Flat grind = poor seller?

Hollow ground knives tend to be more attractive, as do knives with multiple angle bevels (even if they're flat ground), like a saber ground Endura or a weehawk balisong. And lets face it, even those of us who can ignore a knife's intrinsic ugliness (like many Spydercos, IMO) and appreciate a knife's performance, we still like a knife that looks good.

I mean, a Police is a sexy knife with the hollow grind and the swedge, but give me a bland old Military for actual use.
 
In my experience, if you start with the same stock, a high hollow grind will be a better slicer than a flat grind. Of course it'll also be more fragile. Both of these characteristics (better slicer & more fragile) are due to the fact that there's less steel behind the cutting edge. The best folding slicer I ever had was a custom Mayo, it was pretty much hollow ground all the way to the spine.

I tried to draw a picture to illustrate below, I don't think Walking Man's is very accurate. His attempt to show a hollow grind looks more like a blade that entirely lacks a primary grind.
 
What I attempted to show, was not an exact drawing of edge geometry (Ritt, please reread my post) but rather an exaggerated look at how a hollow ground knife can make it difficult to cut through deeper substances.
Also, as far as Tom Mayo's knives goes, and other hollow ground knives made on a grinder with large-diameter radius, is a great compromise between the two grinds, and they cut and slice great! You usually don't see knives with a full hollow grind too often, unfortunately.
 
Walking Man said:
What wasn't I clear about?
wotanson, I understand what you saying and most hollow ground knives will actually slice better for the first part of any cut for the exact opposite reason, because the blade is initially thinner toward the edge of the blade. So yes, if tend not to slice things that are a little deep, a hollow ground might the best choice for you.
Click to expand...

I think you were very clear and I appreciate your opinion, I'm one of those guys who likes to hear what other people think, I know enough to say I don't know much!
Cheers,
Rob
 
I am late in so as usual will probably kill another thread. IMO the hollow ground has a slight advantage in a hunting style knife as the meat/skin ect gives way before it can cause binding higher up the blade. I have found that a good hollowground knife does a great job as a slicer. The CRKT Alaska Bwanna is an example...extremely thin behind the edge and slices like crazy even in AUS 6.

It is a bit more fragile and for all around or camp use the flat grind is great.

I slightly prefer the Spyderco Wegner and Ocelot to the BladeTech Pro-hunter flat ground for caribou hunting. For Camp use the blade gring of the Blade Tech might be better.

You'd have a hard time prying the Ocelot away from me though as there is more to what makes a knife truly great than the blade grind.
 
I think my ZDP Calipso was a good seller. It appears to be a flat grind. My salt one looks like a hollow grind. What Spyderco has a saber grind? I guess I don't know what that means.:confused:
 
steeldust said:
I think my ZDP Calipso was a good seller. It appears to be a flat grind. My salt one looks like a hollow grind. What Spyderco has a saber grind? I guess I don't know what that means.:confused:
Click to expand...

There is a big difference between selling out one batch of 1200 Calypsos in a limited edition to an anxious group of collectors, and selling say 10,000 Enduras a month to everybody. The latter is a "good seller." (That number is a guess not a quote.) It isn't the Calypso that keeps you in business in this model, it is the Endura.

The Endura and Delica are saber ground.
 
A saber grind is a grind where about half the blade is left full thickness, the other half having the edge bevels ground down. Great for strength, but if you're using thick stock, not so hot for slicing. With thin stock (like in most pocket knives...say 1/8" or less) it might not make that much difference, but still won't cut as well, or feel as sharp, as a higher, thinner grind with a more gradual transition to the flats.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top