I just want to make a generalized suggestion to everyone as they come up with new designs, and that is to simply make a mock up before you make the real thing. It can be a cardboard cutout of the design, or a wooden model of the 3 dimensional piece. Anything that you can actually hold in your hand will give you a real feel for how the finished knife is going to feel.
A few years ago at the start of my knife-making adventures I made a kitchen knife for my sweet wife. I drew up the design that I had in mind and even used CAD to draw it out. I printed out the new pattern, cut out the steel and built the knife. Once it was finished I took it into the kitchen to give it a go. I found that the handle was too short, the back of the handle dropped so far that it forced me bend my wrist at a weird angle, and the worst part was that my knuckles banged on the cutting board when trying to chop vegetables. All in all, it looked good on paper but performed poorly in the real world. Had I taken a few minutes to make even a cardboard mock up I would have caught the flaws and made the modifications before spending hours on a knife that never gets used.
This a design I have came up with. What do you guys think?
