Knife design idea: the LC200N Loon, freshwater lake knife

[bleasure]

Disclaimer: this is just me finally putting an idea to silicon that's been kicking around my mind for a while; if you aren't interested in imaginary/speculative knife designs, post's not for you. On the other hand if your last name's Glesser, or you work for Spyderco in some other capacity and find anything here interesting, you know, by all means, feel free to get ahold of me.

Every time I see LC200N it gets mentally garbled as "Loon." I like this, as I am extremely fond of loons, and had the very good fortune to be born and raised in a place with glacial lakes, white pines, eastern hemlocks, and common loons in abundance.

This weird/fun equivalence my mind makes led pretty quickly to my imagining a "Loon" knife, made with LC200N, with freshwater lakes in mind - something that pops back up every time I read "LC200N." So I'm finally outlining this idea here - the LC200N Loon. Loons can dive for long periods of time underwater and are excellent swimmers, have knife-like beaks, are extremely well suited to their environments and sound otherworldly-eerie and like home at the same time. So, IMO LC200N makes a ton of sense even beyond the visual gloss of the two names.

Loon's beaks are themselves already a knife-like stabbing tool, and have a really beautiful shape, somewhere between a pukko, spearhead, and dagger, that lend themselves explicitly as a model. Some of the existing LC200N Spyderco knives, like the Siren or the Waterway, already have an approximately similar profile. This would be a knife themed for Adirondak-like lakes and woods, 'amphibious' in the way that Loons effectively are - so, not a fillet-style fish-dedicated knife, but something versatile enough to [edit: serve as a general purpose/EDC knife]. Where there are the yellow and green salts, and the theme-colored Carribbean, I started imagining a black & white, red-accented LC200N knife, and/or something with pine/forest green as an element.

In terms of handle shape or design things get a little murkier. I am not crazy about the Delica-style Salt/Carribbean handles. I love the Wolfspyder's shape in terms of a choil-less design, though it's obviously a pretty specialized/specific design; I think the Brouwer, Native, or Chaparral profiles are attractive and useful for knives with finger choils and in terms of blade shape. I would need to think longer about the handle design and color combinations, but ultimately I'd want these to fit aesthetically and practically with boreal or northern hardwood aesthetics and uses. I don't have zero design background, and have lots of colleagues in my department with plenty, so I'll be returning to this in a more dedicated way, eventually. Finally, for a water-themed knife a simpler, easily accessed locking mechanism in wet or cold conditions would be best, so a compression or back lock like most of the Salts have for presumably those same reasons would work well.

So, that's the roughout version. I'm a copyleft/creative commons kind of person in general, but in whatever imaginary alternative universe someone found themselves interested in my idea commercially, I'll just yell © into the void to comfort myself. If I'm being honest though, if this idea was of any interest to anyone in any real or commercial way, I'd actually love to develop it further. It would be really d*mn cool to design a knife that embodied so many things I love. I even think there's a real place for a design like this beyond me, practically and in the market, and most of all I just think it'd be a neat knife. Happy to know if anything like what I've imagined already exists, if others have had similar thoughts, anyone else likes the idea, etc. If you made it this far, thanks for indulging in my procrastination exercise for the evening

[VooDooChild]

It doesnt have to be freshwater. I see loons in the Gulf of Mexico every winter.

But I get what youre saying. Sounds interesting.

[skeeg11]

Oh................Kay. Sounds a bit loony to me.

Sorry. Just yankin' yer chain. Couldn't resist.

[Mushroom]

I really like the idea, it's very similar to how I personally brainstorm a new knife design. I've designed dozens of knives and often like to use animals as the initial design prompt.

I'm intrigued enough by the idea to sketch out some designs for it. I'll do some preliminary pencil sketches and then bring it digital.

I'll try to incorporate all the different features you're looking for. You've provided a lot of information regarding certain aspects of the design but I promise whatever I come up with will most likely be completely different than what you're picturing now. I'll share photos soon.

