Do you check if your new knife blades are "true" (straight)? I did.. some arent...

retzius

retzius

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Sep 17, 2009
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I have been reading alot and watching alot of vids on knife sharpening lately.

I noticied that many good knife sharpeners routinely check a blade to see if it is "true" before sharpening because a blade that is even slightly bent will off your grind.

So, I decided to check my new Ritter RSK2 before giving it the Edgepro treatment and lo and behold it was slightly bent to the right side. I noticed that the grind was slightly off when I first got it but attributed it the grind put on by the sharpener.

One nice thing with the Edgepro is you can really check the angles and consistency of the factory edge before you sharpen a new knife. Most factory edges are quite assymetrical but the grind on the RSK2 was off even after holding consistent angles on both sides with the Edgepro.

The bevel width was different one one part of the blade even though the grind was centered.

Lo and behold, when I checked the blade to see if it was "true" it was slightly bent to the right side. I have heard of a few knives out of Kabar and Rowen having this issue as well.

Its not a deal breaker and wont affect the knife performance I think but interesting nonetheless.

:thumbup:
 
Uneven bevel width is something I see from time to time. I never sweat it because it can be easily corrected, but a bent blade would have me sending it back for sure.
 
My Blind Horse machete is bent slightly. Bugs me but it's a beater and works.
 
Have nether seen it on folder. Had it on fixed blade - on Fiskars Peltonen M07 and on Enso Trapper blade. Can not bear that - bothers me too much. M07 have sent back and it was replaced. The seller tried to persuade me originally to keep it saying that he has no straight knives in stock... But I did not buy it. With Enzo it was a bit late - it was in my drawer for more than a year before I noticed it - just when I was going to make a knife of it. So had to make a tapered tang by grinding it on one side only. It worked out at the end - can hardly see the problem.
Not a nice problem for sure. And I always forget to check it when buying a new knife... :(
 
Seen it a few times .. its actually one of the things I enjoy looking for when in a knife shop ... I get a perverse delight out of listening to a sale guy telling me how good that knife is , and the look on his face , the sidestep and recovery in the conversation is always interesting when you just coment Yeah really ? this thing isnt even ground straight tho ...
 
Checking and straightening is part of every sharpening session for me. There's nothing more annoying than trying to sharpen a bent knife. Twisting is the worst to fix in my book. Slight bends in homogeneous steel and "sandwich" style laminates are no big deal to straighten. I look at the knife from handle to tip down the spine, then tip to handle down the edge for bends. I look for twisting by looking down onto the edge.
 
It's something I see consistently on Martindale machetes. Nothing hauling on it a little in a vice doesn't fix though. :D:D:D I've seen it a few times on folders before...but comparatively rarely. This is probably because folder tend to have smaller overall combined blade/tang length are are less likely to warp during production, but I may be totally off the mark.
 
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