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hollow and flat grind, what are they for?
- Thread starter sogflash
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2011
- Messages
- 1,301
A straight razor is hollow ground for example . This makes for a very thin and sharp cutting edge , but little edge strength . The full flat grind gives a much sharper edge than say a saber grind , but it still maintains good strength in the blade and cutting edge . The saber grind while not a great cutter , makes the best spltter , like for battoning wood and things like that .
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HOLD MY BEER AND WATCH THIS !
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HOLD MY BEER AND WATCH THIS !
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2010
- Messages
- 1,998
It's hard to say anything about cutting resistance without knowing the qualities of what you're cutting (is it hard like wood or soft and somewhat sticky like meat) and how deep into the thing you'll be cutting.
Hollow-ground knives have never worked well for me in the kitchen as far as things not sticking. Convex grinds have been better. However, I've found it's always better to rely on the stock thickness of the blade for chef's and slicing knives rather than their edge (though I admit I'll never get a hollow-ground kitchen knife again--only convexed or full flat for me).
Hollow-ground knives have some distance to how deep you can cut with it before the flats of the blade start acting as a wedge and try to split the cutting medium apart. Full-flat-ground knives start doing that almost immediately.
Hollow-ground knives have never worked well for me in the kitchen as far as things not sticking. Convex grinds have been better. However, I've found it's always better to rely on the stock thickness of the blade for chef's and slicing knives rather than their edge (though I admit I'll never get a hollow-ground kitchen knife again--only convexed or full flat for me).
Hollow-ground knives have some distance to how deep you can cut with it before the flats of the blade start acting as a wedge and try to split the cutting medium apart. Full-flat-ground knives start doing that almost immediately.
chiral.grolim
Universal Kydex Sheath Extension
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- Dec 2, 2008
- Messages
- 6,422
Full flat, as the cut proceeds deeper into the medium, encounters friction along the sides of the blade. Removing this material from the sides of the blade can reduce friction during the cut. Hollow-grind maintains the same spine-strength (stiffness) as a flat-ground blade while reducing the thickness of the primary cutting area on the blade, reducing friction, increasing cutting efficiency. However, as others have mentioned, the thinner blade necessarily has less material support to resist lateral stresses and so must be used with greater care.
Second, by removing the side material via hollow-grind, there is less material to remove from the back-bevel during resharpening, so keeping a hollow-ground blade sharp requires less removal of metal = less time/effort to resharpen.
If you really want to see the advantages of hollow vs flat ground blades, i recommend you look to knives with prominent stock spine-thickness. My WC Davis Loveless-style hunter is ~0.20" at the spine and slices better than any other knife I own, much better than my similarly thick BRKT Bravo 1 whose convex is so shallow it's nearly flat and has a razor-sharp and very thin edge.
Second, by removing the side material via hollow-grind, there is less material to remove from the back-bevel during resharpening, so keeping a hollow-ground blade sharp requires less removal of metal = less time/effort to resharpen.
If you really want to see the advantages of hollow vs flat ground blades, i recommend you look to knives with prominent stock spine-thickness. My WC Davis Loveless-style hunter is ~0.20" at the spine and slices better than any other knife I own, much better than my similarly thick BRKT Bravo 1 whose convex is so shallow it's nearly flat and has a razor-sharp and very thin edge.