Scandi grind limitations

[dbltap45acp]

I have heard that its bad to baton with a scandi grind. Is this only true for large peices of wood, or can it be used for smaller pieces without damage? What other limitations does this grind have? I have been on a scandi kick lately. I will be going on a trip and doing a review on a Koster, and two Brian Andrews knives and dont want to do any damage to the blade. This is a new grind for me, so any damage will take me longer to fix then other would.

Because of the way this grind seems to go through wood I would like to make one of these my belt knife when camping and such. I dont want to make that choice if there is more cons then pros. The two Andrews knives are 1/8th" 01 tool steel, and the koster is a bit thicker and its CPM3V.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[hollowdweller]

Scandi edge is thinner so as with a thin edge of any type grind it can be more prone to rolling and chipping.

I've batoned wood with a scandi and had no problems and also had a few chips before but I have done the same and had the same results with convex too.

I'd just take them, use them and not worry about it.

 

[Any Cal.]

I have done it a lot, and feel like a scandi grind is one of the toughest shapes you can get in a given thickness of steel, due to how much full thickness it leaves. I have an EnZo Trapper I have used hard, abused, etc., and feel like it is about the best possible design for the hard use in the woods.

 

[valcas1]

I have batoned the snot out of my Koster 1st generation bushcraft. I have had no problems with it what so ever. Like HD said the most that you will do is roll or chip the very edge.

Go have fun with your knives.

 

[Dr Heelhook]

I know something which is great for batoning..

 

[Diomedes Industries]

I baton mine with little issues.

TF

 

[hollowdweller]

I have batoned the snot out of my Koster 1st generation bushcraft. I have had no problems with it what so ever. Like HD said the most that you will do is roll or chip the very edge.

Go have fun with your knives.

I think the Koster 3V has the toughest edge of any scandi out there.

I did chip mine once batoning a peice of extremely hard dried elm, but only slightly and the very same wood also produced a chip in the convex Fiddleback Woodsman which is a fairly steep convex so I say that's pretty tough steel!:thumbup:

 

[baldtaco-II]

Unless you are really going to abuse it I'd be more concerned by the thickness and the steel and the heat treatment of it than the grind. The other day a post was moved out of a Busse forum here – It showed one of Jerry Hossom's knives, in a hollow grind format at 61 Rc, after beating on a bit of steel tube. The damage wasn't much at all considering what it did to the tube. Moral of the story, Paul Bos did the heat treatment. According to the way some tell it that would be a recipe for disaster. It just ain't so. Now, if your Scandi is stronger than a hollow grind...

 

[ZombaiO]

The only limitation of scandi grind i've found is that is damaged,you should remove quite some metal from the edge to restore it.

 

[Scott Free]

...the most that you will do is roll or chip the very edge.

Yeah, but you sure have to remove a lot of steel to get rid of those chips. If you avoid knots, you should be okay.

 

[dbltap45acp]

Great, thanks to everyone for the advice, I appreciate it.

 

[Brian Andrews]

You guys have talked about different steels, but there is also the grind angle itself to consider.

Everything is a trade off. The thinner the angle, the sharper the knife, but more fragile the edge. You can go steeper on the grind angle, depending on "what you want" from the knife, knowing that you can gain in one area (durability) and loose in another (sharpness).

Scandi edge is thinner so as with a thin edge of any type grind it can be more prone to rolling and chipping.

From the majority of knives you see, that is true, but not always. If you flat grind a knife thin, and then put 11 degrees per side secondary on it, there is less metal on that knife near the edge than a scandi grind. And there are some made that way.

That being said, no matter the grind style, there are trade offs that can be made and should be taken into consideration, depending on what you want to do with the knife. The trick is to find the happy medium that works for you :thumbup:

B

 

[Brian Andrews]

Oh yeah..... go buy a mora and beat the bejeezus out of it You will get your $10 worth in what you learn

 

[Joezilla]

I've beat my Brian Andrews knife through some different hardwoods, and jungle woods and it did great!(Brian I'll take my money in small bills ) I've taken some chunks out of an old used mora but just took it back beyond the small knicks, and it does great.

 

[Brian Andrews]

(Brian I'll take my money in small bills )

Ones perhaps? Oh that's sick and twisted

 

[hollowdweller]

I've done stuff that I thought for sure would chip or roll the edge and it didn't and then stuff I thought that wouldn't have any effect and it did.

For instance Brian made me a scandi in D2 and I used it to field dress and then later cut the tenderloin out of a deer. The blade was bouncing off bones like a mutha and I felt for sure major sharpening would be needed but when I washed it off and held it to the light nothing.

On the other hand I've used other knives and been whittling relatively easy wood and got some chips or rolling.

I find that due to the extremely interwoven grain that batoning Red Elm that is very dry will give me a few small chips.

Also whittling on dried oak and some sugar maple can do it more than anything else for me when you are sort of cutting where there is sideways pressure on the edge.

Almost always the chips are so small you can easily remove them. I have one chip in my koster small but hard to remove amazingly the only chip I've ever had in it despite heavy use and it was batoning a good size piece of elm in my yard. Doing it for the heck of it. I'd never actually try to split anything that large in the woodz.

 

[sodak]

The "scandi" grind is a lot thicker than the grinds on most of my knives, so for me the limitations are that it doesn't cut nearly as well. I put scandi in quotes, as there is a lot of conversation about what a true scandi grind is....

A full flat grind with a decent edge angle will easily out cut the current popular version of a scandi grind, whether in meat or wood, IMO.

 

[eraaij]

It all depends on edge angle, sharpening+finish and the material that you whak the knife into. But any decent angled knife will not see much damage after it gets into the wood, since you basically whack it into a widening split. The shoulder of the blade does the work as you progress, not the edge..

Knots and optional nails that it meets underway are a diffferent matter, off course. Most edges would have a bit of trouble with that.