Despite having a few hollow ground jobs I usually shy away from them because I tend to find full height grinds just more versatile than any saber grind; be it a hollow, flat saber, 0 Scandi, Scandi with extra bevels, mongrel combination, whatever. In fact, the only hollow I habitually use at the moment is a Moki full height hollow grind and that is so not suited for impact.
Apart from that I don't have a problem with them in principle. As Garrett said if chopping is kept in mind when designing, there's going to be a lot of variables there both in terms of what is to be chopped and the over all design of the piece. Do you want it to chop with easy penetration to point X or would that penetration just make it stick? Do you want it to throw chips like an ax or what? Can you afford to give away the weight or is the reduction in weight desirable and so on. Lots of factors. Jerry Hossom is a great example of a guy making hollow grinds with convex edges in modern stainless [S30V] in addition to others to hear some tell it, with such a combination chopping with his creations should be doomed to failure, and it just doesn't seem the case.
You've also got to remember there's a great deal of grasping, ego, justification after the fact, and plain bilge spouted in relation to knives both by vendors and customers. On the whole I find knife people good people but that is true. There are loads of aspects used to disparage other offerings quite disproportionately. Why, because by doing that one promotes their own choice. We see it all the time with tool steel, high carbon steel, rubber is cheap therefore..., cookie cutter stamped, and more. Similarly, one of the primary things used to pillory a knife is that it is hollow ground. Example: Hollow grinds are easier to do at a mechanised factory than say a full height convex. On that, it can be used to try to leverage advantage with very few if any factories could have made this rather than a factory could have knocked an immaculate one of those out in the same stuff, with a similar heat treatment, for a fraction of the cost, I must be a dickhead. Same kind of deal as when 440C became commonplace in factory offerings and was no longer just the steel of custom makers, many people felt the need to distance themselves and lampoon it. By the time you've wound in the self-justification and need for approval [ever seen a thread reading; I've just bought an X, it's in the post, while I wait for delivery can you tell me glorified tales of yours and post pictures of it] people really do start to dig in deep because of the commitment they have made, and the myths gather momentum. Same is often very true for hollow grinds. In short, hollow grinds do have disadvantages, what doesn't, but be sure to pick fact from the mire of fiction and hype.
Me personally, the closest thing to a hollow ground chopping knife I have had and liked wasn't a dedicated chopper it was a field knife with a heavy emphasis on compact chopping. I guess some might call it a survival knife. It was almost identical in design to the one on the left in random-bloke's pic -
"The president of BladeSports International, Jose Diaz, was so kind to send us a gift in the form of two competition blades!!...
...First off the angle of the handle is something that stands out immediately. The severe angle will be more efficient in chopping instead of a handle that is in line with the blade.
The second thing that stands out is the concave grind which is more concave than you see on other blades. With a 10mm spine it is a hefty blade. The grip is constructed out of a full tang with rubber slabs on both sides."
Here's something you might find interesting
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