[Dazen]

Disclaimer: this is just me finally putting an idea to silicon that's been kicking around my mind for a while; if you aren't interested in imaginary/speculative knife designs, post's not for you. On the other hand if your last name's Glesser, or you work for Spyderco in some other capacity and find anything here interesting, you know, by all means, feel free to get ahold of me.

Every time I see LC200N it gets mentally garbled as "Loon." I like this, as I am extremely fond of loons, and had the very good fortune to be born and raised in a place with glacial lakes, white pines, eastern hemlocks, and common loons in abundance.

This weird/fun equivalence my mind makes led pretty quickly to my imagining a "Loon" knife, made with LC200N, with freshwater lakes in mind - something that pops back up every time I read "LC200N." So I'm finally outlining this idea here - the LC200N Loon. Loons can dive for long periods of time underwater and are excellent swimmers, have knife-like beaks, are extremely well suited to their environments and sound otherworldly-eerie and like home at the same time. So, IMO LC200N makes a ton of sense even beyond the visual gloss of the two names.

Loon's beaks are themselves already a knife-like stabbing tool, and have a really beautiful shape, somewhere between a pukko, spearhead, and dagger, that lend themselves explicitly as a model. Some of the existing LC200N Spyderco knives, like the Siren or the Waterway, already have an approximately similar profile. This would be a knife themed for Adirondak-like lakes and woods, 'amphibious' in the way that Loons effectively are - so, not a fillet-style fish-dedicated knife, but something versatile enough to slice, saw, and carve. Where there are the yellow and green salts, and the theme-colored Carribbean, I started imagining a black & white, red-accented LC200N knife, and/or something with pine/forest green as an element.

In terms of handle shape or design things get a little murkier. I am not crazy about the Delica-style Salt/Carribbean handles. I love the Wolfspyder's shape in terms of a choil-less design, though it's obviously a pretty specialized/specific design; I think the Brouwer, Native, or Chaparral profiles are attractive and useful for knives with finger choils and in terms of blade shape. I would need to think longer about the handle design and color combinations, but ultimately I'd want these to fit aesthetically and practically with boreal or northern hardwood aesthetics and uses. I don't have zero design background, and have lots of colleagues in my department with plenty, so I'll be returning to this in a more dedicated way, eventually. Finally, for a water-themed knife a simpler, easily accessed locking mechanism in wet or cold conditions would be best, so a compression or back lock like most of the Salts have for presumably those same reasons would work well.

So, that's the roughout version. I'm a copyleft/creative commons kind of person in general, but in whatever imaginary alternative universe someone found themselves interested in my idea commercially, I'll just yell © into the void to comfort myself. If I'm being honest though, if this idea was of any interest to anyone in any real or commercial way, I'd actually love to develop it further. It would be really d*mn cool to design a knife that embodied so many things I love. I even think there's a real place for a design like this beyond me, practically and in the market, and most of all I just think it'd be a neat knife. Happy to know if anything like what I've imagined already exists, if others have had similar thoughts, anyone else likes the idea, etc. If you made it this far, thanks for indulging in my procrastination exercise for the evening

Not a folder but fits the bill IMO!

[Bemo]

I love your description but I need to have pictures. Sounds very interesting and I hope through a collaborative process we get to see what you're describing and envisioning. Love this idea of almost a crowd designed knife.

[bjz]

I grew up in WNY spending a lot of time inside the blue line and loons were one of the things I loved about the dacks.

Two options immediately come to mind. First, the sun and moon chap platform would be cool aesthetically, but functionally, I would want a salty chap to have the grippy LW scales.

The other option that comes to mind would be an upgraded astute! Likely impossible to add Lc200n to a value line option but who knows!! There could even be thin white/red accents between the black g10 and liners or even add Caribbean like texturing to get the color thing right. But, as before, I would personally want something grippy with frn. This would be a cool knife for water-based camping! Maybe even add teeth.

