Knife handle shapes - an introduction.
Jan. 15th, 2025 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellerBecause I've neglected the knife nerdery a bit lately... Here's an intruduction of the basic shapes the cross-section of a knife handle can take, their advantages and disadvantages as far as I'm concerned (I have, uh, strong opinions about knife handles), and what tasks they are suited for. (There is no "the best", just the right handle for the right person and/or task.) My list is far from comprehensive, and there are plenty of "intermediate" shapes as well as culture-specific ones, but for the start, I'll stick to the simple geometric shapes that are the most common ones world-wide.
Round Profile
PRO:
- SUPER EASY to make. (The knife that can be made without a knife: just take a random branch and stick something sharp in it.)
- Very stable. (The shockwaves from any kind of impact are least likely to destroy a round handle. Physics. Also, this starts to matter more the longer your blade is.)
CON:
- Not very ergonomic.
- Provides no grip guidance whatsoever.
- Potentially slippery when wet.
- Will roll off in inopportune moments. (Seriously, this is not an acceptable trait in a workshop or kitchen...)
I'm quite sure the world's first knife that wasn't stone-only had a round handle profile, but mankind very quickly moved on from that design because it's, frankly, shitty. A modern (as in: more modern than palaeolithic) knife with a round handle is most likely either a ritual object (as in: "sacred geometry" or whatever) or an art object (as in: made for collectors who don't actually use knives). Otherwise, anything you encounter with a round (or almost-round) handle is most likely not a knife but a sword. Whether that's a Japanese katana, a European longsword, or a Middle Eastern scimitar: in those cases, the superior stability and impact resistance is the decisive criterion. (As in: a bit of user discomfort is, cross-culturally, clearly preferred over potentially not having a sword in working order in a moment when you really need one...)
Octagonal Profile
PRO:
- Easy to make and/or replace. (It's also, essentially, a branch with minimal work done on it...)
- Does not roll off.
- The octagon angle is perfect especially for pinch grip, with the facets providing guidance for hand placement. (I think that's why other shapes like, say, hexagons never gained this popularity. The angles matter. A lot.)
- Allows a lot of precision - much more so than the otherwise very similar round profile.
- Specifically on kitchen knives: the fact that the (stick) tang is hidden inside the handle rather than visible at the sides (like, a full-tang knife with visible metal and handle scales on both sides) makes it more sanitary than a full-tang knife and easier to clean.
CON:
- Not very ergonomic.
- Uncomfortable when used over prolonged periods of time. (This may be a personal preference, but I wouldn't want to hold one of these for hours on end.)
This one needs a cultural note: if you encounter this handle type, the knife in question is almost certainly East Asian. I have no idea whether the shape has any further cultural significance beyond purely practical considerations. Still, it's clearly one of the best handle shapes if what you're doing is high-precision slicing. (The shape preference may also be related to local culinary preferences, and maybe cooking styles that rely more on slicing than on chopping, but I'm neither an ethnologist nor a cook, so, this is only a semi-educated guess. Never mind.)
Oval Profile
PRO:
- Easy and cheap to make.
- Pretty ergonomic.
- Good force distribution. (Maybe not quite as good as a circle, but still pretty good.)
- You can feel the directionality of the blade.
- Allows various different grips.
CON:
- Probably needs some user modifications to be really ergonomic.
- Potentially slippery when wet.
- Not the best for high-precision tasks.
This is one of the most common tool handle shapes, not only on knives but also on hammers, axes, and so on. It's a really good compromise between affordability (definitely a consideration for people who need lots of various tools!), stability and useability. I'd avoid it on any high-precision tools (or modify it to a drop profile, which is... doable if you know what you are doing; the target group of "owns a lot of tools" definitely should be able to do it), but otherwise, it's a perfectly acceptable choice.
Rectangular Profile
PRO:
- It's the only possible shape for a full-tang knife (that is, a blade whose tang continues into the handle as a thick metal sheet) with handle scales on the side. Pretty much enforced by the blade design.
CON:
- Decidedly unergonomic.
- Full-tang knives can't be used in cold climates because the metal will freeze to your hand, which is a dumb way to lose some fingers.
- Wooden scales have that annoying tendency of warping and falling off, which enforces the use of inferior materials like plastic, which is always more slippery.
- On kitchen knives: somewhat unsanitary, because the tiny gaps between tang and scales are microbe heaven.
