Thickness behind the edge

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Maximumbob54

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Jun 10, 2024
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I know this is talk that has already been talked about and maybe even talked to death, but it hit me on a personal level this weekend. So I was out in the bucket garden and had to prune some of the tomato plants. I pulled out an AD20.5 in 20CV and went to slice through a rogue branch. I'm not trying to say it wouldn't do it but it didn't do it with the ease I expected. I rubbed my thumb across the edge thinking how could this already be dull and it ate some skin off. Nope, very much not dull. That edge is just a thick. I stepped back in the house and the nearest folder at hand was a cheapie I've been enjoying. It's much thinner behind the edge in 14C28N. And I get it, it's geometry that cuts. I GET IT. I KNOW. But dang it's different to have it slapped right in your face like that. That little Vixino did the proverbial hot knife through butter and left the cleanest cut. Sliced that would have made any of my Spyderco knives smile and offer highest of fives back.

Middle aged man here and I can read things, but I guess I'm still a bit too much of a hands on learner. I'll have to spice up this post later this afternoon with pics.

Added spice (AKA, terrible backyard bucket garden backdrop pics)

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Someday I will take better pics but that day will not be today. Trying to show how the Vixino's thinner edge beat out the much more expensive Demko. Not that Demko is fired but it did hurt my feeling a little. There's only one of them and it hurt it.
 
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I realize it every time I go downstairs and use my generations old German sodbuster to break down boxes. That slim carbon steel blade cuts like nobody's business...but the knife looks like it just came in from the storm.

That said, I still love my big lugs.

Here's the culprit I mentioned:


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To use an engine metaphor, there's no replacement for displacement. You can have a razor sharp edge but if it has poor slicing geometry, it's just not going to cut well. There is more than one way to skin a cat as well, you can get by with thick stock if you have a nice and deep hollow grind. My Hawk Talon and Koenig Arius don't use particularly thin stock, but because they have a well executed hollow grind, they are laser beams. This is why folks like BGM and Transparent Knives have such a popular little business going, I had my XM-18 sheepsfoot done up with a nasty hollow from BGM and it's now a hot knife through butter. I have a couple "traditional" Hinderers that I've kept stock, but when im actually cutting I will grab the modified every time. Another brand that does amazing cutting geometry is Shirogorov. They don't even use particularly acute sharpening angles out of the box but they still have out of this world cutting performance. You can allow them to get dull too yet they will still slap around a razor sharp spanto Hinderer because thickness behind the edge and cutting geometry is always going to trump all else.

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Crag the Brewer said:
We can Still love the other ones....they drew us in for Many other reasons..... :D
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The Shark Lock on the AD20.5 and the AD20 are just so fidget spinner in the hand that I sometimes can't help myself. I know I shouldn't. But I do.


Also... I just did an image search for AD20.5 hollow regrinds and that will be happening in the near future. Assuming of course there's availability. (imagine a Bob slowly rubbing hands together grinning...)
 
Maximumbob54 said:
The Shark Lock on the AD20.5 and the AD20 are just so fidget spinner in the hand that I sometimes can't help myself. I know I shouldn't. But I do.


Also... I just did an image search for AD20.5 hollow regrinds and that will be happening in the near future. Assuming of course there's availability. (imagine a Bob slowly rubbing hands together grinning...)
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I can't recommend BGM enough. $85 for regrinds, always impeccable work, and a fast turn around. I think he had my knife for less than one week. Transparent Knives is also recommended often but I have no experience with him. There are others of course but I couldn't tell you off the top of my head. I know Krein and REK have done them in the past but they may not be offering them any longer, instead focusing on their own pieces. If you have knives that you love but wish they had better slicing performance, a hollow re-grind is just what you're looking for. They also look meaner and better :p

You can see my XM-18 above, John/BGM also did the swedge for me. So it's working finish flats and a satin swedge and primary. I have an Eklipse bowie en route for a hollow as well, that will also get a swedge, and it is a black dlc blade. So it's going to have black flats, satin grinds, as a modern interpration/call-back to the ZT 0392blubowie blade. And boy o boy do they Eklipse bowies with a hollow re-grind look menacing, i can't wait. Going to be an absolute laser beam and look amazing doing it.
 
TBE is a valid concern. I don't need every knife to be a laser beam, but it's nice when the geometry is thinner than an axe head. I love Pro-Techs until I have to cut anything with them.. newer ones seem a little better, but generally, I wish they would take them all thinner behind the edge..
 
Yes, the apex starts the cut but it is the blade behind the edge that has to move tthrough the material being cut. I have literally had blades that would pop the hair off your arm they were so sharp on the edge, but when you went to shave a stick it felt like the blade wanted to skate off the wood instead of biting in and it was all because of edge geometry. I guess that is why I am such a fan of thin blade stock and hollow grinds, and many knives today, well they just don't have that 😏 I posted the other day about getting the old USA made Imperial barlow, and I marveled at how thin the blade is. That thing will zip right through wood and cardboard like a champ.
 
It seems we buy a lot of knives for much more than just their ability to perform their primary task.

Says something about us, as well. (And I am certainly among the guilty parties in that regard, if guilt is warranted.)
 
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