Thick or Thin bevels ?

[pitdog]

I spoke with Mark recently about knife related issues and the subject came up about edge bevels.
I'd never realised what a dilema it is for a knife maker deciding how to grind the bevels on a knife when he doesn't know how the knife is going to be used.

Are you going to be using the knife for a lot of chopping ? Is the knife mainly going to be used for food prep ? Do you live in an area where most of the wood you cut will be hard woods ?

The last thing a knife maker wants to do is make a knife with super thin bevels that cuts like a laser only for the person to use it as an axe taking down Lignum Vitae trees and then wondering why the edge deformed !

For me I rarely do much chopping, I do batton but after the initial strike there is very little contact of the edge, I whittle a lot of fuzz sticks, do some food prep and most of the woods where I live are soft woods.
So for me a thinner type edge would work the best, I'm not the type of person that chops cinder blocks for fun, LOL !

With that in mind what type of edge suits you the best ?

 

[m. wohlwend]

This opens a bit of a can of worms, but I was taught that a knife was for cutting when I was growing up, and we always carried a hatchet to chop wood, or butcher. Our knives were thin affairs, sometimes no more than a pocket knife. My personal use knives tend to be thin.
That being said, it doesn't bother me if people beat on their knives or use them for chopping or batoning. That does make me grind them a little thicker to leave more steel behind the edge. I use to leave everything extra thick, but now I try to grind the knife more towards its use. My edc's are ground thinner than the Booshways....

 

[blase1682]

Hey guys! I just got back from my first camping trip with my Booshway and my GB Small Forest Axe. The only fire wood to use was 5-8" rounds of pine that I had to process... well lets just say that I'm gonna agree with Mark on this one that axes are for chopping and knives are for cutting. The Booshway did great batoning but the hard wood really put the beast to the test. After putting a few nicks in the blade I decided to give the Booshway a little rest with splitting anything thick. It really excelled at the 2-3” pieces. After about 6 rounds of splitting with the GB, I checked out the edge and man, nicks all over the place with this one too! This wood was the hardest wood I’ve split in a long time. Now for the fun part, re-sharpening! I’m definitely going to put on a thicker bevel for the Booshway like Mark said. Side note for Mark: That is one bad ass knife Sir, you really did a great job and I thank you!

 

[m. wohlwend]

Must have been some hard wood to chip both! I might raise the tempering temp and see if that helps some. I learned some things about heat treat this past weekend at the hammer-in, and I need to see if it helps me produce a better blade.

 

[pitdog]

I figured this would be a good topic to discuss....guess not eh !

 

[KFU]

I find that I prefer thinner edges myself on everything but choppers. For most chores its just easier to work with.