What’s the point?

[Pattree]

I’ve commented before that folk here seem to concentrate on the blades and edges of their knives.

I shall return to the subject of handles when I’m back from a week in the hills.

So,
I have often wondered why our knives have to have a point on the blade. I can see that whittling might require one but - honestly - how often do we use the point?

I have cut 35mm from the tip of a chefs knife and made a useful spatula / spreader out of it. I don’t use a point in the kitchen for sure.

Up to the last century sailors used general purpose knives with the points removed. Military Jacknives don’t have a point.

And now Opinel have introduced the neo6. It’s a little sprung folding penknife for everyday use with the point “reassuringly rounded”.

How many of us would miss having a point on their knife? How often?

Don’t look at me! In my last camp I only used my closed knife for sparking the ferro. I’ll probably do the same this week when I’m up on one of my favourite hills. Arguably I don’t need a knife at all but that’s not my point.

 

[Herman30]

I have often wondered why our knives have to have a point on the blade but - honestly - how often do we use the point?

I don´t need a point much at all. That is why i like a wharncliffe blade. It has enough of a point for me.

 

[William_Montgomery]

I find the knife point very useful for all sorts of carving and precision cutting. Anything that requires piercing, starting off divots etc. If the edge is dulled, the point can create an easy entrance point for slicing.
I would find a rounded tip more limiting in how I use knives.

 

[Chris]

Things I’ve used the point on a knife for in the last 24 hours:

- Piercing a netting bag of logs to then cut it open
- Opening the trays of dog food my dog currently eats because he’s on wet food for a week
- Opening a pack of bacon because never in the history of the universe has ‘easy peel’ packaging ever worked
- Cutting a little brown bit out of an apple
- Whittling a little figure I am working on (used extensively)

The property of ‘pointy’ is essential for lots of things and is as core a reality to our interactions with the physical world as ‘wet’ or ‘straight’.

Rounded ends on a knife are only useful for reducing the risk of accidental piercing damage (usually to oneself) whilst using a knife for some basic slicing tasks, and have no impact on people’s ability to cause intentional piercing damage as banning the property of ‘pointiness’ is as absurd a notion as banning the property of ‘green’.

 

[Herman30]

Things I’ve used the point on a knife for in the last 24 hours:

- Piercing a netting bag of logs to then cut it open
- Opening the trays of dog food my dog currently eats because he’s on wet food for a week
- Opening a pack of bacon because never in the history of the universe has ‘easy peel’ packaging ever worked
- Cutting a little brown bit out of an apple

These tasks could have been done just as easily with a wharncliffe.

 

[Pattree]

Not interested in banning anything. I just wondered how useful a point is.

I don’t need one and I open many plastic containers in a month. I use the convex curve as in skinning.

I’m not even avoiding points on my knives. I’ve just come to realise that I rarely d one and if I ever do there are alternatives to hand.

 

[Laurentius]

I most certainly use the point in the kitchen I often insert the point first and cut in a guillotine motion with the point as a pivot. Also use the point a lot in opening packaging

 

[Chris]

Not interested in banning anything. I just wondered how useful a point is.

I appreciate that you are not suggesting banning anything, but the conversation is currently relevant in the wider media and the suggestion from some *is* to ban knives with pointy ends.

Short answer though is ‘Yes, I use it often’.

 

[Pattree]

I most certainly use the point in the kitchen I often insert the point first and cut in a guillotine motion with the point as a pivot. Also use the point a lot in opening packaging

Whereas I do exactly the same job with the curve.

 

[Broch]

You'd have a job piercing the belly skin of any game that you needed to gut without a point. Yes, it can be done with a very sharp blade but there is much more risk of cutting into the entrails. A pointed blade is used, edge up, to slice up to the chest cavity. A blade without a point would be much harder to use for that task. I wouldn't even consider trying to gut a slippery trout without a knife with a point

In the wood, I often need to pierce a hole through, or a depression into, something. There's a few parts of the 'knife skills test' you couldn't do without a point.

The point is () a knife with a point is more versatile; it can do everything a knife without a point can do plus more.

 

[C_Claycomb]

These tasks could have been done just as easily with a wharncliffe.

Those have points. Granted, some sheepsfoots don’t have much point, but Wharncliffes are pointier than sheepsfoots, and those ones are designed specifically for cutting people, and you can be 100% certain they are designed to facilitate penetration by the tip.

If you want to say that you do not need a point, go with a child’s safety knife, or maybe a Spey tip, and I think you will find you miss that funny area at the tip where spine and edge meet at an acute angle (let’s say less than 60degrees).

when talking about this, it is worth differentiating between the point as a needle sharp apex for penetration, and the spine to edge taper towards the tip, which permits cutting in tighter spots and turning cuts in carving. Separate again is how much the tip is tapered by edge rising to spine, or spine dropping to edge.

Generally, longer knives, like chef’s, or those long enough to chop with, don’t benefit as much from a cutting point. Smaller knives, for paring, package opening or wood carving benefit much more.

I use the point on my EDCs, paring knife and four inch camping knives a lot. The edc point is used almost every other time the blade is opened.

 

[Stew]

These tasks could have been done just as easily with a wharncliffe.

That's a very pointy knife to use as an example of a non-pointy knife!

A wharncliffe by defnition has a pointy point!

 

[MrEd]

These tasks could have been done just as easily with a wharncliffe.

A wharncliffe is still a point though?

My nephew has one of those safety moras with a squared off tip, and man it’s inconvenient (imo) to use, it’s definitely held him back on developing some knife skills

 

[Herman30]

I like wharnecliffe because of the straight edge is easier to sharpen without the rounded tip.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Sailor knives are a special case where rope cutting is way up at the top of the task list. I have read that they lacked points to make it harder for sailors stabbing each other…frayed tempers in confined company. Separately though, cutting looped rope works better with a straight or recurved edge.

Years ago I debated a chap at work about why I carried a SAK. He saw no need to carry tools, and said if he needed to cut anything he would just get some safety scissors. That worked for him, or at least well enough that he was unaware of times it didn’t.

 

[John Fenna]

These tasks could have been done just as easily with a wharncliffe.

Wharncliffes have points - quite sharp ones!
I use the point on a blade for many tasks with drop point, flat back, Wharncliffe or any pointy design - I never have found rounded end "safety" blades all that versatile...

 

[Chris]

Sailor knives are a special case where rope cutting is way up at the top of the task list. I have read that they lacked points to make it harder for sailors stabbing each other…frayed tempers in confined company. Separately though, cutting looped rope works better with a straight or recurved edge.

Years ago I debated a chap at work about why I carried a SAK. He saw no need to carry tools, and said if he needed to cut anything he would just get some safety scissors. That worked for him, or at least well enough that he was unaware of times it didn’t.

I’d imagine that it was quite helpful for them not cutting themselves whilst cutting rope as well, in rough seas.

Are scissors not a bladed article? Surely would need good reason to carry them, as opposed to a folding pocket knife which requires no good reason.

 

[Kepis]

How are you going to clean your fingernails with a rounded tip on your blade?

 

[Pattree]

With the rounded tip of your blade!

 

[Damascus]

Or cut those pesky hang nails on the side of your nail, good sharp tip edge is what you need!