Coffee and Knife Talk

In this new blog  I'm, going to be discussing over a cup of coffee (my cup but you are welcome to run and get yourself one while you read this LOL)! the subject of how small can one get with a knife before it verges on the ridiculous?

In order to do this I'll be making reference to some of the knives shown above (just as examples only).

Let's look at the image below from left to right:

Extrema Ratio Folder (obviously closed)

Raidops Black Tiger (a medium sized fixed blade)

Raidops "Finger knife" LJ6GP

Pohl Force Compact One "Finger Knife"

WTG EDC Nomad, small Fixed blade

Extrema Ratio T4000C, small Fixed Blade

WTG Mt Laguna small fixed blade.

The 3  knives from right to left feature slightly reduced grips. They will just fit a size 8.5 hand and you will just be ale to squeeze all five digits around the grip. The next two knives along are being called "Finger Knives". These knives, it will not be possible to fit all digits around them and at best you will get 4 digits to cover the handles. As a comparison i shown the medium sized "Raidops" fixed blade as an example of what I would call a medium sized knife and next to this a closed "heavy duty" folder, with the capacity to "fix" the blade in an open position by Extrema Ratio. As you can see this folder when closed is basically the same length as the two finger knives without their scabbards.

Now in the above image from left to right we see an example of our "medium sized fixed blade" and three smaller fixed blades but one which one can still get a good grip upon. The bigger the handle, in other words, as the handle approaches that of a regular sized knife in the medium range, the more task in general can be done with it (in unskilled hands). I say unskilled hands because someone who is really versatile and or adept at getting the most from their tools may be able to do quite a lot with the three smaller knives as seen above.

Now in the above image we see a comparison of a large folder (large both closed and open) compared to an unsheathed "Finger Knife". Both blades are approximately the same length and the same thickness, the difference being one has a much longer handle and hence basically more useful. Now as to which one of these is more "robust", it could be argued that this small fixed blade, is the more rugged. However, what is the reality of this? The reality is which is going to be more useful. For example: here is the situation: I need to rapidly cut through a mooring hawser; clearly the finger knife will fail in this example as one can not apply the same sort of pressure upon the blade due to the lack of an adequate handle (for the task), whereas one holding the folder, with a similarly sized blade will be able to achieve the task a lot quicker. In this real word example, the probability of damaging the tool is remote because we are talking about cutting a big rope, not smashing through a fridge door to save a trapped child (even then both of these tools would be inadequate). So you can see the key phrase is: "for the task at hand".

Here is another example of two "Finger Knives" side by side, the one on the left with a hollow grind, the one on the right with a high Sabre grind. They both feature similarly sized spines, however the hollow ground knife will excel over the sabre at cutting due to reduced friction from a thinner blade profile. This I feel is actually quite important for such small knives because one will need them to cut as quickly as possible to reduce the number of hand strokes necessary to perform the task due to a decreased handle length. Having a thick blade in such small knives with short handles can not take advantage of any possibility of levering without blade damage (due to a thick blade), simply because there is not enough of handle length present to form a decent lever.

How about functioning as "small wedges" to split small bits of timber say of 1-2" diameter? yes this is possible especially if the timber is very dry and apt to split completely once the knife has travelled just part way into an end.  Green wood will be a different matter and one maybe required to belt the blade all the way though, something not practical at all with such small knives.

Now let's examine the usefulness of Finger knives Vs regular folding knives. Personally i do not believe their bulk (the finger knife) has any advantage over a decently manufactured folder as seen above (FKMD FX446 and a Kubey). In this latter example these folders features  very thick stop pins and very thick steel liners, so a lot of downwards force can be applied to the edge of the blade when cutting.

Now to finish up with a bit more candy!

BCT