Welcome one and all to "Beefy's Blade a Week!" essentially i am going to put up a picture of a blade some exotic or typical and maybe a small amount of information about that blade. Then you get to vote on the asthetics (looks) and theoretical combat effectiveness. These may change if i put up a weapon that isn't supposted to be used to fight but for other reasons. After you have voted you can then you can post your further reasons or thoughts on the blade. All of the blade posts will be up for seven days then the polls will close and i will add a new blade for discussion.

I have only three rules
1: if you want to suggest a blade for me to put up for discussion do not post it, but send me It in a PM.
2: Please do not post about old blades that have been closed for discussion.
3: When voting unless i note otherwise do not think blade sturdyness or the materials it was made out of etc... you can talk about that in your following post. vote as if the blade was made out of the best of components etc...

now lets have some fun!

Edit: I originally planned of actually using the poll option for each one but since it doesn't seem like i can do that just put what you vote for at the begining of your post and i will tally up the results once the 7 days are up.

For my first knife i am going to use a knife that your all most likely familiar with.


first asthetics
1: Beautiful
2: Good
3: Decent
4: Bad
5: Ugly

Second, Theoretical Combat Effectiveness
1: Kick Ass
2: Useful
3: Kinda
4: Not Good
5: Horrible

Now start the discussion!

Vote, asthetics, = decent
reason, lose 1 point because it's black,
lose 2nd point because the handle is simple katana wrap.
Otherwise, it's a cool shape, very gracefull,
but a good knifemaker would make a custom twist damascus
that flows with the curve profile.

Vote Combat effectiveness = Not Good
reason, lose 1 point, hard to stab with, can't be made into a spear or bayonet attachment.
lose 2nd point non linear design will deflect contact energy at angle, cause strain on wrist.
lose 3rd point, need custom martial arts training to learn to use it to utmost effectiveness.

1 & 5

1 and 3

I think the design is bad as general fighting knives go, however it depends on your fighting style. If you are a proponent of reverse grip knife fighting, then it's shortcomings might not matter as much. Would still take a bit of getting used to though...

1 & 3.

I see someone else is a fan of The Chronicles of Riddick.

i chose the knife more because its a unique design, and plus pitch black (the first movie with riddick) is way better. So its a little bit of both.

I would agree, I also thought Pitch black was better than Chronicles. Actually it would have been cool if he somehow could have found a set of saber claws in Pitch Black... :)

about 24 more hours untill i close this post and make a new one.

1 & 3. i use to own a pair of these WAY before pitchblack came out..but blades were not black and they had multi-colored wood handles...great knives in the right hands.

The Riddik blade is now at a close! and the results are asthetics came in at an average of 1.4 meaning most people think that it is a beautiful knife. The combat side of the blade got an average of 3.6 meaning it would not be very effective but with the common analysis of its potential with a skilled fighter. thank you everyone for voting.

For my second knife i am going to go with a more common shape for a knife


first asthetics
1: Beautiful
2: Good
3: Decent
4: Bad
5: Ugly

Second, Theoretical Combat Effectiveness
1: Kick Ass
2: Useful
3: Kinda
4: Not Good
5: Horrible

Now start the discussion!

3 & 2

2 & 2

Great looking knife! The blade is excellent, clip point should provide a strong sharp tip, should give it good thrust characteristics. The straight lines are unusual, but I like them.

The thumb grip on the spine just above the hilt is a nice touch. The grip appears very ergonomic, and beautiful as well, however it's angle to the blade suggests more utilitarian than combat use. It should be usable either way though.

Overall I absolutely love this design! Where did you find this?

its a knife by jay fisher and he proposes it to be a tactical survival knife. here is the websites description

Quote:

"Mercator" is a CQC and CQB tactical tanto blade knife, designed for true combat use, going to one of our Special Forces warriors. This is an evolution of several of my tactical designs, combining the best of features. The tanto blade has two straight edges, razor keen, and hollow ground, with a half-length top swage for a devastatingly aggressive point insuring deep penetration. The blade is made of 440C high chromium martensitic tool steel, for maximum corrosion resistance in any theatre of combat. I fileworked just the top of the thumb rest with a clean, light pattern, for increased thumb purchase and a hint of flair. The bolsters are the toughest, best material possible, high nickel-chromium 304 austenitic stainless steel. The front bolster is carved and sculpted to extend forward into the blade, and the rear bolster has a full hawk's bill for easy removal from the sheath and a through-tang lanyard hole. The bolsters are dovetailed and hold a tough, strong pair of Micarta phenolic handle scales, secured with eight 304 stainless steel pins. The knife is carried in a full, deep double thickness kydex sheath built on a frame of 5052H32 corrosion resistant aluminum, secured with blued steel Chicago screws and aluminum belt loops. This is the real thing, one of the best for one of the best, ready for the worst.

