Blade Length vs Edge Length - Why does it matter?

[Wartstein]

To me edge length is much more important than blade length - I guess as long as a folder is large enough to offer a full sized handle, edge length is the most defining feature for me when it comes to "size".

When the BLADE is (a lot) longer than the EDGE, this normally means the knife has more grip options, so more HANDLE (the part you grip on and that does not cut, regardless if this part is technically on the blade)

That said: Long blades with comparably short edges still offer advantages over blades that are practically "all edge".
So to mention BLADE length as a spec is not worthless to me, though edge length is more important.

Some points why a long blade can be a good choice, even if it features just an comparably short edge:

- A long blade gives more reach:
Can come in handy in some situations (reaching stuff that is recessed somewhere or perhaps in sd scenarios...)
Helps to keep pivot and hand from "gunky", hot... stuff

A long blade can give more grip options
As said above: Through a choil, ricasso... one can choke up on

A long blade can offer better leverage

A long blade makes it more convenient to cut on a surface / cutting board
Better clearance for the hand, more of the actual edge can be used to cut due to the shallower angle that can be applied in relation to the cutting board

A long blade inevitably guarantees a longer handle on a folding knife

A long blade is better for light chopping, hacking ...

[Spyderwebs]

Speaking of countries, apparently, Japan has some of the most restrictive knife ownership and carry laws on the planet, even though many knives are made there.
Jim

they banned guns, so people started stabbing people and they restricted knives. it's almost as if the inanimate object isn't to blame.

Just for reference, Japan ranks very low in stabbing deaths too. According to this, they are tied for last place in the world with 0.09 stabbing deaths per 100,000 population
https://worldpopulationreview.com/count ... by-country

But japan is a very peaceful society in general and probably has more to do with societal norms than knife ownership or restrictions. Also it probably helps to have a geriatric society. Harder to stab when you have arthritis, a bad hip, and sore knees.

I work with several Japanese here in the states and when shinzo abe was shot a year or so ago, they were all visibly disturbed because a high profile gun death is essentially unheard of in Japan. Like, doesnt even enter their thought process of ways someone could die, so it was quite shocking even 7000 miles away.

The US, Israel, and Turkey have the highest rate in the western world. Overall, knife crime seems to scale with poverty and war pretty closely, which makes sense to me.

[ladybug93]

Speaking of countries, apparently, Japan has some of the most restrictive knife ownership and carry laws on the planet, even though many knives are made there.
Jim

they banned guns, so people started stabbing people and they restricted knives. it's almost as if the inanimate object isn't to blame.

Just for reference, Japan ranks very low in stabbing deaths too. According to this, they are tied for last place in the world with 0.09 stabbing deaths per 100,000 population
https://worldpopulationreview.com/count ... by-country

But japan is a very peaceful society in general and probably has more to do with societal norms than knife ownership or restrictions. Also it probably helps to have a geriatric society. Harder to stab when you have arthritis, a bad hip, and sore knees.

I work with several Japanese here in the states and when shinzo abe was shot a year or so ago, they were all visibly disturbed because a high profile gun death is essentially unheard of in Japan. Like, doesnt even enter their thought process of ways someone could die, so it was quite shocking even 7000 miles away.

The US, Israel, and Turkey have the highest rate in the western world. Overall, knife crime seems to scale with poverty and war pretty closely, which makes sense to me.

not trying to be political here... when i was in japan in 2001, there was a mass stabbing in a school. i understand it's not something that happens often, but it happens and incidents like this are typically used for justification for more restrictions levied on citizens.

even in more peaceful places, people are people, and japan is not without violence or other horrific vices.

[aicolainen]

- A long blade gives more reach:
Can come in handy in some situations (reaching stuff that is recessed somewhere or perhaps in sd scenarios...)

And also the opposite is true (i.e. a shorter blade can provide access where longer blades can’t). In my line of work I often need to work with my knife in tight spaces, so having access to both the edge length and blade length could help me avoid buying a knife that is longer overall and hence less practical for (possibly) no added benefit (of a longer edge).
In real life it’s rarely as easy as going by the stats alone, but it never hurts to have all the measurements.

[Wartstein]

- A long blade gives more reach:
Can come in handy in some situations (reaching stuff that is recessed somewhere or perhaps in sd scenarios...)

And also the opposite is true (i.e. a shorter blade can provide access where longer blades can’t). In my line of work I often need to work with my knife in tight spaces, so having access to both the edge length and blade length could help me avoid buying a knife that is longer overall and hence less practical for (possibly) no added benefit (of a longer edge).
In real life it’s rarely as easy as going by the stats alone, but it never hurts to have all the measurements.

