Having seen Chisels picture I must correct myself; I like and have a wharncliffe.
Don´t have much use for a knife but mostly cutting up boxes or sausage packages for grilling or whittling some sticks. For those tasks I feel wharncliffe is perfect.

I read long time ago, that sailors in the past who climbed ship sails used Wharncliffe knives specifically. If the knife fell it won't stab anyone under, as the knife's tip is not centered, and the center of garvity of the knife is on the back of the blade, so it most likely fall on its back.

In these days, this can be applicable to electricians or handy people climbing ladders with someone down assisting them. It is worth considering if it proves to be true.

Once on You tube, I saw a bushcrafty lady with a clip point knife. The clip was so exaggerated, it is almost a reverse hawkbill and similar to persian. This design makes the tip so easy to break. OTOH, the knife is great for filleting a fish.

I would think a sheepsfoot would be better at ladder drop mitigation than a wharncliffe. Wharncliffes are still quite "pointy".

You are right.

You remind me of a colleague at work who brought a cheap knife to work. It was a fruit knife, and had a rounded tip. I liked it so much that my evil mind started daydreaming of 'borrowing' it. LOL.

Another colleague had a diver's knife which had a partial chisel head. Looks like a drop point with a broken tip. And the 'broken' tip was half-inch wide. That would be great all around camp, and great for digging, or removing bark ..etc.

I don't remember al the details but may be looked like this .
Although I think it was heavier
Would be great for working in the garden

I think divers probably have a greater need to pry things rather than stab them, and that's where the blunt tip comes from.

I make knives as a side business and I personally prefer a clip point. Almost all the knife people I know have gone through a tanto phase. I know I did. But the traditional tanto would not be my choice for a survival tool. That's not what it's designed for. Neither is a dagger. When I was an apprentice I reshaped a few Cold Steel SRK for people. Some of my own designs came out of those modifications and the original designs. As always this is jmho.

I find a blunt prybar tip has a lot more practical utility than people give it credit for. The only problem with dive knives is that the steel is generally lousy, chosen for corrosion resistance rather than edge holding.

These days, my favourite work blade in my garden, woods, and shop is a chisel-tip wrecking knife. This is a symmetrical scandi-grind with a thick spine. People literally laugh at it because it doesn't "look right." Then they use it for a while and come to respect its utility as a tool.



It digs, scrapes, pry's, and cuts like a champ. I would take one into the bush any time. Better still, I bought a raft of them on a clearance for $5 each.

Personally, I think the macho mentality that "I need a sharp point to kill a grizzly bear with my knife and skin it out after" is pure armchair horseradish. (There are of course practical uses for a sharp tip; I'm not dissing those at all.) My 2c.

Corrosion resistance is probably the number one priority for a dive knife. More important than edge holding. They haven't yet come up with "the one perfect steel" for every knife use. That's why we have so many to choose from. Each one is a compromise. The steel, the blade shape, the blade length, the handle ... everything is a compromise - and you choose which one fits your primary need the best. For working in the yard and around the house, my choice is a Mora Companion Heavy Duty made of high carbon steel. I wouldn't dive with it though.