Convex or flatground knives: Tapered blade?

peripatew

peripatew

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Jul 31, 2007
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I'm still pondering my new knife order, and trying to think through all the details while I still have time to tweak them. My current Krein Bushcraft has a slighly tapered blade. It is a complete tank, and it is an amazing slicer.

My new XL Bushcraft will be 4.5", and I'm trying to think through the benefits of not having the blade tapered? I blade on batoning and really using this knife.

I was just curious how many of your knives have a tapered blade? My Bushcraft is full flat, so I think this naturally makes it a tapered blade. But I had thought about doing a 95% flatgrind, leaving a small portion of the top of the blade "stock" thickness. Similar to the blade geometry of a Ritter Grip:

Edited to clarify: I'm not asking if you like convex or flat grind better, but of these two grind types, what are everyones thoughts of tapered blades?

Ritter5.jpg


Thoughts? Feedback?
 
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Tough choice buddy, I think a full flat grind such as on my Spyderco Temperance will slightly out cut a similar sized convex grind knife but as mentioned the convex will most likely prove a more durable edge !!!!
 
Tapered blades are great. I think either choice would be fine. Full flat and tapered probably...(depends) has less material near the point so if you are for, or against a fine point you may want to consider that.
 
I think I'm out of touch with the trend here as my F1 size knife has a taper that I really like. It's another reason why I retained it over the F1. Most of the comments I've seen here go on about no taper being preferred as it is desirable to maintain tip strength. I'm not sold on that. Part of me also suspects it is fueled by makers after an easy life.

Apart from being visually more pleasing I like the finer points with a tapered blade. The key advantage though, affording better blade flex under load [like a bow], isn't something that I've ever pushed knives into testing.
 
I think both full flat, and full convex will naturally taper. If you sabreground then you wouldn't get as much taper till the very tip.

I always lean convex. But it seems I learn more with each knife, and consider each grind to be a thinner meaner cutting slicer. I recently got cut with a zero edge convex I'd just finished sharpening up. Not good. A really well done convex edge laughs at flesh.

As to batonning. I've batonned my 3/32" thick Nessmuks with no issues what so ever. Now, I wasn't railing on it with rebar. But I did split 4" hickory rounds with it while using another hickory branch to do the batonning.
 
baldtaco-II said:
Most of the comments I've seen here go on about no taper being preferred as it is desirable to maintain tip strength. I'm not sold on that. Part of me also suspects it is fueled by makers after an easy life.
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I think it has a lot to do with makers scared to guarantee a knife that requires common sense. My grandad would have slapped me in the back of the head if he saw me prying with my knife.:rolleyes:
 
Fiddleback said:
I think it has a lot to do with makers scared to guarantee a knife that requires common sense. My grandad would have slapped me in the back of the head if he saw me prying with my knife.:rolleyes:
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Yep! It's hard find that fine line between a durable and a useful point. My 2¢: I'd rather have a fine point and use it wisely than have an extra-strong point that won't help remove a splinter or do other delicate work. But, I do more splinter picking and other such than I do batonning or prying open doors and treasure chests, your needs may vary;)
 
baldtaco-II said:
Most of the comments I've seen here go on about no taper being preferred as it is desirable to maintain tip strength. I'm not sold on that. Part of me also suspects it is fueled by makers after an easy life.
Click to expand...
Imo, it's no harder to taper a blade that not to taper a blade. Like fiddleback said, on a full height convex you get an almost natural distal taper. It's just a matter of a little different hand movement when grinding.
Later,
Iz
 
bindlestitch said:
Imo, it's no harder to taper a blade that not to taper a blade. Like fiddleback said, on a full height convex you get an almost natural distal taper. It's just a matter of a little different hand movement when grinding.
Later,
Iz
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It does seem to have gone somewhat the way of the dodo amongst all the hobby makers working exclusively at stock removal nowadays here. It is far more common to see just a bit of flat bar stock with a lone bevel dubbed down one side served up as a bushcraft something or other.
 
I’m a bit confused here? :confused: :eek: :confused:

Are we talking about distal taper (taper from handle to point)…

…or a taper from the spine to the edge, as in a full height convex or flat grind?




"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
I like a good distal taper, and find many of my favorite knives are built that way.

Not all feature a full distal taper but only taper at the front part of the blade, this is more apparent in stock removal knives, I find forged blades are more likely to have a full taper.

I think most small to medium knives are improved by some taper, but I like the added forward weight and tip strength of a minimal taper on my big choppers.





"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
For me its a weight consideration too. When you distally taper a full flat ground blade and taper the tang, the weight drop is very significant.

For me too, its a matter of blade shape as well. If the edge side is really curved with a large belly, then a full flat tends to have more distal taper. If the blade is cleaver shaped with little to no curve, then it doesn't have much of a distal taper if any at all. For me it is more a side effect of the particular grind then something I purposely intend.

To answer your 95% flat, you are essentially doing a very wide scandi grind. If you are doing this with a equally flat bar of stock then there shouldn't be any taper until you get to where the scandi meets the spine. The same is would be true with a hollow of the same width. The hollow being significantly lighter weight. If you look down at the spine of that ritter grip it wouldn't have any taper until the upper edge of the scandi meets the spine.

Now imagine you could cut that blade in half lengthwise and take off the back 1/2" of spine. It would have much more of a distal taper in appearance even though the edge remains the same geometry. I see a full flat as just that....a scandi that goes to the spine giving the apperance of more distal taper.
 
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