I think I literally don´t understand/comprehend (in the sense that *I* am missing something) - ?

Not saying that short blades can´t have advantages over longer blades generally (they certainly can!), but what do you mean by
"a shorter blade can provide access where longer blades can´t" ?

Given that the short and the long blade are of the same width, height, thickness: The longer blade should allow access to any place the short blade can, shouldn´t it? While not vice versa (If having to reach deeply into whatever narrow recess the short blade can get too short where the long blade can still reach).

Again, I totally see that a short blade / small knife can be a lot better and a lot better to manipulate in certain tasks, no doubt!
It is just the quoted sentence I don´t comprehend.

[aicolainen]

- A long blade gives more reach:
Can come in handy in some situations (reaching stuff that is recessed somewhere or perhaps in sd scenarios...)

And also the opposite is true (i.e. a shorter blade can provide access where longer blades can’t). In my line of work I often need to work with my knife in tight spaces, so having access to both the edge length and blade length could help me avoid buying a knife that is longer overall and hence less practical for (possibly) no added benefit (of a longer edge).
In real life it’s rarely as easy as going by the stats alone, but it never hurts to have all the measurements.

I think I literally don´t understand/comprehend (in the sense that *I* am missing something) - ?

Not saying that short blades can´t have advantages over longer blades generally (they certainly can!), but what do you mean by
"a shorter blade can provide access where longer blades can´t" ?

Given that the short and the long blade are of the same width, height, thickness: The longer blade should allow access to any place the short blade can, shouldn´t it? While not vice versa (If having to reach deeply into whatever narrow recess the short blade can get too short where the long blade can still reach).

Again, I totally see that a short blade / small knife can be a lot better and a lot better to manipulate in certain tasks, no doubt!
It is just the quoted sentence I don´t comprehend.

Sorry if my post was a bit ambiguous. I had been traveling for 13 hours straight and probably hadn’t slept in over 30 hours when I decided to chime in. Bad idea :D

Funny enough I edited in that sentence after posting, because I thought it would provide better context. Oh, well.

So anyways, I didn’t at all disagree with what you wrote. Totally agree with everything. I was just adding another, often overlooked, reason why you might want to know both the blade length and the edge length (i.e. adding context with reference to the OP, and not your post specifically).

I guess the word “access” is open for interpretation and may be the root cause for any misunderstanding here. What I meant, and where you probably lost me is that while a long blade has longer absolute reach and as such may reach deeper into a tight space, this often doesn’t leave much room for manipulation of the knife in said space. A shorter knife, while it doesn’t provide as much absolute reach in very tight spaces where you can’t get your arm or hand inside, it can sometimes actually be used and manipulated in a tight space where a longer knife can’t because the length added by a longer handle and unsharpened blade limits the available degrees of freedom to perform deliberate cutting tasks inside said space. Two different forms of access, depending on ones needs.

[Wartstein]

Sorry if my post was a bit ambiguous. I had been traveling for 13 hours straight and probably hadn’t slept in over 30 hours when I decided to chime in. Bad idea :D
...

I guess the word “access” is open for interpretation and may be the root cause for any misunderstanding here. What I meant, and where you probably lost me is that while a long blade has longer absolute reach and as such may reach deeper into a tight space, this often doesn’t leave much room for manipulation of the knife in said space. A shorter knife, while it doesn’t provide as much absolute reach in very tight spaces where you can’t get your arm or hand inside, it can sometimes actually be used and manipulated in a tight space where a longer knife can’t because the length added by a longer handle and unsharpened blade limits the available degrees of freedom to perform deliberate cutting tasks inside said space. Two different forms of access, depending on ones needs.

Thanks!!

This makes complete sense now and is actually an interesting aspect I never thought of myself - probably because I most likely never ran into tasks where a longer handle / blade actually makes it harder or even impossible to manipulate / move around the knife, but I can imagine such scenarios no problem.

Hope you have a nice trip btw and are enjoying it, even if you might fall short of sleep

[BornIn1500]

But japan is a very peaceful society in general and probably has more to do with societal norms than knife ownership or restrictions. Also it probably helps to have a geriatric society. Harder to stab when you have arthritis, a bad hip, and sore knees.

When it comes to Japan and being a peaceful society, the elephant in the room is always that Japan's population is 98.5% Japanese. It's a taboo and heavily censored topic.

[RustyIron]

Connecticut and RI

I looked it up. Connecticut law does indeed reference the length of the edged portion of the blade.

