Hollow ground military

Ben Dover

Ben Dover

Joined
Aug 2, 2006
Messages
2,809
Since the thread on sabre grinding a military has generated so much thoughtful discussion, it occurred to me that perhaps there should be a bit of discussion of a hollow ground military, in a premium steel, with the edge angle to spine relationship engineered in such a manner that it could be stropped like a straight razor on a barber strop for "touch-up."

Would this even be possible, Sal?:confused:

What say you? :D
 
A full hight hollow grind Military? That would be something. Not so great in push cutting, but it would slice better than any other knife ever.
 
I love my para 2! Its an amazing knife. A full height or almost full height hollow ground para would be awesome. With orange handles.
 
Ben Dover said:
with the edge angle to spine relationship engineered in such a manner that it could be stropped like a straight razor on a barber strop for "touch-up."

Would this even be possible, Sal?:confused:
Click to expand...

NO.

have you ever seen a straight razor in person ?
 
pwet said:
NO.

have you ever seen a straight razor in person ?
Click to expand...

But of course. Actually, I often use my Dovo, or my Thiers-Issard to shave with. It's a very great convenience to be able to maintain it with a barber strop.:thumbup:
 
and you don't see a geometry problem having a built in guide like that on a knife ?

sharpen your knife and imagine a spine thick enough to touch the hone.it'll be thicker than your razor. i think you don't want that for edc.
 
By using a 10-12 degree edgebevel, instead of the very high angle on a razor, it sould be possible to engineer it without an overly thick spine.
 
pwet said:
and you don't see a geometry problem having a built in guide like that on a knife ?

sharpen your knife and imagine a spine thick enough to touch the hone.it'll be thicker than your razor. i think you don't want that for edc.
Click to expand...
Not to mention that straight razors have a fairly straight edge that's a constant distance from their spine.
 
I already sharpen several of my hollow ground knives flat with the blade, the concept doesn't seem outlandish to me.

As for keeping constant distance between edge and spine, I wouldn't worry about it. Just set the grinder to do a full hollow grind at the heel of the blade, and follow the edge. You would end up with a bit of a distal taper, and the last inch of blade would be virtually flat with no spine at all. See why I like this idea so much?

To see such a grind on the Military would bring a tear to my eye.
 
Joshua J. said:
I already sharpen several of my hollow ground knives flat with the blade, the concept doesn't seem outlandish to me.
Click to expand...

Thanlk you for sharing your experience. I haven't worked out the math, but it certainly seems like a viable project.:thumbup:
 
hum again a straight razor is around 15-18° inclusive and see how thick the spine has to be to get the angle.

if you want to stay with a 4mm blade stock and have the edge/shoulder of the grind plane at 10-15° per side it will pretty much looks like a hollow ground scandi blade, with a grind no higher than 1/3 of the blade.

this will perform just like the cheap stamped hollow ground china made kitchen knife .... ie crap.

for reference the angle of full height grind no matter flat or hollow on a milie is around 3 or 4 degrees. i've just checked on my XHP one and the blade is 4cm tall at the start of the grind. do the trig, it should be pretty easy to find how high the bevel should be to accomodate 10-15° per side flat on the stone, and i can absolutely be wrong about that as my maths are pretty rusty ...
 
Last edited:
pwet said:
hum again a straight razor is around 15-18° inclusive and see how thick the spine has to be to get the angle.

if you want to stay with a 4mm blade stock and have the edge/shoulder of the grind plane at 10-15° per side it will pretty much looks like a hollow ground scandi blade, with a grind no higher than 1/3 of the blade.

this will perform just like the cheap stamped hollow ground china made kitchen knife .... ie crap.

for reference the angle of full height grind no matter flat or hollow on a milie is around 3 or 4 degrees. i've just checked on my XHP one and the blade is 4cm tall at the start of the grind. do the trig, it should be pretty easy to find how high the bevel should be to accomodate 10-15° per side flat on the stone, and i can absolutely be wrong about that as my maths are pretty rusty ...
Click to expand...

With all due respect, sir, I believe your bevel angles are in error. While I am not personally equipped to measure the angles myself, a considerable amount of research on the internet would tend to indicate that most razors have a bevel angle of 18-22 degrees per side, or36-44 degrees inclusive.
 
Hi Ben,

Guess I'm a tad late to the party. I didn't see this before. When I was shaving with a straight razor (they don't make eyes like they used to ;)), I would use different knives to shave with to check out the steels. I don't think a hollow millie is a bad idea, but I think it would be hard to do. I would want a high-hollow due to the width. As Deacon mentioned, the change in width would create it's own issues for using the spine to sharpen. Also special wheels would have to be developed. We probably wouldn't invest the time and dollars on the project as we have to many other projects in-the-works competing for our time. Interesting thought though.

sal
 
Unless you're grinding it like the old Delica/Enduras or Salts, a hollow ground Military with its leaf-shaped blade sounds like it'd be impossible or extremely complex. And not all that practical to use. The Military cuts about as well enough as a pocket knife can as it is. Hollow grinding the Military blade would be like redubbing Darth Vader's voice with Bobcat Goldtwhait.
 
Alternatively, the XL Persian should be similar to what you would get with a hollow ground Military.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top