Question of why???

C Craft

C Craft

Well-Known Member
A post I looked at today made me think of this. So rather than make someone look bad or question their piece as to why!!!

I have decided to ask this about a few production knives, I just picked out off of the net!! The names of the cutlery has been blued out. A red arrow points to the area in question.

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So here I go about to whiz off a bunch of people but I got to ask! Why???

Ricasso definition:

A ricasso is an unsharpened length of blade just above the guard or handle on a knife, dagger, sword, or bayonet. Blades designed this way appear at many periods in history in many parts of the world and date back to at least the Bronze Age; essentially, as long as humans have shaped cutting tools from metals.

So once again I have to ask Why??
I first remember seeing these tits, (not sure is their is a proper terminology for it) sticking down from the ricasso a few years back as best as I can remember. From the first one I saw I thought it struck me as odd or out of place. Then as time passed it seemed to become the vogue! Makers I have never seen use it before, were putting one on their knife!!

However every time I see one I am not sure why makers are doing them!! As far as I can see the only thing it does is get in the way! You now cannot cut using the back edge of the knife in a flat slicing motion because, it will not let the knife fall flat. Except if cutting on the edge of a cutting board or table. It especially looks out of place on a blade this is designed for chopping on cutting board, or where you might draw the blade across the cutting board!!

I have heard it said it is the completion of the finger coil. The finger coil does not have to extend down that far to be useable. Most folks will never stab with a knife and that is about the only instance where I see it being plausible for use! I see it on flippers but there it does serve a purpose as to give the hand something to get a hold on as flipping out the blade.

So truly my intention was not to make folks who use one on their knives!! My intention was to question why?? I feel you never learn if you do not ask questions and that is my purpose for bringing this up! So without creating a big stink! What say you about this subject!!
 
I suppose it's a modified version of guards that have been on knives for a long long time.

It's a bit more safe than a knife without it as there some protection from the sharpened blade. It also provides some tactile feedback but I don't think it's a necessity.

I put them on a lot of fixed blades mostly because I really like the way it looks. And people seem to like them.

Bob Loveless integrated them into a lot of his bolsters and if it was good enough for Bob, then it's good for me.

Here's one I finished today.

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My first real knife has that feature. I did it because I didn't want my finger to slip over the blade. After a few years I keep thinking I should reshape that part but I decided to leave it. A learning or an advancement in evolution of my knife making.

Jacob
 

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I can support someone liking the looks, even though I don't.

I just can't wrap my head around it as a safety feature. The protection against slipping up onto the blade thing???.........what are people doing with their knives where they're doing all this stabbing?

I've cut myself on knives plenty. NEVER ONCE have I cut myself even a tiny bit because a knife didn't have a guard. NEVER.
 
I put them on when asked to design a blade like that but as John has said, in over 50 years I have never had occasion to regret the lack of one on my knives although I have regretted HAVING one when it got in the road of skinning operations. I have found that a properly shaped handle will support that hand for almost any use the knife may be put to in a hunting sense or for general use, short of careless.
 
Most full tang knives I make have this in some shape form or fashion the main reason is to make a finger guard that keeps your index finger off the cutting edge
 
Good discussion! See both sides have had there say and no one got there feathers ruffled!

Personally I see it used all the time. But for the life of me, I can't make my self like it!! Even though I have used it!

After the knives were gone that I used on. I looked back at the pictures of the knives, I had to ask why!! :eek:

For me I think at the time, it was because most knives I was seeing had that same feature. So I guess it goes back the old saying Mama used to say, "if everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you"!! Sorry Mama, I did jump off the cliff!!

So I was just wondering if it was liked or it bugs you, like me! I think it is about 50/50 on it. Not that I counted the answers!!!
 
When a knife has bolsters it always seems to have that feature bottom AND top...and is not considered an over reaction to a potential safety concern. There are a lot of fine looking knives that incorporate that feature that do not sport bolsters.

Be careful on becoming the aesthetic police....

It is okay to have strong likes and dislikes...in fact necessary to develop your own style. But if we get too public with our opinions we may discourage the growth process of newer makers.

Some of you have worn bell-bottom pants, gauze shirts, platform shoes, belt buckles the size of dinner plates, Cowboy hats when you've never seen a cow in person, etc. You may not dress that way today (well at least the bell-bottoms and platform shoes) but you have FREEDOM without ridicule to do so....
 
Smallshop said:
It is okay to have strong likes and dislikes...in fact necessary to develop your own style. But if we get too public with our opinions we may discourage the growth process of newer makers.
Click to expand...
That is a very fair point and guards have been around for a long, long time. I know people on this site who view hamons the same way and we all know I like me a homon...
 
I like both styles so I don’t have a preference in the looks department. Like small shop said....ditto.
 
I make a lot of knives with that feature, I've never had anyone say they didn't like it but have had people say they did like it. as for the safety function of it, who knows? we do all know that just ahead of it is razor sharp steel though, it's just sort of an integral guard. as for getting in the way of slicing I personally don't usually use a hunting knife with the edge parallel to what I'm cutting, more of a 45 or 30 degree angle so that bump out never really contacts anything., knives meant for slicing or kitchen knives either don't get that bump or a very small one.
One positive I see in that bump out is it helps in retention in a sheath with a keeper strap.
 
I remember watching a movie about the WW2 death camps. I think it was called the escape from Sobibor (not sure of the spelling). Any way one of the brave heroes had a knife and stabbed one of the guards. The handle slipped and cut the hero. For some reason I have remembered this. My take away is that one will never know how a knife is going to be used. I admit the finger guard on my first knife doesn't look very good but it does work.

Jacob
 
My J T Ranger knife wound't be compete without the extended finger guard but its design application is for possible use that would necessitate its place on the knife.J T Ranger.png
 
Smallshop said:
When a knife has bolsters it always seems to have that feature bottom AND top...and is not considered an over reaction to a potential safety concern. There are a lot of fine looking knives that incorporate that feature that do not sport bolsters.

Be careful on becoming the aesthetic police....

It is okay to have strong likes and dislikes...in fact necessary to develop your own style. But if we get too public with our opinions we may discourage the growth process of newer makers.

Some of you have worn bell-bottom pants, gauze shirts, platform shoes, belt buckles the size of dinner plates, Cowboy hats when you've never seen a cow in person, etc. You may not dress that way today (well at least the bell-bottoms and platform shoes) but you have FREEDOM without ridicule to do so....
Click to expand...


Ted, not sure where that came from as I am not faulting anyone for anything.

I was merely asking a question. In fact in my other post I voiced it had been used by me, and I am not fond of the look. I thought the tone of the discussion had been civil! Maybe I missed something!

I was not and have not ridiculed anyone!! Whether a person likes a feature of a knife it or not, that is called personal taste!! It would be a very dull world if we all liked the same thing!
 
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