[Mushroom]

Just got so carried away designing this knife, that after an hour of working on it in Illustrator I hadn't even saved the file once. Of course, when you don't save after making some good progress, that's when Adobe likes to crash the most. (Adobe crashed and I lost the file )

Honestly, the design was coming along so good I was getting reluctant to even post it... None the less, I'll post something when I find some time to redo the illustrator file.

[cabfrank]

It will be very interesting to see some pictures or sketches. The Loon sounds cool.

[Fireman]

When I hear Loon, I think of Canada (even though I only saw and heard loons in Alaska) I also think of this knife. A traditional Canadian knife in LC200N and Spydified would be pretty popular imho. I am now all in on a fixed and folder in a “Loonie” Canadian style knife.

[bleasure]

Been a busy weekend and haven't looked since posting, but am really stoked that anyone else likes this idea at all.

VooDooChild - that's awesome, I was not aware there were loons in the Gulf, or even saltwater adapted species in general. In this instance I was coming from personal associations with common loons and places like the NYS North Country/Adirondaks, or, idk, the Lake of the Woods thematically, as complement to the various existing saltwater-themed series.

skeeg - lol

- I'm flattered you all like the idea, let alone enough to come up with mockups! That's awesome. Thanks, & sorry about your Ad*be tragedy Mushroom, I friggin feel you there. I'm eager to see what you're thinking of if/when you're interested in sharing

- upstate solidarity! I've never heard of the blue line though, what's that? Your thinking about accents is exactly where my mind went. I think the ideal is something like the pivot hardware being red, but liners or other hardware would work great too. For materials, I love the sun & moon but agree they're very smooth. Something like G10 would be great if not FRN, which obv makes sense and I like fine, but not as much as some alternatives. Other than wood micarta's probably my fav general handle material, but neither are *necessarily* ideal for this application, obv. G10 is hardy, waterpoof, and has a heft I love the feeling of.

Bemo & cabfrank - you and me both. Once I get a second maybe I can try my hand at tracing out some of my ideas myself. The concept began with firmly established application and aesthetic inspirations, which feels like a positive; at least it's not a solution in search of a problem. But certain design details, esp. regarding the handle shape and how to actually implement a color scheme, remain fuzzy. A simple solution to the latter could be differently colored FRN scales, one black and one white, with a red accent either in the pivot as mentioned above, on the spyder logo, or some other element of hardware. Layered b&w G10 is another possibility.

Fireman, I have never come across this knife before, so thanks for sharing it and the idea - I am curious to learn more about them now, I love unique & purpose-shaped designs like these.

[bjz]

Bleasure, please keep in mind that it’s been almost 20 years now since I’ve lived on the east coast, but at least back then the Adirondack Park was always demarcated by a blue line. Since the park is so massive and segmented by towns and private inholdings, it was often referred to as the blue line.

As for the knife design, I’m tellin ya, the astute, or a larger version, would be a rad candidate…just look at that “traditional Canadien knife” photo posted! It’s not so much a loon beak but it’s there. In fact, this thread might push me over the edge to pick up an astute!

[Airlsee]

Astute deserves a steel upgrade.

[sal]

Hi Bleasure,

An interesting read and you are certainly not slighted in the imagination department. Not a likely model, but I will will watch the thread.

First, a Loon is a byrd which would be a name for a byrd model, but we don't use lC200N in byrd models.

Second, we're trying to coordinate colors of models with steel types and LC200N was to be green with black variations. I know that Eric made an LC Native that's yellow???

Third, We generally keep function first as a design parameter, though I must admit, we've done a few "eye" models.

It's still a "fun" thread.

sal

[cabfrank]

It's always great to hear your insight on these and other things, Sal. We appreciate your input.

[Mushroom]

- I'm flattered you all like the idea, let alone enough to come up with mockups! That's awesome. Thanks, & sorry about your Ad*be tragedy Mushroom, I friggin feel you there. I'm eager to see what you're thinking of if/when you're interested in sharing

No problem at all! I already do this in my own free time for fun. It was nice to get the opportunity to expand on someone else's idea for once.

