So confused I don't even know where to post this

yobbos1

yobbos1

Joined
Mar 29, 2002
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This is a question about blade grinds. I was working outside today and had to sharpen some stakes to pound into the ground. I started with an endura and found the going tough. This seemed odd to me 'cause I keep all my knives scary sharp all the time. So after checking the edge(it was fine)I tried some experimenting.On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being impossible and 10 like a hot knife through butter.I kept hacking away with different knives.
Endura 6
Buck 110 9
Mirage 7
SAK Spartan 6
Chive 8
Double Cross 9
There are more that where tested but you get the idea. I gotta stress that I sharpened all of these myself so even if I sucked at sharpening that woulden't explain the discrepancies. So I can only guess that this has to do with blade grinds (or thickness?)Opinions,theories,advise?
 
The primary grind will strongly effect how well a knife cuts, as will the angle at which the edge bevel is sharpened. To make matters worse, wood really brings out the strengths and weaknesses of certain grinds. Now you know why the Buck 110 is held in such high regard amongst outdoorsmen. :) The 110 is very thinly ground at the edge bevel, making it a wicked cutter.

Hint...Hint...Hint... Try a full convex grind sometime. Something like a Marbles. You'll never want to sharpen stakes with anything else. :D
 
Hi

The best knives for cutting and carving wood, bar none, are those with the scandanavian single, flat, bevels. Helle, Frosts mora etc.
They are cheap too, just get one and try shaving a few feather sticks, you will be very suprised how easy it is.:)
 
Must agree with willadams on this one -- I'm finding that the Scandinavian blades are truly functional for cutting/carving wood. They take & hold a great edge & are easy to sharpen. A couple of months ago I got some Helle & Karesuando blades from www.ragweedforge.com & am epoxying them into handles mde from scrap hardwood (blind tangs). The blades cost between $6 - 12 each, which is practically nothing considering the quality of the steel. See <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~bonamici/misc/kniven.html> for some pictures. This isn't world-class knifemaking by any stretch but they sure work well.

Andrew
 
I don't know if my reasoning is valid, but from the list of knives you posted it also looks like the knives with thin widths (top of knife to belly of blade) do better than wide ones. Kind of like the difference between a filet knife and a chef's knife for an extreme example. Though the thin SAK didn't do well either. Could be because SAKs have pretty weak blades anyway.
 
BTW, great links Andrew. I'm starting to like the kinds of knives that Ragweed forge shows, and those prices are amazing. May have to get one someday.

From the pictures of the knife you put together, you must have gorilla sized hands.
 
hi Grapevine -- As you can see, it took me quite a while to get back here....

Yes, I do have big hands esp for my size (5'10", 160lbs), but I think a larger handle has ergonomic advantages even for people with small-to-normal hands. One of my other knives is a Buck Woodsman (#102?)& I now find the handle uncomfortably narrow.

FWIW, though, the handle on my maple handled knife in the picture is just a bit bigger than the handle on a Stanley utility knife, or about the same as a typical chef's knife. It might look larger than it really is because the blade is only 3.25" long.
Hope this is helpful!

Andrew
 
The dynamics depend a lot on your point cutting technique. If you do shallow cuts the sharpness and smoothness of the first eighth of an inch of blade will be the most important factor. It sounds like you are doing deeper cuts and so blade pinching and side friction play a big roll. Contrary to what you might expect an extremely acute wedge shape is not ideal for deep cutting into wood. The resiliance of the wood will cause it to pinch onto the sides of the blade and rub hard. A box cutter blade will work the best. A thin and narrow blade will have less drag. You would probably have had better luck with your SAK if it had a wider handle. The shape of the 110 is good because of the slight hollow grind which gives a region of no drag.

The best blade shape for what you were doing is probably a chisel grind (provided that the grind is on the side away from your body). Wood workers have used wood chisels for centuries. A thin knife with a chisel grind would work wonders.
 
While at the Blade Show a client gave me a book, "Cats Paws and Catapults" by Steven Vogel. The book discusses natures designs and those of man. Should any of us get interested to the point that we wanted to spend some time on the subject of cut it would be possible to develop some mathemetical models to fully describe knife function. This book is an excellent introductory level discussion, the real opportunity comes from the refferences to specific subjects. About one knife idea per 20 pages, but the emperical understanding broadens considerably. It also provides some insight as to where some designs originated, maybe.
 
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