Modern Vespa

I guess I'm an office type, but at least one day a week I'll be in jeans and a casual shirt (still with a collar) for working on prototypes in our design lab.

I like nice clothes and I'll be damned if I'm going to light them on fire (again ) while tearing into metal with an angle grinder.

I find I use my knife almost everyday whether I'm in office dress clothes or not. How did I get by before this?

I know they've gone way up. This summer I was at the Smoky Mountain Knife Works in TN and saw the new Emerson-made CQC7. IMO it is not as nice as the early licensed Emerson knives made by Bench Made. The reason Bench Made was making them was because Ernest Emerson had so many orders from military guys he couldn't begin to keep up, let alone make them for civilians. The Bench Made CQC7s were almost as nice as Ernest's $400 ones (in probably 1998-99 money)

(Not mine)


Just a small fraction of my knives (Google images other than the Buck and Kershaw)
http://smorris.smugmug.com/Gadgets/Knives/11606566_3DT62S

I've got a Laguiole knife, too. About 20 years ago I took my first( and only) European business trip to the then newly opened Hungary. I was met there by our representative from Belgium, and after a week together we ended up good friends. He'd mentioned being a knife collector, and he wanted to get a Leatherman but they were to expensive over there. So on his nest trip to the US, I presented him with a Leatherman LST (the old original style Leatherman) as a "thank you" for hime helping me negotiate international travel and conversation.

A month or so later, a package arrived for my through our international courier with this Laguiole from his collection. Like yours, I don't use it for fear of damaging it. I have too many good utilitarian knives to ruin this one!

For years I carried a scandinavian "fiske kniv" in my pocket. It's made by Otter Messer in Solingen. These were once so ubiquitous in Iceland that until the 1950's many people in the countryside had never known any other eating utensils but their Otter and a spoon. They are still rather common, though most people don't carry knives any more. Both my grandfathers and my dad had Otters when I was a kid.
However, they don't come stainless, and mine was gathering quite a bit of rust, so now I carry one of these, also made by Otter:

Matt, you would know the answer to this one

I received my No. 8 today and noticed that the first 8 mm (from the scales)
are not sharpened. Is this by design to prevent cutting oneself? Or did I
get one where Jacques was focusing on his pastis he would have after work?






Other than that, I am very pleased with it, and the olive wood turned out beautiful. Thanks for the nudge.

PS: it is ssssssssssssssssssssssssharp!

Arno, my no. 8 is also like this, but my smaller ones (without the rotating lock collar) are sharp all the way back.

My guess is so you dont muck-up the locking collar when you throw the blade over without rotating the collar properly* to allow the blade to go "home".

*Something I do frequently.

I'll just add that it's a fairly common aspect of knife design to leave that portion unsharpened. This is sometimes called the ricasso or (depending on design and who you ask) the choil.

I like that, looks to be stouter than those I use, but with the blade shape I like. Thanks for the pic!

Jess-any idea as to why?

It dates back approximately to Bronze Age swords, and the reasons at this point are largely speculative. One theory is that it allowed the bearer to choke up on the blade more and use their fingers on the unsharpened portion for finer control. I dunno -- seems a bit of a stretch.

Today, it's almost purely just tradition.

This pocketknife has a ricasso as well, though it takes a slightly different form:

After a few light folding knives, I now tend to walk / paddle / ski / camp with a Spyderco Endura - kinda big / butch, but the serrated blade will slice bread, tomatoes etc more easily than a straight blade (provided I watch my fingers!)- and it'll 'saw' rope in case of a kayaking mishap ...

Nice knife. Another I've had the pleasure of losing.

I am on #3

A quote to remember!

Interesting! You know your stuff.

The occurrence of this unbeveled part on my Opinel knife may have a different reason, though. I found this (entertaining) video:

Looking at what happens at 2:25 may explain that ricasso: skimping. After having seen that, I took a closer look at my blade and saw that the other side is sharpened further down, leaving only about 4 mm unsharpened. So it looks like an unintended result of assemblyline work. And that is perfectly fine, as it probably makes every knife unique, and, these knives are not just made by robots, but by real people. A nice trait.

Looking at all of my opinels and I can't tell anymore if they ever had that small unsharpened portion. I've been sharpening the whole blade for so long that the entire length is razor sharp.

So much for tradition.

I'm thinking the tradition with Opinels, not unlike Vespas is that they are handmade and no two are 'zactly alike...manufacturing "variations" and all.

Anyway for me if it was sharp all the way back I'd probably inadvertantly cut myself in some bloody orange-peeling accident so its probably for the best.

