....love child of BRK and Fallkniven? ... or did I ruin it?

[BigW]

REIFF F5 with convex edge ... ....

I did many tests with the BRK Bravo 1.25 and the F5, and while there are good reasons for having a 20 deg V-edge for a field knife, I really struggled - compared to the BRK's convex edge - to use the F5 e.g. for chest lever cutting and more bushcraft like tasks. Hence, I decided to change the grind of the F5 to convex. I found out that this is actually a pretty tricky task as the F5 has a slight hollow grind following the V-edge, and the hollow grind IS NOT even over the blade length!!!...and while changing the grind, the coating had to go to - obviously - and the edges of the spine are now pretty sharp and create a real firework when using a ferro rod.

For me, the result was worth it - the F5 cuts now like the BRK, but outperforms it when
- batoning: wider blade so you still can hit the middle of the blade while you have to hit the tip or the handle of the BRK once the knifes are the same distance in the timber, plus the F5 has the thicker spine.
- chopping: the F5 has the slightly longer handle and the perfect shape that allows to grip the knife just with 2 fingers (secured with a lanyard of course), plus the F5 is 30% heavier.
- typical bushcraft tasks: while the BRK looks more attractive - if it lies on the table, you just want to grab it and play with it - the moment it comes to hard work you want the meatier handle of the F5.

I used the F5 for harder garden work, chopped twigs from bigger branches to make them fit through the opening of the shredder, processed roadkill incl. lungs for dog food ..... the knife is a dream to use now...Of course, with the original 20deg V-edge the knife would be more robust when it comes to driving it through nails, but I couldn't find this task on my to-do list .

 

[navman]

Warranty be damned. It's your knife, do with it as you please.

I recently reground a Busse because I found the edge FAR too thick and heavy. In the process I removed quite a bit of metal and thinned the blade significantly.

 

[Alberta Ed]

Nice job! Some time ago I modded the very acute V edge of my SRK in Carbon V to a convex edge and it now cuts like a light sabre.

 

[SharpBits]

It seems more like you fixed it!

 

[DocJD]

Looks fine , works better ...I call that a win !

 

[1911bphil]

You ruined it. Send it to me so I can get rid of it. Seriously, it looks great.

 

[BigW]

Warranty be damned. It's your knife, do with it as you please.

I recently reground a Busse because I found the edge FAR too thick and heavy. In the process I removed quite a bit of metal and thinned the blade significantly.

I wouldn't have used it much in the original state, so likely it just would have collected dust in the drawer ... so no return of investment in this case, and also no real benefit from the original warranty as the chance of damage would have been close to zero then. Now I lost the warranty, but the return of investment is worth it . I guess that's the difference between a knife collector and a knife user.

 

[BigW]

Nice job! Some time ago I modded the very acute V edge of my SRK in Carbon V to a convex edge and it now cuts like a light sabre.

the direct comparison between the BRK with the convex edge vs. the 20deg V edge was a real eye opener for me. While both edges were razor-sharp for the tests, I could split e.g. grapevines via chest lever cutting with the BRK with ease while really struggling hard with the F5. The first 1.5 mm cutting into the grapevine - or timber - is easy with both knifes, but after the initial cutting with a 20deg V edge you have to push already over 1 mm wide steel deeper into dense material, and that is where the razor-sharp edge doesn't help much anymore.

When I do the same test now with the F5 with the modified grind, it actually outperforms the BRK due to the meatier handle that flattens just a little bit towards the blade - that's where my thumb rests - and allows for a perfect grip for pulling.