Can the Bk16 be modded as a wood carver?

C

Chashmal

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Oct 8, 2017
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I started a spoon today on eucalyptus wood, used a mora & a condor bushlore & was highly impressed with the way the bushlore sliced through the really hard wood (not a surprise as Scandis live to slice wood). I decided to try a bk16, i do not need to enumerate its all around comfort and advantages as this is evident from even just holding one. However in carving its grind totally did not work, it didn't slice at all and even tore a piece off when pushed (a result of its toothy sharpness). This is not a flaw in the knife, it's a natural result of its ffg. However being that it's an all-round outdoor knife I'm wondering if anyone has changed the bk16 grind to successfully enable easy carving or made it into a scandi? (The 1095cv isn't considered a chippy steel, so im guessing it would tolerate it).
Thank you to all responders.
 
This might get more views if you asked the moderators to move it over into the Becker Knife and Tool forum. I think you could probably modify the BK16 to fit that role, but I am definitely not a knife-modification expert.
 
Chashmal said:
However in carving its grind totally did not work, it didn't slice at all and even tore a piece off when pushed (a result of its toothy sharpness). This is not a flaw in the knife, it's a natural result of its ffg.
Click to expand...

I don't see how full flat grinds would not carve, or why full flat grinds have "toothy sharpness." o_O

The cutting part of a scandi is flat too.

Do you want to take the BK down to a zero edge bevel? I'm not getting the issue.
 
I would agree with the others the FFG wouldn't affect carving ... but the thickness of the knife doesnt give at all carving so it is more prone to chip out pieces if the blade goes into the wood the same depth as a scandi grind or thinner FFG blade ...

IMHO ... I think it is much more just the blade thickness and stiffness ... it's just not made for thiner detail work ... you would have to thin it alot I would think to do much carving ... I'm sure if the knife is sharp enough and you were careful to only go very shallow as you carve you could probably do the job ... the 16 just may not be the best tool for that ...

where the Mora and others mentioned have a bit of flex and are more the tool type intended to do detailed carving ... unless you go to a real wood carving knife set.

JJ
 
That would be my take as well JJ. I can't see using a BK-16 beyond basic slicing in terms of wood.
 
I do a lot of wood carving with gouges and pocket knives and so on.
I also have a bk 16.
The problem is not with the ffg. Bench knives and so on are ffg and they don't have a problem carving wood.
If it's chipping wood then the edge is too thick or too blunt. It's not cutting efficiently, it's wedging when it should be slicing.
To remedy this lower the angle of the edge.
Also, the bk 16 is in 1095 Cro Van which can take a very very high mirror polish. I would recommend you go up to that kind of grit in finishing the edge on any wood carving tool. It makes it last longer and delivers smoother cutting results.
If ya thin the little guy out and sharpen to a higher grade of finish then you shouldn't have any problems.
 
The quality and shape of the actual edge have the most impact on carving, or any cutting for that matter. As mentioned above, FFG knives can carve just fine. If you are still running the toothy factory edge, I would recommend refining it. The more polished it is, the better it will be at push cuts in wood. I typically convex my edges and that works best for me. I can get better feathersticks with my edges thus than I can with any scandi knife I've ever used.
 
B"H

Thank you everyone for your responses and those who arranged for this thread to be moved to the becker forum.

A, Marcinek, the toothy sharpness i mentioned was the toothy sharpness that all new beckers have right out of the package (it was an unused bk16) which preferred to tear the wood fibres rather than slice them-nearly certainly exacerbated by the fact that eucalyptus is such a hard wood (& its dried firewood).

B, popedandy, what type of carving knives do you use? Do you mean full size knives or small specialized knives (e.g sloyds)? Also is the carving you do with them include cutting large swathes off (such as is done when roughing out the rough shape of a spoon from a rough piece of firewood) or more delicate and detailed carving?

C, JJ, 22-rimfire, student762 & DavidCAndersen, i actually sat down the night i wrote my question and lowered the angle so that now the bevel is about twice what it was when new (i was concerned that lower than that would effect its all around usefullness & toughness) & it seems very slightly convexy. It now slices wood much better & is also much sharper than when it came from the factory (truly hairpopping), still nowhere near as good as the mora or bushlore-but much better than the BenchMade bushcrafter 162, which even after hairpopping sharp turned out totally unwilling to do any meaningful carving. I cannot reprofile the BM 162 because everyone i have seen who reported doing so also reported chipping (s30v steel). In total i much prefer the bk16s lowered bevel now, for me so far it seems to live up to its reputation as a bushcraft knife in its present condition. The 162 on the other hand
hasn't shown me its 'bushcrafter' side-in my hands at least... (or justified its considerable price, imho feathersticks & batonning do not a 'bushcrafter' make-one of very few of my knife purchases that i presently regret due to its price vs its lack of delivered function).
Maybe i need to try with it more?


I have seen scandis advised as the wood working grind over others-specifically ffg in a number of places, amongst them:
(7:00-8:00)

8:20-8:50



3:00-3:35 that description of the knife wanting (or willing) to dive is also my (quite limited) experience the difference between scandis and ffg/saber while wood carving.
It has been postulated that this is all due to the thickness behind the edge but i have no way of measuring this, the 162 seems quite slim but just wants to 'jump out' instead.
 
BH

Thank you for the feedback.
How acute can you safely take the bk16 and still safely keep it strong enough for general use?.

Btw i feel that the BM 162 even though its not suitable as a do all knife for large wood working projects as it doesn't like to cut wood, those cuts that it does do leave a very smooth closed nearly polished cut and finish more so than the scandis i've used (which slice with abandon but leave behind a less smooth surface).
Ymmv
 
As detailed above, the beauty of a ffg knife is the option to change the edge angle to suit our needs.
As with everything there are trade offs in doing so
 
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