My hatred of serrations, and yours, perhaps

While I cannot stand partially serrated knives for different reasons, fully serrated knives do have many uses. If you cut a lot of rope, serrations mean you don't have to push while you slice, because they grab and slice with minimum pressure. If I found myself breaking down a lot of carboard boxes, I would get a serrated knife not only for their good aggresiveness in cardboard, but because they have more usable edge than a plain edge, and my plain edge knives don't need to take so much abuse a day from carboard (which is really abrasive :eek:). I like a plain edge for EDC and most things, but serrated edges definitely have uses where they are far superior to a plain edge.

Just my thoughts and opinions,
Connor
 
Personally I don't like serrations at all. It just seems like a waste of good blade space, but different strokes for different folks I guess
 
i really do not like serrations especially in a knife that i will baton wood with because they will bust of and generally dont work well at all...and i havent found that they help in slicing at all
 
To each his/her own.
I like both PE knives and SE knives. In general, I've come to find the best length for a SE blade to be in the 3" or less length. I have no problems resharpening either configuration. It depends on what I'm using my knife for. I usually carry more than one knife, anyway.

The serrated knives I've settled on as best for my purposes are the Salt 1, Tasman Salt, Delica 4, or Dragonfly 2 Salt. The only serrated blades over that length I like anymore are the Spyderhawk Salt and Police.

Serration styles I don't like are the ones by Cold Steel and Emerson.

There are indeed uses for me which serrations are better at. But if I had to make do in the wilderness with one knife, it would be PE.

Jim
 
Here are some points by Cliff Stamp that may be helpful....

" Even a very rough plain edge can't readily slice into thin plastics like the end of a pop bottle, the knife has to be just pressed through which takes a decent amount of force. However the Alantic Salt will readily slice into the bottome of the bottle with much less force and can also cut right across the sides of the bottle where the plain edge has to start a cut by poking the point into the material to open it up. The true strength of the serrations come in the extreme edge retention, in particular when cutting very abrasive and specifically dirty materials."

Found:
http://www.cliffstamp.com/knives/reviews/alantic_salt.html

Here's a video of how I sharpen them... Maintaining the factory grind angle.
[video=youtube;BggYojTm9xw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BggYojTm9xw&sns=em[/video]

That being said, I don't personally own any serrated knives... I just put a toothy edge on my plain edges.
 
Being a chef I've had serrated knives in my case since I've started and probably only used it to cut bread maybe 15 times in 15+ years.. I just don't see there use.. I can cut anything just as well with my Chef knives and Santokus
 
I wasn't so much a fan of serrated edges because I liked the LOOK of a nice plain edge. I own a couple of combo edges because at they time they were popular for combining the advantages of both types of edges. I've owned this Benchmade Leopard for over 10 years. I don't recall that I ever cut anything with the serrations so I just ended up with less useful plain edge. Since that time I've tried to stay away from buying combe edge knives.


DSC_6657b.jpg



After reading threads about loaning knives to people and carrying multiple knives, and pondering the utility for a fully SE knife, I decided to try an experiment. I bought a Spyderco Byrd SE knife to carry alongside my normal folder. If somebody wants to borrow a knife, I can hand them the cheap one. If I need to cut something tough I can use the cheap SE knife. Since then I've bought a SE Ladybug. It is very small and you don't feel it in your pocket but it has more SE cutting length than most combo edge knives. I'm thinking the best second knife might be a SE FRN Delica.

photo479b.jpg



I've been thinking about SE knives though and what I normally use a knife for would work just as well with a SE knife as a PE knife. I open envelopes and packages, I cut string, I cut fruit and sometimes meat. I've done some of this recently with the SE Ladybug and I can't tell the difference in that and a PE knife. I think that honestly a SE knife would cut most things just as well. The only deficiency I can see is that for some jobs such as whittling wood or fine cutting of small objects, the SE would leave a rougher cut and might be less precise. I don't think you can buy a full SE Barrage or anything like that, but I can see carrying a SE Delica or Manix. And everybody needs a good excuse to buy more knives.


Took a better shot today of my 2 fully serrated knives:

DSC_7547b.jpg
 
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Oooh, I love serrated knives. My benchmade griptillian is half serrated, my mini tuff lite is fully serrated. I just like me some serrations! I like cutting with them.
 
James Y said:
...The serrated knives I've settled on as best for my purposes are the Salt 1, Tasman Salt, Delica 4, or Dragonfly 2 Salt. The only serrated blades over that length I like anymore are the Spyderhawk Salt and Police.

Serration styles I don't like are the ones by Cold Steel and Emerson...
Click to expand...

I have always wondered, but are Emerson's serrations the same as Spyderco's? They have always looked like it to me, and I always thought Emerson said "You can use the wave if we can use your serrations." but I may just be crazy.

Connor
 
I agree, I don't particulary like serrations on my knifes. But I do think they have their place, my moms kitchen knives are old and super dull, but they still cut food alright sawing back and forth. I don't really have a problem with them, but I think a plain edge works better in almost every task, if it is sharp.
 
ConBon said:
I have always wondered, but are Emerson's serrations the same as Spyderco's? They have always looked like it to me, and I always thought Emerson said "You can use the wave if we can use your serrations." but I may just be crazy.

Connor
Click to expand...

Emerson's serrations aren't the same as Spyderco's. Some people like them, and they do cut, but for me they don't work nearly as well as the Spydie serrations. They are patterned a bit differently, but enough to make a difference to me. Emerson refers to his serration pattern as "Dragon's Teeth."

I do also like the serrations on some Victorinox blades, though I generally prefer Vics to be plain.

Jim
 
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About 15 years ago when I first developed an interest in pocket knives, I would test them against cardboard (ATS-34). (At the time, many knives were half & half which I do not now like.) I tested a well thought of saw knife/tool down a cardboard box and met a lot of resistance. I tested a fully serrated Endura down a box and it cut like crazy! Plain, sharp knives were in the middle.

Half & half knives seem somewhat out of style now (fine with me) and fully serrated knifes are getting hard to find (I'm a bit sad about that) so a I have one - a stainless steel handled Endura with VG-10 and sabre grind: I have no doubt that could go through almost anything. (Very close to the Police model of old only different steel.)

From a tactical perspective, I used to think that serrations would go through certain slippery fabrics better (nylon?) and having a good angle angle when cutting could be easier --- but I could have been wrong about that. Also, I didn't know how to sharpen.

The fully serrated Civilian (never had one) is supposed to be mean as a weapon --- I can just imagine what it would do to an arm --- but now I'm mostly past the tactical aspect and into tactical looks on a useful blade. (I'll take a 21 inch ASP if I ever needed something --- or even a screwdriver/flashlight for legal reasons.)

I think they have their place. (Almost all my current knives are non-serrated and look great, too!)

Knives and trends are fascinating!
 
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