Look, this is again a cultural thing: A knife of the "full tang with two scales on the sides" type is almost certainly American. There seems to be some kind of obsession with full-tang knives that other cultures do not really share. I'm not going into the pros and cons of that blade type here because it's not a post about blade design, so that would take a lot of off-topic nerdery... But, anyway, if you absolutely want a full-tang knife, you'll also have to live with a rectangular or almost-rectangular handle profile (which, as far as I'm concerned, sucks). There may be some kind of justification for absolutely needing the "extra stability" of a full tang on outdoor knives for batoning or bladed weapons (that's the most common explanation I found on the internet, anyway), but I will just say there are plenty of perfectly good weapon designs that use stick tangs. (Like... For fuck's sake, no, katanas don't have any stability issues. That's probably the most efficient and stable sword design in human history. Does it need a full tang in order to be stable? Fuck, no... A full tang would make it worse. Significantly so.) As far as I can tell, the whole "full tang knives are more stable" attitude is merely a very persistent American superstition. (Full disclosure: I have managed to destroy a stick-tang knife by impact force, though it took a lot of that and would never have happened during normal knife use... More about that in the section about drop profiles.) If you ever encounter a rectangular knife handle on something that's not full tang, there's no justification whatsoever; it's just crappy, unergonomic design. Anyway, I own only very few full-tang knives - I'll buy them when I reeeaaallly like the blade in question, but it's a feature I do not consider necessary for my purposes.
Very Thin Rectangular Profile
PRO:
- Concealability. (Look, I fucking hope this is not a knife-choice criterion for you, but if you look at, say, prison shivs, they tend to be very thin indeed, for a reason. "Will not show under your clothes" is a valid consideration...)
- Cheap to produce. (Which is why you often find too-thin handles on factory-made knives. Saving that bit of material makes only a few cents of difference, so, it's not something a decent knifemaker would consider doing, but if you happen to own a factory that produces millions of those knives... You get the idea. Also, an unethical producer is unlikely to use good steel either, so, prepare for this type of knife to be shitty all around.)
CON:
- Least ergonomic thing ever. (Seriously. FUCK this.)
- Can only be used while using the index finger to stabilize the blade, which is shitty knife technique. (Look, I'm not saying there are no situations in which that kind of grip is a valid technical solution. Still, in most cases it's really just bad, and building a knife that enforces an unstable and seriously unsafe grip is not justifiable under most circumstances. Unless all you have as a potential handle is a toothbrush, in which case, go for it... Oh, wait.)
I will just say, when I encounter a kid who, during breakfast, holds their perfectly normal knife in this type of finger grip, that's a pretty good way of detecting they've been to juvenile detention at some point, even if their files are locked. (You can always tell. There's really this specific way of holding a knife that just screams "Hello, I've been incarcerated!" - and it's bad practice on virtually any other knife than a prison shiv.) Prolonged use of this knife type really fucks with a person's knife technique. Also, I really have to fight the urge to correct their grip when I see it, because improving the knife technique of juvenile delinquents is generally not considered the best life choice... Aaaanyway. There are very good reasons to avoid these knives. They suck.
Drop Profile
PRO:
- The most ergonomic shape while still retaining symmetry.
- Good for precision work that needs a lot of control. (That's why you typically find this type of handle on hunting/outdoor knives as well as on high-end woodworking tools as well as on some tactical knives.)
- Allows a very solid grip. (This is a safety issue! When you have a drop-profile handle in combination with a very non-slippery material (as in, say, wood or birchbark), you don't risk sliding onto the blade... No furcher grip aid / finger guard needed.)
- Versatile enough (though slightly less so than an oval profile); allows various grip techniques.
CON:
- Needs to be the correct size in order to really work well.
- Difficult to make (needs a real professional in order to get a balanced design), and thus somewhat expensive.
- The "stability issues"... Uh.
