Questions about "grinds"

[Eric H]

I would like to get some clarification on the terminology about how a blade is ground. In the past, my assumption was that a chisel grind was (usually) a tanto styled blade, that was flat on one side, and the creation of any bevels/sharpened edges was don from the other side only (or is this called a "flat" grind?)

What is it called when a blade's edge is sharpened equally from either side?

As a long time lurker, I would like to express my interest and appreciation for this forum, and my embarrassment about this question (but I'm REALLY confused, and the answers will reflect on a second posting that I will be making about an unsatisfactory knife that I recently purchased.)

Thanks to all!

 

[Jim March]

This will help:

1: Saber grind, also known as a "Moran" grind for the American maker who popularized it. Cold Steel uses it on a few pieces, it's common on good Khukuris including all the HI pieces I've heard of, and is seen on Japanese swords, knives, Naginatas and others. VERY difficult to do right but a tough and sharp edge.

2: "Conventional" grind. Very common. Something with this grind will be tough.

3: Hollow grind. As near as we can tell, in the 19th century British knife factories had a whole lot of machines that built straightrazors, and turned the process over to bigger pieces. The edge can be weak but not always, and they slice REALLY well.

4: Chisel grind. Gee, I wonder why they call it that? *Extremely* tough given the same starting thickness and edge-to-spine height as something else. *Anything* else.

5: Full flat grind. Difficult to do, favored by many high-end makers including BOTH Mad Dog and Jerry Busse, Bill Bagwell, Ernie Mayer, many others. Such blades tend to be very light for their relative length and height, often lighter than hollow ground because typically you can't start the "hollow" all the way from the spine. If you want a big light fast fighter, this is the way to go in my opinion.

Jim

[This message has been edited by Jim March (edited 05 November 1999).]