The recurve blade is a design that has been around forever in some form, but in the past 25 years or so, it has really taken off and become a popular EDC profile. At one time, the design was made to facilitate chopping and hacking, but as knives and blade steels have evolved, so has the application of the recurve blade. Depending on which historian you believe, the design originated in the ancient world. The kukri, kopis, falcatta, golok, dao, scimitar, and other similar designs exhibit recurve styles with a larger curve and more weight toward the front of the blade. They were all almost undoubtedly choppers — whether meant to hack through thick vegetation or a warrior’s leather, metal, or wicker armor.
The geometry of the recurve potentially allowed for efficient slicing, and this pattern was popular on butcher knives and skinning knives in more recent centuries. We still see them on various choppers like machetes or kukris, but on the full range of EDC blades they offer another advantage:
