Why a clip point?

[LooseGrouper]

Here's an academic question I've been pondering while sitting around the house browsing THR and waiting for it to cool down enough to do yard work:

What is the purpose/utility of a clip point?

I can see the benefit of the strong tip a tanto style offers (even though I don't care for them). I grew up hunting, so I appreciate a drop point for not perforating internal organs when field dressing game. I follow the logic that a spear point is good for thrusting (point is on the same axis the grip, etc). Sheeps foot and spey blades have they specialized applications.

I can see where a sharpened clip might be useful in a fighting knife, but why is the design popular on traditional pocket knives and hunting knives? I'm not bashing them, and I think they are good looking (especially on large bowies). I'm just curious.

LG

 

[mete]

The original bowie did not have a clip point !! I have never understood why the clip point was ever made or why it's popular.

 

[JohnKSa]

If you want a really "pointy" tip on your knife, a clip point is a good way to get it.

I like a very sharp tip because I can put a false edge on the very end of the blade use the BACK of the point to score paper, etc. without dulling the blade.

 

[hksw]

The original bowie did not have a clip point !!

I understood that the brass spine was never used on Bowie's knife but this is the first I've heard the configuration was not originally a clip point. What profile was it?

 

[swampdog]

http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/adp/history/bios/bowie/knife_like_bowies.html

I think mete is correct about Bowies original knife. The clip point goes back much further than Bowie, though. Take a look at 15th century falchions. Scimitars also have similar profile. A clip point allows you to have more weight at the tip of the blade for slashing/chopping while still having a sharp back edge and a sharp point. The early Irish also used a clipped point sword, but I can't remember what it was called.

The brass spine mentioned was used to catch an opponents blade. I've seen pictures of a knife known as a "swordbreaker" which used "rambo like" serrations on the back edge of the blade to accomplish the same thing. This knife was also a clip point.

As far as why it's popular on modern hunting and pocket knives, unsharpened, the original poster answered his own question:

I think they are good looking

 

[Fosbery]

It lowers the point of the blade so you have more control over the tip. It also makes it 'pointier' and cuts down on weight.

 

[LAK]

In addition to a sharper tip as pointed out by JohnKSa, a clip point allows the tip or forward portion of the blade to get into more confined spaces.

Whether or not in fact Bowie's knife was clipped or not, many large blades of the period were basically chef's knives - either the wider type or the slimmer carving profile. A good chef's knife still makes for a useful general purpose outdoor knife.

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[hso]

No one knows what the Bowie "Bowie" looked like with certainty. We do know that the earliest published account was a newspaper article that described it as a large "butcher's knife". What that means is still under debate, but since we don't have Jim Bowie's "Sandbar Fight Bowie" we'll never know.

As to why the clip point? It's easier to forge than most other pointy knife tips. So if you wanted to have a sharp using point the clip was the easiest point to make.