Ok, DB's why a straight razor instead of a knife with a point? Any practical reason or application other than it looks cool and I need another knife? Is it to open mean blister packs on Glock mags or cut the tongues off of mean snapping turtles?
You are getting distracted by the straight razor thing. It's not a razor. It's a knife.
We've been using straight blades for time immemorial. Where I grew up the majority of all the Old Timer and Case Knives that were multi-blade had a straight blade option.
This is not a new thing. Look up Spyderco ROC. Extrema Ratio T-Razor, Kizer Sheepdog, all kinds of variants out there.
This is just Gerber's variation on a theme. They did a good job on this rendition at a good price point. Very good price point. And the way they did that is by using shitty Chinese stainless steel like most knives at that price point. But thanks to the size of the blade, coupled with the hollow grind, you can overcome the crappy steel and make it truly scary sharp.
It cuts things. It cuts things very efficiently as Tom said. Because you can make it sharper than a curved blade with a point. You cut all the same things you do with a pointy knife, but you do it better, and safer, because it is sharper.
In general, outside of some defensive scenarios, pointy is a poor substitute for sharpness. With a sharp straight you don't have to make that compromise.
The rare time we need our tips, we should probably be using another tool, a la prying stuck brass (or prying anything anywhere period) from our gunked up .22 chamber.
Cutting boxes? Cutting into small game to gain purchase so you can pull the hide off? Ultra sharp generally makes point moot. Then when sharp really matters, like cutting rope or seat belt in an emergency, you are carrying a blade that is sharper than any pointy curve ever could be. That is why we are sometimes willing to sacrifice the convenience points have, to carry sharp.
Exclusively carrying pointy blades was not the norm, but rather a by-product of automation and sharpening being lost as a skill amongst men in lieu of consumer access to cheap semi-disposable implements.
DB
