Knife Store advice

[UPSTARTCROWE]

I found a knife (Blackjack) that is supposed to have a hollow ground edge but be convex sharpened on the edge as well?! It is verry sharp but now, when I have spent a while on this Forum figuring out the various grinds, I just had a set back. This combo edge stuff is confusing.

I took the knife to my favorite dealer. They tried to find a knife with a similar edge but discovered that most Knife catalogs don't bother to mention what type of grind is used. Is there any (quick) way to find a listing of which blades use which grinds?

For the sharpest knife I was told to purchase a Kershaw by the salesman. There is not that much talk on these Forums about the special sharpness of Kershaws....was I given good advice?

 

[Bo]

My Kershaw came sharp, but so did my Spyderco, Benchmade, Microtech and MOD.

Most of the better knives will come sharp, to keep them sharp is the tricky part. Go buy a Spyderco 203 or 204 Sharpener and use it often instead of letting it get to dull.

 

[Longden]

UPSTARTCROWE, I've had only 2 Kershaws, but I can attest that they're pretty sharp out of the box.

Whether that's good or not is a bit more subjective.

It appears (at least on mine, and per a knife salesman) that Kershaw grinds their edges very aggressively, leaving a thin high performing edge. This is good if you want to show-off and do all kinds of paper-cutting tricks. This can be bad, particularly if the steel type is soft, (Kershaw uses a variety of steels) because the edge may deform easily if you hit anything hard, like a staple.

Also, a thin edge will dull faster and hence require more frequent re-sharpening. And no, AFAIK there's no comprehensive categorization of knives by their grind types, but this is only one feature of a knife and often not the one most important to people.

My little Kershaw 2415 Locking Liner had a thin hollow-ground AUS-6 blade that was super sharp at the edge, but the thinness of the blade due to the grind always made me wonder if the blade would snap easily under stress (I gave it to my wife who has no such concerns).

In regards to hollow-grind and convex, they refer to different parts of the blade. Hollow-ground usually deals with the treatment or geometry of the sides of the blade, usually from near the edge to maybe 3/4 of the way up to the spine. I believe the FAQ refers to this and others as the the "blade-grind".

Convex, chisel and double-beveled grinds (edge grinds) are methods for finishing the edge itself (curved or angled), and either can be used on any blade-grind.

More knowledgeable people can chime in if I've mucked this up too badly