knife blade design question

D

Diamond Dog

Joined
Jun 25, 2007
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The more I start to learn about knives and all their nuiances, I am finding myself wondering more about the functionality of the recurve style blade design.

1. What is the general purpose, advantages/disadvantages of?
2. How are they to maintain and sharpen, I have heard they are difficult to sharpen up.
3. Are they better on larger/chopper type knives or smaller fixed types?

I appreciate and welcome all advise, views and/or experiences with this type of blade. I am considering getting a recurve style but am not totally sure about it. My uses would primarly be for outdoors/camping type stuff. Thanks all!
 
i have a small custom made recurve that i dont really use often since its a one of a kind so i cant tell you much about using it. they can be difficult to sharpen but i havent came across any smooth edge knife that i cant sharpen. i am sure there are both advantages and disadvantages with this knife design as there are with any knife. personal preferences will decide this i guess. you might try and do a search on recurve knives. you might come across more articles.
 
The benefits are pretty obvious, actually. :)

1. Recurve gives you more cutting edge without increasing the overall length of the knife. That is good. The bad side is, it's much more difficult to sharpen, since it's not straight, but, well, a recurve. ;)

2. See above - they're much more difficult than a straight edge. But that's not to say you can't learn to sharpen them very well indeed.

3. Large choppers. Recurves don't exactly aid in precise work, which small knives are mostly for, but work well as choppers.
 
Recurve blades can be sharpened using round ceramic rods or by using the corner edge of the Spyderco Sharpmaker. I've had several recurve bladed folders and have been able to sharpen and/or maintain the edge using my Sharpmaker. Remember though, it is easier to maintain the edge rather than letting it get badly dulled and trying to restore the razor edge back.
 
I've never cared for the esthetics of a recurve.
I've also always thought (never tried so don't know) that they would tend to dull on the lowest part of the curve much faster than a conventional blade if it were to contact the surface that something being sliced was on.

?????????????:confused:
 
I cut down several cardboard boxes the other day and used my ZT0200, a recurve 154CM blade, and when finished it seemed to retain the same degree of sharpness all along its edge. It still had a shaving edge but I hit it for 5 swipes per side using my Sharpmaker. I do beliece if you were cutting something that was laying on a hard surface the belly of the blade would dull quicker than the back portion of the blade.
 
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