Putting Scandi grind on pocket knives

[OklahomaBryan]

I like Scandi grind knives. I would like to have this grind on different pocket knifes--Buck, Case, Opinel, etc.

Can anyone tell me how to sharpen or move the grind up to get the Scandi grind on pocketknives? I would also like to know how far I would need to move it on different size knives.

Thank you kindly, Bryan

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Not enough blade thickness for that, really, on most traditional pocketknives. In particular, Case and Buck use very thin hollow grinds across most of the blade width, save for near the spine itself. Trying to grind a wide, flat bevel, scandi-style, into that hollow profile would waste an awful lot of blade width in the process.

And Opinel, unless they've recently changed their grind, already features a great-slicing, shallow & thin, subtle convex. The lower 1/3rd or so of the blade could be flattened a bit, to emulate the scandi grind. But nothing would be gained in doing so, in terms of cutting performance or ease of maintenance. Scandi grinds are notoriously hard to resharpen completely, if they've gone too dull for too long, UNLESS one is just applying a microbevel, in which case, the zero-grind cutting advantage of a scandi is rendered nearly moot anyway. Otherwise, if attempting to fully restore the scandi to sharp, without a microbevel, the very wide bevel means a lot of steel has to be ground away to restore a crisp apex.

I see no advantage at all, in attempting to convert such knives to scandi.


David

 

[OklahomaBryan]

I disagree with statement that Scandi is notoriously hard to sharpen. I have over 30 years of experience and have great results. Also there are others who would disagree with this and like to sharpen Scandi knives. HOWEVER, I did NOT mean this to be a post on if you like or dislike the Scandi grind or whether you THINK it cuts as well as some other grind.

I would just like to limit this to my original question. Bryan

 

[PoorUserName]

A trued Scandi does not have a micro bevel, Even Mora have admitted that all their current knives have a micro bevel, A Scandi with a micro bevel is a Saber Grind, or Modified Scandi.

Not 100% certain on this but i will put it out there.

 

[115Italian]

I would think any knife thats already full flat ground or hollow ground would not take a scandi grind well. Especially a hollow grind blade. A full flat ground blade may be too thin but could take a very mild scandi bevel.
You’re basically going to move the bevel up to where a saber grind would be.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I disagree with statement that Scandi is notoriously hard to sharpen. I have over 30 years of experience and have great results. Also there are others who would disagree with this and like to sharpen Scandi knives. HOWEVER, I did NOT mean this to be a post on if you like or dislike the Scandi grind or whether you THINK it cuts as well as some other grind.

I would just like to limit this to my original question. Bryan

It won't work to any gainful improvement, is what I'm saying. Just trying to give that heads' up, to save some trouble. If you're just wanting to widen the bevels a bit, to ease the feel of flush contact in sharpening, just lower the sharpening angle. Bevels will widen somewhat, though the very thin existing grinds will still limit how wide they become in the end. On a blade like a Case pocketknife, at a similar edge angle to Scandi (~20° inclusive, give or take), the bevel width might expand out to something less than 1/8" width, or less than that on smaller, thinner patterns.

I'm not knocking scandis. I have one, it's a nice knife. But scandi grind knives are built on flat-ground blade stock that needs to be substantially thicker than the blades on the knives you're specifically wanting to convert. To get bevels equally as wide, the existing blades would have to be ground so extremely thin, at such low angles, they wouldn't hold up in use. You can try it; the Opinel might be the best candidate. But I'll predict you'll not gain much, if anything, by doing it, other than making it look more like a Scandi.


David

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I disagree with statement that Scandi is notoriously hard to sharpen. I have over 30 years of experience and have great results. Also there are others who would disagree with this and like to sharpen Scandi knives. HOWEVER, I did NOT mean this to be a post on if you like or dislike the Scandi grind or whether you THINK it cuts as well as some other grind.

I would just like to limit this to my original question. Bryan

He said if they've been allowed to become too dull. This is because a scandi grind commonly has such a wide bevel that it necessitates removing much much more material to restore the edge to proper condition, and that broad bevel also reduces pressure against the stone, reducing its cutting aggression.

A trued Scandi does not have a micro bevel, Even Mora have admitted that all their current knives have a micro bevel, A Scandi with a micro bevel is a Saber Grind, or Modified Scandi.

Not 100% certain on this but i will put it out there.

