Scandi, or Flat grind?

Which do you prefer in a bushcraft type of knife?

  • Total voters
    4
BlackHills said:
9 out of 10 times I'd pick a scandi.
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please... you, or anyone else. explain why you would want this? i's love to hear why a 45 degree angle on a bar of steel works better than a knife with proper geometry. it just doesn't make sense... leaving it at that.
 
On an all around user blade I prefer a high flat grind. In fact my go to pocket knife is a Spyderco Caly 3.5.

Just to give an indication of how useful that grind is, we were doing a fundraising taco sale at my last duty station. Had use of a kitchen facility, but no one thought to bring a kit hen knife for prep work (Doh!). I had my Caly in my pocket so I started cutting onions, tomatoes, lettuce and peppers for the line. That little 3.5 inch full flat ground blade performed, well, not ideal, but it worked well enough that it impressed the hell out of my coworkers.

On an outside camp knife I would want a high flat grind, probably not full flat, but close to the spine.
 
Ballenxj said:
I have it coming from 5starknives out of Beaverton, Oregon. I found them on the bay. They seem to have quite a good stock of Blind Horse, Battle Horse, & L.T. Wright knives.
The one I bought is called the Stallion. and they have one left last time I checked. ;)
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5starrknives - 2 r's
 
For bushcraft I go for scandi. I love flat grinds but it leaves the edge a bit weaker if it needs to be batoned. For other things, like food prep, I like a flat but that wasn't the question.
 
Deffinetly ffg hands down I don't get scandi I tried it and it doesn't do anything better and most things much worse. The ffg even carves better in my opinion. To each their own I guess
 
I like both, but with a few qualifications.

I prefer convex, to be honest, but FFG is my second choice.

That being said, a scandi with a fairly high grind line, like a Enzo Nordic, can perform as well as a FFG in slicing and cutting tasks. A wide, FFG is always going to slice best. That's why chef knives are FFG, not scandi or convex. For kitchen work, FFG all the way. For other tasks, some blend or compromise is best in my book.

I micro-bevel or micro-convex any true scandi-grind I get because I dislike having to put wear on the whole flat of the grind in order to sharpen a zero bevel. Yeah, it lessens the slicing perfection, but the Spyderco Nilakka is a good example of how a zero grind can make for a brittle or weak edge.

I also can't stand the real short scandi-grind blades that have what seems like an absurdly narrow grind line. The Brusletto Leuku blades are like this. It looks like a freakin' machete. Helle knives are a little better in geometry, but in order to get a reasonable edge angle the knife has to be really thin. If I want a sharpened spatula I'll sharpen a spatula. They must make a lot on these knives since the time it takes to grind them has to be very minimal.

I really like the Enzo Nordic and the Kellam Wolverine or Puukko. This style scandi-grind is great in my book, with a fairly decent grind width, but I'd still prefer a Fallkniven F1 or a Spyderco Southfork.
 
rustyrazor said:
please... you, or anyone else. explain why you would want this? i's love to hear why a 45 degree angle on a bar of steel works better than a knife with proper geometry. it just doesn't make sense... leaving it at that.
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45 degrees? Halve that. In fact I think people who think scandis are too fragile at the edge are people used to working with knives at the angle you mentioned. Mora's are in the range of about 20-23 degrees inclusive.

I like scandis for carving and fire prep. They seem to be better at removing a lot of wood pretty quickly for me. For every other cutting task I like flat or convex the best.
 
I'm relatively new to scandi's but I'm really enjoying the benefits that they bring. Better for wood carving and easy as snot to field sharpen. The couple examples I have, the edge seems a little more delicate than flat grinds.
 
rustyrazor said:
please... you, or anyone else. explain why you would want this? i's love to hear why a 45 degree angle on a bar of steel works better than a knife with proper geometry. it just doesn't make sense... leaving it at that.
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Naturally the angle varies depending on who made it, but as Shotgun said it's usually somewhere between 20-25°.

As for why I would choose them - they work for me. When I am out and about, I mostly use a knife to cut wood and the scandi is just more useful for that in my hands. I have no problem doing food prep with them, so I don't feel I lose anything in that area. They tend to hold a good edge longer than other grinds IMO and, as has been mentioned, they are easy to sharpen with field expedient methods if needed.

