.....

Aside from the fact that it's harder to sharpen, doesn't make quite as clean cuts... and scares some people with it's "evil" looking blade, what gives?
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I'd say you've answered your own question.
 
I prefer plain because they are so easy to sharpen. Serrations don't seem to need sharpened near as often, but when they do, you better have the patience of Job. Also it's an aesthetic thing, I just like the look of plain edges better. I have a combo Emerson that used to be my EDC, I found I didn't use the serrated portion of the blade very much.
 
Balisong artists often shy away from serrated blades since it's one thing to insert your finger wrong with a plain blade and get a clean cut, but quite another to insert it wrong into a serrated blade and get your finger ripped to shreds.

For general-purpose use, I prefer a combo blade. Serrations make quick work of cardboard and other "fiberous" stuff.
 
Spyderco has solved this debate with the Dyad and Dyad Jr knives, as they have BOTH a plain blade, AND a serrated blade in these very cool folders!.:).
 
A fully serrated blade is great for some jobs, rough cuts on rope, breads and cheeses, etc. A plain edge works best for the types of cutting I do.
 
<<...you better have the patience of Job (when sharpening a serrated edge).>>

You've obviously never used a Spyderco SharpMaker, Raver. 10-20 strokes every couple of days keeps my old Endura quite sharp. On the few occasions that I've really mangled the edge, less than a half-hour's work with both sets of stones had it back very nicely.

BlackRazor, I understand your question. There are simply some chores that a straight edge does better. For instance: My dad asked me to rig up an in-line switch on a light cord. I usually carry a SAK in addition to the "big" folder, but I didn't have it that day. I almost cut my thumb off trying to trim the wire insulation, using the Endura's full-serrated blade, without butchering the wire. My wife, who usually wears me out about carrying two knives all the time, understands now WHY; after she quit giggling at me cussin' & fussin' with that stupid power cord.

The Endura gets the nod 99% of the time; I even use it on veggies, etc. (which made the wife a believer in serrated edges). But that other one percent, the SAK is what I need. I thought about a Dyad, but I'm too attached to this old Endura...

Steve
 
BlackRazor, try hacking down some limbs for a shelter with a serrated knife when you see rain coming. Try beating your knife through a log with a piece of wood and see if your serrations are as pretty and straight as they were when you started. Carving wood presents a problem as well. What about anything that requires a delicate cut? Plain edges are superior in this area. Make the edge rough and it will cut almost as well as a serrated knife, polish it up when you want to push cut.
 
BlackRazor: well, first off, you have to realize that we make a big deal out of little things here. We argued for months about 154CM vs ATS34, as if anyone in the universe besides us would even remotely notice a difference.

But, getting down to serrations. One of the important factors in my dropping serrations and changing over to plain edges was my own ability to sharpen better. If I'm comparing a thickly-ground and polished plain edge knife to a serrated knife, the serrated knife just blows the plain edge away, at least for slicing. Once I learned to sharpen the plain edge much more thinly, and to leave a coarser finish for general use, things started to even up, and the plain edge started approaching the serrated edge in slicing performance. Don't dismiss the importance of this -- my hand-tuned plain-edge Axis 710 will outslice a serrated edge of similar size through hard poly rope! Anyway, now that the gap was closed in slicing performance, I began to notice the things that a plain edge was superior at. It push-cut better, it was better for almost all forms of food prep, it made neater cuts when I needed it to, it could whittle, it could slice looser materials (serrations do better on tighter materials), it could zipper cut any material well (serrations only zipper cut thin materials well). I was giving up all this, just because serrations might outslice my well-tuned plain edge marginally better? It didn't make sense to me anymore, and I changed to plain edge.

All in all, I find a well-tuned plain edge to be much momre useful all-around than a serrated edge. However, a serrated edge is arguably as useful, if not more so, than a badly-tuned plain edge. After all, the serrated edge doesn't just slice well, it keeps its cutting effectiveness far longer. That's just my view, if you do different types of cutting than me, you may very well be better served with serrations. But I have come to the conclusion that for general use, a plain edge with a carefully-chosen sharpening plan is just the ticket.

Joe
 
Why not have the best of both worlds? Get a partially serrated knife. :D I think many collectors prefer a plain edge for aesthetic reasons like Raver pointed out, but a plain edge is easier to sharpen for most. Personally, I can deal with both and depending on the task, I will use the appropriate edge.


th.octopuss.gif
"The man in the back has a question."
 