This needs the "stability discussion" I hinted at in the section about rectangular profiles: a drop profile enforces the use of a stick tang, which some people consider to be less stable than a full tang knife. As I've already mentioned, I don't think this is relevant during normal knife use - but it would be dishonest to omit the fact that, yes, I have ruined a perfectly good puukko (with drop profile and, of course, stick tang) by getting the tang to break. That was in the Harz mountains, where I became an involuntary part of a rockslide when the part of the mountain I was secured to decided to spontaneously forego structural stability (I fucking hate slate) and I had to use my knife to, ahem, stop that very rapid downwards movement. Yeah, that particular impact resulted in a shockwave that, in-fucking-deed, snapped the knife tang. (It's a testimony to the bladesmith's skills that the blade itself did not break. In fact, I bought the same model from the same smith again, because it's just awesome. At some point, I'll have to post a review.) Things I learned from that particular incident:
- Unless your life is very boring (XD), money spent on good knives is never wasted. (Seriously, if I'd been wearing some shitty factory-made thing, I would not be here to write this post. Do not skimp on safety equipment, ever!)
- Yes, a lot of force will shatter a stick tang. No, that kind of force does not simply happen during normal knife use; we're talking major freak accident here. If a stick tang breaks during normal knife use, it was probably just not a very good one to begin with.
- Drop profiles are awesome. Yes, a full-tang knife might have stayed intact under the same kind of impact force, but also, a rectangular (and thus, inevitably, less ergonomic) profile handle would likely have been ripped out of my hand, so, uh, the rescuers could have retrieved an intact knife alongside with my corpse. (Priorities?!?) If I had miraculously held on to that hypothetical full-tang knife, it would have at the very least shattered the bones inside my hand, because hey, that shockwave isn't just going away, and if the tang is holding... Yeah. All in all, a snapped tang inside the wood was actually the best-case scenario as far as I'm concerned!
- Handle ergonomy is an entirely underrated knife choice criterion.
D Profile
PRO:
- The most ergonomic handle type, provided the size and shape matches your hand. (And, as I've already mentioned, ergonomy is an entirely underrated criterion.)
- Especially suited for people with very large hands. (Just make a loose fist and look at the shape of the empty space formed in the middle. That's almost a drop shape, but not quite - and the importance of this "not quite" grows with the absolute size of the hand. For someone like me, it's really just a tiny asymmetry that's entirely compensated by skin and flesh elasticity. For someone with large hands, it can be, like, centimeters of mismatch - and that really matters. Rule of thumb: any kind of asymmetric knife handle profile is best suited for users with large hands.)
CON:
- Does not allow much grip versatility. (For that reason, you find this handle type mainly on knives designed for monotonous, repetitive tasks (like, say, chopping vegetables for hours on end in a kitchen... In that case, you REALLY want a D handle!), but (almost) never on knives used for versatile tasks with different cut types (like, say, woodcarving).
- Limited to use with one hand. (That's perfectly okay if you have a designated "knife hand", but not acceptable if you tend to switch hands while working. Basically, it depends on your "handedness".)
- Potential loss of blade tip stability. (Look, unless the maker is extremely precise in the construction, the asymmetry potentially shifts the knife tip out of the equilibrium plane of the knife, and any such mismatch makes it much more likely to snap. It tends to surprise "knife beginners" that, yes, a badly designed handle affects the stability of the blade itself, but... Physics.)
- Expensive as fuck. (Basically, they need to be custom-made to match the hand they are intended for, and they need to be made by a very experienced professional to ensure proper balancing so they don't get all explodey. Not something that can just be ordered as an already finished product, or made at home if you're not a "knife professional" yourself!)
By the way, asymmetric handles are also often combined with asymmetric (like, single-bevel) blades. I can't really judge this knife type: I don't own one. As a mix-handed person (that is, my knife hand is the right, but I can use knives with both hands, and I will do so depending on the task) with very small hands, I'm simply not the target group! (I'd get none of the advantages, but all the disadvantages.) It's not something you could simply "try out" in a shop, either. The reputable knifemakers tend to be booked out in advance, so you may have to spend high four figures and wait two or three years. Of course, everyone I know who ever had a good reason to get one (that is: very large hands; strong preference of one hand over the other; enjoys cooking) is very happy with the result and assures me it's totally worth it. Make of that what you will.
...you can tell I'm a drop profile person, can't you? XD Anyway.
As always, if you don't know a technical term I'm using or you want to know more about a practical application, just ask!
Round Profile
PRO:
- SUPER EASY to make. (The knife that can be made without a knife: just take a random branch and stick something sharp in it.)
- Very stable. (The shockwaves from any kind of impact are least likely to destroy a round handle. Physics. Also, this starts to matter more the longer your blade is.)
CON:
- Not very ergonomic.
