A perspective on a fad in the knife world.

[Kevinim82]

I could watch any YouTuber from the last two years, and the buzzword out of all their mouths would be “ It’s a great knife but it would be better performer if it was thinner blade stock.”

Physics aside, and Shawn Houston quotes aside “geometry cuts.”

… what dragon are we chasing? I’ve been on a cheese plate meat plate kick this week, I brought the Shaman with me… it’s no slouch in cutting the cheese (no pun intended.) it’s no slouch in slicing salami, it’s no slouch in the veggie realm. It even did a nice job on the eggs. I am Joe Schmoe, and I got to say the fad doesn’t add up. The Shaman; I should’ve bought this knife a long time ago. The handle ergos alone are very very nice.

My pearl of wisdom; question the buzz words.

[Evil D]

There are miles and miles of difference between "no slouch" and "it slices like a friggin light saber".


I do get the point you're making though and I generally agree. I wouldn't want all my knives just thinned out for all our slicing performance. There is a sweet spot for me and it's somewhere around a 3mm blade stock in a high FFG blade that's reasonably thin behind the bevel.

[Kevinim82]

There are miles and miles of difference between "no slouch" and "it slices like a friggin light saber".


I do get the point you're making though and I generally agree. I wouldn't want all my knives just thinned out for all our slicing performance. There is a sweet spot for me and it's somewhere around a 3mm blade stock in a high FFG blade that's reasonably thin behind the bevel.

I like how you put it, degrees between… “no slouch” and “it slices like a friggin light saber.”

I question any preferences I once had. I just carried a Watu and a Spydie Chef for a month. I prefer the Shaman. I sharpened the Watu and the Chef to crop hairs with a simple pass over my arm… I will sharpen the Shaman to the same performance level… but off the bat… I am impressed by its “matter separating ability.”

[z1r]

Yeah, I don't really get the thinner blade fad. I want a knife that is robust, even if it is a smaller knife. I love the Chaparral for how nicely it slices fruit. I prefer to cut my apples rather then just bite into them. Makes a great lunchtime knife. Which is why I always carry it or a DF2 in addition to my Endela. But the DF2 gets carried far more often than the Chap cuz it cuts apples pretty good too.

I never really understood the idea of food prep with a pocket knife other than when camping.

[ZrowsN1s]

I agree, I don't want EVERY knife in the drawer to be a laser beam. Probably why I own so many Shaman

But you can't beat the performance of a nice thin blade. If I'm going to be breaking down a stack of boxes, I usually reach for the Police4.

[Wartstein]

I could watch any YouTuber from the last two years, and the buzzword out of all their mouths would be “ It’s a great knife but it would be better performer if it was thinner blade stock.”
...

Granted, I don´t watch too many knife vids.

But from all I still do: I actually never hear "reviewers" (which they most times aren´t anyway) on youtube say they´d want a thinner blade.
If at all, I hear that a "thinner stock blade (in folder) is no good for "hard use"" - which has proven itself to be wrong again and again in my personal experience. It does not matter at all (again, from my experience and concerning what a FOLDER can do anyway) if you do "hard use" with a 3mm stock Endela or 3,7 mm PM2 - rather that the PM2 tip would perhaps snap a bit earlier than the Endelas.

Of course thinner blade stock is just ONE of several factors that determines performance and slicing ability (others would be tapering, tallness of the blade, thickness behind the edge, if sabre/ffg/hollow... grind, edge angle and so on).
BUT "blade stock thickness" is a factor that can´t be changed by the end user normally (most won´t make a whole BLADE thinner).

- As long as one does not want to "wedge or baton" with their folder or need the enhanced comfort of a thicker spine for a finger one might put on that spine.
- As long as their is enough lock interface for comp. or linerlcok:
Thinner stock is just a performance enhancing factor, without any disadvantage in my book.

As always: Go take a Chap FRN and use it for the hardest task you´d use any of your thicker bladed folders: I bet you won´t break the 2mm ffg Chap blade...

[Kevinim82]

I never really understood the idea of food prep with a pocket knife other than when camping.

