Blade Recurves

Do you prefer recurved blades.

  • Yes

  • No

Results are only viewable after voting.
H

Hypermole

Joined
Aug 23, 2012
Messages
662
I'm just curious what most people here think.

I personally see no value and find that recurves take away from the aesthetics and ease of use of any blade.
 
A recurve just significantly adds to the difficulty to sharpen a pocket knife, while adding nothing of value. It has use on a larger fixed blade, but on a blade under 4-5" it's just a waste.
 
I don't generally "prefer" them, but I don't mind them either. There are also a few knives that I think look better as recurves, such as my ZT0920 below. In this case I think the mild recurve fits the lines of the knife better than a straight edge would.:thumbsup:

zt-jpg.760123
 
I don't like them on folders, generally, but I have a couple because there are other aspects of the knife I enjoy.
 
I generally avoid recurves outside of large fixed blades. They're more of a pain to sharpen and the recurve doesn't really add much utility until you get into chopper sized knives in my opinion. That said, aesthetically I usually find recurved blades more visually appealing. There's often a bit of a paradox between what I find beautiful vs practical.
 
I prefer to not have a recurve ... but they have their place ... if you want a larger camp knife to chop with or cutting rope the recurve grabs a bit better and gives a small benefit in those and some other certain purposes. But for a general use knife I prefer a non recurve.
 
If I'm going to have a blade with a concave region in its profile, I want the whole thing curving forward. Recurves do nothing for me under the overwhelming majority of circumstances. It can sometimes be handy in large chopping blades for mass distribution or to trap vegetation, but in small knives I find it a nuisance, and I find them poorly done or purely cosmetic in many large knives as well.
 
I don't mind them. On some knives they are better than others. Definitely the Commander series does a nice recurve. I like how it catches things that I am cutting. They are not that hard to sharpen if you freehand them with the Spydie Sharpmaker rods. When sharpening a recurve I use the flat of the Sharpmaker rod to do recurves. The two corners of the flat sweep one after another along the inside radius one after another.

Sharpening often creates a recurve after a while
 
My largest complaint with recurves is that they're usually included in designs these days for artistic flair rather than as a functional feature. As a result, you get "meh" performance out of it because it's not designed for anything besides eye candy. There are good recurves, and bad recurves, and good ones take into account what materials are going to be cut with that region and under what contexts. There's a lot of ways to shape a curve, and it's a matter of shaping it right if you're going to include one.
 
One only has to look at some of the Mick Strider Custom stuff to see that the high dollar multi-grind stuff was never intended to be used, let alone sharpened.
 
I wouldn't say I prefer them but I do like them. Much of it is aesthetic but on some things it does help draw the media into the blade and reduce slip. Both mine are pretty mild recurves so sharpening is not much more difficult than any other. I like a lot of different blade shapes and recurve is one of them.
YeSNyu5.jpg
 
G. Scott H. said:
I don't generally "prefer" them, but I don't mind them either. There are also a few knives that I think look better as recurves, such as my ZT0920 below. In this case I think the mild recurve fits the lines of the knife better than a straight edge would.:thumbsup:

zt-jpg.760123
Click to expand...

Off topic, hows the Airborne? That blade profile and overall knife shape is badass, that knife is pretty high on my to-get list.
 
Cutlover said:
Off topic, hows the Airborne? That blade profile and overall knife shape is badass, that knife is pretty high on my to-get list.
Click to expand...

I really like it, with one minor exception. The fact that the flipper folds up means that it's not there to hit your finger upon closing the blade like fixed flipper. As a result, the first time I closed it I cut my thumb, since I was thinking in terms of a traditional flipper where the flipper would hit my thumb first, stopping the blade, and letting me move my thumb out of the way before closing the blade all the way. It's not a big deal, but it is something you need to get used to. :thumbsup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top