What grind for my knife

[Gary]

Mora knife is a little thin and I find it flex's alarmingly at the handle.

Best starter knife - either a frost clipper or a kellam utility.

Butchers knife - thats what a lot of mountain men started out with so you never know.

 

[Andy]

th one in question is a vixtorinox 6inch boning knife so it's not a big thing. full tang (half hidden) with a good wooden handel. the only stopping me is how much work it would be and the issue of the point control as the blade curves up to the spine. i do have access to a bench grinder so could drop this down but would that mess up the temper

 

[Colin KC]

Sorry Andy, was gonna post a reply on BB, but got sidetracked.

No, it won't affect the temper if you grind it cool (no blue ANYWHERE, constant cooling in water (any hissing, cool more frequently) hold till the water stays on the blade (doesn't steam off) use bare hands (fingers are sensitive to heat) if it burns your fingers it's too hot )


Good luck & show some pics

 

[Martyn]

Oi colin, you nicked all that off me on BB.

:-D

 

[Stuart]

There are many people out there who know far more about knives than i do so could i quote Kevin McClung a moment

"Sheffield, England was to straight razors what Detroit was to automobiles. Their only serious competition for sales in Europe and America came from that other historic cutlery mecca, Solingen, Germany.

Around the middle of the nineteenth century, beards came back into vogue in a big way. Contemporaneous to this was the romantic popularization of the Bowie knife. Sheffield had been producing large numbers of flat ground Bowies, but the demand in America far outstripped their flat grind production capability. The decline in straight razor sales offered the perfect solution so far as the British marketing types were concerned. To wit, make hollow ground Bowies. The production advantages were obvious. The hollow grind is simpler and faster to accomplish, as it removes far less stock than a flat grind. The equipment was already in place and lying nearly idle, due to the decline in razor sales. Thus began the age of the hollow grind, a decision driven by capital expediency rather than dedication to quality."

"Look no further than the flat grind for best general utility in a knife blade. Why? Because it is the least specialized. It suffers from none of the weaknesses of the other three from a user stand point, but it is slightly more costly and time consuming to produce, for the simple reason that as much as 60% of the stock must be removed by grinding, as opposed to the 10-30% removed by bevel or hollow grinding. The results are well worth the extra effort. Flat ground blades have a better strength to weight ratio and cut a wide variety of materials with less effort. The edge does not suffer weakness from excessive thinness, nor does the blade transition from edge thickness to full stock thickness too quickly, rendering the blade too fat to cut deeply with ease. The British had it right when they were selling flat ground cutlery to the discriminating buyer, who really needed a first class knife. As soon as faddish popularity kicked in, and everyone had to have a "Bowie knife", they started cranking out the hollow ground stuff"

Or Joe Talmadge at www.Bladeforums.com :

"The hollow grind is done by taking two concave scoops out of the side of the blade. Many production companies use this grind, because it's easier to design machines to do it. But many custom makers grind this way as well. Its great advantage is that the edge is extraordinarily thin, and thin edges slice better. The disadvantage is that the thinner the edge, the weaker it is. Hollow ground edges can chip or roll over in harder use. And the hollow ground edge can't penetrate too far for food-type chopping, because the edge gets non-linearly thicker as it nears the spine."

"The flat grind endeavors to provide an edge that is both thin and strong, and leaves a strong thick spine. The grind is completely flat, going from the spine to the edge. This grind is harder to make, because a lot of steel needs to be ground away. However, the edge ends up being fairly thin and so cutting very well. Because the bevels are flat, there is plenty of metal backing the edge, so it's much stronger than a hollow grind. It is not as strong as a sabre grind, but will outcut that grind.

The edge on this design also penetrates better for slicing and chopping. The hollow grind expands non-linearly as you go up the blade, the sabre grind expands linearly but very quickly. The flat grind expands linearly and slowly. Kitchen knives are usually flat ground, because when chopping/slicing food you need to push the blade all the way through the food. This grind is an outstanding compromise between strength and cutting ability, sacrificing little for either."

If you wish to learn a little more about knife blades etc please see the following links

www.bladeforums.com/features/faqbladegeo.shtml
www.capeforge.com/sharp.htm
www.arrow-dynamics.com/articlegrind.htm