Hello all! When I ordered my first Busse (a Basics #7) I was a little concerned about the convex edge. I had never owned one before and was a little timid about sharpening it. Eveyone assusered me that I'd only have to deal with the flat side so not to worry about it. Well I was talking to Andy a while ago and I decided that eventually I'd have to really sharpen my #7 and that would mean dealing with the convex edge. Now the #7 didn't need sharpening by any means, but I decided to go at it anyway as an experiment.
Before I had a go at it I took a piece of dried 1x6 birch and hacked it in half. I didn't count the strokes but just made note of about how long it took me. I then checked the edge for any visible deformaties. There were none. I then checked if it could shave, it did. Could it slice up fine paper? Yes.
That done, I went to sharpening. I used an EdgePro Apex to sharpen the flat side and a foam pad and sandpaper to sharpen the convex side. I started at a coarse grit and went to 3000. This was done on both sides (I wanted to simulate a real sharpening). When I was all done I was less than satisfied with the results. It would slice up fine paper no problem, but not shave. I tried steeling, checking for a burr, everything. I just couldn't get it to shave. The only thing that I can thing of is that I completely buggered the edge and created far too wide an angle or I produced a very fine burr that I couldn't get rid of without affecting the opposite edge. My suspicions are the former.
So I decided to take off the convewx grind and see how the knife performed then. I kept the angle on the convex side the same as the factory angle on the flat side 24 degrees. After removing the convex edge the knife would now shave again, so well I cut my arm and didn't notice it until I saw the small red line of blood. I went back to the birch and repeated the experiment. The results were the same as before except now I could see some very slight deflection in the edge. I went outside and found an old spuce I had felled a couple of weeks ago and stripped all the branches off. No problem. Then I decided to cut it into pieces (maximum diameter was about 2 1/2"). No problem, between 3-7 swipes to go through.
Back at the house I checked the edge. Still shaving sharp although I could feel a roughness. Still sliced up fine paper. I used a 320 grit stone with about 10 strokes per side and all the edge damage was gone.
My conclusion? The convex edge is a stronger edge which resists damage better than a V-grind. However, the Busse with a V=grind is still an excellent knife with marginal performance differences over the SHORT PERIOD testing I did. This is NOT a condemnation of the convex grind, only to say that if you've hesitated about buying a Busse because of that weird grind or you do reach a point when you REALLY have to remove some metal and IF you screw it up (that would be me) or decide you don't want to muck with it, you can put a standard grind on the edge and still have one hell of a knife. If you think about it this is a true testiment to Busse and M-INFI/INFI; even when the knife isn't in it's designed edge configeration it still performs.
I should add that I have a #5 which I am leaving with the convex grind. I will sharpen that one ONLY AS IT NEEDS and see how things go. If I decide to change/bugger up that edge, I'll let you know. I hope this little experiment of mine was helpful.
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"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n"
John Milton
There are only two types of people; those who understand this, and those who think they do.
Before I had a go at it I took a piece of dried 1x6 birch and hacked it in half. I didn't count the strokes but just made note of about how long it took me. I then checked the edge for any visible deformaties. There were none. I then checked if it could shave, it did. Could it slice up fine paper? Yes.
That done, I went to sharpening. I used an EdgePro Apex to sharpen the flat side and a foam pad and sandpaper to sharpen the convex side. I started at a coarse grit and went to 3000. This was done on both sides (I wanted to simulate a real sharpening). When I was all done I was less than satisfied with the results. It would slice up fine paper no problem, but not shave. I tried steeling, checking for a burr, everything. I just couldn't get it to shave. The only thing that I can thing of is that I completely buggered the edge and created far too wide an angle or I produced a very fine burr that I couldn't get rid of without affecting the opposite edge. My suspicions are the former.
So I decided to take off the convewx grind and see how the knife performed then. I kept the angle on the convex side the same as the factory angle on the flat side 24 degrees. After removing the convex edge the knife would now shave again, so well I cut my arm and didn't notice it until I saw the small red line of blood. I went back to the birch and repeated the experiment. The results were the same as before except now I could see some very slight deflection in the edge. I went outside and found an old spuce I had felled a couple of weeks ago and stripped all the branches off. No problem. Then I decided to cut it into pieces (maximum diameter was about 2 1/2"). No problem, between 3-7 swipes to go through.
Back at the house I checked the edge. Still shaving sharp although I could feel a roughness. Still sliced up fine paper. I used a 320 grit stone with about 10 strokes per side and all the edge damage was gone.
My conclusion? The convex edge is a stronger edge which resists damage better than a V-grind. However, the Busse with a V=grind is still an excellent knife with marginal performance differences over the SHORT PERIOD testing I did. This is NOT a condemnation of the convex grind, only to say that if you've hesitated about buying a Busse because of that weird grind or you do reach a point when you REALLY have to remove some metal and IF you screw it up (that would be me) or decide you don't want to muck with it, you can put a standard grind on the edge and still have one hell of a knife. If you think about it this is a true testiment to Busse and M-INFI/INFI; even when the knife isn't in it's designed edge configeration it still performs.
I should add that I have a #5 which I am leaving with the convex grind. I will sharpen that one ONLY AS IT NEEDS and see how things go. If I decide to change/bugger up that edge, I'll let you know. I hope this little experiment of mine was helpful.
------------------
"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n"
John Milton
There are only two types of people; those who understand this, and those who think they do.
