What’s the point?

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Not being adversarial here. Thinking is my favourite activity.

I don’t think anyone is suggesting that I couldn’t open plastic packaging, gut a trout, skin a fox, make a base for a fire bow rotor or clean my fingernails with these:
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Not being adversarial here. Thinking is my favourite activity.

I don’t think anyone is suggesting that I couldn’t open plastic packaging, gut a trout, skin a fox, make a base for a fire bow rotor or clean my fingernails with these:
View attachment 93897

I’d say that two of those are pointy, though? Perhaps we need to define ‘point’?
 
Not being adversarial here. Thinking is my favourite activity.

I don’t think anyone is suggesting that I couldn’t open plastic packaging, gut a trout, skin a fox, make a base for a fire bow rotor or clean my fingernails with these:
View attachment 93897
Not adversarial either.

The middle and right have points. Only the left could be said not to have a point, and poking a hole in the hide of anything with that is gonna be harder than it would with a point. Nor could you do some wood carving cuts. It would spread peanut butter very well though! The two with points would be fine making initial incisions for skinning, but would not be so effective for aiding in skinning because they lack belly.

I recall reading about some North American hunters skinning either a bison or a big bear with the little blade of a SAK because the better knife had been forgotten in camp. I even remember reading about a skinning job performed with a brass cartridge bashed flat on a rock.

What one can manage with happily is a poor yardstick for understanding why someone else uses something else. This is not significantly different from discussion of Mora vs handmade, farm supply store clothes vs premium outdoor brand vs army surplus. Preference, cutting job type and frequency, patience, sense of style, disposable income, etc ad nauseam . I loathe hip hop (blues, jazz, county) music, no amount of discussion will make me like it, or understand the appeal for those that do, but I do recognise that some people do like it.
 
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I have a few blunt nose knives, an opinel child knife, a gerber rescue and a mora rope knife.

I have also rounded the tip of an opinel after the tip was snapped off and converted a petzl spatha to make it more rescue friendly.

You can still cut a net or bag but it’s more of a slicing motion.
 
It's been said before but a sheepsfoot or wharncliffe is ideal for a slipjoint because piercing with the tip naturally forces the blade open whereas a drop point could easily shut the knife on your finger. They are also great for scoring sheet materials (let's say birch bark for a bushcraft example). I think the really rounded 'rookie' or 'cotton sampler' style blades would be a bridge too far for me.
 
d 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).

Hang on hang on!

Who said that ^^^^^^^^?

I’ve not used a protractor but I bet they won’t be far off
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I’ll stick y the statement if you only want me to use my sailor knife!
 
I have some knives that are pointy and some with more rounded ends. I tend to use the right one for the job. Chopping veg I tend to use a rounded end knife as I don't need a point but for cutting out bits I'll use a pointed paring knife.
 
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Whereas I do exactly the same job with the curve.
Well I for various reasons find it easier to use the point, I seem to be at less risk of injuring myself that way as I have more control, every day knives have been made with a point since the Romans at least and you will not see a set of Sabatier knives that are not pointed and these are used by the professionals.
 
I think that most of us can agree that it is easier to do any given task when using the correct tools.
Knives are no exception. Filleting a fish with a meat cleaver is possible, but not advisable, as a sharp point and a flexible blade are an advantage.
If one could afford , and find room for, the correct knife for every task, it would probably make any task easier and more efficient.
If one could only afford one knife, however, it needs to have as much versatility as possible.
For me that would include a sharp point.
I can almost understand the round-ended knives for kids, but really we’d be better teaching them about knife safety with a standard knife from the beginning.
The only knives I have with no point are Asian-style vegetable slicing blades in the kitchen.
I still need to combine these with a pointed paring knife to remove any bad bits which may appear. The small pointy blade keeps waste to a minimum and the broad flat blade does a great job of slicing and dicing.
Horses for courses I guess.
 

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