Awesome regrind of ZT 0562 by Josh at Razor Edge Knives

T

Twindog

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Josh at Razor Edge Knives just did a regrind of my Zero Tolerance 0562 Elmax. This knife comes stock with the “slicer grind” of the Hinderer 056x series. It’s a great knife, but it isn’t really a slicer. In stock configuration, the edge shoulders are 0.035 inches with an edge 30 degrees inclusive. In my experience, real slicers with that acute an edge bevel have to be sub 0.020 inches at the edge shoulders.


In addition, the blade comes with a bull nose that carries almost its entire tang width of 0.1545 inches out to an inch from the tip.


So I asked Josh to turn my faux slicer a real slicer. He did an awesome job.


The new edge is the same 30 degrees inclusive, but the edge shoulders are 0.010 to 0.012 inches — so fine it’s difficult for me to measure. The tip has a full distal taper to a very fine point. It now slices like a maniac. Slicing paper creates tiny, hair-sized curlycues. And yet I can whittle wood hard and the edge is undamaged. Being Elmax, a super tough stainless steel helps.


The photo below shows Josh’s regrind of my ZT 0562 Elmax (lower knife), compared to the upper knife, which is a stock ZT 0562CF M390.


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The two photos below show the regrind and paper curlycues that it shaves with ease.


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The photo below shows the stock ZT 0562 with a 30 degree inclusive edge. Over the top of it is the reground blade, also with a 30 degree edge. The new bevel is much narrower and cuts much better.


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The photo below shows the stock ZT 0562 next to Josh’s regrind. You can see that the tip is much more acute, making it far better for detail work or normal EDC tasks.


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In addition to being a super slicer, the narrow edge shoulders make the knife a breeze to sharpen because so little metal has to be removed.
 
That is sweet dude. What did it run ya to do that?
BTW. You may not think it but the BM 808 loco is a pretty good slicer. It is about 15 to 20 thousandth on the shoulder with a full flat grind from the spine down
 
nick_30 said:
That is sweet dude. What did it run ya to do that?
BTW. You may not think it but the BM 808 loco is a pretty good slicer. It is about 15 to 20 thousandth on the shoulder with a full flat grind from the spine down
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Josh was extremely generous with me. His costs are listed on his site.

My Benchmade Barrage also came with very narrow shoulders, making it a great slicer. But most of my ZTs have had really heavy blade geometry. It's kind of sad, because 90 percent of the potential performance of their knives are lost to the design process before the knives are even ground.

I suspect that wide shoulders and obtuse edge bevels are what makes so many people hate to sharpen knives. But if the geometry is right, sharpening is a breeze. And the edges stay sharper longer and cut much, much better.
 
That is interesting about blade geometry. You would think it would be more delicate but it shows in ankerson cutting test
 
nick_30 said:
That is interesting about blade geometry. You would think it would be more delicate but it shows in ankerson cutting test
Click to expand...


It is more delicate, although that's not the word I'd use. Maybe, less robust. A heavier blade will take more abuse. But for normal EDC tasks, thinner geometry gives you the best performance.
 
It's a totally different knife but, I suppose, that's the point.

I very much appreciate you putting the stock knife in the pic for comparison. I like what he did with the top line of the blade. makes it look nice and flowing.
 
Josh's work is incredible and this is one more example.

Beautiful job. :thumbup:

Andrew
 
AFAustin said:
Josh's work is incredible and this is one more example.

Beautiful job. :thumbup:

Andrew
Click to expand...


I had been thinking about this regrind for a long time, but I was nervous about trying it out on my ZT 0562 M390, which is no longer available.

But when I thought about it, the Elmax version of this knife made more sense because of Elmax's toughness advantage over M390 and all other stainless steels. A third-generation powder steel with high toughness and good strength due to hardness just cries out for thin geometry. So I bought a ZT 0562 in Elmax just for this purpose. Most of my great ideas don't pan out the way I envision them, but Josh did great work. What really made me happy was how well the thinned Elmax blade stood up to whittling forces.
 
Thanks for posting this review up Josey, very kind of you and I am very glad to hear it's performing as expected!
 
Here is yet another thread extolling Josh. The dude is a talented craftsman and nice guy who actually lives up to the praise that is regularly heaped upon him in this forum.
 
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