Lets talk about the serrated edge

I enjoy both, but among my favorite serrated blades are the FFG ones like the Caly 3, Dragonfly and the Kitchen knives. I also notice that people always tend to use serrated knives like a saw, when they can push cut just as well as a plain edge as long as its sharp. I wish we could see some sprint runs in cool steels with serrations
 
It really depends on what you're cutting.
I have at times encountered materials that my shaving-sharp plain edge blade slid right over...but the serrated blade worked.
Simple answer: carry both. :cool:
 
Here is my take on the subject - http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1308111-Fully-Serrated-has-its-limitations?highlight=Serrated+blades Started this thread a while back.

In summary - I really like the serrated blade for cutting fibrous material including ropes and small brush or tree branches. My fully serrated Stainles Endura is my favorite knife companion to a fixed blade whenever I am out in the woods. Not so great as an EDC compared to the plain edge Endura or others. Still, I am very happy to have one good serrated knife and BTW the Sharpmaker keeps it scary sharp. :thumbup:
 
I prefer plain edge for 90% of my cutting tasks but because of the difference in edge retention between se and pe H1, I always carry and use a se Pacific Salt when kayak fishing. Main use is cutting line and gutting and gilling fish while out on the water. I have recently been trying the manix 2 LW s110v on the water and it has really opened my eyes to some of the advantages of serrated edge that I was enjoying without really realizing.

For example, when I only have a couple of small snapper, I tend to gut them and remove the gills right there on the water. There isn't much space on a kayak so cuts need to be very short and precise from a safety standpoint. When removing gills, you have to cut the cartilage where the gills meet the throat/chin. This is very tough material and even though I sharpen the pe manix at a very course 600 grit finish, it wants to just slide over the cartilage. I have to apply way more pressure and make a bigger cutting motion than feels safe...especially when I'm working between my legs with my feet hanging over the sides. With a se, it's a completely different story. The teeth catch that area and I can make a quick and controlled 2" pull and it cuts right through. Huge advantage goes to se for that particular job.

So yeah, I would rather use a pe 9 times out of 10, but on certain odd jobs a se is capable of performance that a pe simply cannot match. I have about 20 knives right now and only two of them are serrated, but those two get plenty of use.
 
Surfingringo said:
So yeah, I would rather use a pe 9 times out of 10, but on certain odd jobs a se is capable of performance that a pe simply cannot match. I have about 20 knives right now and only two of them are serrated, but those two get plenty of use.
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That sounds about right.
 
I would like to see some suggestions of common materials that the SE would do well at, so we could run our own tests. I think there are a lot of possibilities here though- mirror sharp PE, PE sharpened with a coarse grit, sharp SE, somewhat dull SE. I always thought the advantages of the SE were on fibrous materials, or for general use when somewhat dull. The only comparison I've done, the PE did better than the SE on fibrous material, but this wasn't a very scientific or comprehensive test. I'm interested in doing some more testing.
 
I have one SE folder, a Salt 1. Prefer PE most of the time, but the only folder that I take traveling/working in the tropics is my SE Salt 1. PE Salts just don't stay sharp for me, unless I touch them up very frequently and I usually don't bring sharpening equipment when I travel. The SE Salt just keeps going and going and seems to cut effectively even when it starts to lose it's edge. My thinking is that the v shape in the serrations protects enough areas of sharpness that you get a lot more life out of the edge. I also find that SE kind of makes up for having a shorter blade, as if the actual cutting performance is equal to the length of the edge if it were straightened out, if that makes sense, so you get more cutting performance in a shorter blade.
 
Lance,

From your description, I'm wondering if it is possible to get a PE, add a little serration near the tip (something like victorinox OHT) to aid in your cut but most of the edge still a PE.
 
I really love the shallower serration pattern and thin blade stock on the kitchen knives. We used this one a lot in the kitchen over the last 8 months, and I touched it up twice! Quite amazing...

20150430_194031-small_zpsb7g7i0ve.jpg


Now than my wife "discovered" the Spydies, she reaches for them first, rather than the other knives in the block.
 
Surfingringo said:
...slide over the cartilage. I have to apply way more pressure and make a bigger cutting motion than feels safe...especially when I'm working between my legs with my feet hanging over the sides, hot fish blood spilling into the warm tropical waters, enticing even the largest toothy predators....
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Nice relaxing read until this part.
 
I almost always keep a serrated edged Spyderco for home and garden use. The SE is just a beast cutting through fibrous yard stuff. At some point I had a laser sharp Domino and a Cara Cara combo edge I was messing around my garden for a weekend with them and found that the Cara Cara 2 partially se, outcut the Domino I the yard hands down. After that experience I will always have a Spyderedge. I carry a native partially se whenever I can ever since I got one for xmas.
 
Chris "Anagarika";15620420 said:
Lance,

From your description, I'm wondering if it is possible to get a PE, add a little serration near the tip (something like victorinox OHT) to aid in your cut but most of the edge still a PE.
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Could be but I tend to use my tip for a lot of finer work so I kind of like pe up there. My favorite configuration is a 3/4 serrated edge with 5/8" or so of pe up at the tip. Kind of like the old serrated Native. The PM1 was a pretty good example too I believe.
 
Surfingringo said:
Could be but I tend to use my tip for a lot of finer work so I kind of like pe up there. My favorite configuration is a 3/4 serrated edge with 5/8" or so of pe up at the tip. Kind of like the old serrated Native. The PM1 was a pretty good example too I believe.
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So the 2" short pull cut over the cartilage was with the straight to belly part of the blade and not the belly to tip (which I assumed how it's done). Thanks for clarifying.
 
Chris "Anagarika";15624432 said:
So the 2" short pull cut over the cartilage was with the straight to belly part of the blade and not the belly to tip (which I assumed how it's done). Thanks for clarifying.
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I make that short cut with the belly of the blade. I should also clarify that when I say a 2" cut, I'm talking about how much my hand moves, not how much of the blade I use. The cut is probably done with a single serration that grabs and pulls until the material gives.

One other note. Most of the cuts I make with a serrated edge happen right at the belly before the tip. This is why i like the idea of a 3/4 serrated edge more than a "combo edge". I don't want the serrations to stop before the belly...if they do they are much less useful to me.
 
For my personal edc I only have PE knives, because most of what I use them for requires finer control, and it's easier for me to keep a plain edge sharp. My feeling is that SE is better for coarser, larger cutting jobs where you don't care about how clean the cut is. I've been thinking about picking up an H1 SE Dragonfly just to see what it's like though.
 
At the lab I used to work at, serrated edge was needed to get through an old "rubber" hose (really, really old) that had gone super-solid. Plain-edge slid right off it, but serrations sawed through with a lot of work.
Then, it turned out that a whole new hose was needed in the end, so it was all a waste of time. :D

Some plastics have done better with a serrated edge...in general though, I cannot tell ahead of time, and just switch which knife I'm using if one type of edge isn't cutting it. :thumbup:
 
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