The Best Knife? (Part 4)

What’s the point?  Do you know what your point is?  True, nearly every knife has some kind of point or tip, but what is the most useful, what is the strongest point?  In today’s post I will try to give you my opinion.

There are several different types of points on knives, depending on their usage. There is the Clip Point, the Spear Point, the Sheep’s Foot Point, the Tanto Point, the Blunt Tip Point, the Straight Back Point, the Drop Point, the Trailing Point, the Needle Point, the Wharncliffe Point, and the Pen Knife Point, etc.  The important question to ask when choosing a knife point is “What do I want the knife to do?”

A clip point, which is very popular is thin and may break under heavy use.  The Spear point is good for puncturing as it centers the force of the thrust into the center of the blade.  The sheep’s foot point is good for cutting twine and seat belts, clothes etc. and a version of it is used by emergency personnel,  is is also often the secondary or tertiary blade on a stockman type pocket knife.  The tanto point is the strongest type of tip but it is not the ideal choice for dressing game and cleaning fish.  The blunt tip knife is used often by divers as they don’t want something that can puncture lines and hoses while under water, but still have a cutting tool.  The straight back point is a standard point which is a good design and easy to make but can be delicate and easy to break.  The trailing point is used on many fillet type knives.  The needle point knife is used on daggers much like the spear point but is thinner and much more fragile.  The wharncliffe point is similar to the sheep’s foot point and is used in nautical type knives as the shape of the blade helps prevent one from being stabbed while on rough seas.  The pen knife point is usually used on smaller pocket knives and is similar to the spear point but with a more gradual curve.  My favorite tip is the drop point and in my opinion it tends to be the strongest as well as the most useful tip for survival.  This is what I designed and used on my BKW (benderknifeworks) Bushcrafter Knife.

Whatever knife point you choose, make sure it is up to the tasks that you will demand of it in a survival situation.  Interestingly enough, most survival type blades are rather similar in shape to ordinary kitchen knives.  In fact, many of the mountain men used a main blade that was lot like what we would call a thin bladed butcher knife.  The thick blades that many of us use today in survival was not commonly used back then.  Chopping tasks were reserved for axes and hatchets and their knife was pretty much only a cutting tool.  Some pictures of old knives from that era show that those blades were sharpened so much and used so long that they were thinned out to a ridiculous shape.  But remember, people did not have access to stores and the internet like we do, they relied on trading posts and the occasional visit to the rendezvous for resupply.  Plus, they did not have a lot of cash money and what they did purchase had to last them a long time.

Choosing carefully from a multitude of choices available is what a Christian has to do on a daily basis.  Our time and our life is very important to us as well as others, and we do not want to waste our resources on things that don’t matter or won’t perform the task at hand.   Satan offers many things that won’t help you get to Heaven and it is easy to become distracted.  Pray much, pray often and choose wisely!

James B.

PS. You can check out my website where you can set up training for many of these skills at www.waypointsurvival.com and look at and order my custom knives at www.benderknifeworks.com.