Is this my own personal frustration, or is this a huge quality control problem?

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Doogoon

Joined
Feb 21, 2012
Messages
971
PLEASE EXCUSE THE POOR QUALITY PHOTO- I have done my best to provide a visual example to what I am talking about. - I'll also add that this is not a problem with the Izula, but a problem with most knives I own.

This is my Izula
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This is the shape of my Izulas' blade right at the base.
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This is the shape I expect my Izula's blade should be at the base.
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I hope I have done the job showing you what I'm going to be talking about. I'm not sure what to call it, but it seems that there is a little bit of recurve right at the base of the blade. THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM ISOLATED TO THE IZULA, OR ESEE. Just about every single one of my knives has this problem, I only chose the Izula because it's got the most noticeable bit of recurve for my crappy phone camera to pick up. (as well as the fact that I've ground it off almost all my other knives)

I spent the last few hours grinding this bit of recurve off of my ZT 0560 on my DMT stones, and I began thinking, "Why do I have to grind this off all my knives to get a proper edge? Were they designed to have this annoying bit of recurve at the base, or is this a stupid quality control issue that happens waaay too often?" And that's essentially my question and point to this thread. Is that bit of recurve designed to be part of damn near every strait edged knife I purchase, (fixed and folding) is it a quality control issue that doesn't receive much attention, or is it a machining thing that can't be avoided? This is a big question for me, because I can't properly sharpen the strait edged part of any knife until I grind that bit of recurve off.

I do have knives that do not have this problem, both my Spyderco knives are free of this, my Adamas is as well, and oddly enough, all three of my 30 dollar Ontario rat 1's are free of it.
 
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I was always under the impression based on photos I've seen (i dont own one) that this is actually how the blade is in the Izula.

This isnt my pic, just found it online.

IMG_3476.JPG
 
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I don't think they are intending the Izula to be a recurve. Most likely the person sharpening the knives has a bad habit of lagging a bit on the belt near the heel of the blade. My first izulas were perfect, and later models have come like that.
 
I posted a topic about this on ESSE's forums...

It's because they use a belt grinder. The very edge of it kind of folds/curves over, so it grinds away this curved portion. I find it very annoying too but from the sounds of it, it would be kind of troublesome to avoid on production knives. And yeah they said it happens with a lot of other brands too...

It's a shame I think that most of the users didn't mind it, some even liked it. It annoys the crap out of me, but oh well nothing that a little elbow grease on a sharpening stone won't fix.
 
Take a few knives, grind the bevels completely off, then re-grind in new bevels. It's not as easy as it seems and even easier to mess up when using power tools. Now multiply that by a few hundred a day and see how consistent you can be.

Now, I'm not defending the typical poor sharpening job found on nearly every knife made but its about the best they can do with the tools used.
 
Doogoon said:
Again, this problem isn't isolated to the Izula.
Click to expand...

I understand, and I see it VERY often as well. As a matter of fact, out of the hundreds of knives I've bought in my lifetime, I've only been completely satisfied with a factory edge once. It was a Kershaw S30V Blur. The edge on that knife was set at 30 degrees inclusive perfectly, and the bevels were dead nuts even on both sides. Not to mention, with just a touch of stropping it whittled hair with ease.
 
The only knives I've ever been happy with as far as sharpness and edge geometry straight out of the box has been my Mora's.

I own Becker, Kershaw, Benchmade, Wenger, Victorinox, Leatherman, CRKT, Cold Steel and others, including customs. My $15 Mora Robust beat them all, out of the box.
 
Pretty much all Izulas are like that. Pretty annoying, but not a huge problem.
 
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