Playing with Scandi Grinds

Bill Siegle

Bill Siegle

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 3, 2000
Messages
6,817
Well I found a post elsewhere on setting up a grinding fixture for doing scandi grinds. Doing them by hand only is tricky stuff! Well I actually found a fixture I had in the shop when I was digging for materials to build one :) The fixture and my use of it are not quite perfect, but I am very happy with the results of these two tester blades. Not quite ready to start offering the scandi grind quite yet, but I think I may do a run sometime in the future. To say they are sharp is an understatement! Zero resistance when I tested them on my scrap leather. Both are zero ground with a micro bevel at the edge to remove the burr. A simple 5 strokes on both sides on the Sharpmaker then stropped and WOW!!!! They actually scare me! I used 1095 steel for both. 3/16 thick on the big and 1/8 on the small. Forest Green G10 and stainless hardware make up the handles. The big one is 10in overall with a 5 7/16 blade. The pattern is loosly based on the knife Dave Canterbury used in Dual Survival. The small one is 6 5/8in overall with a 3 1/8in blade. I am curious as to how well the scandi edges will hold up over time. In theory they should hold up fine as they use the same angle as I always sharpen at, just goes all the way up :) Time and use will reveal what I want to know.



TwoScandis.jpg
 
Classic lines. Very nice stuff, Bill. :thumbup:
 
Heck, I like the set. The two would be an awesome combination to carry in a double sheath. :)
 
Looks like a couple of TOUGH users. I imagine the pair would cover just about any cutting tasks one might encounter.
 
Very nice and clean, I really like that little one! If you are looking for a tester, I will be glade to send you postage.
 
Those look great, Bill:thumbup: Do you know the approx. angle they are ground at on each side?

Thanks!
 
I haven't measured it to see where it is yet. I had the fixture set up at about 13 degrees but when I was doing the second bevel on the larger knife, the set screw was moving and the angle ended up a a little higher. I then reground the 1st bevel to match after locking the set screw down properly. I got a few knives out to the woods yesterday and gave em a short workout on some iced up alder that was a recent knockdown. The two green scandis cut like lasers! The big one just flew through the wood even though it was frozen inside and out. The small one however simply blew my mind! It was cutting way out of proportion to it's size. Easily cutting 3/4 diameter limbs in 1 stroke and it just didn't quit! With the bigger one, I was easily able to cut this 3in limb in about 30 seconds. I got to the point in the pic in about 20 seconds. I also did some intentional bad strikes with the big guy to see what the thin edge would take. I got a couple small wiggles at the very edge. I think the higher edge bevel angle was to blame. Add to that I was basically trying to chop sideways on frozen wood :) It is about as abusive as you can get to a knife without walking over to the vice with a hammer :D To tell the truth though I was sorta happy to see the edge wiggle. I expected chip outs or even and a crack. Instead the edge showed me I had gotten my heat treat where I wanted it :D I resharpend the edge and gave it a little more secondary bevel and I will beat on it again soon and see how it holds up. To my way of thinking, a scandi grind is for cutters only and not really the edge you would expect to hold up to heavy chopping so I may just adopt to the scondary bevel on a primary scandi grind. An added bonus is that it is super fast to resharpen when needed as there isn't a bunch of metal to remove.

BigGreenScandi.jpg
 
A pair that belong together. Nice work.

I have tried to do a Scandi grind, but messed up, and had to do a flat grind.

RP
 
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