and the website here

_________________

rated 2 - 4
2- esthetics - it's pretty, but it's not damascus or inlaid or engraved or anything.
4- combat effectiveness - blade point is nice, cutting edge is nice, pinky finger hook and lanyard hole are nice.
I really never held an angled hilt bowie, I guess it's a modified Kukri chopper.
but it does not have a cross guard. you really need it to keep fingers off the blade choil.
and the sheath is not practical at all

It looks like one of Jay Fishers knives. His knives have a certain look.

I'd give it 2 and 3 ...I like it and it looks like it would work great.

It lost points for not having a hand guard.

Jay Fisher... I'll have to remember that name... Good point about the guard, or rather, lack thereof...

3 and 3, its pretty, but i dont really like the straight lines, looks good for stabbing, but lack of any form of hand guard worries me aswell, also its always nice to have a bit of utilitarian in any blade, rather than just pure combat, dunno how this knife would do for survival tasks and the like

Sorry for the late post i've had a crazy last couple of days with graduation and after parties . The Jay Smith knife is now at a close. the results are a follows. Asthetics got an average of 2.4 meaning that most think of ot as a good looking knife but there were mixed emotions on the strait lines. For Combat effectiveness it got an average of 2.8 so it is only kinda effective at combet but the missing cross guard is a big issue.

for my third knife i am going to have it be for you jerry, i hope you like! here we have a traditional bowie shape with a damascus blade and an iron wood handle. also the voting will close at its regular time of wednesday.


first asthetics
1: Beautiful
2: Good
3: Decent
4: Bad
5: Ugly

Second, Theoretical Combat Effectiveness
1: Kick Ass
2: Useful
3: Kinda
4: Not Good
5: Horrible

Now start the discussion!

i'll give it a 1 for pretties, damascus steel really is quite beautiful, and i love the curves and lines throughout. for combat effectiveness, well, it has a good point, a nice long blade with a bit of a curve for slashing, and a hand guard, but i dont know if that back cut is sharp or not, and a timber handle gets a bit slippery when covered in blood, so i'd say a 2.

Ok, this gets a 1 for aesthetic and 2 for combat effectiveness.

The 1 rating needs no explanation.

Just FYI The 2 rating is because I consider the ideal combat knife design to be any knife based on the Fairbairn Sykes fighting knife design, and meets 7 different criteria. A long (4-6"), narrow, double edged blade that comes to a strong point, a thick spine, a good cross guard, and an ergonomic, non slip grip.

This knife meets the length, point, strength, guard, and spine requirements, but fails the grip and dual edge requirements.

I should point out though that I generally disagree with Roadwarrior about timber grips being inherently slippery. This is as much a function of the design of the grip as well as the materials used. A properly designd grip made in wood, may actually have just as good a grip as (in some cases better than) rubber, depending on the wood used and the design of the scales (ribbing checkering, etc.)

However in this case the grip does seem a little too smooth, and it has only a single edge, so I knocked it down a point. But I still think it would still be quite the effective combat weapon.

never said it was all timber grips my new field knife grips fine in the wet, but i'd lay bets that one doesnt, and for the duel edge bit, did you consider the back cut? if that bugger is sharp, it'll do horrific damage

Yup, this is a classic Randall #14 pattern, I love it.
I'll give it the best rating for esthetics,
but I agree with roadwarrior ,
for combat effectiveness, it needs a better grip surface,
either a nice checker insert pattern, ( which would look really good.)
or maybe a second hand of kraton, or stacked leather.

I disagree with the idea that it lacks a dual edge,
Some Randalls of this shape have a sharpened top edge.

Damascus is also, partially prone to rust,
so this is not a salt water knife.

