Krein regrind?!

draggat

draggat

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I keep seeing GEC knives popping up on the exchange with the famous Tom Krein Regrind. I can completely understand having such a thing done to the modern pry bar style knives, but the traditional knives I'm seeing this done on are already thin flat ground knives (for the most part) and slice pretty darn well from the factory.

It almost seems like just another label to me. Am I missing something here? Maybe someone who has or uses one of these can enlighten me and the rest of us? What is the point of Krein Regrind on a traditional, other than the stamp?
 
Interesting. Most traditional knives do not have that much steel left for re-grind. Still - GEC does convex grind at least on some of their knives what does leave some space for changes. I would supposed that those which had some adjustgments made had mayba the blade profile changed, or some thinning work done. But I have yet to see one to get a better idea.
 
I've noticed this as well and find it interesting that it seems to only be done on GECs. We have heard far more complaints about the Queen factory grinds, so I would think that those would be a better candidate for regrinding.
 
I'm not familiar with Krein regrinds but I had a Case swayback jack (Kerry), sowbelly (Menefee), and backpocket (Kerry) that were reground by custom knife makers. Although the knives are excellent, the regrinds made a very noticeable improvement in their slicing performance and appearance (the swedges were reground also). You definitely needed to respect those blades or you'd slice your fingers clean off without even noticing.

The grinds on GEC blades are one of my favorite things about their knives. Perhaps the reground GEC knives is more about the market on Bladeforums.

Queen's grinds vary from amazingly thin (Winchester 4-blade sowbelly) to uneven (some 420HC sowbellies) to average (Moore Maker 2-blade sowbelly) to ridiculously thick (Queen Burke Barlow). The Queen Dan Burke Barlow and 2010 Forum knife have thick blades and would be excellent candidates for regrinds.
 
I did some sandpaper hand regrind on the tip of drop point GEC #72,73 and bullnose to thin them and have equal bevels along the blades.
 
Krein is actually listed under GEC's distributors/dealers page, so I am guessing he buys them direct from them, which is why there seems to be so many on the market.
 
I'm familiar with Tom's work and consider him one of the few I would trust to regrind a knife among some other custom makers
He is known in the modern community as one of the top knifemakers who still builds a knife to do specifically what it was meant to do (cut)

He used to regrind as the OP said, modern knives, but has since taken a liking to traditionals.

@Rotislav
Some of the traditionals you will see pop up for sale are of his own collection that he sold off.
Or he will take a short list of people who want a traditional regrind done.
He only just recently became GEC's distributor which is long after many of his regrinds have gone out.


That being said, I too was skeptical of how much thinner you could grind a blade considering GEC's full flat grinds are already so thin.
I've experienced his grinds in the past and now, one of them on a much needed bulbous grind from Queen/Schatt & Morgan which was converted into a zulu spear by Bob and another on a GEC.
Comparing the grind to a stock GEC, Tom takes it a bit further in thinness behind the edge and there is a noticeable performance difference with edge stability intact throughout your normal tasks.
He grinds these to be tried and true slicers.

Are they always needed on all GEC's? No. Do some people prefer the slicing capabilities and the pride of having a Tom Krein regrind ? Yes.

tumblr_nwjby12JGp1rzq6m9o1_1280.jpg
 
And as for a lot of knife nuts there's always going to be a wide disparity of what constitutes sharp and slicey.

At home I usually keep most of my kitchen knives sharp but for my main chef knife that only I use, I like it to be hair whittling sharp. I spend alot of time apexing that edge mostly for fun. But I try not to let other ppl use it. Being in other folks kitchen I don't think any of them keep their stuff as sharp as knife nuts.
 
Does anyone have a side by side picture of the same knife before and after a regrind? I would like the see the difference!
 
Before a Krein Regrind (1st photo is the Shiner Pint before reshaping by Bob and the zulu spear he created after)
tumblr_o0y2l7dGg61rzq6m9o1_1280.jpg


After Krein Regrind
tumblr_nvp1plecq71rzq6m9o2_1280.jpg
 
ive been wondering what this was, seen it so often, all that popped up was regrind when i googled, thanks!
 
Going from spear to Zulu really had an effect on the character of the knife. It had nice lines before, but the blade profile of the Zulu sets it apart. Very nice.

O
 
I've been telling Tom that he needs to make some slipjoints of his own. I made a mistake a long time ago and didn't get a Manix2 reground by him, the pics I see of those GEC and other brands reground by him look good, but I haven't seen one to know the difference in performance. I sold him a few knives that ended up in his collection, and a few went up for regrinds.
 
I've only been able to read about his regrind and for those knives that started on thicker stock all owners basically said his regrind was transformational and the traditionals were noticeably better as well.
 
Tim, you seem to be pretty familiar with Tom's work. I've never dealt with him myself, though I did look into him when I started seeing these GECs pop up in the Exchange. It looks like he's pretty well established and respected in other arenas of the knife world, so I had no doubt that what he was doing was beneficial. I just found it curious that it was mostly GECs and not other brands that could probably benefit more from his modifications. Is this just a matter of him being a fan of GEC causing him to focus on these knives? Is it just a matter of the people asking him to do the work are sending him GECs, so that's what he ends up working on?

I don't doubt that his grinds make the GECs better slicers, I just find it curious that he'd start with knives from a company that's known for making great slicers to begin with instead of choosing knives that have a greater need for the regrinds. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
 
That was my first reaction as well Cory. I wondered why it was mostly GEC's coming out of his shop when the grinds were already pretty much superb. Especially on a knife such as a 47 Viper where the secondary bevel is more of a 'micro bevel' than anything else.

I believe we mainly see GEC pop up because that's what people send into him. I believe he prefers GEC I believe because he doesn't want to fuss around with the fit and finish of other brands.

When I had sent in my Queen made S&M, I was lucky since he had just opened up another listing to his facebook group that specifically stated he didn't want to regrind knives from other cutlery companies, only GEC.
 
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