New knives, edges not very neat

T

the kid

Joined
May 5, 2008
Messages
644
Hi, just got my first three knives in.
Boker Trance, Kershaw Shallot and a Buck Collegeau.

I noticed all three knives have a pretty sloppy edge.
What I mean is, and excuse my crappy english, the edges are not symmetrical.
Parts of the edge on one side on all of these knives is higher/wider then on the other side.

Since this is on all of the three knives, with the Buck being the worst, and the Kershaw being the least bad, I assume this is normal.

I find this strange on knives who are on every other part high quality.
No blade play what so over, and superb finish.
So why these sloppy edges?

Ok, back to figuring out how to work the flipper on the Trance ;)
 
the kid said:
Hi, just got my first three knives in.
Boker Trance, Kershaw Shallot and a Buck Collegeau.

I noticed all three knives have a pretty sloppy edge.
What I mean is, and excuse my crappy english, the edges are not symmetrical.
Parts of the edge on one side on all of these knives is higher/wider then on the other side.

Since this is on all of the three knives, with the Buck being the worst, and the Kershaw being the least bad, I assume this is normal.

I find this strange on knives who are on every other part high quality.
No blade play what so over, and superb finish.
So why these sloppy edges?

Ok, back to figuring out how to work the flipper on the Trance ;)
Click to expand...

This is a typical problem of knives that are made abroad such as Taiwan or China.

I own several kershaw knives (which are made in the USA) and all of them have even edges!

I find it unusual that your Shallot is uneven - do you have any pics?
 
I will post pics laters, I'm off to see the doctor to get stitches, cut myself pretty bad with the shallot. :o
Lesson learned; pay attention when opening an semi automatic :p
 
I nearly always find problems with factory edges. That's why the first thing I do to a new knife is re-bevel and sharpen to MY standards.
Then I start playing with other modifications.
Greg
 
Kershaw knives are well known for extremely high quality control standards, and barring that, excellent W&R service. If you feel you got a bad one, they'ed probably like to see it, and also probably solve it.

Give thought to returning any Kershaw you are not satisfied with. They work hard at what they do and are justifyably proud of their products. Joe
 
I'm in the process of redoing the edges on my knives right now. So far my SOG Flash I had the best edge, only had to slightly touch it up with the diamond hone. 3 of my 4 Benchmades I had to completely re-bevel the edges which kind of suprises me.
 
The question is, does it affect cutting performance? If it doesn't, who cares? :p I've seen very few knives in my life that had perfectly symmetrical edges. There's almost always something, if you just look closely enough.
 
Could be a quality management thing, idk. My Benchmade Benchmite had the black coating over the edge, some quick sharpening fixed it though. Just got a Spyderco Endura and it isn't ugly! So THERE! lol. Send them back for sharpening if it is that bad or just buy some gear to do it yourself, it is inevitable anyway.
 
Buhbuhbonky said:
eww... spydercos are just so... UHLY
Click to expand...
That's not very constructive.

Spydercos may look ugly to you, but I assure you it's an acquired taste and their F&F is amongst the top of the heap of the big knife companies. Also their edge grinds are almost always inhumanly perfect, despite being sharpened by hand on a grinder like every other production knife.
 
It's a pet-peeve of mine; I don't mind it too much unless you have to drastically change angles from side to side when sharpening. My wife's Spydie, and my BM 740...perfect grinds. I have two Beckers I really like, but both were very uneven. I think it's one of the toughest things to get right with a blade.
 
psy-ops said:
You will never see that kind of sloppiness from Spyderco:thumbup:
Click to expand...

You will. In my experience it is very rare to see a perfectly symmetrical edge on production knives. If I'm holding my knife point facing away from me, the right side of the blade is usually ground more acute than the left in my experience. Probably has to do with technique and equipment used to grind the blades.

It's not a problem for me because it has little effect on most cutting and I reprofile my knives to thinner edges anyways.

Spydercos look ugly for a reason. Some companies make compromises to knife design to appeal to the eye, or design from the ground up to look visually attractive. Spyderco does not. They design a tool to be held and used, not to be looked at.

Judge knives with your hands and not your eyes and you will end up with a much better tool in your pocket.
 
psy-ops said:
You will never see that kind of sloppiness from Spyderco:thumbup:
Click to expand...

Yes, you will.

Most knives have the final edge hand-ground.

Vagaries happen.

That is why a well ground edge is considered a point of quality (and dependent upon the learned skills of that craftsman).
 
Vivi said:
You will. In my experience it is very rare to see a perfectly symmetrical edge on production knives. If I'm holding my knife point facing away from me, the right side of the blade is usually ground more acute than the left in my experience. Probably has to do with technique and equipment used to grind the blades.

It's not a problem for me because it has little effect on most cutting and I reprofile my knives to thinner edges anyways.

Spydercos look ugly for a reason. Some companies make compromises to knife design to appeal to the eye, or design from the ground up to look visually attractive. Spyderco does not. They design a tool to be held and used, not to be looked at.

Judge knives with your hands and not your eyes and you will end up with a much better tool in your pocket.
Click to expand...



+1:thumbup:Well said:)
 
I know!

I bought a s30v leek and it was dull out of the box.

It wouldn't even cut paper.

The funny thing is it had a orange sticker on the inner plastic wrapping saying "Warning Kershaw Knives Are Extremely Sharp!".
 
The first thing I do with a new knife, is sharpen it. You have to remember that the person who sharpens those knives probably sharpens a couple hundred a day," gotta keep those numbers up". It doesn`t seem to matter much anyway. I got a Spyderco chinook that was off a bit, I put a nice convex edge on it, and the hair jumps off my arm when they see the blade coming. If you look close you can tell one edge is a little higher, but I dont notice it when I use it.
 
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