- Provides no grip guidance whatsoever.
- Potentially slippery when wet.
- Will roll off in inopportune moments. (Seriously, this is not an acceptable trait in a workshop or kitchen...)
I'm quite sure the world's first knife that wasn't stone-only had a round handle profile, but mankind very quickly moved on from that design because it's, frankly, shitty. A modern (as in: more modern than palaeolithic) knife with a round handle is most likely either a ritual object (as in: "sacred geometry" or whatever) or an art object (as in: made for collectors who don't actually use knives). Otherwise, anything you encounter with a round (or almost-round) handle is most likely not a knife but a sword. Whether that's a Japanese katana, a European longsword, or a Middle Eastern scimitar: in those cases, the superior stability and impact resistance is the decisive criterion. (As in: a bit of user discomfort is, cross-culturally, clearly preferred over potentially not having a sword in working order in a moment when you really need one...)
Octagonal Profile
PRO:
- Easy to make and/or replace. (It's also, essentially, a branch with minimal work done on it...)
- Does not roll off.
- The octagon angle is perfect especially for pinch grip, with the facets providing guidance for hand placement. (I think that's why other shapes like, say, hexagons never gained this popularity. The angles matter. A lot.)
- Allows a lot of precision - much more so than the otherwise very similar round profile.
- Specifically on kitchen knives: the fact that the (stick) tang is hidden inside the handle rather than visible at the sides (like, a full-tang knife with visible metal and handle scales on both sides) makes it more sanitary than a full-tang knife and easier to clean.
CON:
- Not very ergonomic.
- Uncomfortable when used over prolonged periods of time. (This may be a personal preference, but I wouldn't want to hold one of these for hours on end.)
This one needs a cultural note: if you encounter this handle type, the knife in question is almost certainly East Asian. I have no idea whether the shape has any further cultural significance beyond purely practical considerations. Still, it's clearly one of the best handle shapes if what you're doing is high-precision slicing. (The shape preference may also be related to local culinary preferences, and maybe cooking styles that rely more on slicing than on chopping, but I'm neither an ethnologist nor a cook, so, this is only a semi-educated guess. Never mind.)
Oval Profile
PRO:
- Easy and cheap to make.
- Pretty ergonomic.
- Good force distribution. (Maybe not quite as good as a circle, but still pretty good.)
- You can feel the directionality of the blade.
- Allows various different grips.
CON:
- Probably needs some user modifications to be really ergonomic.
- Potentially slippery when wet.
- Not the best for high-precision tasks.
This is one of the most common tool handle shapes, not only on knives but also on hammers, axes, and so on. It's a really good compromise between affordability (definitely a consideration for people who need lots of various tools!), stability and useability. I'd avoid it on any high-precision tools (or modify it to a drop profile, which is... doable if you know what you are doing; the target group of "owns a lot of tools" definitely should be able to do it), but otherwise, it's a perfectly acceptable choice.
Rectangular Profile
PRO:
- It's the only possible shape for a full-tang knife (that is, a blade whose tang continues into the handle as a thick metal sheet) with handle scales on the side. Pretty much enforced by the blade design.
CON:
- Decidedly unergonomic.
- Full-tang knives can't be used in cold climates because the metal will freeze to your hand, which is a dumb way to lose some fingers.
- Wooden scales have that annoying tendency of warping and falling off, which enforces the use of inferior materials like plastic, which is always more slippery.
- On kitchen knives: somewhat unsanitary, because the tiny gaps between tang and scales are microbe heaven.
Look, this is again a cultural thing: A knife of the "full tang with two scales on the sides" type is almost certainly American. There seems to be some kind of obsession with full-tang knives that other cultures do not really share. I'm not going into the pros and cons of that blade type here because it's not a post about blade design, so that would take a lot of off-topic nerdery... But, anyway, if you absolutely want a full-tang knife, you'll also have to live with a rectangular or almost-rectangular handle profile (which, as far as I'm concerned, sucks). There may be some kind of justification for absolutely needing the "extra stability" of a full tang on outdoor knives for batoning or bladed weapons (that's the most common explanation I found on the internet, anyway), but I will just say there are plenty of perfectly good weapon designs that use stick tangs. (Like... For fuck's sake, no, katanas don't have any stability issues. That's probably the most efficient and stable sword design in human history. Does it need a full tang in order to be stable? Fuck, no... A full tang would make it worse. Significantly so.) As far as I can tell, the whole "full tang knives are more stable" attitude is merely a very persistent American superstition. (Full disclosure: I have managed to destroy a stick-tang knife by impact force, though it took a lot of that and would never have happened during normal knife use... More about that in the section about drop profiles.) If you ever encounter a rectangular knife handle on something that's not full tang, there's no justification whatsoever; it's just crappy, unergonomic design. Anyway, I own only very few full-tang knives - I'll buy them when I reeeaaallly like the blade in question, but it's a feature I do not consider necessary for my purposes.