Mini Griptilian.
A hundred and fifteen bucks I paid and I have to sharpen it after every use.
I am disappointed with the inability to hold an edge.
I can get it sharp and cut the hangnails off my fingers but anything else and it wont cut melted butter after that.
I might try an SOG but they are not what they used to be either.
Mega.

Ain't that the truth. This is exactly why I blunted the last 1/2 inch of my kitchen office knife

How dull.

I just came across this thread which reminded me to take some pictures.I have somewhere around forty of them. Here's just a few; they're not all khuks; but they are all made by the same kamis(Nepalese blacksmiths). My pictures don't do them justice.[/img]

Very nice. What are those concave ones designed for?

Great collection!!! Thanks for posting them.
This might just be the inspiration my wife would prefer I not have.

My what big pockets you have.

To answer your question here are some quotes from where I bought them. "A Khukuri (alternately spelled kukri, khukri, kukhri, cookri, kookeri) is the traditional knife of the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal. It is also the weapon and general-purpose tool of the Gurkhas, the world-renowned legendary fighters from the foothills of the Himalayas, who have served the British Army with great distinction since the early 1800s and fought in decisive battles in both World Wars." "The Khukuri is a superior blade, both as a combat weapon and as a tool. Standard-sized khukuris are between 12 inches and 30 inches overall. The unique curve of the khukuri makes it excellent both for chopping wood and for hacking through dense jungles and forests - serving as a combination of an axe and a machete - and anything else requiring a good knife. This makes it a particularly ideal item for the outdoorsman, hunter, hiker or explorer--or anyone who needs a rugged multi-functional blade."
http://www.himalayan-imports.com/
Some are of more utilitarian design while others are clearly designed with more martial duties in mind. It seems like anytime I show certain blades someone invariably starts quoting Crocodile Dundee; If nobody else does I feel obligated.

Yeah tomjasz; the ones I took pictures of are rather large. They do make smaller blades as well as larger and swords. I rather like some of their smaller items including two Karambits and two hunting type knives about 9' overall with blades about 4"; but none of them truly fit the pocket knife category; but I am fairly certain some people here are interested in such things.

Thank you for the explanation, I can see it now.

This just came in the mail, good price on eBay !!

Nice! Which Gerber is this? I'm thinking of getting my nephew one for his birthday.

Help me understand the specific shape of this blade. What is it designed to do?

That style of blade is loosely (and somewhat incorrectly) referred to as a "tanto" blade, said to be derived from the designs of Japanese fighting weapons. Supposedly, it's better for stabbing and slashing (i.e. useful in a fighting context) and not very useful for the more utilitarian purposes of a knife. It has been suggested that the specific geometry of the tanto design makes the knife stronger near the tip. I don't know if it's true, but that's the widespread belief.

Some people prefer them, some people hate them.

(And really, it's a chisel-point blade, but people universally seem to call them "tanto", even though it's not strictly correct. This is sometimes referred to by those in the know as "Westernized tanto", because real Japanese swords didn't have this kind of tip).

Gerber Curve Mini Tool

Anyone have a review?

I own one. It's... okay. I never found it all that handy. Too small, too hard to get at the various tools.

Yeah, will leave it off the countycomm list, thnx.

Is this a usefull knife Jess ?

That about covers it. I carry one on my keychain and it is useful for small stuff, but I always carry a real multi-tool and a better blade in the pet carrier.

Right on all counts. It's marketed as a tanto blade here, which is weird because it doesn't look much the blade a Tanto would have.

Without getting lost in unnecessary strenuous definitions, a Tanto is a dagger (longer than your average KA-Bar but shorter than your average sword), usually carried by Samurai but not many others, primarily purposed as the thrusting weapon, although like anything with an edge, you can slash with it, too.

A Tanto is way too big to carry, unless you like being very conspicuous, and if you try to conceal it, you're going to be the subject of a lot "Is that a banana in your pocket or... jokes. )

I have a Tanto right here by my desk...a gift from a student of mine many years back.

Incidentally, the tanto blade in question? Hmmm. Well, you can use a lot of knifes for a lot of things, but I'd lean towards a general utility knife for general purposes, and a thrusting knife for weapon purposes....just like...well...a Tanto.

It really comes down to preference. Since my knives are first and foremost utilitarian tools, I prefer the common drop-point blade found on the vast majority of pocket knives. If you like the tanto-style blade, though, it's perfectly fine. The corner of the sharpened blade makes it slightly awkward for some tasks, but probably not to the point where you couldn't accomplish any task you needed to.

I carry one on my keychain as well, but haven't used it much. I just bought a Leatherman Skeletool CX that I now carry, and love it.