polished or toothey for a bushcrafter/hunter/skinner

[fujita yuji]

I polish my edge smoothly, at least the very cutting edge.
In case of field sharpening, I carry a small soft arkansas stone, which puts
bit toothy edge on. In this case, I sharpen the very cutting edge of the second bevel,
often limited to damaged section.

BTW, not intend to hijack the thread but I want to ask something.
How many of you use microbevel ?
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=634739

 

[dawsonbob]

BTW, not intend to hijack the thread but I want to ask something.
How many of you use microbevel ?
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=634739

I'm still experimenting with microbevels. So far, the jury is still out.

 

[udtjim]

I like them about the same. If I slowly slice through a sheet of paper and I can hear it slice, thats good for meat and hide. If it glides through with no sound at all, that is for showing off cutting paper. I mean polished.

 

[FlaMtnBkr]

For me it would be like this:

Hunting/Field dressing = Toothy (that has been polished on Richard J's wheel)
Bushcrafting = polished
wood carving = polished

Ummm how can it be toothy and polished?

The paper wheels put a pretty high polish on a blade and I would say there is nothing toothy about it?

 

[DWK2]

I don't know if one is better. I have a "toothy" damascus knife made by hunter and mountain man Chris Peterson (Utah) that works great. On the other hand, I also get fine service out of polished-edge Doziers.

DancesWithKnives

 

[Mentor]

Before I head out, and after I return home, I give my knives a thorough sharpening treatment. For most, I work through a few different grits of Japanese water stone, then finish up with some stropping - first with compound, and then with plain leather. This produces a polished edge.

Once this edge wears down after use in the field, I touch up with my pocket ceramics. This produces a toothier edge. It doesn't maintain its sharpness as long as a polished edge, but it certainly is sharp.

I suppose this means that my 'field edge' varies depending on the circumstance and how long I have been out and about.

All the best,

- Mike

 

[Mistwalker]

Hi
For a do it all knife?
What edge is best for hunting/ skinning/field dressing/wood carver?

?

I've never seen a real application where when working with organic materials outside a combat type environment in which serrations actually helped. Surely not in the list of tasks you present, for those I would definitely go plain edge.

 

[jesse2205]

Honestly it really doesn't make a big difference. If you like to polish your edges then by all means go ahead.

 

[sodak]

Personally, what I look for in hunting v.s. camping knives is different. I have yet to find a blade that truly excels at both. I like polished for wood and general tasks, and a little toothy for hunting, although I'm not as good putting on a toothy edge as a polished edge.

 

[Bigfattyt]

the last time I helped butcher an elk, I had three different blades with me. I had two with convex rather polished convex (but not perfectly polished), and a toothy factory v grind on the third larger knife. The toothy v grind did cut the meat longer, but the guy I let use it, was sawing, and banging the edge on the concrete table we were using. For the two convex edges, I just ran them quickly on the strop a few passes per side mid job and they were back to being much sharper. But I have not processed tons and tons of animals. I have really only processed two. A deer, when I was younger, and the elk last season.

I personally like a polished edge, with convex being my preferred grind right now.

 

[Dannyboy Leather]

Post expired.

 

[shangchi108]

That's like asking what ammo works best with what gun. I think it depends on a number of factors:

1) The kind of steel and how it's tempered.
2) What kind of cutting you're doing.
3) What skills you have to do the cutting you need to do.

And, like most things, I think it comes down to personal preference through hard experience.

Personally, I'm not a fan at all of serrations, but I do like micro-serrations. If I had to choose one knife to do it all, I'd like it to be toothy, but I do prefer a polished edge for some tasks.

 

[baldtaco-II]

Dannyboy Leather, hola

I'd like to press you a bit.

Most of you wrote accords exactly with what I wrote, so far so good. Yet your conclusion whilst sensible actually swerves the original question.

I like some knives for their superb versatility and some for their excellence at a single purpose. Your conclusion, to have more than one knife makes a great deal of sense. One of my gripes with the one knife for everything be that a popular saber Bushforager or a Tarzan Beaver Patrol 90210 Prioderm Meltdown in beige is the complete lack of authenticity. We know they are a romantic fantasy and historically off message. However, in their rejection we must be vigilant to binning off good honest utility patterns that work for a living doing most tasks brilliantly if not optimally.

On that, being terse and sticking to the original question we are considering a utility pattern, a “For a do it all knife?”, as such multiple blade solutions are precluded. This brings me back to my to my conclusion - “I'd rather have a proper edge that does most things brilliantly most of the time that a scratchy toothy edge for a tiny amount of time that is useful and constant sharpening.”

Where do you stand on that? Would you sacrifice some edge refinement that we know is the best route to having a stable and enduring edge for an advantage at those few butchery cuts a utility pattern may be called upon to perform, or would you sacrifice the toothy tissue advantage confident that you have brought the knife to as good as it can be for the widest range of tasks?

 

[ChapmanPreferred]

Ummm how can it be toothy and polished?

The paper wheels put a pretty high polish on a blade and I would say there is nothing toothy about it?

Sharpen on a 120 belt, and then buff the wire edge/burr off but leave the deep scratch pattern. FlaMtnBkr, you will get to experience some of that in the upcoming passaround that gunmike and I are running. The Manix 2 will be fresh in from Tom and that's the kind of edge that he applies to the edge.