[standy99]

All these measurements…. I usually just google pictures until I see said knife in someone’s hand to get an overall size of a knife picture in my head.

[wrdwrght]

All these measurements…. I usually just google pictures until I see said knife in someone’s hand to get an overall size of a knife picture in my head.

So do I.

Too bad Evil D’s thread asking for photos of in-hand Spydies lost its umph. Picture-hosting uncertainties haven’t helped.

[ladybug93]

pictures of knives in someone's hand are relatively meaningless. unless you know that person's hand intimately, it's not very helpful in determining the size of a knife. actual measurements are universal and help everyone.

if you live in a place where it doesn't matter, that's great. some are not so fortunate.

i also really appreciate spyderco for printing a product guide with true-to-size images. that's a detail that isn't common and it's super helpful when considering knives.

[wrdwrght]

The idea of a library of in-hand photos was/is hardly meaningless.

Several keeners here have posted numerous in-hand pics of their different models. If a keener posted a knife I also had, then posted a knife I didn’t, I could easily—and even more meaningfully than a list of measurements—get an idea how my hand might work with the latter. I’ve done that on many more than one occasion without regret.

[Wartstein]

The idea of a library of in-hand photos was/is hardly meaningless.

Several keeners here have posted numerous in-hand pics of their different models. If a keener posted a knife I also had, then posted a knife I didn’t, I could easily—and even more meaningfully than a list of measurements—get an idea how my hand might work with the latter. I’ve done that on many more than one occasion without regret.

Yes, this might very well be true.

Still :When it comes to the topic of this thread - blade length, edge length and blade length vs edge length ( and that is something different to how a certain handle sits in a certain hand)- exact measurements are clearly more helpful to me personally.

For example: To me the 81 mm edge of the in (handle length shorter) Stretch 1 make a noticeable difference to the 73 mm edge of the (in handle length longer) Manix.
Just pics from the knives in someones hand might not really make clear and show that the Stretch 1 actually offers a good 10% more edge, at least never as well as exact data.

[HolySteel]

"...& SPOONS make people fat”, says a t-shirt I like to wear.

When there are no clean spoons, I have used a butter knife to get at the ice cream

Reading through this thread, I'm bewildered that knife length is such an issue. I have never heard of anyone having their pocket knife blade measured by an LEO and I'm having a hard time imagining the situation where that happens. Did I just jinx myself?

[Bolster]

The US, Israel, and Turkey have the highest rate in the western world. Overall, knife crime seems to scale with poverty and war pretty closely, which makes sense to me.

Just to clarify (and admittedly OT): the three nations you listed above are not the nations with major knife violence. Knife crime correlates to the relative unavailability of other deadly weapons, according to the article. (Crime in general correlates with heterogeneity more than poverty). You have to click on the header titled "Rate per 100K people" to get the sort that's informative (the other column "Knife Related Deaths" conflates knife crime with population). Don't know how Israel and Turkey got listed as western nations, etc, but they are not big knife crime countries -- they're low. High knife crime countries are a mix of wealthy and poor nations. Recommend readers examine the source for themselves:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/count ... by-country

[Bolster]

... double tap, sorry

[dsvirsky]

"...& SPOONS make people fat”, says a t-shirt I like to wear.

When there are no clean spoons, I have used a butter knife to get at the ice cream

Reading through this thread, I'm bewildered that knife length is such an issue. I have never heard of anyone having their pocket knife blade measured by an LEO and I'm having a hard time imagining the situation where that happens. Did I just jinx myself?

It must happen. There's case law (In re Rosalio S., 35 Cal.App.4th 775) in California on the subject of how it should be measured (sharpened edge vs total length).

[vivi]

"...& SPOONS make people fat”, says a t-shirt I like to wear.

When there are no clean spoons, I have used a butter knife to get at the ice cream

Reading through this thread, I'm bewildered that knife length is such an issue. I have never heard of anyone having their pocket knife blade measured by an LEO and I'm having a hard time imagining the situation where that happens. Did I just jinx myself?

The laws are on the books but you've gotta do something pretty dumb to draw that sort of attention to yourself.

[Accutron]

Blade length is nearly universally the legal test. Stab penetration depth potential is derived from blade length, and most criminal knife attacks rely on stabbing.

Of course, edge-length cannot be longer than blade-length so, as a guide, don’t buy a knife longer than the restricted edge-length, hence why knife-sellers usually advertise blade-lengths.

Edge length can be longer than blade length, if the sharpened edge comes farther back than the most forward portion of the handle. There are many examples, such as the ZT 0460.