Bogdan Ristivojevic said:
It is amazing how efficiency of Scandy bevel is lost when there is secondary bevel, no matter how small it is.
This isn't specific to the puukko grind, all primary grinds are very dependent on the edge geometry for the knife to cut well, for a lot of media the edge can be more critical than the primary grind and even blade stock.
Suprisingly I discovered that light axe with long handle is physicaly less demanding than big knife, and much more safe.
Body types and experience are a big factor, around here a hammer is a common childs toy, at around two years old it isn't uncommon to give kids a real hammer to drive nails in a stump. It isn't much long after that before they start with a small hatchet
[*].
You grow up using these tools and thus using a long knife matches the same muscle groups. In contrast an axe draws more on the back and hips, the technique is also a lot more complicated, especially with two handed axes.
Generaly Fallknivens are optimized for use by nionskilled users ...
Different doesn't mean unskilled, Peter appreciates strength in his knives and has developed techniques for working with that attribute. Different enviroments also dicate different tools. For example Chris Janowsky has spoken strongly about Busse knives for wilderness survival and describes a very different knife than a puukko :
"The fixed blade survival knife must be a workhorse, born for abuse. In a true wilderness survival situation, it will have to chop like a ax and dig like a shovel."
Different people have different goals, influenced by enviroment, their experience and their body type. If you are 6'4" and 240 lbs, then you can do things that someone 5'6" and 140 lbs can not, thus you would not expect them to carry identical blades. Knives are no different than any other tools in that respect, you have to consider the user.
In general for wood working, as with anything esel, you choose what works best for you. Someone who is very large and strong will carry a much heavier axe, there is discusion of this in "The axe book" by Cook for example, both the handle and head size and weight need to be adapted to the user, similar with saws, and for most modern felling, chainsaws.
Plus it isn't like puukkos are optomized for light cutting, I have knives which are far thinner and will cut much better, thus can I refer to all puukko owners as unskilled? Some Fallknivens have very thin cross sections as well, the U2 for example is much thinner than any puukko.
[regrind the blade to a full grind]
...it is above skill level of usual user.
Yes, my point was not to do this, but to buy the other style of blade in the first place. The puuko style design works well for inexpensive knives, but when you start paying a lot for them it ceases to make sense considering what you could get for the same price.
Full flat grounding on puukkos remove a lott of material, and thin stocked ones become too bendable and easy to break.
In regards to prying strength the puukko grind is really inefficient, a full ground blade on thicker stock will be stronger and cut better because strength isn't linear with thickness and thus even small stock increases make dramatic results.
Thus moving up to a slightly thicker steel and a full grind gives better cutting ability, more strength and much better ease of sharpening. Of course in regards to price there are not a lot of blades like this for prices similar to puukkos.
-Cliff
[*] more a generation ago than now of course, now its video games more than hammers and axes
(R. Mears/A. Wood)
.
Sheesh, that was from grade school....
