What are the cons of a uneven knife bevel.

Most people buy knives for both aesthetics and function, and severely uneven bevels can detract from the appearance of a blade enough that an owner might be uncomfortable looking at it.

That said if a blade is handground it likely doesn't have perfectly even bevels and for these knives a small amount of unevenness is desirable as proof of being hand ground.

The closest anyone gets to truly even bevels in a hand grind in my opinion is Walter Brend.
 
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I don't know a lot about this, but noted while shopping for a Japanese Chef's knife a while ago that many of the blades are intentionally sharpened with an asymetric bevel. Some were sharpened to target a 50/50 grind so that the blade cuts the same with either hand, but many I saw were offered with a 70/30 bevel that was specific for either left or right hand use.(Mostly right hand of course, with left hand grinds available on request.)

I've never done any comparison cutting to see what kind of effect this has, but I do find it interesting. I guess the con would be that if you're using a knife with an uneven bevel that favors your non-dominate hand, the cutting performance will suffer. Not sure that I would be able to tell in use. I certainly haven't ever been cutting something and picked that out as a factor working for (or against) me.
 
Apophis said:
I don't know a lot about this, but noted while shopping for a Japanese Chef's knife a while ago that many of the blades are intentionally sharpened with an asymetric bevel. Some were sharpened to target a 50/50 grind so that the blade cuts the same with either hand, but many I saw were offered with a 70/30 bevel that was specific for either left or right hand use.(Mostly right hand of course, with left hand grinds available on request.)

I've never done any comparison cutting to see what kind of effect this has, but I do find it interesting. I guess the con would be that if you're using a knife with an uneven bevel that favors your non-dominate hand, the cutting performance will suffer. Not sure that I would be able to tell in use. I certainly haven't ever been cutting something and picked that out as a factor working for (or against) me.
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It enables very low angle cuts to be made and with reduced deflection on the interior face of the blade.
 
Uneven bevels can cause a bias in the direction the knife cuts. Cutting efficiency will be different depending on the direction of your cut and the knife may have a tendency to steer one way or the other.
 
kendric said:
Title says it all.
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It really depends on the intend of the grind. If the grind is meant to be uneven then there is nothing wrong with it. Uneven bevel is meant to be for a specific purpose. However if the uneven bevel is due to low workmanship then the con is the quality of the blade construction.
 
I don't worry about about an uneven bevel. It's going to be fixed after my first sharpening.
 
asdf12345 said:
Most people buy knives for both aesthetics and function, and severely uneven bevels can detract from the appearance of a blade enough that an owner might be uncomfortable looking at it.

That said if a blade is handground it likely doesn't have perfectly even bevels and for these knives a small amount of unevenness is desirable as proof of being hand ground.

The closest anyone gets to truly even bevels in a hand grind in my opinion is Walter Brend.
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An uneven grind is not a sign of hand grinding. It is a sign of poor craftsmanship...
A well made handcrafted knife should require micrometers to detect an uneven grind.

Guys who pitch their knives as "purposefully flawed" are just making excuses for their lack of skill/ability/experience.
 
For all practical purposes, that being the general cutting of stuff, the only issue is one of esthetics.
 
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