How do you make a Tops Bob a true scandi?

[TigerBlades]

I have a Tops Fieldcraft. It's great, I love it. One problem. It's fat.

I am planning on turning it into a true scandi grind, but don't want to remove too much material.

Any tips on how?

( Yes, I know what a grinder is, I make knives)

 

[knarfeng]

I have a Tops Fieldcraft. It's great, I love it. One problem. It's fat.

I am planning on turning it into a true scandi grind, but don't want to remove too much material.

Any tips on how?

( Yes, I know what a grinder is, I make knives)

Moved to Shop Talk.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Tip #1 - Go slow! Turn the grinder down to half speed.
Tip #2 - Take it off a little at a time. You can always take more off but can't put any back on.
Tip #3 - Stop grinding when 95% done and finish by hand sanding.
Tip #4 - review tip #1-3 before halfway through the material removal.
Tip #5 - Use Dychem or a black marker to keep trach of the removal. It helps a lot to see the contrast and where the grinding is going.

 

[12345678910]

Fresh new belts, stay on the finer grits.

36 is the cause of many nightmares.

400 lets you sneak up on it without having to eliminate deeper scratches.

Hold your angles steady somehow.

 

[tkroenlein]

Just a thought on the angles you're working with. When you say you want to make it a "true scandi," I'm assuming you want to take the edge to, or very near, zero.

Plugging that into the angle calculator, with an estimated bevel height of .625" (I'm guessing because I don't have one) it is going to be in the ballpark of 10 DEG per side, which would yield a 20 Deg inclusive edge. The knife is advertised at 56-58 HRC. That won't hold up well at all. A microbevel will help, but not really well enough to suit a bushcraft knife.

You might try thinning it to about .015" measured at the "shoulder" of the secondary bevel. That would be about as thin as I'd try myself at that hardness. JMO.

 

[TigerBlades]

Just a thought on the angles you're working with. When you say you want to make it a "true scandi," I'm assuming you want to take the edge to, or very near, zero.

Plugging that into the angle calculator, with an estimated bevel height of .625" (I'm guessing because I don't have one) it is going to be in the ballpark of 10 DEG per side, which would yield a 20 Deg inclusive edge. The knife is advertised at 56-58 HRC. That won't hold up well at all. A microbevel will help, but not really well enough to suit a bushcraft knife.

You might try thinning it to about .015" measured at the "shoulder" of the secondary bevel. That would be about as thin as I'd try myself at that hardness. JMO.

I turned it into a complete convex (no secondary bevel, and it works way better.