Very Thin Rectangular Profile
PRO:
- Concealability. (Look, I fucking hope this is not a knife-choice criterion for you, but if you look at, say, prison shivs, they tend to be very thin indeed, for a reason. "Will not show under your clothes" is a valid consideration...)
- Cheap to produce. (Which is why you often find too-thin handles on factory-made knives. Saving that bit of material makes only a few cents of difference, so, it's not something a decent knifemaker would consider doing, but if you happen to own a factory that produces millions of those knives... You get the idea. Also, an unethical producer is unlikely to use good steel either, so, prepare for this type of knife to be shitty all around.)
CON:
- Least ergonomic thing ever. (Seriously. FUCK this.)
- Can only be used while using the index finger to stabilize the blade, which is shitty knife technique. (Look, I'm not saying there are no situations in which that kind of grip is a valid technical solution. Still, in most cases it's really just bad, and building a knife that enforces an unstable and seriously unsafe grip is not justifiable under most circumstances. Unless all you have as a potential handle is a toothbrush, in which case, go for it... Oh, wait.)
I will just say, when I encounter a kid who, during breakfast, holds their perfectly normal knife in this type of finger grip, that's a pretty good way of detecting they've been to juvenile detention at some point, even if their files are locked. (You can always tell. There's really this specific way of holding a knife that just screams "Hello, I've been incarcerated!" - and it's bad practice on virtually any other knife than a prison shiv.) Prolonged use of this knife type really fucks with a person's knife technique. Also, I really have to fight the urge to correct their grip when I see it, because improving the knife technique of juvenile delinquents is generally not considered the best life choice... Aaaanyway. There are very good reasons to avoid these knives. They suck.
Drop Profile
PRO:
- The most ergonomic shape while still retaining symmetry.
- Good for precision work that needs a lot of control. (That's why you typically find this type of handle on hunting/outdoor knives as well as on high-end woodworking tools as well as on some tactical knives.)
- Allows a very solid grip. (This is a safety issue! When you have a drop-profile handle in combination with a very non-slippery material (as in, say, wood or birchbark), you don't risk sliding onto the blade... No furcher grip aid / finger guard needed.)
- Versatile enough (though slightly less so than an oval profile); allows various grip techniques.
CON:
- Needs to be the correct size in order to really work well.
- Difficult to make (needs a real professional in order to get a balanced design), and thus somewhat expensive.
- The "stability issues"... Uh.
This needs the "stability discussion" I hinted at in the section about rectangular profiles: a drop profile enforces the use of a stick tang, which some people consider to be less stable than a full tang knife. As I've already mentioned, I don't think this is relevant during normal knife use - but it would be dishonest to omit the fact that, yes, I have ruined a perfectly good puukko (with drop profile and, of course, stick tang) by getting the tang to break. That was in the Harz mountains, where I became an involuntary part of a rockslide when the part of the mountain I was secured to decided to spontaneously forego structural stability (I fucking hate slate) and I had to use my knife to, ahem, stop that very rapid downwards movement. Yeah, that particular impact resulted in a shockwave that, in-fucking-deed, snapped the knife tang. (It's a testimony to the bladesmith's skills that the blade itself did not break. In fact, I bought the same model from the same smith again, because it's just awesome. At some point, I'll have to post a review.) Things I learned from that particular incident:
- Unless your life is very boring (XD), money spent on good knives is never wasted. (Seriously, if I'd been wearing some shitty factory-made thing, I would not be here to write this post. Do not skimp on safety equipment, ever!)
- Yes, a lot of force will shatter a stick tang. No, that kind of force does not simply happen during normal knife use; we're talking major freak accident here. If a stick tang breaks during normal knife use, it was probably just not a very good one to begin with.