I grew up in a home with very very dull knives. I married into a family with very very dull knives. Dull knives surround me. I spent the first 30 years of life with very very dull knives. Can you understand my… short comings/phobia?

I sharpen everyone’s knives, they just put the knives in the sink and dull them more.

I buy a 230 + tax knife, by all that is sharp I am going to use it, and try and understand it, and figure out what it is good at doing.

Shaman
Good at;
Cutting up hard + soft cheese (this is a feat)
Salami cutting
Box cutting
Goblin skinning

Bad at;
Heart surgery (don’t ask how I know this one.)

[TkoK83Spy]

I agree, I've never had any slicing issues with any of my Shaman's. The model itself is a top 2 for me as a user.

Half of the morons on YouTube don't even use their knives. They weigh them, measure them, talk about materials and flick them about 20-50 times per video while talking about maybe opening mail with them. Not sure why most of them get so much praise. I stopped watching them a couple years ago, they just drive me nuts....especially the guy with annoying voice that many people seem to think he walks on air

Sorry for that little rant...but that makes me wonder if people just ASSUME this stuff about the Shaman or other thicker blade stock knives because "YouTube" said so?? That or they have a Shaman and maybe aren't the best at sharpening knives? I can see how it could turn into a wedge if you don't know how to properly sharpen. But that doesn't fall on the knife, that's the user.

[Kevinim82]

Thinner stock is just a performance enhancing factor, without any disadvantage in my book.

I would have agreed with you a month ago.

But a Watu and a Spydie Chef later, I really like the performance more out of the sausage of a Shaman.

[knivesandbooks]

I agree with the "fad" regarding thin grinds. Blade stock isn't a big deal for me, just depends on the knife. But having purchased knives with aggressively thin grinds, it's a big deal. Have quite a few I want reground. But about every other fad is ignorable and YouTube knife reviewers can get a bit ridiculous. Especially non-stop flicking of the blade.

[Wandering_About]

Depends a bit on what you're cutting. For slicing cardboard or vegetables, thin stock is great. For many other things, it's not such a big deal. I like knives that are thin behind the edge. The following blade is .160" blade stock, but .006-.009" behind the edge with a roughly 18 degree per side edge. It cuts very well for a wide variety of tasks. Much better than knives of similar or thinner blade stock with edges that are .025" behind the edge. But probably not the best knife for "hard use" where you are putting lots of lateral or impact force on the edge. Overall knife and edge design involves many compromises and you have to decide what you want.

[yablanowitz]

I don't watch YouTube reviews. At all. Ever. But I have been using knives of all sorts for over 50 years, and on average materials and uses, thinner blades cut with less effort than thick ones. Specific cases may vary but on average, that's what I've found.

Reading posts by people who use the term "hard use" have convinced me that they know nothing of using a knife, much less using it hard. It seems to be a buzzword meaning "combines brute force and ignorance to simulate skill".

[Notsurewhy]

I could watch any YouTuber from the last two years, and the buzzword out of all their mouths would be “ It’s a great knife but it would be better performer if it was thinner blade stock.”

Physics aside, and Shawn Houston quotes aside “geometry cuts.”

… what dragon are we chasing? I’ve been on a cheese plate meat plate kick this week, I brought the Shaman with me… it’s no slouch in cutting the cheese (no pun intended.) it’s no slouch in slicing salami, it’s no slouch in the veggie realm. It even did a nice job on the eggs. I am Joe Schmoe, and I got to say the fad doesn’t add up. The Shaman; I should’ve bought this knife a long time ago. The handle ergos alone are very very nice.

My pearl of wisdom; question the buzz words.

Have you ever looked at you dad's or grandad's knives? Thick needlessly overbuilt knives are the fad. What you're seeing is backlash.

