Design help

O

OkieCowboy

Well-Known Member
Ok Guys.. Is there any sort of process you go thru when your designing a blade, seem like everything has already been done.. and everything I sketch out looks like or reminds me of so and so's blade etc... trying to come up with something new and different. .is that even possible now? Or has everything already been done...or is my best hope to put my twist on it? Any designing tips or pointers you wanna share?

Thanks
 
Personally, I start out with a bar of steel and forge it until I have the shape that I want-or I'm so far off that I can't salvage it. As far as something original, knives have been made for a few thousand years. It's kinda of hard to find something that hasn't been tried before.

Doug
 
If you do something that hasn't been done 1000s of times, it probably wont be much of a knife. Thats just the way it is. Make knifes you like. You don't have to copy anyone, I look at images of knifes all the time, then with all those images rattling around in my head I start pounding or cutting on a piece of steel till everything that doesnt belong isn't there. If I did it right some of the things that I liked about the knives I saw will end up in the knife I'm making. If for instance I try to make a knife in someone else's style ie a loveless drop point, I always give credit where credit is due and call it a Loveless style hunter. Trying to reinvent the wheel most often results in a crappier version of the wheel.
 
I once read a story that is supposedly true, back in the 1800s some government fellow wanted to close the patent office.
his claim was that everything that could be invented already was........
 
[h=1]Ecclesiastes 1:9New International Version [/h] [SUP]9 [/SUP]What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
 
It appears that in our day and time, there is little, if anything we can build that hasn't been built before. To combat this statement, I just make something I picture in my mind, transferred to paper, then to steel. the basic shape may have been made thousands of times in the past, but it did not have my twist on it. All we as makers can do is follow our hearts, and put out the best blades we possibly can. There is an undisputed pride one feels when taking a knife from thought all the way thru completion, no matter how many knives there are with similar shape. Just my 2 cents worth.
 
I am willing to take a wager. I bet if we collected 1000 knives from all the dogs here on KD none would be identical. Take a design that you think would work well for it's intended purpose. use it. Make changes you think would make it better in the next build. use it. repeat process til you find it could not possibly be any better. End product = unique one of a kind knife with your name on it.
 
I only have 4 or 5 designs so far, but I always think about knives I've had or seen in the past. I might like the way the bolster was on that one and I like the way the blade was on this one, etc. I end up with a collaboration of features and shapes. No matter what you design, it's going to influenced by what you've been exposed to, so as long as you sit down and draw it out yourself, it's "your" original. One problem I have is size. I've got much larger hands than most people and I have a tendency to make designs feel good to my hand. Then I go to a knife show and see all those teeny tiny little knives and think, wow, maybe I need to downsize a little.

On another note, there are many knife pattern collections that the original designer freely shares. Some may ask for you to give credit to the original designer if you're selling the knife. Just make what you like, don't directly copy someone's work without permission, and don't worry about it.
 
About the only thing "New" in knives in the past hundred years may be the Sharpened Pry bar Tactical Folder.

Its amazing that our grandfathers and fathers fought WWII and won, without all of these "Tactical" innovations.
 
The basic design for the utility all-purpose knife has changed very little in the, well, since knives started being made of metal. Most of the changes have been driven by fashion, not function. Now, when we start talking about edged weapons, the variety of different blades we've come up with to kill each other is astounding, fully displaying both our creative and destructive genius...

My advise is to get outside of our cultural box and see what other cultures have made (be they ancient or modern), and let it influence your idea of what a knife should look like.
 
I just want to echo what George said. Look around the world, and through time. There are a lot of great designs, and you will probably be making something that looks a lot like something someone else made. If it is a deliberate copy, then state it (or if it is truly, "inspired by."). Otherwise, just make what you think looks good.
and enjoy. Also realize that what you think looks good today, will not look good to you in a couple of years. That is good, it is a sign you are improving. still makes you sad some, though.
 
My biggest fear is accidently crossing that line between influence and copy...when you look at knives all day...and then start to draw some...without thinking about it... what you have looked at is going to come out in some form... And the last thing I want...is to steal someones design...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top