What is the best type of blade grind for a bushcraft knife

As Lost Viking has shown, you can use just about any knife for any task. Still, I do have preferences.

I would recommend getting a couple of $30 knives with different grinds and using them by each for a variety of tasks. IME, that's the fastest and most reliable way to sort out what you like best. What you like best is more important than what anyone here likes. But what the heck... Here are mine...

Hollow Grind - Good for processing meat. OK for EDC. Less than great for food prep. Tends to dive when making shavings in wood. Worst for splitting wood.

Full Flat Grind - Good for processing meat. Great for EDC. Great for food prep. Can dive when making shavings. Can bind when splitting wood.

Flat Convex (e.g. Opinel) - Good for processing meat. Great for EDC. Great for food prep. Good for making wood shavings. OK at splitting wood.

Thin Scandi/Convex/Sabre (e.g. Mora Companion) - Good for processing meat. OK for EDC. OK for food prep. Excellent for making wood shavings. Excellent for splitting wood.

Fatter Scandi/Convex/Sabre (e.g. Mora Companion HD) - Good for processing meat. Less than OK for EDC. Less than OK for food prep. Unsurpassed for making wood shavings or for splitting wood.

Here's another way to say it...

Just about anything will work good enough for meat.
Thinner anything is better for food prep. Wider is better for splitting.
Some amount of convexity (convex, Scandi and sabre all provide this in varying degrees) provides a fulcrum on wood, allowing one to control the edge angle, making it easier to make shavings.

Really bottom line... Spend $15. Get a Mora Companion. Convex off the sharp shoulder on a course stone and then use the heck out of the knife.
 
The best grind depends on the specific context of use: location, season, prioritized specific range of tasks, etc. The steel and heat treatment also imposes certain limits on the appropriate geometry.
 
I like 3/4 Saber for more general bush use while I like the scandi for wood chores. But I will also say that a scandi can skin out animals well also.

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LostViking said:
It's flat from the bottom of the fuller. With a slight secondary, that I'm slowly convexing.
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Essentially a Scandi or Sabre grind then (ignoring the secondary).

I have a theory... I think pretty much all production knives made in the US prior to 1960 were some variant of a Sabre grind. By the 1970, most were hollow.

I've got an old Schrade H-15. Thin Sabre that's been convexed. Just great.

Another thing the OP might consider is the handle shape. Long carving sessions show hot spots. Still... That Ka-bar looks great. Wish Buck would rediscover their roots. Their first knives were Sabre ground, not hollow.
 
Thanks LostViking! That one is stout with a fine edge and makes a terrific hunter or bushcrafter.
 
I think it just is easier to say what doesn't work:

qye14g.jpg


This is a picture from the hollow handle thread on the Great Outdoords subforum. This lovely knife features a thick blade and a fairly low hollow grind and a fat, diamond shaped tip that interferes with carving. This knife isn't going to slice or carve well, no matter how sharp the edge is. The blade gets in the way of itself. The large guard gets in the way of using the knife different way.

The saw back isn't a problem, neither is a well built hollow handle. The problem with most knives for bushcraft roles is just that the blades are too thick, blunt at the tip or the handle is poorly shaped to use for long periods while carving.

That doesn't mean an old fashioined "survival knife" can't work very well for bushcraft, as long as the grind is tapered enough. Flat grinds that are tall enough have a very gentle taper, even if they are somewhat thick on the spine. Scandi or saber (which is essentially a scandi with a seconadary bevel, or a flat grind that doesn't quite go all the way to the spine), are better used in thinner stock since they keep more metal further down for strength.

This is a one piece Schrade that I re-profiled to flat grind to make it useful for bushcraft AND survival:

http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/oo304/RX-79G/Mobile Uploads/IMG_20160223_161703_zpsjhse80zb.jpg


The other factor is overall blade size. A common size for bushcraft knives is 3.5" to 5". This isn't a rule as much of a practical observation that delicate carving for certain type of traps and whatnot become really hard to execute if the tip you're carving with is too far from your hand. Some folks are able to use bigger blades because of their dexterity or the hold the blade spine for certain tasks.


Overall, blades that are useful in northern hemisphere for forests and what is useful in a jungle are different, because of what you're cutting and what types of tasks are most necessary. The a long, thin machete is probably the most flexible survival tool in Equador, while people living off the land in old Europe and North America traditionally used smaller knives.

The main thing you're going to note about the best bushcraft knives is that they are simple and smooth. They allow your hand to hold the handle anyway it needs to and their blades and thin and smooth.



I would imagine the "perfect" bushcraft blade would have no obvious bevel, like a convex grind knife. The question would then be - a flat ground knife (tall triangle) with the secondary edge bevel rounded off, or something more like a scandi or saber grind, with the big primary bevel rounded off. Either way, bevels look nice but don't actually help you cut or slice.
 
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Shotgun said:
Believe what you like. I know what works for me. Not sure how saying it's more about the end users preference and not the grind is an argument but okie doke. ;)
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Shotgun - I was just being a jackass, my natural state of being, not arguing...of course I know that you're correct when you talk about preference, that's why it's so much fun to say the exact opposite. Humor doesn't always translate on the ol' Interwebs....I'm a bit more calm this morning, but be warned, I'm just beginning my first cup of coffee!
 
RX-79G - That is such a magnificent post/pic!! Really a classic example of what 16yo me may have thought was the coolest thing ever, while 40yo me knows from 20 feet away precisely why that knife will be an amazingly poor performer in every single measureable way, & the handle looks very limiting as well.

But, she's a cool looking fixed blade, seems to have nice fit & finish...I'm sure it would dispatch some walkers.
 
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