Chisel grind - flat side on the left or right?

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DavidL41

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Oct 12, 2014
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Mostly I do leather working and am in need of a new knife soon. It is going to be a chisel blade http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product/156498/112-Leather-Knife--Hidetsugu.aspx and I have the option to buy the bevel on the left side or the right side.

If I am trying to get a 90 degree straight cut and am cutting on the right side should I have the flat side on the left (closest to the leather) and the bevel on the right or other way around. Most of the time I see people use the bevel on the left side.

Is there a difference in which side has the flat edge in terms of cutting a 90 degree cut (not slanted left or right). In wood working if I remember correctly they use the flat side on the cutting line of mortises why don't the right handed leather working knives have the bevel automatically on the left.

I can't find my knife to try it out and would like to see if anyone knows the technical viewpoint of it. If it makes any difference I make straight chisel cuts and push forward to cut too.
 
Emerson knives are chisel grinds. One of their most popular knives is called the CQC7.

It has the bevel on the left side of the blade, and the right side is flat. I've seen posts questioning why they are made this way, as they complain the they cut straighter in the left hand than in the right hand, and most people are right-handed of course.

That being said, it seems that it depends on which hand you use to cut, and that having the flat side toward your body central mass instead of away from it is the way to go.

You might want to cut and paste this question in the Emerson forum. There you will find people with the most experience cutting with chisel-ground blades.
 
If you take a look at higher end, chisel ground Japanese cooking/sushi knives the bevel is set up for right or left handers. The side emerson grinds is actually a left hand chisel grind, but for marketing reasons the ground side is on the presentation side.
 
Yep. Basically if you are cutting away from yourself (say on a piece of wood) You want the flat side down
 
DavidL41 said:
So right bevel for right handers and left bevel for left handers?
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Correct,
If you are right handed you want the chisel grind on the right side when holding the knife in your hand.

I make and use chisel ground blades a lot and they are great for getting straight cut due to the flat side of the blade
 
In my opinion there isn't truly such a thing as a "handed" chisel grind--I routinely make cuts in every direction and orientation with my knives, and depending on that orientation a chisel grind of either side might be more or less appropriate. However, a single bevel does mean that you need to pay attention to how the blade is oriented. Since the flat side needs to face towards the surface you want square, the knife has to approach the cut from a particular direction. For instance, if you were cutting a circle with a "right beveled" chisel grind you'd be cutting clockwise, while a "left beveled" chisel grind would be cutting counter-clockwise. In deciding which side you want the bevel on, think about what motion would be most comfortable for making the cuts you plan on using the knife for. :)
 
here in the philippines, the chisel grind is on the right (when the edge is downwards) for right handers. this way, you get a better cutting angle when you chop a vertical sappling on the right side in a right-up to left-down direction. also, you cut better during a horizontal cut on soft shrubs when you backhand the blade with your right (these two cuts are the ones i observe being done most.) when planning wood during carpentry, you hold it with the chisel ground facing up, holding the knife at the handle and pushing the spine near the tip, much like a draw knife. for leather work, it's the same thing: chisel side facing up when cutting/slicing the exposed side of the leather.

i don't really understand the emerson left-side grind.
 
hank your post made me think of wood planers using chisel grind blades. Some use the flat edge on the bottom or the other option is flat edge on the top and they add a chip breaker on the top. Any one know why people would have the flat edge on top plus the chip breaker rather than the first option.
 
kniferbro said:
Yep. Basically if you are cutting away from yourself (say on a piece of wood) You want the flat side down
Click to expand...

I thought the same till I tried to make a fuzz stick with my A-100 with my left hand. You need the bevel side down so you can use the bevel shoulder to control the knife's angle of attack, if you have the flat side down, it's very difficult to turn the blade up out of the wood. Cooking knives with chisel grinds are the opposite, because those knives are designed to make a straight chop cut through a material, so the chisel grind gives you a lot of accuracy.
 
Muaddib1116 said:
I thought the same till I tried to make a fuzz stick with my A-100 with my left hand. You need the bevel side down so you can use the bevel shoulder to control the knife's angle of attack, if you have the flat side down, it's very difficult to turn the blade up out of the wood. Cooking knives with chisel grinds are the opposite, because those knives are designed to make a straight chop cut through a material, so the chisel grind gives you a lot of accuracy.
Click to expand...

Yup. Without a bevel you have no room to break from the cut.
 
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