How Well Do Recurve Blades Cut?

[Bugout Bill]

I was bored earlier today, so I decided to do some cut testing. I grabbed a cardboard box and decided to dismember it with my ZT 200. Much to my surprise, however, the task proved quite difficult. For comparisons sake, I decided to switch to my Spyderco Tenacious, which made predictably short work of the box.

The ZT I used was quite sharp, capable of slicing phonebook paper, although the Tenacious was much sharper. I am aware the edge and blade geometry is quite different on both of these knives, but why did my knife with a heavy recurve seem to do so poorly? Is my technique off or is that simply the nature of the beast so to speak?

 

[Goosey]

They cut fine if they're sharp, but that can be a problem, they can be quite a bit harder to sharpen if they're heavily recurved. They also aren't as easy to make perfectly straight cuts with.

Like you said, the ZT0200 is not going to be as good a slicer as a Tenacious so it's not really a fair comparison.

 

[OrdnanceBubbaUSMC]

Just the geometry you mentioned - the ZT is probably 50%+ thicker behind the edge and cardboard grabs the flats. CS Large Vaquero Voyager glides through cardboard very easily.