Bird and trout design help/suggestions

K

Kev

Well-Known Member
I know I’m not the only one, but I can not for the life of me get a B&T knife to look good on paper. I’ll draw and draw and re-draw, and something is just always off to my eye.
Is there a proportion ratio that I’m missing somewhere? Like height of the blade to length? I don’t know. 68683

Here is a recent drawing. And I just can not get it to look right.
 
Kev, have you tried to continue the spine curve of the handle through the blade without the turn up on the blade and to my eye that would be a very nice B&T. Handle and blade are both nice (disregarding the upsweep) but the change in direction is upsetting the visual balance
 
The angle a picture is taken at can be deceptive! One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was to draw it out on graph paper. Then it is too scale. I like the looks of the knife! However the handle appears to be way too long!

It looks like the handle is too long in relation to the blade. I usually shoot for a handle length or 4 1/2" to 5" maximum! That length will usually fit from the average to the large hand! Some say 4" - 4 3/4". Grab a ruler and place it in your hand so the numbers start at one side, clench your hand around the ruler. In relationship to that measurement. Ask yourself have I got large hand, small hands or about average and adjust from there!!

According to what I am seeing on my screen. Your looking at a blade length, of 5 3/4" or about 5" of useable blade. In relationship to that your handle is 7 3/4". Now actual measurements may vary but that would make the knife almost 13 3/4" in length. if you go with the 5 3/4" on the blade and the 5" on the handle.

If you go with the 5 3/4" on the blade and the 5" on the handle. You have reduced that from in the neighborhood of 13 3/4" down to10 3/4"

That could be acceptable but when I think of a bird and trout, I would say 10" and under. Maybe closer in the 7"-9" range. Like I said try it on a graph paper and make adjustments from there. That will give you a better idea of the actual look of the knife!!

Others may have different ideas but there is what I am looking at. A handle needs to fit the hand to short and you can't hang on to. Too long and it is just a waste!!
 
C Craft said:
According to what I am seeing on my screen. Your looking at a blade length, of 5 3/4" or about 5" of useable blade. In relationship to that your handle is 7 3/4". Now actual measurements may vary but that would make the knife almost 13 3/4" in length. if you go with the 5 3/4" on the blade and the 5" on the handle.
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I think you may be mistaken in that Clif as there are no measurement given and if the handle is in the 4 1/2 in region then the blade is still a good usable length in the 3 inch + and eminently suitable for birds and fish which do not need a longer bade to successfully dress them out.
 
I'd try Von Gruff's suggestion. No need to redraw, trace it out and just change the blade's position in relation to the handle. I like the blade and handle shapes, it's the angle change between the two that throws off the flow to my eye.
 
Cut that pic in half up at the ricasso and the pivot the two pieces till it looks good to you. I think Von Gruff is spot on...

Also, post the pic horizontally. I doubt any of us draw a knife design vertically...and so it's harder to critique.

handle and blade are both sweet in their own aspect!
 
Von Gruff said:
I think you may be mistaken in that Clif as there are no measurement given and if the handle is in the 4 1/2 in region then the blade is still a good usable length in the 3 inch + and eminently suitable for birds and fish which do not need a longer bade to successfully dress them out.
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Von, I am not mistaken I never said he gave measurements!
C Craft said:
According to what I am seeing on my screen. Your looking at a blade length, of 5 3/4" or about 5" of useable blade. In relationship to that your handle is 7 3/4".
Click to expand...

What I was speaking of was this. He did never give any measurements but, according to my eye the relationship between the handle and the length of the blade is wrong. Now I know what I am about to say can be highly influenced by the monitor your are looking at! How ever what I said was, According to what I am seeing on my screen. I have a computer screen/monitor that is right at 11 1/2" high. So using my screen to measure his drawing I arrived at those measurements of blade, 5 3/4" and a blade of 7 3/4". Like I stated this is According to what I am seeing on my screen.

Relationship between blade and handle are always an important factor in any knife, IMHO!! As to finish length of the blade for a bird and trout knife I think that is highly influenced by the maker! I will however agree with Von, on the point that a little downward kick to the handle might indeed look better!!

Another thing I was trying to stress to Kev is that if you draw it out on graph paper you can actually see what the knife will look like when finished!

So my question to Kev is this what were the length of the blade and handle you have envisioned, since you never stated the measurements and viewing the drawing leaves a lot up too interpretation of the viewer!!!!
 
68692

Here is a picture with some others, and a grid for scale. To my eye I’m just missing something...
 
C Craft said:
Relationship between blade and handle are always an important factor in any knife, IMHO!! As to finish length of the blade for a bird and trout knife I think that is highly influenced by the maker! I will however agree with Von, on the point that a little downward kick to the handle might indeed look better!!
Click to expand...
I completely aggree . There are the small quail up to turkeys so it really does come down what the maker is intending the bird part of it to be and in general a trout knife is really only for cleaning the fish till it gets home so in one instance the shorter 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 in bade will be ideal but in other locations it may not be as universal
 
I am going to interject something here. One thing that always goes thru my mind when cleaning game/fish there is the slippery stuff. With both you are looking at opening the abdomen and with fish there is usually the slime.
I remember cleaning fish when there was a limited amount of clean water, to rinse with having to choke up on the blade to be able to hang on to the knife while scaling fish!!

So the point I am trying to stress is the handle needs to be of a shape, that is easy to hang on to and possibly of a material the lends itself to being able to hang onto!!

So after doing an online search these examples kind of emulate the things I was speaking of! Not that I am in love with any of the styles, these are just examples! Number one show the kicked down handle, Number two is an example of using another type of material the is non-slip and number three is has a swell to the end of the handle. All of these would help to make the knife easier to hang on to once slimmed up!!



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Kev said:
View attachment 68692

Here is a picture with some others, and a grid for scale. To my eye I’m just missing something...
Click to expand...

Of these pictures above, I like number two the most!!
 
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