This leads me to think, there will never be a knife that rates #1
in both esthetics, and combat effectiveness. You can't have both.

i will try my best to prove you wrong on your last comment

I give it a 1 on looks and 2 for all the same reasons.

Nice knife...nice blade....pretty handle but I would want a better grip. I little bit of carving or checkering would fix that.

Well fit and finish are great. Not my taste but it does deserve a 1 for looks. I would feel like I was hammering nails with the holy grail ( pun intended ) if I ever used this for anything but taking up space on a display. Obviously not set up for combat, and a bowie that can't snap-cut isn't a bowie in my opinion, though the false-edge may not be false. Better grip style and material-different guard and I would give it a 3. Oh and just to start a rucus since I have missed so much lately, gotta say that I hate the sykes combat knife PB. If you are talking about the newer version however without the damned round grip and crap blade, that one is okay :)

Phil

@Roadwarrior
LOL Well you said "a timber grip gets slippery" without any additional qualification, and that's kind of what I was responding to... :)

@Jerry, Phil
So are we saying the rear edge on this knife may actually be sharp?

If so, I might be inclined to give it an extra half point, :) though not a full point, since I also think the symmetry of the blade is also important when it comes to flexibility of use...

@Phil
You hate the FS knife? Why, man, why!?! :) Actually I'm not a big fan of the original grip either, but I've always thought the pattern 2 blade design was good. What don't you like about it?

@PB

The pattern 2 is a huge improvement over the first model. Having a tube like or round handle is trouble as the blade yaws in your hand. it also provides no sense of the orientation of the blade if you can't see it or need to focus elswhere i.e. in the dark. It is a sentry killer and the design was certainly effective for that, but only if you have the jump. The handle and the thin, brittle blade not to mention the lack of balance imho made it a singular purpose tool. The version2 fixed alot of these problems but I saw three of them break. Granted these were being used and not babied, but they were not abused. Well thats my little rant sorry bout that guys.

Phil

Hey Phil,

Your rant is well taken. All very good points. The FS knife design is actually a very focused design, it was designed for purely for close quarters fighting only. It is not the general purpose design like a Ka-Bar or a bowie.

And also agree that many of even the pattern 2 blade designs are not particularly good implementations, but it was bound to happen, with all the knock-offs out there. Between brittle blades, (which I beleive to be a result of poor steel/construction, or poor adaptation of the design, and not an inherent design flaw) and that round grip, it could definitely stand to be improved.

However I think the blade design (excluding the grip) is sound for fighting purposes, provided that the blade is made of the correct steels, and center is given enough thickness to counteract the natural tendency for the blade to be made thin that i often see in this design.

Add a contoured oval grip, with a good non slip design/material, and a good strong cross guard and it becomes a very good fighting knife, though it may not hold up to general purpose combat duty as well as a bowie.

I guess when someone says "theoretical combat effectiveness" I'm thinking if how effectively it can be used in a close quarters combat situation, not neccecarily how much dirt I can shovel with it before the point breaks off...

im having trouble keeping track of the day of the week now that im out of school but im finally putting up my new blade. Now for the results. For asthetics the knife got a perfect score of 1 making this the best looking knife to date! as for combat effectiveness it got a solid score of 2 with the only problem being it having a slippery grip.

For my fourth blade i am going to venture into the land of swords. Same rules apply.


first asthetics
1: Beautiful
2: Good
3: Decent
4: Bad
5: Ugly

Second, Theoretical Combat Effectiveness
1: Kick Ass
2: Useful
3: Kinda
4: Not Good
5: Horrible

Now start the discussion!

Hmmm... that's pretty nice!

I'm not normally a big fan of leaf style blades, but the shape of this one is so subtle it actually works for me. The heavier tip should improve it's chopping ability, though the sword doesn't really seem designed for that Excellent thrust characteristics, and looks like almost as good cutting ability.

And I love the guard. The pommel is kind of so so, doesn't seem as edgy as the rest of the sword. And the grip seems rather small. But can't really fault the swords design besides that.

So, IMHO:

Looks: 2
TCE: 2

I'm going to vote 3 and 3, right down the middle of the road.

I have not held a lot of real swords, and never fenced or anything
I can't assess how different swords feel balanced or not.

I built a fencing epee, just a long stainless tempered nail 38'' long,
and I put a huge brass ball pommel on it so the blade feels really light.
( I hide it in a cane, with a long bottom cap , and use it to pick up garbage at my house )
I have an El Cid broadsword (spanish gold plated wall hanger) and it feels blade heavy.