Not quite. A "scandi" may have a microbevel, but not a full-blown easily visible macrobevel. A microbevel is so small that you have to give the edge close scrutiny under good lighting in order to even detect its presence. As soon as it's readily noticeable, it's a macrobevel. Not all Mora knives have microbevels, however--their scandi-ground woodworking knives are true zero grinds with no microbevel.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

It won't work to any gainful improvement, is what I'm saying. Just trying to give that heads' up, to save some trouble. If you're just wanting to widen the bevels a bit, to ease the feel of flush contact in sharpening, just lower the sharpening angle. Bevels will widen somewhat, though the very thin existing grinds will still limit how wide they become in the end. On a blade like a Case pocketknife, at a similar edge angle to Scandi (~20° inclusive, give or take), the bevel width might expand out to something less than 1/8" width, or less than that on smaller, thinner patterns.

I'm not knocking scandis. I have one, it's a nice knife. But scandi grind knives are built on flat-ground blade stock that needs to be substantially thicker than the blades on the knives you're specifically wanting to convert. To get bevels equally as wide, the existing blades would have to be ground so extremely thin, at such low angles, they wouldn't hold up in use. You can try it; the Opinel might be the best candidate. But I'll predict you'll not gain much, if anything, by doing it, other than making it look more like a Scandi.


David

Until recently most scandi-ground knives were actually on quite thin stock, as it compensated for the wedging that naturally occurs when using the grind type in deep cuts. A scandi is inherently the thickest grind you can have on a knife with a certain edge angle and stock thickness, though, so if a knife has any other grinding already done to it, the only way it can be converted to a scandi is if it has a thick-angled saber grind. Mora grinds at an angle of 11.5° per side on their standard knives, so that's thinner than most factory edges, but often the primary grind is thinner than that, so you can't make the conversion.

 

[adamlau]

I disagree with statement that Scandi is notoriously hard to sharpen. I have over 30 years of experience and have great results.

What Obsessed with Edges said. Rather, it would be notoriously inefficient to grind a thin hollow to a zero.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

For what it's worth, the Opinel in particular can be thinned in the lower 1/3rd of it's (convexed) grind pretty easily. I've done it with two of mine, using stones and/or hard-backed sandpaper (wet/dry), to produce a thinner convex that can be maintained by more-or-less laying the lower portion flush to the abrasive; either on a stone, sandpaper, or on an aggressive strop, if desired. In terms of making it cut like a Scandi might, that would be the easier candidate. On the hollow-grind Case & Buck knives, it'd just eat a lot of the blade width away, with all of the contact on the abrasive being at the thin edge and at the shoulder of the hollow, and no contact in between. The thinner cutting edge would just retreat back toward the spine, grinding like that on a hollow grind profile.


David

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

If you'd still like to try converting a traditional pocketknife to a scandi-like edge, you might look at Queen's patterns. I don't know if they've changed since I bought mine (they're under new ownership, with changes made in their offerings), but many of their older patterns in D2 were both rather thick in stock and flat-ground. I've since thinned the edges, and thinned and thinned some more, on a couple or three of mine to the point their edges start to resemble Scandis. But it's D2 steel, so it takes a while. They've started using 440C in newer patterns, over the previous D2, so that's something to consider as well.


David

 

[PoorUserName]

Not quite. A "scandi" may have a microbevel, but not a full-blown easily visible macrobevel. A microbevel is so small that you have to give the edge close scrutiny under good lighting in order to even detect its presence. As soon as it's readily noticeable, it's a macrobevel. Not all Mora knives have microbevels, however--their scandi-ground woodworking knives are true zero grinds with no microbevel.

How are you supposed to sharpen a Scandi blade with a micro bevel that is hard to see, What angle do they expect you to sharpen at?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

How are you supposed to sharpen a Scandi blade with a micro bevel that is hard to see, What angle do they expect you to sharpen at?

You sharpen it completely off and then re-establish it with 1-3 light strokes per side at a slightly lifted angle on a fine stone. This ensures that the microbevel stays micro.

 

[353]

I like Scandi grind knives. I would like to have this grind on different pocket knifes--Buck, Case, Opinel, etc.

Can anyone tell me how to sharpen or move the grind up to get the Scandi grind on pocketknives? I would also like to know how far I would need to move it on different size knives.

Thank you kindly, Bryan

I think this is one of the best scandi slipjoint knives you can get if you decide to abandon your scandi regrind plans.

Enzo's S30V has a fantastic heat treat.