Joe,
What do you mean exactly by "sharpen the plain edge more thinly" and can you say more about how you have your 710 tuned that cuts so nicely? I am eager to learn more techniques and nuances to edge sharpenning. Thanks
 
For me serrations work the best on heavy cutting (tough hard plastic, thick cardboard, thin metal, rubber hoses, ect).
But I prefer a plain-edge for small delicate cutting (trimming a nail, cutting a cupon, sharpening a pencil, ect)
That's why I carry a Buck stockman (or a SAK or Micra) and a Spyderco Rescue. Unless you just love to sharpen your knife everday, serrations are the way to go for tough cutting. Sure a sharp plain-edge can cut as well, but not for as long as a serrated-edge.

Also, no matter how you sharpen your plain-edge, it will not make the blade longer. Serrations actually give you more cutting surface. I suspect a serrated Endura has at least a 1 inch longer cutting surface than a plain-edge endura.

As for splitting logs and hacking branches off of trees (and I hope you guys don't do that everytime you go camping--I've yet to see a forest that did'nt have plenty of dead-fall), there are better tools than a knife. Try a machete or an axe for those tasks.

Just my opinion.
Good luck,
Allen.
 
Originally I was a die-hard plain edge man. Now I own knives that are plain, combo, and all-serrated. I see uses for all configurations, depending what I want to do.

I view my folders as generally light to medium cutting tools. To hack off a limb or such, I would use an ax/hatchet, or use a saw.

The plain edge can do most any cutting chore a knife is for very well, but IME there are just some tasks I prefer a serrated blade, like cutting lots of rope or cardboard, or rough cutting. These have already been mentioned. Also, for me, the design of the knife itself decides for me if I want it plain or serrated...just a matter of personal taste. Seriously, we can argue which is better and why, but people have found great uses and preferences for plain, serrated, and combo, so all have been proven.

If you have a Spyderco Sharpmaker, maintaining a serrated blade is not that difficult. I recently had to resharpen the serrations on my Emerson CQC7A, and they actually ended up sharper/cut better than from the factory. (note: the serrations needed touching up; I've never let a blade completely lose its edge before resharpening, so YMMV).
Jim
 
Well I usually carry two knives on me...

Usually a serated spyderco or cold steel of some sort.

And a plain edge of any sort!

Got both worlds right in your waist band!
 
For EDC I like my combo blade in ATS-34 for all the
reasons mentioned above.
 
Also, no matter how you sharpen your plain-edge, it will not make the blade longer. Serrations actually give you more cutting surface
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Allen, that's a statement I see a lot, and one I used to believe myself; in fact, it may even be in the FAQ I wrote. I see the same claim made about recurve blades. Let me see if I can convince you that it's not the case, or you convince me I've missed something.

In the case of a recurve, there's no arguing you get more sharpened edge than a regular blade of the same length. However, if you're going to slice rope (say) with the recurve, you typically start with the rope nestled in the highest point of the recurve. That means all the edge behind that (closest to the handle) isn't used at all. Still, the recurve massively outslices the regular blade because of the geometry. So I feel that while there's no doubt there is extra edge length on the recurve, during a slice that extra edge length isn't used. In fact, on a recurve you might end up using less edge length than a non-recurve -- but the recurved geometry more than makes up for it.

Now look at a serrated blade. Obviously, there's more sharpened edge for the length. But what happens when I slice rope? If I'm pulling the knife towards me, the rope is cut totally on the front part of each serration arc -- the rope never hits the back part, which is moving in the wrong direction to cut the rope. So you're using only half the arc, and I'd bet that as a result, the effective edge length of a serrated blade on a slice is not very different than the edge length of a non-serrated blade.

What makes serrations slice well are two things: first, the points on the serrations concentrate the downward force, and let the serrated blade drive itself into hard material, where a non-serrated blade might just skitter across the top. Second, the little hooks in the serration force the material into the edge itself. As the material travels up the edge, it's subject to constantly changing edge angles while it's sliced, and there's also a forward ripping force that pushcuts the rope as well. That's what makes serrations effective, not any change in effective edge length.

You can see the principle easiest by simplifying the serrated blade. Serrations are arcs. So look at a Spyderco Harpy, which is just one big arc. It's got the same edge length as a delica. But for some types of cutting, the geometry of the arc on the Harpy really outperforms the delica. Even if you're just using a small part of the edge on the Harpy, the arc shape itself forces the material into the curve of the arc, where it's sliced along the way, and subjected to massive ripping and push-cutting forces at the apex of the arc.

Does this make sense? Am I missing some principle that shows how the entire serration arc is used in a slice?

Joe
 
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