Sharpening laminated steel semihollow grind?

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Naphtali

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May 20, 2002
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I have a Morseth general purpose drop point knife 4.75 inch blade, blade back 1.82 inches thick with OEM semihollow grind (probably Dozier made for A. G. Russell) and advertised HRC 64 center lamination. I have been sharpening with GATCO® Professional diamond stones with 19 degree edge on each side. I recently read an article in Knife Nerds again that reported [decent blades] uniformly retained better edge holding with 15 degree edge on each side than with edges having edges with 19 degrees and higher. And that this advantage was maintained regardless of edge wear.

I suspect no edge tested was semihollow grind. I am concerned that the near immediate reduction in blade thickness beyond edge grind might cause edge to be less sturdy than a standard saber or flat grind with a 15 degree edge. Since the knife is general purpose, excluding bushcrafting and survival excessiveness, I may be making a big deal out of nothing.

Should 19 degree edge be retained, or can I safely adjust grind to 15 degrees?
 
Measurements are the only meaningful data points here... hollow grind can be left extremely thick behind the edge (i.e. Busse Combat) or extremely thin as you might get on a fine custom knife from a maker who grinds thin. 15 DPS is a very heavy duty edge bevel no matter what anybody says otherwise. Modern steels can easily support this geometry that have been heat treated even halfway decently in many cases. More acute edges will outperform more obtuse edges in most cases short of catastrophic failure where the edge blows out in some way because it's just TOO narrow edge angle. You'd have to be sub 12 DPS to really encounter this on anything but very brittle steels.
 
Father & Son Traditional Sharpening said:
Measurements are the only meaningful data points here... hollow grind can be left extremely thick behind the edge (i.e. Busse Combat) or extremely thin as you might get on a fine custom knife from a maker who grinds thin. 15 DPS is a very heavy duty edge bevel no matter what anybody says otherwise. Modern steels can easily support this geometry that have been heat treated even halfway decently in many cases. More acute edges will outperform more obtuse edges in most cases short of catastrophic failure where the edge blows out in some way because it's just TOO narrow edge angle. You'd have to be sub 12 DPS to really encounter this on anything but very brittle steels.
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Agree, I would go to 12dps or lower
 
Until one is discussing Morseth's "fighting" and "survival" styled knives, all laminated steel [edited 10 April @ 8:55 PM MST] Morseths begin with a nominal .1875 inch blade back. Those made by Dozier as A. G. Russell Morseths have a semihollow grind that begins very high on the blade. Result is, for my knife, one that slices as though it were much thinner. What I don't know is whether this translates to an edge area that verges on being fragile. Since these knives are not exactly scarce, I had hoped that members had experience with sharpening them to an optimum (???) edge and would share it.
 
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I wouldn't overthink it. If you want to try to get a bit more performance, then reprofile it to a more acute angle. If you start having edge stability issues, then it is a lot easier to go back to a coarser angle.

Hopefully someone can give you specific experiences with that knife, but it largely depends what you use the knife for so any opinions will be subjective or even irrelevant.
 
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