flat vs hollow grind

A

APerna

Joined
Aug 24, 2003
Messages
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As I marvel at the wonderful design of my wood inlay sebs the question that I pose is there realy any advantage to flat vs hollow grind knives?
 
to me, a flat grind just screams "You won't be able to sharpen me one day!" As the edge wears away, you are having to take away more and more metal to sharpen as the blade gets thicker. A good hollow grind offers the thickness of the spine to make it rigid, and is ground congave, making most of the boade towards the edge thinner. It cuts better, it sharpens easier.
 
Personally I prefer flat grinds, for me at least they cut better than hollow grinds.

I like them Full Flat (like a Sabatier kitchen knife or Spyderco Miltary) or Flat single bevel like a Mora.

I wish CRK would offer both.
 
It's just my opinion, But I have carried a large flat sebbie for awhile now, And I have carried several hollow ground sebbies over the last couple of years. I like the flat grind a little better because, Like Jsun says, it just seems like it's a little easier to control when cutting with it,It's also just as easy to sharpen or maybe easier than the hollow ground blade.Try peeling an apple with the flat ground and then do it with a hollow ground and see for yourself which one you like best. Also, There is a little bit of a cool factor involved with having a very limited, Hand ground by Mr. Reeves himself,Signed on the blade,Flat ground Sebenza!
 
Is it true that there have never been any flat ground versions of the small Sebbie? If I am correct, why is this the case? To me that would be a natural.
 
I have a 1st gen MT LCC and a Strider SA with flat ground blades. I carry the Strider all the time, and have cut A LOT with it. My sm. sebs just cut like razors! I even totally polished the blade on the SA, and I still prefer the Sebs blade. I do, however use the SA for hard use though...stuff better suited for a fixed blade. The flat grind is a good cutter. I've used the SA A LOT. I have sharpened it dozens of times. I've sharpened it enough times to have reprofiled the 1/16" tip I broke off back into a point. IT DOES get harder to sharpen. I feel like sooner or later it will look like an axe's blade! Actually, I like the knife enough that I would have it reprofiled to an efficient thickness if it ever became a problem. Looking at my LCC, I see that it's blade is actually very thin at the edge and nice and sharpenable at least a 1/4" through the metal. COOL! The geometry of the triangle allows a very very fine, yet strong gring angle, it seems. The grind actually goes to and makes up the edge, almost like it's ground to an edge and just touched up on the edge to make it look right. This obviously adds a very fine sharpenable edge space to be, unpresent on hollow grinds! Hmmm. I'll have to think about this. Thanks for the enlightenment, fellas!
 
It's generally considered easier to hollow grind than it is to flat grind.
 
My choice for a user Sebenza would be large flat grind with s30v blade.

:)

that's my pipe dream

Barry H
 
I wish they offered the one piece range flat ground. Hollow grinds slice well, but for other camp chores and whittling they don't work so good.

Charles Bronson 1921-2003 You'll be missed...
 
I don't think Chris will offer any more flat ground blades, at least not in the foreseeable future.
I spoke to him almost a year ago about the possibility of a flat ground S30V Sebenza. He said it would not happen.
Apparently the BG42 flat ground Sebenza blades were actually ground by someone else for Chris but the quality control was not up to Chris's high standards. As a consequence, he had to spend a large amount of time finishing each blade, and that's why he decided to sign each one. When that batch is gone, there will be no more. Definitely collectable. I wish I hadn't sold mine.
I like the flat grind better, as it makes for a slightly stronger blade.
 
I definetely like a flat grind better myself. If the blade is ground right it will not get harder to sharpen and it cuts better imho. The flat ground blade can be ground from thinner stock and it will last your lifetime at least.
I have never seen a knife blade "sharpened away", except for the cheap carbon steel kitchen knives found at discount stores and they are very soft because anyone can sharpen them.
Just my two cents.
 
A flat grind is great if you have blade strength behind it, like in a quality steel like what Reeves uses. I also prefer flat grinds on all my knives, but will accept a well made hollow or saber ground blade. If the hollow grind is not so concave then I like it better. I guess that all depends on the size of the wheel they used.

I have heard of now edge strength complaints on knives like the project series and the sebenzas, so, it must work well.
 
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