- Drop profiles are awesome. Yes, a full-tang knife might have stayed intact under the same kind of impact force, but also, a rectangular (and thus, inevitably, less ergonomic) profile handle would likely have been ripped out of my hand, so, uh, the rescuers could have retrieved an intact knife alongside with my corpse. (Priorities?!?) If I had miraculously held on to that hypothetical full-tang knife, it would have at the very least shattered the bones inside my hand, because hey, that shockwave isn't just going away, and if the tang is holding... Yeah. All in all, a snapped tang inside the wood was actually the best-case scenario as far as I'm concerned!
- Handle ergonomy is an entirely underrated knife choice criterion.
D Profile
PRO:
- The most ergonomic handle type, provided the size and shape matches your hand. (And, as I've already mentioned, ergonomy is an entirely underrated criterion.)
- Especially suited for people with very large hands. (Just make a loose fist and look at the shape of the empty space formed in the middle. That's almost a drop shape, but not quite - and the importance of this "not quite" grows with the absolute size of the hand. For someone like me, it's really just a tiny asymmetry that's entirely compensated by skin and flesh elasticity. For someone with large hands, it can be, like, centimeters of mismatch - and that really matters. Rule of thumb: any kind of asymmetric knife handle profile is best suited for users with large hands.)
CON:
- Does not allow much grip versatility. (For that reason, you find this handle type mainly on knives designed for monotonous, repetitive tasks (like, say, chopping vegetables for hours on end in a kitchen... In that case, you REALLY want a D handle!), but (almost) never on knives used for versatile tasks with different cut types (like, say, woodcarving).
- Limited to use with one hand. (That's perfectly okay if you have a designated "knife hand", but not acceptable if you tend to switch hands while working. Basically, it depends on your "handedness".)
- Potential loss of blade tip stability. (Look, unless the maker is extremely precise in the construction, the asymmetry potentially shifts the knife tip out of the equilibrium plane of the knife, and any such mismatch makes it much more likely to snap. It tends to surprise "knife beginners" that, yes, a badly designed handle affects the stability of the blade itself, but... Physics.)
- Expensive as fuck. (Basically, they need to be custom-made to match the hand they are intended for, and they need to be made by a very experienced professional to ensure proper balancing so they don't get all explodey. Not something that can just be ordered as an already finished product, or made at home if you're not a "knife professional" yourself!)
By the way, asymmetric handles are also often combined with asymmetric (like, single-bevel) blades. I can't really judge this knife type: I don't own one. As a mix-handed person (that is, my knife hand is the right, but I can use knives with both hands, and I will do so depending on the task) with very small hands, I'm simply not the target group! (I'd get none of the advantages, but all the disadvantages.) It's not something you could simply "try out" in a shop, either. The reputable knifemakers tend to be booked out in advance, so you may have to spend high four figures and wait two or three years. Of course, everyone I know who ever had a good reason to get one (that is: very large hands; strong preference of one hand over the other; enjoys cooking) is very happy with the result and assures me it's totally worth it. Make of that what you will.
...you can tell I'm a drop profile person, can't you? XD Anyway.
As always, if you don't know a technical term I'm using or you want to know more about a practical application, just ask!
no subject
Date: 2025-01-15 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-15 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-15 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-15 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-15 08:47 pm (UTC)(Blade shapes, I can find. Handle materials, I can find. Handle shapes? Not so far.)
Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2025-01-15 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-15 09:08 pm (UTC)So, for the D Profile, does the flatter side face the thumb, and the more rounded side face the fingers?
no subject
Date: 2025-01-15 09:16 pm (UTC)...also, you are correct: I just did a cursory internet search, and I can't find a systematic overview of these shapes either! Well, that's surprising - I refrained from drawing any diagrams because I was thinking "oh well, this is going to be all over the literature anyway", but... Apparently not?!? (Yes, I guess I should have checked first. But, really, with everything that's been written about knives, this comes as a surprise.) I can only guess that most of the available literature is written for collectors who don't actually use their knives, so they'll never have to think about stuff like ergonomic handle designs?!?
no subject
Date: 2025-01-16 03:44 am (UTC)Web searches have always been somewhat unpredictable, in my experience. Unfortunately, one now can predict that there will be more ads and commercially motivated items in the results list than there were in the early days of the web—sigh!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
no subject
Date: 2025-01-28 02:23 am (UTC)