Something a bit different....what do you think?

[jonnymac44]

I love seeing asymmetrical grinds on knives, but I am not experience at hollow grinding yet, so I played around with some flat grinds today. I think it turned out ok and kinda like it, but I could just be convincing myself so I don't feel like I wasted steel What do you guys think?

The right side of the blade is ground at roughly 3 degrees and is close to being a full flat, ending just a bit below the spine. The left side was ground at roughly 5 degrees, ends at about two thirds the height of the blade and has a wicked deep single sided swedge.

Here are some pics after rough grinding:

Alongside some more steel that got profiled today.....

 

[lonepine]

It's kind of like a knife with a split personality! Since it's hard to see both sides at the same time I don't have a problem with it appearance-wise. The proof is in the cutting.

I wonder what will happen when hardened? Will it cause warp?

Do you see any benefit to such a grind?

I am always so impressed by how straight and clean and even your grinds are. I, on the other hand, specialize in "asymmetrical" (i.e. uneven) grinds. They seem to come "naturally" to me you could say. ;-)

- Paul Meske

 

[J. Hoffman]

It's kind of like a knife with a split personality! Since it's hard to see both sides at the same time I don't have a problem with it appearance-wise. The proof is in the cutting.

I wonder what will happen when hardened? Will it cause warp?

Do you see any benefit to such a grind?

I am always so impressed by how straight and clean and even your grinds are. Same here, what grit belt are those bevels ground with?

- Paul Meske

Same here, what grit belt are those bevels ground with?

 

[jonnymac44]

Thanks guy!

Paul, I don't know about performance but I hope to find out when this one is finished. Time will tell. As far as warping, Peters does all my heat treating and Brad is pretty damn good at keeping thing straight. The edge is right at .020" right now and that shouldn't be a problem for him.

I do all of my rough bevel grinding with a 60 grit 3M Cubitron gold belt, but in the pictures the blade is finished as far as a Gator A160, which is pretty much 120 grit. I still consider that rough ground I guess.

 

[BladeboBaggins]

I love the left side, very aggresive looking. Bad ass.

 

[rwn2000]

I think it looks good and I agree with everybody else about your grind lines: fantastic.

I do have a question though: Since the grind is asymmetrical, is this a right hand or a left hand knife? It seems to me that the flatter bevel should be on the bottom for better slicing, making this a left handed blade. For general EDC, it probably doesn't matter.

randy

PS: if none of this made sense, it's still early here

 

[tryppyr]

Honestly, it looks a little incomplete to me... like you did everything... except the last step. I'm not saying it needs to be symmetrical, just that half a swedge isn't the sort of asymmetry that seems to be compelling for me.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

I agree with Greg, the other side looks unfinished. Maybe it would work if there was no bevel at all on the other side, like a chisel grind. It then would look more obvious and not half done. But that would mean an all new geometry and not what you are after.
I do applaud your foray outside the box though. :thumbup: Keep it up.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Sweet! I'd zero bevel the left side, it will cut like crazy that way!

 

[jonnymac44]

Greg and Patrice.....I can respect what you're saying and I asked for the feedback, but aren't there plenty of knives that do not have swedges? It's practically full flat ground on the right side. Does it not look done just because there is only a swedge on the opposite side? What if it was full flat ground on both sides, would that look better?

It's not a big deal since this was an experiment for fun, I'm just curious as to why it looks unfinished. Maybe I should finish the blade the rest of the way with handles and all and then look at it again, we'll see.

Daniel.....hmmm, zero the left side, huh? Let me think about that for a moment.....

 

[AVigil]

Johnny,

That is Bad Ass

It looks great. A good candidate for a double grind single edge....it would slice nicely

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Jonny, the zero left side was what I meant also. It would look better with a full flat grind but still unfinished I think but to a lesser degree. I would still like the zero left side better. And yes because of the difference in sides. Sorry if I am not explaining myself very well.
I'll let the voluble Greg take over.

 

[james terrio]

My friend, although I very much admire your grinds, I just don't get the point of that design.

