One of the most confusing
descriptions for knives if one is unfamiliar with the terminology of
design is "clean lines". The closest analogy is "streamlined" as used on
sports cars, birds of prey, dolphins, airplanes and swallows. The idea
of streamlining is to permit an uninterrupted flow of air or water. On
furniture, painting and sculpture the term "clean lines" means an
uninterrupted flow of observation. There are no distracting features;
the eyes follow the curves and planes without having to jump around to
take in the entire object being viewed.
The use of lines in designing
a knife
My knife designs start out as
simple line drawings, much like the one below. I do not use a CAD
program for design as I believe that hand and pencil is much more suited
for designing an object that will be hand-held. Also, CAD gives a
"perfect line" and a "perfect curve" which the trained eye can detect
from a distance, and which the untrained eye instinctively rejects
without being able to put a reason to it. There is no "perfect curve" in
nature.