I've been making progress on the redo and should have an update with a photo or two later.

[Mushroom]

Growing up in New England, I'm most familiar with the Common Loon. In the summer their plumage develops a colorful luster, their head turns jet black with a velvet-like sheen, and their eyes turn blood red! It's a beautiful bird.


https://uvlt.org/wp-content/uploads/201 ... -017_V.jpg
Photo Source - https://uvlt.org/2019/08/two-exciting-e ... 0-7-017_v/

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Bleasure, I really liked your idea for a knife inspired by a loon, thanks for the unintentional design challenge. With this design, I tried to create a general purpose everyday carry knife and incorporate as many of the attributes you were looking for but admittedly could not include them all. This is not intended to be the only answer to your idea but just my own abstract interpretation of the idea.

If you had something entirely different in mind, I will not be offended if you don't like it. This was a fun way to spend some free time over the past few days. Who knows, maybe it will even get Spyderco's attention and we can develop it further! (I have many other designs too. Would be an absolute dream come true )

---

Starting with the blade - You put it very well when you said "Loon's beaks are themselves already a knife-like stabbing tool... that lend themselves explicitly as a model." I tried to imitate the shape of the loons beak without directly tracing the profile. I used a hump on the blade to fit the Spyderhole because the transition from the head of the loon to it's beak also creates a pronounced hump. I made the blade with a black TiCN coating because the loon's beak is naturally black, matching the head and neck. Jimping is not visually represented on this model but I would definitely include jimping on the thumb ramp because loon's have small protrusions on their tongue and roof of their beak's that help them grip their food.

(The blade is labeled with "LC200N" but as Sal mentioned, that steel is usually reserved for other models)

Moving on to the handle - I made it a choil-less compression lock and kept the color aesthetics based on a loon to correspond with the blade better. I looked at the shape of the loons body while it is diving underwater to help derive the shape of the handle. I wanted to make the transitions on the bottom of the handle smooth to avoid having any defined points in the handle and keep the ergonomics fairly neutral but still comfortable.

I made the handle with contoured grey G10 scales and a black G10 bolster because the common loon has a distinct line between it's elegant jet black head and the black and white checkered pattern on it's body. I wanted to make the handle contoured to help fill the hand and also make it smooth because of how smooth the loon's feathers appear on it's head. Black and white layered G10 could also substitute the grey g10 scale as a way of aesthetically representing the loon's black and white pattern. (Originally planned on doing a carbon fiber main scale with the idea that the contoured CF would imitate the checkered pattern in an abstract way.)

Lastly, one of the most distinct attributes of the loon is their blood red eyes! I included a red G10 pivot collar as a creative visual representation of their eye. Also, it is not represented in this model but I would definitely add a deep carry wire clip because the loon is known for diving deep to find food.

Presenting: The Spyderco Loon concept model by Me



Blade Length = 3"
Overall Length = 7.1"
Handle Length = 4.1"
Blade Thickness = .098" (2.5mm)
Blade Steel = LC200N
Handle Material = Contoured G10
Bolster Material = Contoured G10
Blade Grind = Full Flat Grind
Blade Finish = TiCN Coating
Lock Type = Compression Lock
Clip Type = Deep Carry Wire Clip
Weight = 2.9oz (82g)
Origin = Taichung Taiwan

I may try to do another quick update with a carbon fiber scale. It looked really good before Adobe crashed the first time. (I could also add some finishing touches like screws, jimping, and a clip)

[SG89]

Nice, Mushroom! I'd buy that

[u.w.]

WOW

That looks really good Nick

u.w.

[PStone]

Wow! I like that. That edge looks killer with that continuous curve from ricasso to tip. Looks very very functional. Handle looks very palm and finger friendly. Especially dig the blade/handle ratio. And nice maker mark too. Kudos!

PS-I need to know, do you have designs out there already available?