Difference between these two knife grinds on the same Scrapyard knife?

[Digiorno]

Hi all I'm very interested in the Scrapyard Regulator. As I understand it there are two versions, a more recent version with a hollow grind and another with I think it's a saber/full flat grind? http://s123.photobucket.com/user/scrapyardknives/media/RegulatorBowieBlack.jpg.html

My question to you all is how will they perform differently, if at all? I will mainly be using it for bushcraft/survival. So a lot of chopping, splitting wood (batoning), slicing, and basically just a lot of hard use. As I understand it a hollow grind is more prone to chipping because of the thinness of the blade but this one is so thick and is made of such a strong steel...will it matter or is it just a tank no matter the type of grind?

Specs on the knife are

Blade Length: 7.5"/19.05cm
Blade thickness: .333"/.84cm
Blade height: 1.5"/3.81cm
Overall Length: 13"/33.02cm
Steel type: SR101
Handle type: Res-C
Weight: 15.8oz

Also the finish on the newer hollow grind is parkerized, and the older one is a powder coat. Will that affect the performance of the knife too? Thanks for your time! )

 

[AntDog]

Full flat grinds are better for slicing, chopping, etc. The hollow grind is good for slicing things that you want to slice, then lay over (like cheese). When you chop with a hollow ground knife, the full thickness part of the blade tends to bind up and stick in whatever you are chopping. They are also sometimes more durable for outright abuse because they keep the full thickness of the blade from the spine to where the grind begins. There is a huge difference in performance between the two. For almost every application I prefer full flat grind to hollow, saber, etc. It is the best compromise between slicing and brute toughness.
One of the few instances where I would prefer a hollow grind would be for a pure fighting knife. Since it is thicker, it would leave a slightly bigger wound channel and would be slightly harder to turn away blows from. However, I would think skill would more than make up for this.
Since you are saying you want to use it for bushcraft, I would highly recommend the full flat grind. BUT, it's the wrong knife for bushcraft. That top guard is gonna be all kinds of in the way. Of a huge variety of tasks. I'm usually not one to recommend against unconventionality, but this is one case where I would. It's a fighting knife. Will it work for bushcraft? Sure. Would it be the best choice? No way. The 711 would be the far better scrapper for the job (if you need a 7" blade for bushcraft). I just think you would be much better served with it even though it doesn't look as cool.
I've wanted a Regulator for quite a while, just because. I just think they're really cool looking knives. I used an Ontario SP-01 for years and years for most everything, so I know it's possible to use that type of knife as a jack of all trades. However, now that I don't have to, I wouldn't. Also, the coating won't make much difference. I haven't noticed much difference even using knives with pretty rough coatings. If you really hate it you can always strip it, just keep it oiled.
Just my 2 cents. Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[banana-clip]

There are much better knives to use for bushcraft than the Scrapyard Regulator, but it wouldn't do bad at all since its a big heavy knife which is great for batoning and chopping. Most bushcraft knives have a thinner blade around 1/8" thick and do just fine for heavy bushcraft use. I couldn't see any peice of wood that could chip 1/3" thick SR-101 blade on a Busse Kin knife. The blade on the parkerized regulator is saber hollow ground like on the diagram below, since a saber ground blade has a primary bevel that begins near the center of the blade and continues to the edge of the blade just like the parkerized regulator.

The parkerized regulators blades edge is not thin at all and I couldnt see it chipping from cutting wood, batoning or chopping wood. I own 3 different versions of the regulators and this by far is the sharpest version and is not any less beefy than the other versions.

I seen where you asked on another thread about cleaning them and sharpening them. I clean mine using CLP. To sharpen it I use a ceramic stick and a few strokes on each side gets it very sharp. Good luck with your new knife