"All this takes only about ten seconds, and then I hang the knife vertically, with a nail through the thong hole (and that's one of the big reasons why most every LOVELESS knife has a thong tube; it makes things easy, handling the blades and knives here in the shop)."
- How to make knives, Richard W. Barney and Robert W. Loveless
Well, from one standpoint, the lanyard holes in most knives are necessary: Without one, it makes the knife harder to sell. Why, I don't understand, since most knives most of the time are better off without lanyards.
And as you see from the quote above, one use for the holes apparently is to make it easier to make the knives. Which obviously isn't of much use to a user, unless it also makes the knife less expensive. And yes: If there are two models of the same knife, one with and one without the hole, it's not unliklely the cheaper one would be the one with the hole, as that model likely would sell better.
I'll agree that sometimes, a lanyard can be quite necessary, but much of the time it's at best useless. If you're working over water or deep snow, then a lanyard around your wrist can be a good insurance against loss of the knife.
But unless you need the lanyard, I don't think it should even be fitted on the knife. When you carry it, you must either take extra steps to secure it or run the risk that it gets stuck on something. With knives, I see this as a safety risk. I also see it as a clear safety risk having a lanyard around your wrist if you're chopping; If it does slip from your hand, you certainly don't want it to come swinging back. Also, if you're walking around, stumbles and accidently drops the knife, it's better if it falls to the ground than having it with you when you hit the ground.
There is one chopping technique, when you grip the knife with just your thumb and the first finger, and you have a short loop around the fourth finger only to prevent the knife from slipping forwards from centrifugal force. I'm sure some people find this useful, but I don't, and it's certainly not a technique which is applicable on most smaller knives anyway.
OK, I'll admit it: I actually use the holes on a very few of my knives, but not for wrist lanyards, rather for a little piece of leather which makes the knife easier to withdraw from its sheath.
Document created 2000 July 30, content reviewed 2002 Feb 11, by