Scandi grind is fragile? Huh?

19-3ben

19-3ben

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Jul 27, 2015
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In looking at the description of the RB3 on TKC's website I see the following warning:

Note From ESEE Knives: WARNING: This knife has a Scandinavian ground edge making it more fragile than a normal cutting edge. It is designed to be used for carving and general bush craft use NOT batoning or heavy duty cutting.
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I dont see that on the description of the knife on anyone else's website, so it was surprising, and especially so because while I have heard many criticize the utility of a scandi grind, I've never heard them described as fragile.

I feel like the scandi grind would not become the love object of the bushcraft community if fragility were a concern...

Thoughts?
 
marcinek said:
Nailed it. If it is zero ground with say, a 30 degree inclusive edge angle, then its edge is no more or less fragile that any other 30 degree inclusive edge.
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I'm sure there's a hell of a lot of Finn's, Swede's, and Norwegians that would be very surprised at the report!:eek:
 
Will the blade bite into wood as well with the micro-bevel? Slightly or significantly less?

Just trying to figure out what how I'm going to re-sharpen a few scandi's I've got that I'm less than thrilled about scratching the entire bevel on. A micro-bevel would avoid that, but as would perhaps a leather strop with some super-micro abrasive compound applied.
 
Professor said:
Will the blade bite into wood as well with the micro-bevel? Slightly or significantly less?
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I don't know about "significantly"...but a knife with a more obtuse edge angle will cut differently than a knife with a more acute edge angle. It doesn't matter is if is scandi, saber, ffg, or whatever.

I get a bad feeling where and how this thread is gonna go...so "geometry matters" and....

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Apologies - I wasn't trying to steer the thread's direction. I bought two Helle knives this past month for woodcarving (yet another new hobby for me), and other than stropping, I've not truly sharpened them per se. I struggle with the idea of lying the bevel flat on my super fine grit DMT and jacking the near mirror finish on these two lovely blades, so I'm tempted to go the micro-bevel route. I worried that doing so might take away from their exceptional woodcarving ability. The micro-bevel did so on my Mora Bushcraft, so I honed it back to a true scandi.
 
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OK. So tonight my RB3 gets about 30 seconds on the sharpmaker to set a 20DPS microbevel, and then gets another minute or two on the strop...

I love when problems have a >5min fix. If only all life's issues were this easily resolved.
 
Professor said:
I struggle with the idea of lying the bevel flat on my super fine grit DMT and jacking the near mirror finish on these two lovely blades, so I'm tempted to go the micro-bevel route.
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It's my thread so I suppose perhaps to some extent it's my prerogative to derail it.

Helle makes great working knives. Working knives are going to show wear and won't be shiny and pristine. Who cares if the mirror finish gets scratched?

Alternatively, get a 6000/8000 grit stone, and lay that sucker flat on that stone and bring back the mirror edge. What one abrasive takes away, another can restore.


At this point, I think I consider my own OP question to have been asked and answered. Thank you all for the words of wisdom.
 
I have a enzo trapper scandi in d2 and had some tiny chips with it.
I put a small secondary edge on it and never had a problem since
Easy fix
 
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19-3ben said:
In looking at the description of the RB3 on TKC's website I see the following warning:



I dont see that on the description of the knife on anyone else's website, so it was surprising, and especially so because while I have heard many criticize the utility of a scandi grind, I've never heard them described as fragile.

I feel like the scandi grind would not become the love object of the bushcraft community if fragility were a concern...

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
That's what happens when you mix "Sharpened Prybar" folks with "I'm carving a spoon out of softwood" people.
 
My Scandi ground blades (Roselli erapuuko and Carpenter in Krupp W9, Ivan Campos Scandi in 1070) take a very acute edge with no problems of chipping. The steel in these knives seems very tough. Mind, I use them for cutting, not batoning.
 
Professor said:
Will the blade bite into wood as well with the micro-bevel? Slightly or significantly less?

Just trying to figure out what how I'm going to re-sharpen a few scandi's I've got that I'm less than thrilled about scratching the entire bevel on. A micro-bevel would avoid that, but as would perhaps a leather strop with some super-micro abrasive compound applied.
Click to expand...

Another common alternative to a true scandi is a scandivex, a scandi grind with a very slight convex to add a little more meat behind the edge. I think it's a great compromise for the supposed fragile nature of a a zero scandi and it strops up very easily. Sharpening is pretty easy with a little sand paper across the leg in a stropping like motion instead of pushing the edge into the paper like you typically see used with stones.
 
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All of my scandi blades end up scandivex'd over time from stropping them. I've never run into edge stability issues, even with light batoning. Most of my scandi edges are O1.
 
Danke42 said:
That's what happens when you mix "Sharpened Prybar" folks with "I'm carving a spoon out of softwood" people.
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How true is that? Since common sense is no longer a component of today's society, I can easily see someone trying to "process" a couple of cords of wood with a cutting instrument with a finer edge. Then of course, diligently reporting back here with the blade's failure to hold an edge while batoning a 6in diameter oak stump filled with knots.

"Around the tenth stump, I noticed a great deal of edge deformation, and was no longer able to slice a falling hair. This was a disappointment. I had to go get my axe, saw and splitting wedge to finish "processing" the wood. All I wanted to do was hammer on that knife, not get out my proper equipment."

Since ESEE isn't known to be a bunch of idiots, they must have had some reason for posting that warning. I would probably lean towards taking their advice if it were me.

Robert
 
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True zero ground Scandi’s are great for carving but a sudden drop or a nasty knot can screw it up.
My genius friend left this on a table outside and his cat apparently knock it onto concrete. I called BS but he’s sticking to that story.
F673362B-F8DF-488E-959A-C59FE2EAD99B.jpeg
 
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