 

[Dannyboy Leather]

Post expired.

 

[midnight flyer]

Yes, I don't understand the whole 'one knife' concept whatsoever. NOT WHEN MOST OF US ON THIS CONTINENT HAVE OPTIONS! 'Options' are a good thing!! By all means, exploit them!!

Not only do I not understand the "one knife" concept, I don't understand one bit of it here. Outside of distance hiking, I would defy you to find more than just a few that take off to the great outdoors with just one knife on their person. Doubtful.

I have three friends (a three bears story) that hold the ABS Mastersmith rating. All are VERY experienced outdoors men. Two own cattle ranches or farms like myself (they use their knives daily). One prefers the toothy edge for his general outdoors knives, one prefers the highly polished edge, the other is sort of in-between. I don't argue with any of 'em and choose to keep them as friends. I think it all boils down to - "what do you do with your knives?"

I agree. As a blue collar guy, my associates and I hunt, fish, camp, hike, cook, and do all kinds of other fun things we like to do together. My friends have knives that go all the way from shaving sharp to screwdrivers. Since we have all been carrying/using knives for well over 40 years, we have all found the edge that we like for use on the knife we are carrying.

I don't believe that one edge fits all anymore than I do that one knife fits all. Or that one truck fits all, or anything else "fits all". But I do have enough respect for my cohorts to let them sharpen, use and enjoy their knives exactly the way they want to. If they wanted their knives sharpened another way, they would do it. And contrary to the thoughts of some here, just because they can't shave with their knives does not mean they can't produce that kind of edge, or that they haven't tried that edge on different knives.

I think one can assume too much if they believe that having a personal preference is simply based on ignorance or inexperience. I give my friends and associates credit for knowing which edge actually works best for them in their circumstances.

I have never understood how discussions like this boil down to folks being so hard core on their point of view being the "right" one.

Robert

 

[Col. Cornelius]

Howdy,

This last weekend, I shot, field dressed, skinned and quartered a 6X7 Bull Elk See below fo pic's and more details:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=684450

I used two knifes:
-a modified S30V Gerber Freeman fixed blade (lanyard removed) for rough work - used approximately 30% of the time.
-a custom 4 1/2" stag handled fixed blade made out of a planer blade (D2 tool steel) for everything else - 70% of the time.

The S30V had a factory edge, and had micro teeth. I used this knife hard. Afterwards, it needed to be sharpened bad. Used a DMT diamond, then honed on a hard Arkansas and then stopped.

The D2 custom was polished and was used the most. It was still pretty sharp when I was done. Honing on a Translucent Arkansas then stropping and it was back to normal.

Both knifes worked good. I prefer the polished edge, but both work. Your mileage may vary.

 

[baldtaco-II]

Dannyboy Leather, morning

Thanks for your reply. I have little further to add as far as the exact topic is concerned, but I will compare notes on your three bears story:

I too am firmly in the do what you like with your knives camp. I'm not at all interested in being some blade-missionary crusading to convert a person's personal preference to my preference. There's no joy in that. All I am concerned with is that all of us get to make informed choices upon which to base of preferences, and I think that is the bit that sometimes get muddled on forums.

It often strikes me that personal preference is held in higher regard than facts, or in some cases instead of facts. Dunno if that is just an overzealous knee-jerk reactionary thing because many of us gathered here seem to be into stuff that otherwise decent people would choose to have our liberty curtailed at or what, but that liberty thing sometimes seems to really get in the way of insight. And that is an obstacle if we are here in the large part to contribute to / draw from a body of knowledge.

Unless an OP is very careful to phrase their question “which X would you choose AND WHY?” threads often derail into little more that a battle of personal preferences and little else. And worse, especially if a thread has got heated, it is common to see some mealy mouthed dumbing down with what is tantamount to “each to their own”, “use what make you happy”, and so on. I see what folk are usually attempting to do with that but for my part it just ramps up the noise to signal ratio. Facts get lost, unrecognized, or treated as irrelevant. In this particular case there are facts about the strength and edge holding advantages or a refined edge that are immovable irrespective of the preferences of any of us. It is those that I'm constantly trying to drill down to.

In conclusion I'll throw in this anecdote. A little while back I was reading a response from a maker to the question “do you do stag handles?”. The maker replied “why would you want an inferior material?”. Here we have it. I think it is pretty obvious that stag is an inferior material compared to modern alternatives on pretty much any performance characteristic one cares to measure. However, I can see why some would choose it despite that knowledge and good luck to them. But prerequisite to “despite that knowledge” is having a grasp of the facts to begin with. If we aren't vigilant responses such as “each to their own”, “use what make you happy” could lead the querent to the conclusion that stag is as timeless as G10 and as tough as canvas micarta and the whole thing was just arbitrary to an individual's whims. If the price I have to pay for accuracy is to sacrifice such cold comforts so be it. To my mind that is the only way for any of us to develop true confidence in our preferences. To the guy that wants a stag heirloom knife, good on ya, but know how it relates to everything else. Same with the toothy edge advocates – if it works better for you go for it, but do so in the certain knowledge that it makes for a weaker edge demanding of more maintenance.