So even though I like the look of a leaf blade, and this one looks very classy,
I'm pretty sure the blade would seem heavy to me.
But a sword handler would probably think the wasp waist leaf blade
would be light weight and swing much faster.

It looks like a full solid tang, it has very nice lines.
I often wonder whether leaf blades only work with modern steels,
like if a swordmaker in the middle ages made a leaf that long, it would break.
You usually only see short roman leaf blades.

So, my vote is a nice middle of the road opinion.

I've always found the issue of sword balance an interesting one. One thing I've learned about swords is that ideal balance is really a sword specific quality, depending greatly on how it's design, and (ideally anyway) upon a sword is intended to be used.

The interesting end result being that, even for very similar sword designs, when placed in the hands of practitioners of different arts, what works for one style might not work for the others.

It sometimes seems even paradoxical to me, since it seems to fly in the face of the actual physics of the sword. IE. Regardless of the style, the physics of how a sword reacts to input, based on it's weight, shape, length, size and balance, remain the same across every sword design...

Ya a good example is a scymitar compared to a foil. A scymitar is blade heavy to put more force into the swing for slashing but in turn is slow, but when used properly it can be a very powerful weapon. A foil is the polar opposite making the blade balanced perfectly at the hilt to make it nimble and fast but does not have the slashing power of a scymitar, but can also drop a man to the floor. So different fighting styles call for different swords.

Well The sword is now at a close. from the amount of votes i got on this im quessing i should stick with knives (not surprising). for asthetics it got a total of 2.5 so it is just a little above average in this department with nice subtle lines. for combat effectiveness it also got a 2.5 because it maybe being off balanced.

for my fifth blade im going to go back to to a damascus dagger in search of a perfect 1/1 voted blade!


1: Beautiful
2: Good
3: Decent
4: Bad
5: Ugly

Second, Theoretical Combat Effectiveness
1: Kick Ass
2: Useful
3: Kinda
4: Not Good
5: Horrible

Now start the discussion!

esthetics =1 beautiful
combat effectiveness = 3 kinda

there should be a lanyard hole,
I also like blades that have a short flat top edge,
in case you have to put your thumb there for leverage.

I'm suspicious about how the handle scales are put on.
just how solid are the scales, I'd like to see pins.
and maybe some checkering.

and does damascus rust in salt water.
is this a two tone stainless damascus, or a carbon steel twist.

and I think fiberglass or ABS plastic scabbards are better than leather.

its a two tone type one is stainlees steel and the handle is made out of mamoth ivory

This blade is very cool indeed. Looks like it has a nice thick blade for a dagger and a good guard. Poor handle design but beautifull blade al-round and great craftsmanship and materials used. I do like this one.

looks=1
combat effectivness=4

Phil

Nice!!

This is a nice little knife. I agree with Phil and Jerry on the looks.
Absolutely great materials, fit, finish and overall aesthetics.

And by my definition of TCE, the top half of the knife, is near
perfect. It's double edged, it's got a guard, the spine/center appears
to be quite strong, the point is not too narrow, a great fighting blade
all around, that could actually take some abuse as well.

I generally assume a good quality steel from any reputable knife maker,
so that won't garner any demerits. And while it is important, I didn't
factor the sheath into the equation, since in this case it isn't
integral to the knife design.

This grip, on the other hand, while beautiful, appears to suffer many
of the same flaws as the smooth wood handled knife above. Except that
unlike the other knife, there is no contouring of the grip, in fact, no
form of checkering or grip retention built into the handle at all. The
grip is entirely straight. So if your hand starts sliding, it's all
downhill from there.

So overall, a much better blade, but much worse grip.

Looks - 1

TCE - 3

BTW, you're slackin' BeefMaestro!! Where the next blade? Or are you going to leave me no choice but to hijack your thread? :/

oh i guess the post didn't go through. my computer has been refusing to go on the internet for the past while so i have been going on the site with my cell phone and can't post pics with it. but i have been saving up for a new one and will be back on track in about a week.

Okeydokey... I guess I'll just have to wait then...

how about i let you do two posts because by then i'll have my computer. just follow the same layout and rules

sinz dude, your fucking barmy