What’s the swedge for?

[sethwm]

My leaf blade dragonfly has a swedge on the spine. Wharncliffe doesn’t. Delica doesn’t.

Is it aesthetic or functional?

[DeadForests]

It looks good, but it does help with penetration for the tip. The swedge lessens the amount of material at the top of the blade, making the tip even thinner. This helps it penetrate objects better, sort of like an arrow. The Wharncliffe doesn't have this because it almost does not have a tip in the traditional sense, but you do sees swedges in whfarncliifes sometimes. A good example of this is the insingo blade on Chris Reeve Knives.

[Ranger000]

It looks cool.....improves the eye appeal of a blade.

[abbazaba]

Penetration

[LakeOconee]

Baton deterrent

[Wartstein]

My leaf blade dragonfly has a swedge on the spine. Wharncliffe doesn’t. Delica doesn’t.

Is it aesthetic or functional?

Where I really love a swedge is on a hollow sabre ground blade (I know, your DFly is in ffg).

- Hollow grinds work extremely well in certain tasks, but the "sabre" part, though making for a really strong tip, can also make it (the tip) too robust and not pointy in my experience
- Now a swedge is the perfect remedy for that: Still enough of the "sabre grind" strength in the tip, but a lot more useful

[Oloung1]

Baton deterrent

Interesting yet practical explanation

[kennethsime]

The more swedges I see the more I like ‘em. Some of my favorite knives have swedges. I say swedge ‘em all!

[sethwm]

agree. I like the look a lot.

[Giygas]

Like a few others have said, I only see there being significant functional benefits when it comes to penetration.

I really do love the looks, though: