Serrations prove useless--I'm grinding them off

Status
Not open for further replies.
Yeah those are a terrible serrations to base your test on. That's like carrying a bread knife around. Look at the angle on those serrations. They are not ground very effectively. Get yourself a serrated spyderco and try it out for a week and you'll change your mind again. I don't usually carry a serrated EDC but I have been known to keep a serrated spyderco rescue in my off hand pocket. 85% of the time a plain edge will do but there are some tasks that I like serrations for.
 
I have tried serrations on a Spyderco kitchen knife. It has a very thin profile, but still the issues of grabbing flexible material does not go away.

I would rate the sheepsfootish configuration with a thin razor edge as a good choice for my use. The sharp corner at the tip of the edge works great for cutting tough material on a compliant backing, basically all of those tough plastic or fiber reinforced tapes on cardboard boxes. Three easy strokes will open the top of a very secure box. Blister pack is always a hassle, but the square tip also lets me penetrate the plastic with good control and then slice through it. The sharp edge lets me get through a two-inch mass of twisted plastic bagging or cloth smoothly and easily, a one-pass operation.
 
coldblooded357 said:
Yeah those are a terrible serrations to base your test on. That's like carrying a bread knife around. Look at the angle on those serrations. They are not ground very effectively.
Click to expand...

That's funny. I consider Victorinox serration pattern to be among the best. They are uniform, shallow, and acutely ground on a thin primary grind. And th "backwards combo edge" style makes more sense to me than the usual way of doing them.
 
I had originally hoped that with the serrations on the belly of the blade the Adventurer serrations would work well on taped boxes. The serrations did not do an easier job of penetrating tape on a box surface than a plain edge. I had hoped the serration points would pierce the surface well, and they didn't seem to. The bigger penalty of the design was that the blade tip was compromised by the way they ground the blade and did not bite well into tape.
 
Hawkbilled blades work well on blister packs provided their ground by people influenced by Jeff Clark, Sodak, et al. A Victorinox or Opinel pruner would be a good introduction if a Byrd Crossbill or Spyderco Tasman Salt is too expensive.
 
The serrations found on Victorinox are fantastic and among the smoothest cutting of all serations found. The Spyderco serrations aka spyderedge is also a great pattern and I love them but they don't cut as smoothly as the small Victorinox serrations.. The Spyderco serrations are a bit more heavy duty than the Victorinox type. I cant believe anyone that has used them would have anything negative to say about them other than if for the fact that the user doesnt know how to sharpen them correctly.
 
Jeff is one of our more prolific sharpeners, doing things like repairing the edges on soup kitchen knives on a regular basis; I believe as purely voluntary work.
 
I generally agree about serrations, but I have found that the patterns can be the deciding factor in how useful they are. The ones found on Cold Steel knives are outstanding for emergency and self defense. They separate bone and sinew, slice through leather and nautical rope and cut branches and, in emergencies, could cut through thick plastic and light sheet metal. I've never found my CS knives bunching anything up, yet if used too agressively, you can lose some teeth here and there. A recurved blade with fine serrations can do very rough cutting, but I do prefer some plain edge for stripping wire and bark. Just depends what you're cutting.
 
Oh man.. Not the Cold Steel serrations.. They saw things fairly well but are so fine that they are easlily damaged and so closely spaced that they prove a bit more troublesome to maintain to perfection. Obviously we can agree that plainedge knives do indeed perform better for certain tasks but to dismiss serrations is to be missing the boat...
 
I'm actually in complete agreement with the OP. I tried a fully SE knife and found that it only made cutting more difficult. I thought SE would be easier to cut fibrous materials and cardboard, I didn't find that to be true at all.
 
Serration does work.

I noticed this few month ago when have harder then usual beef in our cafeteria. I take plastic knife provided there and was able to cut this beef. That knife had serration.

I have some chines piece of junk knife in the kitchen for 10 years made from some mix of iron and something also serrated and never sharpened it of course, but it does work for those 10 years somehow.

So I consider serration as a method to make something to cut somehow, something you do not bother to sharpen or something which even impossible to sharpen.

But I completely agreed that this is not for quality knives. And cutting with this is just wasting effort.

But I remember I heard about serrated knife cut some rope in emergency situation and because it keep ability to cut (rip through) longer then plane edge - this actually was critical. Do not remember details really.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
DocNightfall said:
If you read the original post, the boat goes someplace he doesn't want to.
Click to expand...

I did indeed read it. That's why I replied. I personally love Victorinox knives. The one major let down for me is that the steel found in the blades of my beloved sak's is a bit soft. It will take a great edge but loses a good bit of its bite rather quickly compared to many other knives. In my use the serrated models have proven to stay much sharper much longerthan the plain edge counterparts and are very easily maintained. Usually just a good stropping is all thats needed to bring the serrated models back up to shaving sharp and they will cut long past the point of feeling dull...
 
Saw away at a crowbar with a CE and a Serrated blade. Roll the edge real good. The serrated blade will still cut pretty fine.

Personally, I like those ugly half-n-half blades.

A plastic butter knife (with serrations), is absolute proof that serrations are better. I have a nice plastic butter knife I've sharpened the serrations off, and it's only good to shiv one, maybe two cons. I can saw away at a whole yard of cons with my plastic serrated shiv.
 
I think that the "usefulness of serrations" is completely design, task, material, and environmentally dependant. Though some types will help "saw" through bamboo cleanly for square end cuts with less whittling I have as of yet seen virtually no other instance where serrations are better for working with organic materials....well besides bread anyway. I'd much rather have a functional saw spine. Where serrations tend to really shine is versus man made materials and in combat/survival environments.

However I have never really been anywhere "long term" without a sharpening stone and then compared a dull straight edge to serrations. My gut tells me in that case I'd much prefer the serrations so my edc pocket knife is 50/50 because I've already learned that "ya just never know".
 
I have to agree that plastic knives are a case in point. I was looking for a knife to take traveling where I might unexpectedly run into a place with a metal detector. Sometimes they show up in the craziest places like a bus station. I want to have something that might be able to cut a piece of cardboard. I took some fairly high quality plastic knives and tried to put a sharp convex edge on them. They failed to cut cardboard. With some effort I could do it with a good serrated plastic knife.

On the other hand I've never been in a situation where I could not restore a serviceable edge to a plain edge knife. You can always find some way to rub an edge back on to a piece of steel. I have actually never been in a situation where the nominal durability advantage of a serrated edge really showed up. I'm only 60 so maybe I just haven't lived long enough. On the other hand it only took me a matter of days to regret having serrations on my EDC.
 
Jeff Clark said:
I have to agree that plastic knives are a case in point. I was looking for a knife to take traveling where I might unexpectedly run into a place with a metal detector. Sometimes they show up in the craziest places like a bus station. I want to have something that might be able to cut a piece of cardboard. I took some fairly high quality plastic knives and tried to put a sharp convex edge on them. They failed to cut cardboard. With some effort I could do it with a good serrated plastic knife.

On the other hand I've never been in a situation where I could not restore a serviceable edge to a plain edge knife. You can always find some way to rub an edge back on to a piece of steel. I have actually never been in a situation where the nominal durability advantage of a serrated edge really showed up. I'm only 60 so maybe I just haven't lived long enough. On the other hand it only took me a matter of days to regret having serrations on my EDC.
Click to expand...

As an example I may think about some knife in emergency box in some place you rarely look in until it is needed, use this once a year or evel less often. Some cases when knife by nature may not have enough attention and care but when it needed it must work. Not for EDC of course.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
Since the modification I have been maintaining it by stropping on 1 micron diamond grit on photo paper. It is now a sensuous experience to cut cardboard.
 
I am in complete agreement with you, Jeff. I have tried several types of serrations, including the Spyderco style, on two different knives. My last partially serrated knife, my Byrd Raven, is now a plain edged, razor sharp cardboard fiend. I find it cuts rope, and everything else, better now than when it had teeth.

As far as rope cutting goes, I have a little anecdote:
I work at a company that sells, among many other things, roadside signs. We had a customer come in to pick up several large aluminum signs, like six foot by four foot. He was tying them down in his trailer, but the only rope he had was about 300 feet too long, so he was going to cut a piece off just for tying the signs down. This rope was about 1 1/2 inches thick, wet from the rain, and dirty/gritty. He had a serrated knife that he tried, and it wouldn't cut. It kept catching on the fibers. So, he pulled out a razor knife, which was obviously in need of a new blade, and it wouldn't cut. I walked out to the shop and found him struggling with a pair of wire cutters, snipping it strand by strand. I offered my new Queen Canoe in D-2 steel, with an edge i put on it. He declined, and finished making a ragged, nasty looking end on the rope. He mentioned the other knives inability to cut the rope in his decline. I promised him mine would cut it. He held out the rope and said "Give it a shot". My knife was out in a flash, and hissed through that rope without slowing down. It didn't even make a sound as it passed through. He was shocked, but I knew that a good plain edged knife would have no trouble.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top