The "Whatever" Thread

It's finally starting to look and feel like fall here. The trees are a mix of bright colors and the mornings are cool enough to require a jacket. Archery Season is in full swing but I haven't been in the woods yet. Fall trout stockings started Oct 1st. The streams I've fished so far have been a bit low and crystal clear which makes for challenging but fun fishing.
 
cbach8tw said:
I need to get my JK I won in the drawing out and try it. It has a scandi grind. Sorry for the bad pic. I was thinking about getting a a similar BPS knife and realized i already have my Jk that could serve the same role.

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I have a few BPS knives if you're ever interested in trying them out. I was testing them out and have a bunch left over. Some are unused. I will eventually donate to a boyscout troupe or do a GAW for them.
 
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bikerector said:
I have a few BPS knives if you're ever interested in trying them out. I was testing them out and have a bunch left over. Some are unused. I will eventually donate to a boyscout troupe or do a GAW for them.
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I will let you know, appreciate the offer, I’ve watched few videos on them, curious how well the 1066 steel does, serviceable and tough, but able to be sharpened. Curious how that steel will compare to John’s 01 heat treat process. As an average user myself, I wonder if i would see any difference, 01 does sharpen well.
 
cbach8tw said:
I will let you know, appreciate the offer, I’ve watched few videos on them, curious how well the 1066 steel does, serviceable and tough, but able to be sharpened. Curious how that steel will compare to John’s 01 heat treat process. As an average user myself, I wonder if i would see any difference, 01 does sharpen well.
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They're very tough but the edge holding on John's beats them quite easily. John's construction is also much, much better. I didn't manage to break them, but I suspect the BPS handles will be the part to give way 1st, something I've never been worried about on a JK, unless I was stupid and batoned the handle.

The stainless steel BPS uses is less desireable, IMO, and testing showed it. For the price, still a heck of a bargain and way better than a gas station knife or United Cutlery sort of thing, but nothing compared to a handmade knife from someone who has their HT dialed or sends it to someone who has their HT dialed.
 
bikerector said:
They're very tough but the edge holding on John's beats them quite easily. John's construction is also much, much better. I didn't manage to break them, but I suspect the BPS handles will be the part to give way 1st, something I've never been worried about on a JK, unless I was stupid and batoned the handle.

The stainless steel BPS uses is less desireable, IMO, and testing showed it. For the price, still a heck of a bargain and way better than a gas station knife or United Cutlery sort of thing, but nothing compared to a handmade knife from someone who has their HT dialed or sends it to someone who has their HT dialed.
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Just wanted some advice, since you have worked the BPS knives with the scandi edge, and maybe with John’s scandi edge, how does one really sharpen a scandi edge? I know just lift the knife knife and one should have the right angle, but is it stropped or sharpened forward (edge to spine)? Thanks, and would like to hear more about your experience with the BPS too.
 
cbach8tw said:
Just wanted some advice, since you have worked the BPS knives with the scandi edge, and maybe with John’s scandi edge, how does one really sharpen a scandi edge? I know just lift the knife knife and one should have the right angle, but is it stropped or sharpened forward (edge to spine)? Thanks, and would like to hear more about your experience with the BPS too.
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There are several different answers here. For "true scandi" as some call it, which is usually also a zero ground or zero scandi (no secondary bevel) you would just sharpen the whole bevel. These get crazy sharp and are very easy to sharpen because the primary bevel also sets the sharpening angle. Usually the bur is easy to remove if you get one, stropping works well too for touch ups but it will round it over time and you'll want to take it to a stone.

For most scandis, as they come from the manufacturers, they have a slight secondary bevel that is a little than the primary scandi angle. For these, you lay the main bevel on the stone, raise it just a little, and get to work. These are also really easy to strop as you can use the primary bevel to help guide you stropping. Since many strops have a little give, you can nearly lay the main bevel on the strop and use it for touch ups.

The zero scandi is sharper but they're pretty fragile edges. The secondary bevel is much more stout, in my experience. LT Wright has a little writeup about this and they will "buff" the edge instead of doing an actual secondary bevel instead, so essentially the cutting edge is a convex edge. Most importantly, the edge bevel isn't so acute so it's less fragile.

Now, for John's, that's a scandi-vex. It is a scandi grind with a convex/rounded profile instead of being flat. You can strop this to sharpness or make the final edge a flat bevel for ease of sharpening, which is what I did. The benefit of the scandi-vex is that it's much stronger than the other styles and I also found it to slice better as there isn't much material in contact with the steel as a cuts. The negative, for me, is that it made it hard to figure out the bite in angle, which is usually dead simple with flat scandi grinds. Once you figure it out, it's not bad, but it takes me getting used to. I found having the flatly sharpened edge bevel made this easier for me.

Everything else about sharpening is the same as other knife grinds. Reprofiling is a different thing, changing the edge bevel angle, since the primary grind often needs to be reground as well. But, that's a different discussion. Thick ground scandis are unpleasant (condor's machetes are notoriously unpleasant slicers, IME) and I'll usually go straight to machined sharpening to get thinner edges on them. It just takes a lot of material removal usually.
 
bikerector said:
There are several different answers here. For "true scandi" as some call it, which is usually also a zero ground or zero scandi (no secondary bevel) you would just sharpen the whole bevel. These get crazy sharp and are very easy to sharpen because the primary bevel also sets the sharpening angle. Usually the bur is easy to remove if you get one, stropping works well too for touch ups but it will round it over time and you'll want to take it to a stone.

