to be easy to sharpen? etc...

Example 2: blade thickness: Is the knife intendid for detail work like peeling an apple or caping game? Or is it going to to be strictly used for chopping down redwoods?

Example 3: edge geometry: This takes a few factors from blade thickness as well, but does the edge need to be convexed for strength, or acutely ground for thin slicing and detail work?

Now, all that being said, I think we also need to remember the fact that a knife is a knife. It's primary task, design, and reason for existing is cutting. It's not a hammer, it's not a prybar, it's not a ladder rung, it's not a can opener, etc... etc...
Is it nice when a knife can be used for all those things and more and still come out relatively unscathed? Sure. Are there certain emergency situations where you might be forced to "over exert" your blade? Absolutely. But as you give towards something, you almost always take away from something else.

Probably one of the best real life examples I can currently think of is a fillet knife. If you made it to thick and too hard and too tough you wouldn't have the flex needed to efficiently process a fish or other small game. Sure, you'd be able to de-limb a tree, chop down some sapplings, or open a tuna can with it, but its intended purpose would suffer dramatically.
That's not to say I haven't seen guys skin, gut, and de-bone a fish with a bowie knife, or even a large kukri, but it wasn't nearly as efficient.

[Bush Monkey]

Andrew,

You put some thought into it. Your points have merit. I don't think overbuilding and high performance are mutually exclusive. The two are not antagonistic but complimentary. I think we both agree that "balance" is the crux of the challenge.

thank you,

Jeff

[ARCustomKnives]

Andrew,

You put some thought into it. Your points have merit. I don't think overbuilding and high performance are mutually exclusive. The two are not antagonistic but complimentary. I think we both agree that "balance" is the crux of the challenge.
thank you,

Jeff

We do agree. Now depending on what the knife is to be used for, like I said, it's often easy to throw things out of balance... but then again, that's why there's so many different types of knives, as well as why we don't all make the exact same thing.

You know what they say: Variety is the spice of knife. ;)

[Bush Monkey]

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