Wharncliffe & Hawkbill Blades?

[JaseRicco]

Likes/Dislikes? Pros/Cons?

[twinboysdad]

In my most non-abrasive voice "search function is your friend"

[twinboysdad]

I'll help you get started

viewtopic.php?t=70607&start=260

[O,just,O]

Just keep looking till you can find a Spyderco Centofante 4 for sale & buy it.
It will answer all your questions in a +++++++ way.
O.

[The Deacon]

Biggest "pro" and, at the same time, biggest "con" of both is that they're specialized. They each do certain things very well, but at the expense of versatility. Sure, you can cut your steak with a hawkbill, but who'd want to? There are probably going to be more tasks where the straight edge of a Wharncliffe or sheepsfoot is an asset than tasks where the concave edge of a hawkbill works well, but even there, by not having any convex "belly", you're limiting overall usefulness.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

There are many posts and discussion threads on the forum about this, as others have pointed out. For my own use experience, the main pro of hawkbill and wharncliffe blades is the efficient ease of cutting certain materials such as fibrous cords and cardboard and it is also great for certain cuts of fish and it would make a great self-defense tool (the hawkbill), the wharncliffe is a great oceanic and water based blade shape. Possible downsides would be limited cuts on certain materials that would require a straighter blade.

Deacon, Jason, JD Spydo, and others: While this topic is being discussed, what do you think of this blade shape? : A "Spearpoint Wharncliffe" or "Spearpoint Hawkbill", that combines the shapes of the wharncliffe or hawbill, with a wider spearpoint type blade? Yes or No?

[Evil D]

Basically...

Cutting against a hard surface = a blade with belly is better

Cutting something you're holding in your off hand "in mid air" = a wharnie or hawkbill are better

Wharnies and hawkbills will slip off the material being cut far less than a belly with a blade. Wharnies are far better than the other two at making slashing cuts, and are easier to make fine detailed cuts with the tip. Wharnies are probably the easiest blade shape to sharpen, while hawkbills may be most challenging. I've found that in real world use, the times I need to cut against a hard surface such as a cutting board are few and far between compared to cutting something that I'm holding in my off hand, so a wharnie does 99.9% of what I need it to do and is better in some scenarios than a blade with a belly. Hawkbills are the king of pull cuts, hands down.

Alternatively, you can also have a blade/knife like the Sliverax, that isn't quite a wharnie but doesn't have much of belly, but also has enough negative blade angle that it puts the tip of the blade very low in relation to the handle, so it performs similarly to a wharnie when cutting with the tip, and it will do pull cuts better than any blade with excessive belly because it's less likely to slip off the material being cut, yet it still has enough belly to get the last inch or so of blade flat against a cutting board so it's more versatile than a true wharnie. It's the most well rounded design for my uses.

[ZrowsN1s]

hawkbill pro's - rope, boxes, letters, packages, zipties, PULL CUTS! :D

hawkbill con's - cutting anything on a flat surface like a plate or cutting board.

[vivi]

Wharncliffes are the easiest to sharpen and they do just fine on a cutting board if we're talking ~3" bladed folders. It's not like having a little belly turns a Manix into a proper chef knife

[xceptnl]

Aside from the miles and miles of thread that you can read about these topics (search JD Spydo for all thinks curvy) the long and short of it from my perspective is this..... if you are making the choice to carry only one knife, these blade shapes are not the most versatile. If you are of the mindset to carry at least one (or more like everyone should) companion blade, then hawkbills and recurves and wharncliffe blades make for amazing companions that truly increase your cutting efficiency when they are used as designed.

[Evil D]

Wharncliffes are the easiest to sharpen and they do just fine on a cutting board if we're talking ~3" bladed folders. It's not like having a little belly turns a Manix into a proper chef knife

Wharnies working well witb cutting boards depend more on blade angle than anything else. A wharnie with a blade angle like the Spydiechef would be great for chopping veggies.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Wharncliffes are the easiest to sharpen and they do just fine on a cutting board if we're talking ~3" bladed folders. It's not like having a little belly turns a Manix into a proper chef knife

Wharnies working well witb cutting boards depend more on blade angle than anything else. A wharnie with a blade angle like the Spydiechef would be great for chopping veggies.

That is a good point and one reason I was wondering what a Wharncliffe/Spearpoint blade would be like.

[ZrowsN1s]

If you skip to 8:00 into the video Michael Janich describes his reasons for picking the Wharncliffe shape for the Yojimbo and Ronin.
https://youtu.be/1ddOdONCCqU

[Bloke]

I’ve never had any inclination towards a Wharncliffe blade most likely because the bulk of my knife use has been in the field processing game and fish.

I never had any inclination towards Hawkills or SE blades either till I bought a little Ladybug HB SE and realised what I’d been missing.

Now all I use is a HB to clean fish and I haven’t found anything better at cutting out gills. :)

[knivesandbooks]

I love the wharncliffe and sheepsfoot blades in my multi-bladed traditionals or smaller slipjoints but have yet to be able to comit to a full size folder or fixed with a wharncliffe (i have a couple of them in sheepsfoot with plenty of belly). I just like em curvy the best i guess

[JD Spydo]

Hawkbill blades truly excel as "companion blades" >> even as much as I like Hawkbill blades I'll be the first to admit that there are specific jobs they excel in. Also Hawkbill blades are at their very best in Spyderedge>> I'm finding plain edged Hawkbills truly have very limited applications and are maybe just "job specific" at best. Whereas Spyderedged Hawkbills in a job where pull cutting is an advantage really do much better than most blade designs IMO.

Personally I've never been a megafan of Wharncliffe blades but I do own about 4 of them. I do really like Michael Janich's Yojimbo and Ronin models ( especially the older ones) and I can see his reasoning for designing Wharnie type blades for ideal self defense applications. I also think that the type of grind truly plays a big part in how well Wharnie blades perform. Wharncliffe blades also seem to really excel in plain edge far more than Spyderedge IMO.

They both are specialty type designs that are completely different and they both excel in the cutting jobs they are mostly designed for IMO.