Competition Cutter

Many years ago I competed in knife cutting competitions, and although the skill of the user plays a huge part in a winning result, no small amount of attention is paid to every element of knife design.  Out of the heyday of cutting competitions came many new features and designs that made competition knives a design category of their own.  

This knife, although outside the size parameters of a competition knife (max 10" blade length, 2" blade width, 15" overall), it follows some of the tried and true elements of great competition knife design, and was the perfect canvas to text drive something new.

If you follow my work you've seen this blade grind on different knife styles over the last few years, and it provides a cool twist on a knife intended for competition (as well as any good chopper). The cleaver style blade shape is very classic at this point in history for its versatility as a chopper, coupled with the super-deep hollow grind with the reinforced cutting edge gives you a knife that has excellent weight distribution, a lighter overall weight, and for this application makes for a blade that has very low drag on heavy materials like wood. As soon as the material being cut clears the primary edge and meets the hollow ground portion there is no longer any drag, allowing for a deeper cut. In its testing phase, I was able to sue this knife to clear several heavy tree limbs in the wake of Hurricane Helene. It works.

The blade is forged from 80CRV2 with bright satin finishes on the bevels (for reduced drag) and forge texture remaining otherwise. The handle is scalloped black canvas micarta with carbon fiber reinforced lanyard holes. Another feature from competition knives is the forward lanyard. It is extremely effective in anchoring the hand to the handle during fast cutting, so I made the knife will hollow pins all around to give the flexibility to use front or rear lanyard placement.

The sheath is an open back design without belt loop and Dragonskin leather.

Blade Length: 10", Blade Width (at widest point): 2.75", Overall:15.6"