It's the season for carving pumpkins. I tried some other thicker bladed knives (convex grinds and such) but settled on my 429 Buck Light. A thin bladed knife made a big difference while doing this cutting.
Cutting items like this is very educational toward knife use and their grinds. Bringing understanding to play on how different grinds work and why. Perhaps you can see in this photo the thickness of the eye plug I just cut. This same understanding can be applied toward cutting potatoes, carrots and many other items.
David, interesting thread.
Shoot me a VM with your contact information and I'll send you a knife you may not have had the chance to try.
I agree 100% that testing knives side by each is incredibly informative. My experience has led me to slightly different conclusions.
I'd be curious to learn what convex knife you used. Some that I have are thick and others are thin and my experience is that the thickness really matters when it comes to slicing hard materials like pumpkin, butternut squash (a staple in our house with real maple syrup), potatoes and apples.
For an (ahem) apples to apples comparison, I think of thickness at the spine and grind as different things and I think it makes the most sense to only compare knives that have the same spine thickness. It's hard to blame poor slicing ability on grind if the overall thickness at the spine is dramatically different. Some examples...
Untitled by
Pinnah, on Flickr
For slicing (downward), as with potatoes and apples, I find that any grind that has a dramatic change in thickness tends to bind. In this picture, the top knife (unbranded), the Schrade-Walden H-15 (2nd from the top), and the 2-dot 110 are about the same thickness at the spine. Each of these knives have a noticeable shoulder in their grind and all of them hang up in potatoes at that shoulder. The worst of the bunch for me is the current 110, which has a very sharply defined shoulder, unlike the rounded, convexed shoulder of the older 2-dot.
The 51OT (bottom) is the only true, full flat grind. It's a continuous flat taper from the spine with no shoulder at all (other than the edge bevel itself). For slicing potatoes and squash, it's the best of the bunch by a long shot. The Opinel #10 (not pictured) has roughly the same thickness at the spine and is essentially as good. It's convex but it's very subtle. The large Case Sodbuster (not pictured) is full flat and slices on par with these knives. All of these knives out slice the others by a huge margin for me. I've thinned the shoulder of a modern 110 and that improves the slicing ability hugely for me.
I rarely slice pumpkin when making jack o lanterns. Instead, I make piercing cuts. The 110 pierces well up to the point of the nick. I'm convinced this is by virtue of the deep clip point, which lowers the "spine" into the much thinner hollow ground portion of the blade, effectively thinning the spine in the front 1/3 of the blade. The front part of my 110 is about the same thickness as the Opinel #9 (2nd from bottom).
In a piercing cut in butternut or acorn squash (staples in our house, cooked with Vermont maple syrup), the 110 will go in easily at first and then stop, while the Opinel 9 will plunge in to the hilt.
Horses for courses, as they say. Different grinds excel at different things. If you've not had the chance to use a
thin convex blade, like on an Opinel, it might make an interesting experiment. I've got a spare #9 and a beat up #10 I'm happy to send you to try if you want. Just shoot me a line.