 

[Remyrw]

I've got mixed feelings about it. I took a look when you first posted this and have kind of pondered it for a bit. I have no complaints with different grinds on the knife in this context. For certain knives it's not suitable but for something like this I don't see a negative from a geometry standpoint. I agree that it would probably look better if you zeroed it out but it might lose something on the non swedge side if you do. I'd have to see it finished both ways to be sure and I don't think either will look bad.

I think from a functional design standpoint it has potential. You're narrowing the spine slightly, which will enhance piercing ability slightly even though the total max width has not changed. You aren't giving up a lot of strength, certainly not enough to cause concern. Even at the tip your swedge is on one side with a standard grind on the other, leaving a strong drop point but narrowed a bit. While I don't use a fixed blade this size for anything delicate I know plenty of folks who would. In the field I could find plenty of uses as well, from making holes in something to lash it down or to something else to picking out a splinter when my smaller knife is lost, damaged or otherwise busy. As long as it's sufficiently strong to not break under normal use there's no downside to a nice pointy tip.

One last thing. JM, you have WAY more patience than I do when it comes to drilling out a handle. If we didn't have your profiled blanks in the pictures now and then I'd just assume you were having them water jet or laser cut and went with the holes rather than some other pattern just out of habit.

 

[tryppyr]

For me the problem is one of expectations. When you do a swedge on one side but not the other, it doesn't look asymmetrical, it looks incomplete... largely because we know what swedges are SUPPOSED to look like. If you had ground something other than a swedge... something unexpected (i.e. something we don't have a prior reference point for)... I doubt my reaction would have been the same.

 

[12345678910]

I don't get it either.

Did that make it work better, or look better?
Those are the 2 things I look for, in that order.

I strive for symmetry.


As it is now, it doesn't wow me,
But I think if you leave it on a table at the show and let people pick it up without telling them
- I bet many won't notice.

If you're going for different, maybe it's not different enough.
Put the full wacky on one side so you can see it all at once.

 

[jonnymac44]

LOL numbers......what does "put the full wacky on one side." mean!? Whatever it is, I like the sound of it.

Thanks for all the input on this everybody:thumbup:

I think I will finish it up, put some handle slabs on it, and put it out on the table in Oregon just to see what buyers think. Numbers may be right, the average person walking the floor might not even notice it

I don't get it either.

Did that make it work better, or look better?
Those are the 2 things I look for, in that order.

I strive for symmetry.


As it is now, it doesn't wow me,
But I think if you leave it on a table at the show and let people pick it up without telling them
- I bet many won't notice.

If you're going for different, maybe it's not different enough.
Put the full wacky on one side so you can see it all at once.

 

[jonnymac44]

For me the problem is one of expectations. When you do a swedge on one side but not the other, it doesn't look asymmetrical, it looks incomplete... largely because we know what swedges are SUPPOSED to look like. If you had ground something other than a swedge... something unexpected (i.e. something we don't have a prior reference point for)... I doubt my reaction would have been the same.

Oh, yeah.....one last thing. Greg, who gets to say what a swedge is SUPPOSED to look like? Since when do you always make things the way they're supposed to look. That statement coming from one of the kings of creative license sounded a bit odd

 

[12345678910]

"Put the full wacky on one side so you can see it all at once."

I guess I mean, that if you go for the unconventional, "wacky" grinds-
Make it extreme enough to make me stop and say, "cool"
and put it all on one side so I can see it, don't rely on me to compare 2 sides.

I pulled this out of google for example

This could be completely unground on the other side,
call it a chisel grind on the off side -so you don't have to make it match the other side,
or you just do a bit of hollow grind relief

no one will criticize you for not grinding it at all
as long as they fall in love with the grinds on the show side.

(Obverse and transverse - never kept those straight)

It turns out he does keep those grinds symmetrical on both sides, which is a pretty impressive grind-
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.ne...7287448706_197195558705_7412633_5622875_n.jpg

 

[Holmesmade]

I would like to see how it tests once you've gotten it finished. The way it is now, I can really see using it as a wood carver or paring knife with a little longer handle.

The long flat could give precision cut placement with the slightly steeper grind giving some lift to keep the blade from binding and the one sided swedge could help with piercing and light drilling. I don't think I'd want it for hard, well seasoned woods, but it could surprise us all.

If nothing else, regardless of the unusual appearance, I am really interested in how it's going to perform.