For most scandis, as they come from the manufacturers, they have a slight secondary bevel that is a little than the primary scandi angle. For these, you lay the main bevel on the stone, raise it just a little, and get to work. These are also really easy to strop as you can use the primary bevel to help guide you stropping. Since many strops have a little give, you can nearly lay the main bevel on the strop and use it for touch ups.

The zero scandi is sharper but they're pretty fragile edges. The secondary bevel is much more stout, in my experience. LT Wright has a little writeup about this and they will "buff" the edge instead of doing an actual secondary bevel instead, so essentially the cutting edge is a convex edge. Most importantly, the edge bevel isn't so acute so it's less fragile.

Now, for John's, that's a scandi-vex. It is a scandi grind with a convex/rounded profile instead of being flat. You can strop this to sharpness or make the final edge a flat bevel for ease of sharpening, which is what I did. The benefit of the scandi-vex is that it's much stronger than the other styles and I also found it to slice better as there isn't much material in contact with the steel as a cuts. The negative, for me, is that it made it hard to figure out the bite in angle, which is usually dead simple with flat scandi grinds. Once you figure it out, it's not bad, but it takes me getting used to. I found having the flatly sharpened edge bevel made this easier for me.

Everything else about sharpening is the same as other knife grinds. Reprofiling is a different thing, changing the edge bevel angle, since the primary grind often needs to be reground as well. But, that's a different discussion. Thick ground scandis are unpleasant (condor's machetes are notoriously unpleasant slicers, IME) and I'll usually go straight to machined sharpening to get thinner edges on them. It just takes a lot of material removal usually.
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Thanks for the good info, I appreciate it, i avoided scandi knives for the same reason of how they would need sharpened. I finally got a Mora to try it out, still need to, but now I am at least willing to try and experiment with a scandi edge, and I see some of the advantages of it For wood working after so many videos. my first knives with a scandi-vex were my Koyote knives from Christof Harper, but I never used them at that time because I was afraid to mess the edges up. I had one of them reground. Then I got a small JK knife with such an edge and I saw how sharp it was and what I could do with it, so I started the slow learning process…..still slow. ;)
 
cbach8tw said:
Thanks for the good info, I appreciate it, i avoided scandi knives for the same reason of how they would need sharpened. I finally got a Mora to try it out, still need to, but now I am at least willing to try and experiment with a scandi edge, and I see some of the advantages of it For wood working after so many videos. my first knives with a scandi-vex were my Koyote knives from Christof Harper, but I never used them at that time because I was afraid to mess the edges up. I had one of them reground. Then I got a small JK knife with such an edge and I saw how sharp it was and what I could do with it, so I started the slow learning process…..still slow. ;)
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I find scandis to be the easiest to get really sharp since you can just run the bevel on the stone and go until it's sharp. Very easy to get them shaving sharp. But there are downsides too, but sharpening has never been one of them, for me at least.

I will say, if you use rounded sharpening tools like diamond rods, which are my favorite for touchups (buck's edgtek ultra steel), it's not as easy. Not hard, but not as easy as flat stonesFlat stones all the way for scandi grinds.

I would just use it and give it a shot when it needs it, no need to worry too much and overthink it. And if you're good with a strop, it will probably be a good while before the knife needs a full sharpen anyway.

Scandis do move wood well, and that's the one reason I still have one or two. But, 90% of the time I'm using a flat saber grind, like what John put on most of his knives.
 
Ok, finally got a better pic Of the scandi JK I won awhile back, it is about time I took better pics of it. I think the handle is mesquite. It needs a few good strokes on a stone to bring the edge back, it is shown with a Buck 110 LT I received in a Jk Christmas exchange.IMG_0575.jpegIMG_0574.jpegIMG_0573.jpeg
 
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I haven't posted much here about the health issue my youngest son has been dealing with. I will say that last week's appointment with the specialist at UVA was better than we had hoped for. We're going back in three months. If he shows continued improvement, surgery may no longer be an option. They believe there's a good chance he is young enough to grow through things and have a normal life.

We are truly blessed.
 
Prayers sent
fishiker said:
I haven't posted much here about the health issue my youngest son has been dealing with. I will say that last week's appointment with the specialist at UVA was better than we had hoped for. We're going back in three months. If he shows continued improvement, surgery may no longer be an option. They believe there's a good chance he is young enough to grow through things and have a normal life.

We are truly blessed.
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fishiker said:
I haven't posted much here about the health issue my youngest son has been dealing with. I will say that last week's appointment with the specialist at UVA was better than we had hoped for. We're going back in three months. If he shows continued improvement, surgery may no longer be an option. They believe there's a good chance he is young enough to grow through things and have a normal life.

We are truly blessed.
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Amen, prayers for him and you sent up.
 
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