Question about thinning a knife

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Fuori

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Oct 13, 2014
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Is thinning a knife something one should do from time to time while sharpening camp knives? While watching sharpening videos I came across one suggesting that, but it was for kitchen knives.

What is the difference between thinning and reprofiling the edge?
 
What video? If you're talking about a video by murray carter, you should ignore it :) hes using water stones on relatively easy to grind steel and is just showing off

How thick is your knife, at the spine, and the edge bevel (shoulder)?

How many decades (10s of years ) have you been using it daily?

Thinning is a form of re-profiling :)

A lot of the kitchen knives I have are simply flat pieces of steel,
so I just set the edge bevel and keep sharpening, until there is no more knife
-- at my rate of use there is easily 500 years left, and thats if i sharpened it every day :D
 
"How To Sharpen A Kitchen Knife #6 Thinning A Knife" by Mark Richmond. I could be wrong, but it looked like he was using a Spyderco. I was wondering if that process would carry over to a camp blade.

I've heard of people removing metal in their regular sharpening process, but this looked like re-profiling with a different name.
 
:) yeah, I'd argue "profiling/re-profiling" happens any time you sharpen/grind, because you're literally changing the profile
I've also heard it referred to knocking the shoulders down, setting the edge bevel, changing the edge angle ...
I do that with the kitchen knives because they're usually around 20dps(even 30dps) with a thickness of 0.6mm to 1.5mm
that is waay too thick, heck full sized felling axes are only 15-18 dps ... I don't eat wood :)

FWIW a link How To Sharpen A Kitchen Knife #6 Thinning A Knife by Mark Richmond
 
Reprofiling is normally done at the edge. Thinning is done up on the flat of the blade. It's sides. Both will help the blade cut better. This removal of metal is done at different locations. DM
 
I'm not really looking to use it for kitchen knives, but rather curious if it applies to woods blades as well.
 
Hahaha, ok I stand corrected :) word overload and low blood sugar I guess :)

profile is outline pofiles/patterns
160px-Knife_blades_S_series.svg.png

so re-profile would be, say change a sheepsfoot into a spear point

re-bevel / re-grind , changing the thickness , the cross section
160px-Ground_blade_shapes.png


so what does that mean for kitchen knives and camp knives?
Well, knives usually come waay too thick, so some re-grinding is required initially to get satisfactory performance.

You do it once, and then its years and years before you have to do it again

I was looking to link that regrind thread by razor-edge-knives but I didn't have it bookmarked under regrind :)
 
the term 'reprofile' can be used to do as you say and change the blade shape but most often it is used to speak of reprofiling the secondary bevel (i.e. the cutting edge in most cases). I would personally not make the terms "rebevel" and "regrind" synonymous, as the former mostly refers to the secondary and the latter refers to the primary grind. It is all quite confusing I know, and different people have different takes/terms for what they are wanting done. That is why I have to really make sure to clarify before beginning work lol. You can imagine that someone would not be too pleased if they meant for me to reprofile an edge and I reground the blade lol.
 
Josh, Exactly. Years back we didn't have all these terms. NOW, we spend time clarifying the term to customers before proceeding with the work. These terms are spewed about on the internet and gents think it means something else. So, we spend time typing, educating customers. O, well--- it's all part of the package. And sites like this are a good place for it. DM
 
Fanglekai said:
The thinnest edge that doesn't deform/fail in use will offer the best performance.
Click to expand...
I'm coming more in line with this way of thinking recently. It applies to all knives regardless of the task. If your use is hard, you'll see damage in relatively thick grinds and bevel angles, if it is light use you can go pretty thin without seeing any damage. And thinner always cuts better if the blade holds up.

To me, a camp knife is not really a purpose driven knife - I can't predict exactly what I will want to use it for on the trail (mainly wood carving, food cutting, and rope/strap cutting, but sometimes hammering through branches etc), so I tend to go a bit conservative with durability, sacrificing some performance. Still, in my use an all around camp knife can handle .015 to .020 inch thickness behind a 15 degree per side bevel easily without damage. If I buy a camp knife that is any thicker than this, I will definately thin it out at least behind the edge.

Edit to clarify that I'm no expert survivalist who extensively uses knives outdoors or anything. The "insane cutting performance boost" thread referenced earlier was my introduction to the concept of thinning knives only a few months ago. My experience comes from thinning an esee 4 to about 10 dps and tinkering with a micro bevel on about 3 camping trips since then. It took some damage with only a microscopic micro bevel on my first trip, so I increased the micro bevel size to visible at 15dps and no more damage on the next two trips, which included some batonning through small sections of pine and oak.
 
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