Nightmare Grind Butterfly Knives — Special Project

Nightmare Grind Butterfly Knives — Special Project

Posted on by Modell Design, LLC

A couple of U.S. Western-style knife makers did blades with a combination of different grinds.  For example, a convex (lenticular) grind adjacent to a concave (hollow) grind.  I am not sure this sort of thing is anything but aesthetic for most knives, but I can see how a strong tip grind for thrusting penetration without breaking followed by a sharp slicing grind might be useful, ignoring the potential stress points on the blade.  These sort of blades have what is known as a “Nightmare Grind” because they are a nightmare to hand grind though easier to machine on a CNC machine!  I thought about what kind of Butterfly Sword might appeal to a knife collector, and was advised that unusual grinds were popular these days so I doodled out a Nightmare Grind blade that would be flippable.  I sent it off to Forge Master Ali for him to do a prototype.  He decided to do a concave/concave combined grind instead of the easier convex/concave I recommended and found it quite a mouthful, so much so that he said the knife had to be put in the hands of someone who could appreciate the difficulty of the work.    

Nightmare Grind BJD Prototype
Nightmare Grind BJD Prototype

The prototype has 2 decorative mosaic pins and 8 small pins, plus glue, holding on each scale over the full tang.  The scales are made out of Cocobola, a naturally resinous, stable wood.  Blade length is 12″.  The blade is Bohler 440C stainless steel and the D Guard cast AISI 304 stainless steel.  The swage is not sharpened, and the knives can be flipped between the forward and reverse position.  Bottom line — these are fully functional for Wing Chun.

The current plan is to see what kind of interest there is in this far-out design.  If there is adequate interest, Modell Design LLC would do a limited run of 10 or so pair using a convex/concave combined grind with our usual martial arts handle material for sale at EWC to martial artists, and a few with more expensive materials for sale to knife collectors.

I am also debating putting  the same kind of blade on a “Historical Warriors” trapping only 2-in-1 D Guard.  Spoiler Alert:  That’s the name for EWC’s upcoming model for Leung Ting lineage users.  Everyone is pretty familiar with the “Leung Ting” square D Guard knives, but few realize the design was found in a Chinese Tomb by Dr. John Lee, the tomb raider of the Wing Chun world.  His deal with the Chinese government is he must sit on the discoveries for a number of years (I think seven) before revealing them.  There are a few custom BJD out there with square D Guard knucklebow these days, but this is the Modell Design LLC version.  That means a lot of attention has been paid to optimize the quillon for trapping, make sure there is just the right amount of space for the hand and create a comfortable 2-in-1 handle!  EWC also decided to go high end, and is using AISI 304 stainless steel, the best bolster material, for the D Guard.  I can’t wait to get my pair of one of those knives!

If you might be interested in Nightmare Grind BJD, please either contact EWC to express interest or just post here.  If you have suggestions here is good; this was just the prototype though there have been a number of Ooohs and Aaahs already.

And if you have your own ideas for a school run of 10 or more pair for your crew, please consider the EWC Custom Shop Program.  As far as I know it is the only affordable way to get the exact high quality knives your Wing Chun lineage needs.

51 thoughts on “Nightmare Grind Butterfly Knives — Special Project”

  1. Very nice how the different grinds are combined in one sword. Would be interesting to see these made and pop up with extra pictures in the online shop in the future 🙂

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