DIYPatriot: This makes me happy.
MVP: That's a good question, buddy. I have not, and here's why.
1) Less steel means less strength. If you happen to be hanging over the side of a building hanging on your knife while bad guys are shooting at you, do you want a tapered tang with lightening holes drilled in it? Probably not. You want that knife to be as strong as possible. Does the Yarborough knife have a tapered tang? No it does not. Like that knife, these knives are built to go places and do stuff. Not everybody needs a knife they can hang off of, but you never know what someone is going to end up doing with something you built. So I'll always err on the side of strength.
2) As you mentioned, that would throw the balance off. While balance is certainly an important consideration, it's not the end all be all of knife design - by virtue of their designs, some knives are simply going to be blade heavy and some are not. However, if I've got a design where everything came together just right, it wouldn't make any sense to me to change it.
3) These knives already have slim feeling handles, and additional slimness would be of no benefit to the user. In fact, it might be a hindrance - from both a retention and a comfort standpoint. Take a steel bar, hold it like you would a knife, and whack stuff with it. Not very comfortable or stable. Now do the same thing with a steel pipe. Much more comfortable and stable.
x SF med: Actually, I'm doing a pass around on another forum. I'd be happy to get you plugged into that.
Same goes for the anybody else interested. There are rules, though.