If they don't work for you then they don't. I happen to like them a lot.
 
The score has been very consistent since this thread started.

75% Flat Grind vs 25% Scandi.

I call that a blowout.

Eric
 
The cow said:
I'm relatively new to scandi's but I'm really enjoying the benefits that they bring. Better for wood carving and easy as snot to field sharpen. The couple examples I have, the edge seems a little more delicate than flat grinds.
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A scandi is literally the thickest most robust grind you can have on a blade of a given edge angle and stock thickness. What you are experiencing is the joy of using a thin edge angle. Not the joy of using a scandi in specific. A scandi does have a "training wheel" effect in helping someone inexperienced with sharpening find the correct angle, but if maintaining a zero grind on it you have to remove much more metal every time you sharpen compared to a knife with a relief bevel like a conventional flat saber or full flat grind where the edge is a secondary bevel.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
A scandi is literally the thickest most robust grind you can have on a blade of a given edge angle and stock thickness. What you are experiencing is the joy of using a thin edge angle. Not the joy of using a scandi in specific. A scandi does have a "training wheel" effect in helping someone inexperienced with sharpening find the correct angle, but if maintaining a zero grind on it you have to remove much more metal every time you sharpen compared to a knife with a relief bevel like a conventional flat saber or full flat grind where the edge is a secondary bevel.
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All expertise denied; however, every Nordic maker I have contacted dislikes the so-called "scandi" since they see it as prone to damage, although not catastrophic damage. So, they use secondary bevels on most of the "Scandi" knives that they make - as do the factories. This is rationalized by fans of the "Scandi" by saying it is "only a micro bevel." (See "Only a little pregnant." :) )
 
Thomas Linton said:
All expertise denied; however, every Nordic maker I have contacted dislikes the so-called "scandi" since they see it as prone to damage, although not catastrophic damage. So, they use secondary bevels on most of the "Scandi" knives that they make - as do the factories. This is rationalized by fans of the "Scandi" by saying it is "only a micro bevel." (See "Only a little pregnant." :) )
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Yup. That's why I really hate the term "scandi" as the grind would more properly be called a "Mora grind". Scandinavian/Nordic knives came and still come in a wide range of grind types, and secondary bevels are the norm. Mora even puts microbevels on their outdoors and utility knives, only leaving their carving knives with a true zero grind.
 
Before I found the world of knives, I was more or less forced to use a scandi-grind, because that was the only grind readily available in sport and hunting stores where I live. It still is the only option in most stores in Norway, scandi scandi scandi. And the two major knife producers in my country, Helle and Brusletto produce 95% scandis. And I don't like them one bit. I hate the way I have to sharpen them, I hate the way the slice (or don't slice), the design of them is uninspiring and bland.

I'm no bushcrafter, just a normal guy that likes to camp, hike in the summer and go skiing in winter. Food prep and fire prep is the two major things I use my knives for, and when I go on longer back packing trips I usually just bring one knife. Scandies will never make it to my system because they're not versatile. I've used my worksharp to convex all my scandies, I've removed a lot of steel, and now they actually can be useful.

But as always, YMMW.
 
Saint Loke said:
Before I found the world of knives, I was more or less forced to use a scandi-grind, because that was the only grind readily available in sport and hunting stores where I live. It still is the only option in most stores in Norway, scandi scandi scandi. And the two major knife producers in my country, Helle and Brusletto produce 95% scandis. And I don't like them one bit. I hate the way I have to sharpen them, I hate the way the slice (or don't slice), the design of them is uninspiring and bland.

I'm no bushcrafter, just a normal guy that likes to camp, hike in the summer and go skiing in winter. Food prep and fire prep is the two major things I use my knives for, and when I go on longer back packing trips I usually just bring one knife. Scandies will never make it to my system because they're not versatile. I've used my worksharp to convex all my scandies, I've removed a lot of steel, and now they actually can be useful.

But as always, YMMW.
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I have owned thirteen Helles. One I still have came with a "Scandi" grind as defined by the British, who invested the label - saber grind with no secondary bevel. The other twelve came with a secondary bevel, as well as the only two custom Norwegian knives that I have. Are the secondary bevels relatively small? Sure. But they are there and are there for a reason.

Perhaps Helle makes knives with the "Scandi" for domestic consumption.
 
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