Shop Notes Archive
July 14, 2008
Over the past year, I've really been taken in by kitchen knives
and hope to present one for my upcoming mastersmith test.
You are going to see more and more of my work in integrals,
as I've made a few discoveries that you may find interesting.
First, a full-tang integral knife is really quite simple -
no guards or other moving parts. The lines are really smooth
and the big thing for me is that they are super easy to repair.
Say you scratch your normal hunter just above the guard, or
maybe it even starts rusting in the joint - very hard to clean
and fix. With an integral there is no joint to get stuff stuck
in, just a nice flowing plunge from the handle/bolster down
to the blade. Repairing scratches is very quick and easy.
Worried about your fingers sliding up on the edge? No. With
the large heel of the blade coming down in front of your index
finger, "stubbing" is quite rare. There really is
no need for a guard here. I actually make all of my competition
knives as integrals as well. It just is a nice design and
one that I will continue with as long as I can.
-- Michael Rader
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