Joshua – French tools might be a nice augment to your straight edge and compass. – Phil

I like to sketch (model) in plasticine too.

Joshua,

Excellent post on your work with geometric designing! I would be interested in seeing more of how you do this. I've read some of Peter Johnsson's sword theory. Quite a bit for my little pea brain to absorb.

I am convinced that the use of Phi in knife design work has application; if you can get your head wrapped around it. I try to use the principles in the areas where I have come to understand it. But, have much to learn.

Phil,

Great idea on using plasticine for handle designing!

I have ground handle shapes out of wood, to see how they feel in the hand and to also create patterns for future reference. On some of the more complicated handle shapes, I write on the pattern what diameter wheel that I used to shape each area of the handle. Saves some time vs. standing in front of the grinder thinking; "now, how did I shape this handle before?"

I've begun using Inkscape recently. It's a completely free "vector" drawing application, which includes commercial uses. There were some youtube tutorials on using the program for knife making which was one of the reasons I gave it a try-I'm not exactly that great with computer programs. The program does a LOT of stuff from what I can tell, but I use about 3 or 4 tools on it and it's great. There are a few really nice features that I've liked: If you're trying to design a folder, I think it saves a TON of lead and erasers and paper... You can pick a point to rotate whatever you've drawn, in this case a blade. Now you can see if it fits correctly in your handle, how it will look closed, open, you get the idea. When I print out any design and don't like the size, the program is really nice. Drag a box around the entire thing, only the blade, whatever, and little arrows appear that you can drag to make it all bigger/smaller. Hold the Ctrl button down, click on the little arrow and drag it to make it bigger. Since you're holding down Ctrl, everything stays perfectly in proportion and does not get distorted in any direction. This is a fantastic thing for folders; everything remains just right, but can definitely help with fixed blades, too.

Probably more than anything, just playing with different blade designs so quickly and easily is great. What would the blade look like with a different grind, raised clip, no clip, recurve, wider, just a bit narrower, smaller ricasso, and on and on? If it looks goofy, right click and undo and you're back to what you just had. The other problem I've had before was messing up the pattern I'd drawn out and trying to replicate it or worry about getting copies of it before taking it into the garage. Saving the work on the computer means I can just print it out again and I know I've got an exact copy of what I had been working from before. Also, I've already taken something I thought was a good design, then opened a new page and began with it as a starting point and come up with something new. If nothing else, it seems to allow for the "creative juices" to get going.

Never thought I'd try designing knives on a computer, but I think I've officially switched camps.

Jeremy

Jeremy,

Thanks for the info on Inkscape. Free stuff is good!

Like you, I really like using the computer for design work. It's awesome for designing folders. I will often do a design, then duplicate it and continue changes to it. I can then compare the first version to the modified one and see which I like best. No erasers. No smudged lines. No trying to figure out how to save your first drawing before you make changes to it. The computer happily stores all of my designs, so no stacks of paper drawings.

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Like you, I really like using the computer for design work. It's awesome for designing folders. I will often do a design, then duplicate it and continue changes to it. I can then compare the first version to the modified one and see which I like best. No erasers. No smudged lines. No trying to figure out how to save your first drawing before you make changes to it. The computer happily stores all of my designs, so no stacks of paper drawings.

This is exactly what I do, except I use Photoshop for the drawings. I like that I can see the history of a design, observe my own design trends over the years, and reproduce any one of them more-or-less exactly simply by hitting "print." It's also great that they're scalable.