Recommendation? Grind change

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a_nobody

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Hello, I am new to forums so if I'm in the wrong place or I am doing something wrong please let me know. But anyways, I am currently planning on changing one of my knives from a hollow grind into a Scandinavian grind (Cold Steel srk in sk5 steel) because I messed up the edge to the point where I need to fix it plus I prefer scandi grinds. My main questions for this are: 1. I know this is possible but will it ruin my knife? 2. Does the grind height of the scandi matter because the srk’s grind height on the hollow grind is significantly taller than the flat part (forgot what its called). 3.will the compromise the strength of my knife (tip more fragile, more edge chips, etc…). Also I am very new to modifying knives and edge geometry and things along those lines so please forgive me.
Look forward to the replies and thank you in advance
 
Welcome. :)

1) It will only ruin your knife if you aren't happy with the results.
2) There is no "standard" for Scandi grind height. I've seen them anywhere between 1/4" to 1/2".
3) Yes, Scandi grinds are typically more fragile and less forgiving of abuse (read: cutting/chopping things you shouldn't). A Scandi grind excels at slicing, but be careful of putting lateral forces on the blade, or trying to cut down a tree with it.

The real issue I have with Scandi grinds is that if/when you damage the edge, you effectively have to re-profile the entire height of the grind again. It is not like a relatively small secondary bevel, where a quick touch up fixes it. The secondary bevel IS the Scandi grind so you will need to re-sharpen the whole height of the grind. Even a simple re-sharpening means you have to stone the entire height of the grind. This takes a bit more time and removes significantly more metal than a knife with a "normal" secondary grind.
 
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shane45-1911 said:
Welcome. :)

1) It will only ruin your knife if you aren't happy with the results.
2) There is no "standard" for Scandi grind height. I've seen them anywhere between 1/4" to 1/2".
3) Yes, Scandi grinds are typically more fragile and less forgiving of abuse (read: cutting/chopping things you shouldn't). A Scandi grind excels at slicing, but be careful of putting lateral forces on the blade, or trying to cut down a tree with it.

The real issue I have with Scandi grinds is that if/when you damage the edge, you effectively have to re-profile the entire height of the grind again. It is not like a relatively small secondary bevel, where a quick touch up fixes it. The secondary bevel IS the Scandi grind so you will need to re-sharpen the whole height of the grind. Even a simple re-sharpening means you have to stone the entire height of the grind. This takes a bit more time and removes significantly more metal than a knife with a "normal" secondary grind.
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Thank you for the reply, my plan is either putting a micro bevel to help deal with the thin edge or I plan on convexing the edge to a scandi-vex to make it stronger because at the moment my biggest concern is the tip and overall blade being super fragile because my end goal is to have a knife that has a good balance between strength and cutting capabilities without it breaking on me in the field. But if you have any tips for me to help make my knife tip much stronger please let me know. Also I was wondering if I can do some light chopping or battoning with the knife without major damage. Thank you again for the advise because it was very helpful.
 
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I do not think a scandi grind is great for chopping or batoning, since it is thin and slicey, but you could make the 2" of edge nearest the handle scandi for slicing tasks and leave the rest thicker at the edge.
 
The blade can only get thinner, in trying to flatten the entire hollow into a scandi (I'm assuming that's what you're aiming for). And because it's currently hollow, it'll take A LOT of steel off in doing so, to get it fully flat. There's also the chance the cutting edge will retreat quite a ways toward the spine (meaning the blade will become narrower, spine-to-edge) while doing all that grinding to make it flat, unless almost all the grinding is done near the spine itself. That makes the spine thinner, therefore weaker. The thick spine above the hollow is what gives the blade most of it's current strength.

If there's any worry now about the strength of the blade or fragility of the edge, it'll only become more of a concern in taking that much more metal off. Need to be aware of that, before jumping into it. A blade never gets stronger by grinding metal off it's thickness, no matter the changes made to the grind geometry itself.
 
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Probably best just to get a new knife with a Scandi grind. The CS SRK is a saber grind, not hollow. Wouldn't be much steel left by the time you finished grinding it down.
 
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