Grind question.

K

komondor

Joined
Jul 2, 2001
Messages
4,264
Please excuse me for my apparent ignorance.

What are those lines called on some cutlery pieces that run up the width of the blade? What are they from? They are seen only in certain angles of light. They almost look like tiger stripes, but they are uniform in their pattern, not random. The best, if not only, example I have is a large Austrian kitchen knife. They almost have a "jeweled" effect, like the hologram of carbon fiber. Does this effect have something to do with the grind, or the polish? Do many knives have this?
 
By the way, this knife has an incredible mirror polish to it.
You can read letters in its reflection. Turning the knife the other way, in a plane away from you, gets the effect.
 
I'm not sure if this is what you are refering to, but while I was taking a knifemaking class, the instructor pointed out to us that the typically knifemaker's grinder is a 2" wide square wheel grinder. When doing a hollow grind, the maker typically "indexes" the grind point in the same place, so unless they are really careful, there is a very slight line which is extremely hard to buff out about 2" up the length of the blade from where the grind started. I've noticed it in a few knives.

In production knives, the companies typically do not go through the same number of different grades of grit in smoothing the grind before polishing for satin or mirror polished blades, so sometimes you can see that as well. - Like you say, it can be an interesting effect.

Incidently, the knifemaking class I took was from C. Lyle Brunckhorst, Bronk's Custom Knives, Bothell, WA and I would really recommend it. He has a knife on display at Bladegallery.com to see some of his stuff. The knife I made in class is now part of my EDC rotation.
 
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