Asymmetric Edge Resource Thread

[litew8]

Well being a newbe on this form, not new to knives, but i am certaintly learning alot, but confused on this type of edge. Being a lefty will this edge work ok for me, i do have a B11, with a asymmetric edge comming my way.

I hope someone can answer my question, tell me it' will be no problem,or recommend something.

Thanks, Al

[d762nato]

Well being a newbe on this form, not new to knives, but i am certaintly learning alot, but confused on this type of edge. Being a lefty will this edge work ok for me, i do have a B11, with a asymmetric edge comming my way.

I hope someone can answer my question, tell me it' will be no problem,or recommend something.

Thanks, Al

I believe the asymmetrical type edge has to be ground on the opposite side from a normal ground asym edged blade to be proficent for a lefty. But i would imagine it would still work for you. There are some asymmetric edge users around here that may be able to shed more light on your question though.

[PeterPHWS]

Well being a newbe on this form, not new to knives, but i am certaintly learning alot, but confused on this type of edge. Being a lefty will this edge work ok for me, i do have a B11, with a asymmetric edge comming my way.

I hope someone can answer my question, tell me it' will be no problem,or recommend something.

Thanks, Al

Al, if you were using an ASM edge as a lefty I suspect you might get the knife to work better if it were altered to a fully convex grind .... by that I mean taking the flat ground side which is the left hand side holding the knife away from you edge down .... and centralising the edge pinnacle by brining it to the middle.

Whilst the edge is not a chisel grind ... it is more sophisticated than that ... the way the edge works in the left hand is that you are cutting with the wide convex edge facing the wood ... this is likely to cause the edge to want to "roll" out of the cut rather than "bite into" the cut which happens when using it as a right hander ....

It is slightly akin to trying to use a chisel the wrong way up .... you are more likely to slide along the wood than bite into it ....

If the edge was swapped around then it would work fine .... but you would lose a fair bit of the depth of the grind to do this ..... and the thickness of the blade at such height behind the the edge would not be condusive to performance because you would be removing a fair old bit of metal ....

For your purposes flipping the grind to a central convex edge is best .... or sell the knife as these go for a premium .... and get a normal grind convex B11 and then perhaps look to using it as is or sending that in to be done for a left hand ASM grind .... that way will lose a lot less steel as you are half way there to moving the blade edge over to a left handed position for an ASM grind.

I know this will sound bad news but the ASM edge B11 is a lot more moveable on the market .... and getting what you want eventually will be a lot easier with that knife as your "trade" ...

[resinguy]

Another idea is to call the Shop, ask for Jerry, and ask him if he thinks his creation will work as well for a lefty.

[litew8]

Thanks for all the help, never heard of this type of edge, figures i'd pick one up. Deffently not a lefty's world.

[resinguy]

overdue bump...

[resinguy]

just because...

[Flatsman007]

Thanks Guy, this is very useful.

[Tyrade83]

We will have to ask Steve how well his new B9 works for him, being a mutant freak of nature lefty that he is Sorry bro

[Bigfattyt]

I have no real "insight" to add.

I got a B11 in standard form. Took one edge and took the bevel down to 17 degrees or so, then convexed the other side to try it out.

(I know the flat bevel should actually be even closer to a 10 degree or so, so I plan on trying to sharpen the convex more, and the flat less to move more towards that angle).

I usually do a light pass or three on the flat side as well, when I finish it up.

Seems to stay sharp very well so far. I do need to get a bigger ceramic rod for home use (the one I use is a short 6 inch or so on with no handle or guard......watch those fingers!)

[resinguy]

Time to bump it up...

[RokJok]

I do need to get a bigger ceramic rod for home use (the one I use is a short 6 inch or so on with no handle or guard.

Check out the Big John ceramic stick from Smokey Mountain Knifeworks via Amazon for $6.49. Gotcha to be aware of is that you might have to re-epoxy the handle back on. I got several of their smaller rods, as well as this larger one, and the handles on a couple of the smaller ones came off pretty easily due to poor glue bond. I haven't used this larger one because I got a diamond-rod sharpener which I prefer to my ceramic rods (and use exclusively these days) shortly after I acquired the ceramic rods, so can't say how secure the handle on the Big John actually is.

[stjones]

We will have to ask Steve how well his new B9 works for him, being a mutant freak of nature lefty that he is Sorry bro

Thanks Tony!!
I like the righty A Sym edge just fine but I would LOVE to try a lefty A Sym edge.

[Lycosa]

Jerry- Please make more!

[Brian_T]

Good timing on that bump.

I'm converting an edge to Southpaw Asymmetrical this morning and was looking for information on which side was flat versus which was convex and now I know.

It makes sense, I naturally wanted to convex the left side because that movement is more natural for me and then the flat right side will also be more natural when working with the steel and stones.

B

[resinguy]

bump for the newbs...

[mamun1024]

Perfect timing. Most of my users are ASYM so this is great.

[papathud]

The Two largest issues with the Asym edge are that it looks odd and people work too hard at it an take WAY too much time.

Less than a Minute with a Crock stick and 20 seconds on loaded Leather and chances are that you are Done.

More than that and you are wearing at the Burr instead of Sharpening it.

Often just Ten Seconds on the Crock Stick and you are done, I Demonstrated at the shows how to do it, Just Too easy for most to believe.

[AngryDaddyBird]

Glad you bumped this! My B9 has this edge and I was wondeing how to sharpen it or if I should just convex the left edge to match the right edge. Now I think I'll just leave it!

[papathud]

Unless you have done something Harsh to it, you just Drag against the smaller of the two Sides against a Crock Stick, that is, Draw the knife Back from the edge, not cutting into the Crock Stick, and mostly just on the one side, say 90% or your effort and under a minute over all, it really is as Simple as that, if it is not sharp enough to Suit you like that take a few passes with a Loaded Strop, say 20 seconds or so.

Most Commonly if the Knife was used Chopping you might Start by cleaning the knife, I saw more Dull from the Factory that just needed the excess compound wiped of with a little WD-40 than were actually not sharp.

So, before you touch up the edge on Even a Crock stick, make sure the knife edge is clean, you may find it does not need "Touched up"