plain blade verses half serated

IMO: trying to multiply advantages of plain and serrated edges in one partially serrated blades people usually get multiplying of disadvantages. Such things happen sometimes: flying cars, for example. The best solution - two blades in one knife: plain and serrated.
As far as I can see "Serration Problems" are one of the most popular on the Forum. One of them: manufacturers put the serrations on the "wrong" left side because they will nice "appearance" on the pics. IMO manufacturers should think on serration "moving" from the "wrong" left side to the "right" right side.
Regards,
MIKLE
 
My thoughts: Serrations are good for cutting hard and soft things. For hard things, like thick cardboard and PVC pipe, the serrations can be used like a saw. For soft things, the edge can be easily submerged in the material and set in motion.

People that like serrated blades often claim that one of their advantages is the edge length is increased by up to 10%. This may be true, but so what? Since the edge is curvilinear, the entire edge won't contact the material being cut if the blade travels in a straight line.

To actually take advantage of the extra 10% of edge, a sawing motion must be used. This is the "trick" to serrations; if you can set the edge in a back and forth motion, you have the blade running at optimum efficiency.

That explains why serrations work well on hard and soft materials, and especially well on materials that are hard on the outside and soft on the inside, like bread.
 
The references to serrated edges being longer are about edge-holding. Since the serrated edge is longer, it takes longer to dull, just like a six-inch knife takes longer to dull and a four-inch knife, when engaged in the same task.

--JB

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e_utopia@hotmail.com
 
Some people think a partially serrated blade is the worst of both worlds. I think it's the best....for me. It should be determined by the primary use of the blade and your personal needs!
 
For basic utility, the straight edge is superior in some ways. It all depends on what you want to cut. Some surfaces are hard for the straight edge to grab and serrations would excel in that area. Also if you're looking for a defensive knife, I have a knife video from Gunsite, that says serrations are good because sometimes you may need to (defensively) cut through let's say a leather jacket, and the serrations would prove to be advantageous in that situation. Why do you see most tactical knives with serrations? There's got to be a reason for that. I carry a CQC7B as my daily defensive knife, and I'm going to be getting a small Sebenza (plain edge of course) for utility purposes. If you want clean cuts, plain edge rules. If you want a defensive knife, get a serrated one.
 
i'm of the camp that likes either a full plain or full serrated. a little bit of serrations are rarely useful. a full set can be extremely useful for lots of rope or as others have mentioned, PVC pipe, etc. for most things a plain edge does just fine.

Mickey-- a good serrated spyderco is not that expensive. if you or anyone else needs to find one, let me know. i know many places where i can get them for less than $40. there is almost no one here who can't sell a knife they rarely use and get a full serrated knife instead.

most of us also carry more than one knife, so the two knife theory works quite well. i currently don't carry a serrated since i'm at college and haven't done physical work in months
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when i'm outside doing work, i always either have an old rescue or harpy with me in addition to the regulars.

to each his own, if a part serrated works for you, so be it. just as a side note, i've been trying to sell a part serrated BM styker for months to no avail. so where are all these part serrated fans?
 
Nightglock is on track for this aside from someone's personal preferences. I keep some of my older half-serrated knives in my bug-out-bags. I carry a few knives on a daily basis, most are plain edge since these are used the most and easier for me to resharpen. I also carry a Spyderco Military, fully serrated...it doesn't see a lot of use but when serrations are needed it's there and does a great job. The only partially serrated blade is my MPF (where the serrations are on the "correct" side).

I personally think a primary defensive blade would be okay with a partial serration, much like the old CQC-7s or such. If there not used as a common utility blade, then their serrations don't really add or subtract from the knife's primary mission.

The concept is sound, but for those that use their knives quite often, it becomes more of a hassel to keep your serrations sharpened. Kind of like the "multitool" compromise theory...you have multiple functions that do okay on different tasks, but none that do as well as a single tool meant for a single task. Your 50/50 blades are capable of doing a few things that a plain edge would have difficulty with, but is still difficult to perform at the full capacity of a plain edge, and is still as difficult to sharpen.

Your use and preferences are the determining factors (to include your shapening enjoyment
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).

Dave
 
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