chisel tip or tanto tip quesiton

[Barry Clodfelter]

Hey guys why are most tanto blades or chisel tip blades cut with the angle on the left side if looking down the spine with the tip pointing away from you?

Seems like for most right handed users it would be more beneficial to have the bevel on the right side. For example I like to whittle when I'm hunting and one of the knives I carry is a tanto and the way the bevel is cut it makes it all but impossible to shave off very thin strips. But it the bevel were on the other side it seems like this type of tip would be much better at cutting those thin strips than any type of v bevel.

Thought??

 

[Carcara]

It is covnevtional for knives in the US to be photographed with the
point to the left, to show off the grind lines of chisel ground blades,
most knives are made with a left hand grind here. The bulk of
chisel ground knives in Japan are right hand ground. A left hand
ground sashimi knife might even be a special order item that cost more.

 

[Fellhoelter]

I've always figured it's so the good looking side is visible when held in the right hand.

I grind all mine on the right though, properly for a righty....

 

[Barry Clodfelter]

So does that mean they are ground that way for aesthetics and not function assuming a right handed user?

 

[Fellhoelter]

Exactly

 

[Carcara]

If you are whittling by pulling the blade towards your thumb of your right hand while holding the knife in your right hand, then a left hand grind is pretty useful to have.
So for wood carving knives it is nice to have both.

 

[Leu Custom]

I think it's because the companies doing chisel grinds don't give a ka-hoot whether it works well or not for the right handed people !!

 

[Barry Clodfelter]

After thinking about it a little I think it could be that when plunged into a semi-rigid object (read that human body) they are designed to be twisted and twisting toward the beveled side would be a lot less resistance than twisting toward the flat side. For a right hander twisting clockwise is the natural movement...hence the left bevel.

 

[Fellhoelter]

Why would there be less resistance twisting toward a side with greater surface area?

 

[Barry Clodfelter]

Not sure why just applying what happens when shooting a single bevel broadhead. With a right hand fletch and a right bevel broad head the broad makes more of a turn in a target than an arrow with left hand fletch and a right bevel broadhead.

 

[Fellhoelter]

Ahh, but in that case you probably have forces working with (right, right) or against each other (Left, right).

 

[Barry Clodfelter]

Thats exactly my point. the flat side of the bevel puts up more resistance than does the ground side. So it without trying it it seems natural that the flat side of the bevel would offer less resistance when turned in a semi-rigid target. And for a right handed user the natural spin of the wrist would be clockwise or toward the bevel.