Scandi grinds vs normal V-grinds for field sharpening

[TedV]

One thing keeps bugging me. A lot of times it's said that a scandi (zero-bevel) grind (read Mora knife) is 'easy' to sharpen since you can just put it flat on a stone so it's easy to keep a constant edge.
But, don't you then always need to removing a lot of metal just to get the knife sharp again? And wouldn't you need a perfectly flat stone which is not easy to find in the field?
See the small illustration. The edges are a bit 'overdone' - The red is what I think is removed when sharpening.

Most of my knives have a 30 degr. back bevel and 40 degr. edge (inclusive). If I would need to touch up that in the field, I could pick up probably any rock, and give it a few swipes????

I've posted this here since I would like to view it in the perspective of field sharpening, so without the Sharpmaker or Apex Pro.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Ted

 

[Ravaillac]

One thing keeps bugging me. A lot of times it's said that a scandi (zero-bevel) grind (read Mora knife) is 'easy' to sharpen since you can just put it flat on a stone so it's easy to keep a constant edge.

Yep, exactly.

But, don't you then always need to removing a lot of metal just to get the knife sharp again?

yep you need to remove a lot of metal.

And wouldn't you need a perfectly flat stone which is not easy to find in the field?

There are not so many people that seriously consider sharpening their knife on a stone "picked from the stream". The "easy single bevel sharpening thing" is that it is easier to get a nice edge from a conventionnal stone when under stress, tired etc ...
Anyway assuming you can't sharpen it to a "single bevel" you can still create a small bevel to restore edge as you would do with any other knife.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

A lot of times it's said that a scandi (zero-bevel) grind (read Mora knife) is 'easy' to sharpen since you can just put it flat on a stone so it's easy to keep a constant edge.

You can do the same thing with a v-grind with a secondary bevel with a little imagination, making a field capable jig for a touchup is trivial, a piece of wood under the spine for example.

The best responce to this I ever saw was by my brother as he *HATES* puukko grinds and I mentioned this off hand to him one time, more as a joke than anything else.

He takes a simple benchstone sets it on an angle to the wall (stump/rock, etc.), and says "Sharpen on one side until you get a burr, walk around and sharpen the other side. Done." Making field v-rods is trivial.

In regards to the built in angle guide, David Boye does this with his fixed blade hunters, and I think the one piece ones by making the guards part of the guide.

Field sharpening though is much more hyped than reality, unless you really blunt a knife by cutting sod or similar, with proper use of microbevels you can restore an edge with 1-2 passes on a hone.

I usually run cutting trials on cardboard and such down to <5% of optimal sharpness, very blunt, it takes 1-2 passes on a sharpmaker to restore shaving sharpness.

-Cliff