Traditional Use of "Flat over Hollow" Grind?

[kamagong]

Send the pictures to me Bo. I'll post them for you.

 

[RayseM]

This posts make me so happy. The old men i knew in my youth all used knifes as tools. They wanted a sharp flat grind. They Didnt like ether hollow or convex edges but they didnt need 100% perfektion eather. So this slight concave bevel was a good start. Geting flater as time gone by and when the edge got to much convex they went to the wheel and started all over again. A few of these men could carve art but mabye still thought more about how to press tobaco into a pipe then how the edge of their knife was shaped. The art is in the hands of the artist and the tool dont need to be 100%. Training a lot is the key and good tools help. Im afraid that because of english not is my language the expression overtinking became missplaced. I meant it in the most humble way. Bosse

This ^ above in blue - is a most wonderful and poetic line . It made me so happy - thank you NirreBosse

Not to disparage this intelligent (and I think, not over considered) discussion about knife sharpening, as I am finding it very interesting BUT keeping the sentiment in blue in mind, makes for happy knife using too

Thank you too - WhittlinAway for starting this interesting thread.

Ray

 

[WhittlinAway]

Bumping this old thread to give an overdue experience report.

In short, I agree with @Mikael W: a convex bevel on a puukko yields better edge retention than what I described in the original post and is better for all-around use.

The longer version is that, when I put the knife to hard work during some yard cleanup, the edge rolled. It was quick to resharpen, but, after going through that cycle a couple of times, I started intentionally introducing a convex through heavy stropping. The convex edge—and the edge retention—has improved with further cycles of use and stropping and I'm completely sold on the idea.

On Saturday I put it to hard use carving—er, I mean pruning!—this spiky plant from underneath and it took just a bit of stropping on the Tormek to return it to shaving sharp.

I'd still consider the flat-over-hollow technique for maintaining scandi-ground blades intended primarily for carving. But, for general purpose use, I'm a convex convert.

FWIW, I remain a fan of convexed bevels on small whittling blades, too.