Knife Design Originality

[ugaarguy]

In the Cold Steel S35VN thread the question of design originality came up. During the run of that thread I discovered the Factor Equipment Iconic knife, which has been discontinued, because Giant Mouse knives says it's a copy of their GM1 designed by Anso and Voxnaes. However, the Iconic reminds me of the Spyderco Domino. I think the GM1 itself is just a modified version of Eric Glesser's Domino. In the pictures, below, of all three knives note the similarities in: general blade shape, general handle shape, clip placement and angle, flipper, finger choil on blade, opening hole on blade, number and location of handle screws, and location of lanyard hole both on handle and in relation to the handle screws.

Domino:


GM1:



Iconic:



Thoughts from everyone else?

 

[hso]

I don't see either of them in the Spyderco or the Spyderco in either of them.

OTOH, the other two are strikingly similar.

 

[JohnKSa]

Honestly, I don't know if I would have tied any of them together if someone hadn't called my attention to the similarities or if I hadn't been looking for similarities.

That said, after comparing the three knives, I think that larger round hole and the resulting blade shape is what makes the Spyderco knife look significantly different from the other two. If you put a more oblong hole in the Spyderco blade and then reshaped the blade from the shape required by the large round hole to something more conventional, then all three knives would look very similar.

I think that a big part of the Spyderco "look" has to do with the blade shapes that result from the large round thumbhole. Probably why Spyderco defends the thumbhole trademark so aggressively.

 

[hso]

Probably why Spyderco defends the thumbhole trademark so aggressively.

IIUC, I think you mean that they defend the hole because it has become "synonymous" with the Spyderco brand is all and that communicates innovation and quality to buyers (characteristics that are valuable), correct?

If you were to overlay the Iconic and the GM1 I think the profiles are nearly identical (being very much a Jens Anso style), but the Spyderco edge profile and choil and flipper and the lock choil are going to give a different outline. The Chinese made Iconic was pulled and is being sold as discontinued because the "similarities" were pointed out.

View attachment 575420 View attachment 575420

 

[JohnKSa]

I think you mean that they defend the hole because it has become "synonymous" with the Spyderco brand is all and that communicates innovation and quality to buyers (characteristics that are valuable), correct?

No, not really. I originally typed that sentence to say: " Probably part of why Spyderco defends the thumbhole trademark so aggressively." but amended it because I was getting too many "part of" comments in that paragraph. In retrospect, it was more accurate with "part of" in place.

I'm sure that if you asked Spyderco they would have a response very similar to what you said and I wouldn't argue with them or you about the accuracy of the statement. But what I was getting at was that I think another part of it is that the size/shape of the Spyderco thumbhole creates distinctive and generally similar blade shapes which are easily recognizable--unlike other smaller/different shaped thumbholes which generally have no effect on the overall blade shape.

So not only is the hole strongly associated with Spyderco and not only is it an easily and widely recognized feature, by necessity, it also creates a general similarity in the profile of Spyderco knife blades which creates a brand "look".

The three knives in question are perfect examples of the size/shape of the thumbhole affecting the blade profile. All have thumbholes, but only the Spyderco thumbhole's shape/size necessitated a humpback blade. The other two knives have blade spines that align with the handles and have no humps.

If you were to overlay the Iconic and the GM1 I think the profiles are nearly identical, but the Spyderco edge profile and choil and flipper and the lock choil are going to give a different outline.

Right. So if the profile/outline of the open knife is the defining characteristic then that would be a definitive statement of similarity.

If one were to factor in the profile of the knife when closed, and also claim that handle appearance is a very important aspect of similarity then the Spyderco and Iconic would probably be the closest matchup of three since all three knives have pretty similar profiles when closed (if one can overlook the humped blade of the Spyderco) but only the Spyderco and Iconic both have one synthetic side and one metal side to their handles in the original picture set.