[ladybug93]

my issue with knives like the shaman are that they sit in an in-between spot for me. it's too thick for me to enjoy slicing tasks and not thick enough for me to want to use hard. i prefer blades 3mm thick or less for edc (with the yojimbo being an exception because of it's outstanding hollow grind). and i want an actual beast of a blade for harder use, like the 4max scout from cold steel. the shaman isn't as good at either of these knives for the specified tasks, even if it's adequate. i'm not interested in paying shaman money for adequate though, especially when i can buy a manix and a 4max scout for less than a shaman.


to you're point though... i do agree that we should largely ignore buzz words and fads and buy what works for us and what we like. right now, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on blade centering and blade to handle ratio. those things don't matter much to me. i mean, it's surprising when i buy a knife smaller than the delica that has a blade longer than the manix (astute and ikuchi come to mind as recent examples i bought), but nothing is more comfortable in my hand than a manix and the manix cuts everything i need it to cut, so extra blade length doesn't really matter all that much to me.

[ladybug93]

Have you ever looked at you dad's or grandad's knives? Thick needlessly overbuilt knives are the fad. What you're seeing is backlash.

i've been thinking about this with the blade to handle ratio issue as well. that ratio wasn't a concern at all in many traditional knives and most of them were smaller than people with any kind of freedom currently carry today. i like a big knife and i'm not against maximizing blade length for a given handle, but it's not something worth worrying about if the knife is accomplishing what you need it to accomplish.

[Wartstein]

Thinner stock is just a performance enhancing factor, without any disadvantage in my book.

I would have agreed with you a month ago.

But a Watu and a Spydie Chef later, I really like the performance more out of the sausage of a Shaman.

Well, I actually can´t argue with you concerning these particular three models...never tried any of these myself.

Just my personal general experience has led me towards wanting thinner stock and I honestly don´t think that there is almost no one on this forum who actually uses their Spydercos for tasks a 2mm Chaparral blade could not take. I could be wrong of course, but what I am saying actually comes from using and abusing thinner bladed Spydies really "hard".

[RustyIron]

My pearl of wisdom; question the buzz words.

Bloggers, vloggers, tik-tokers, youtubers, influencers, activists,
band wagon jumpers, and self-proclaimed experts...
Personally, my interest in what they have to say is very limited.

[Wartstein]

... right now, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on blade centering and blade to handle ratio. those things don't matter much to me. i mean, it's surprising when i buy a knife smaller than the delica that has a blade longer than the manix (astute and ikuchi come to mind as recent examples i bought), but nothing is more comfortable in my hand than a manix and the manix cuts everything i need it to cut, so extra blade length doesn't really matter all that much to me.

Funny you´d mention exactly those two things...shows how different we all can be (in a good or at last neutral sense).

- The wish for perfect blade centering is something I fully respect, but personally just don´t understand at all (I "just could not bring myself" to be bothered by that in the slightest, no matter what I tried) (sidenote [generally, not to you ladybug) PLEASE no discussion about this, I won´t reply!]

- While a longer cutting edge - again, for me personally - has real functional implications. Concerning efficiency of making cuts, concerning edge holding, and so on... (still, as you know, I do love the Manix LW, but as a smaller, more specialized folder).

But actually this is in line with what you say anyway: My preferences are not at all influenced by "buzz words" but come 100 % (at least I think so) from what I found out works for me personally. True also for the topic of this thread, thin blade stock.

[Evil D]

Have you ever looked at you dad's or grandad's knives? Thick needlessly overbuilt knives are the fad. What you're seeing is backlash.

And in turn, thick overbuilt knives were a backlash to all of granddad's broken slip joint blades, and believe me there were a lot of them. The problem is that trends swing wide to both extremes, we've just been on the far end of the tank knife spectrum for the last decade or so and lately things are swinging back the other way. Eventually people will start breaking blades again and we'll circle back around. We always want that greener grass.



And for everyone blaming social media, keep in mind that the Military (just for example) came along in 1996 with something like 4mm blade stock right? That's well before the internet "ruined" everything. The tactical pocket knife train was well on it's way before the internet was even in every household. Of course there are far burlier knives than a Military today and by comparison the Military is a capable slicer, but look at a Military vs almost any Case slip joint or similar knife that granddad might have carried and you definitely see that the trend far predates the internet.

[Ramonade]

I'm sorry if this is too out of topic but what is "fad" ? I rarely see terms (outside of technical terms) I don't understand !

Is it something like a trend, or fandom ?