Dylside, I need some help here. Your knife seems to be hollow ground, yet you call it convex. It has no swedge or false grind, yet you call it a sabre grind.
Can you help me?
thanks,
A. G.
A. G.,
It is convex. You're eyes are just playing tricks on you.
As for the "saber" part, That is to describe the height of the grind. We refer to it as a full-height grind when the grind comes all the way up to the spine. When it doesn't come all the way up, we refer to it as a "Saber Grind" in reference to the sabers of the old days that were ground only partially up the blade, not the full height to spine.
Here are several definitions for "Saber Grind" taken from popular knife reading materials.
1)"Description:
The sabre grind is a fairly common blade grind that involves having a flat primary edge bevel that beings somewhere around the middle of the knife and continues along to the edge. At the edge, the secondary bevel forms the final sharpened edge of the knife.
This type of grind is very strong and designed to give maximum edge strength at the sacrifice of some cutting ability. The thicker overall edge profile means that push cutting and slicing through larger objects will create more drag. A classical example of a Sabre Ground blade, is the Ka-bar knife.
The Sabre grind differs from the flat grind in where the grind begins. A flat grind typically beings at or near the spine, whereas a sabre grind typicall begins close to the middle or even lower."
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2)"Sabre ground—Similar to a flat ground blade except that the bevel starts at about the middle of the blade, not the spine. It produces a more lasting edge at the expense of some cutting ability and is typical of kitchen knives."
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3)*This exerpt was taken from an explaination between full height flat grind and a flat sabe grind* "...However, a “Flat ground” blade is typically ground uniformly from the blade back right to the edge. Where as in a “Saber ground” blade, typically only half the width of the blade is ground. The rest remains full thickness, like a traditional saber, hence the name."
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4)"Sabre Grind:
Similar to the flat grind, the sabre grind is essentially a flat grind that begins halfway through the blade. The top half of the blade width is left unbeveled and at full thickness. Approximately halfway from the spine to the edge, the sabre grind begins and proceeds like a flat grind with a linear decrease of blade thickness. Having a shorter distance to the edge, the sabre grind may sacrifice some sharpness for the sake of strength. Sometimes referred to as a "V Grind", the sabre grind is made with strength in mind and can be found on tactical and military knives."
The term "Convex Saber Grind" actually didn't exist (to my knowledge) before Andy Roy and I started using it. We do a grind that is a "saber grind" except that instead of using flat ground bevels, we convex the bevels. All we did was combine the terms and came up with "Convex Saber". Truthfully, the term is much more Andy Roy's than it is mine. If I was giving real credit to anyone for inventing the term, I would give it to him.
As far as the need for a swedge or bevel toward the spine, to my knowledge, having a sharpened (or unsharpened) swedge or top-side bevel is in no way necessary to a "Saber Grind". It's simply an interpretation of the terminology, which as we all know is subjective to different regions and schools of thought concerning the tools. If you ask one person what a "Clip Point" is, they will steer you toward the popular shape of a Bowie blade. Others will describe what most people would call a swedge. It just depends on who you ask and what kind of knife terminology they're used to using.
