What's the Difference in a FLAT Grind and a SCANDI Grind??

[Nalapombu]

Hey all,

forgive me if this is a dumb question, but could someone tell me what the difference is in these 2 grinds, Flat and SCANDI? What advantages does one have over the other? Is one more preferred for an outdoors style knife that the other?

Any other info you want to educate me on about blade grinds, I would like to hear it.

Thanks

Nalajr

 

[philwar]

On a scandi grind, there is one single large bevel, often starts halfway down the width of the blade. A flat ground blade (best called full flat ground) only has a small regular bevel. All grinds and geometries have their own pro's and cons, but personally I think the differences are small, though not negligible.

Added: Here's some pictures and more info of what I mean.

 

[Nalapombu]

Thanks for the diagram and explanation. That makes it a lot clearer to me. By the way that diagram looks, the SCANDI seems like it would be far easier to sharpen ad maintain than any of the others. Am I wrong about that?

Nalajr

 

[timbit]

Thanks for the diagram and explanation. That makes it a lot clearer to me. By the way that diagram looks, the SCANDI seems like it would be far easier to sharpen ad maintain than any of the others. Am I wrong about that?

Nalajr

Scandi grinds come from Scandinavia. They have lots of softwood forests. Scandi grinds tend to be less durable as they have less material behind the cutting edge than other types. This doesn't matter if you are only cutting softwoods. Typical North American forests have harder wood than the scandi's did. Scandi blades also roll-over pretty easy. That being said, I like my Scandi grinds. I have started using a scandi grind with a convex edge. The scandi grind is popular because it is easy to maintain the profile in field. It touches up really quickly. Scandi edges don't make great slicers. It all depends on what you want to do!

 

[yablanowitz]

Thanks for the diagram and explanation. That makes it a lot clearer to me. By the way that diagram looks, the SCANDI seems like it would be far easier to sharpen ad maintain than any of the others. Am I wrong about that?

Nalajr

Yes and no. The scandi (which is a zero grind flat saber grind) is sharpened by laying the main bevel flat on the stone, which sounds easier than it really is. If you're not careful, it goes from a flat bevel to a convex bevel pretty quickly. The other thing is, you're cutting a whole new bevel every time you sharpen, so you're taking steel off a large surface area. If that steel is low alloy or simple carbon steel, it isn't so bad, but if it is a wear resistant high vanadium steel, it can be very time consuming to sharpen.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Also a flat grind does not have to be full. As mentioned above, a so-called "scandi grind" (a misleading name as many Scandinavian knives have a more conventional edge type) is best described as a flat zero saber grind. Flat refers to the geometry of the bevel (flat rather than convex or hollow) zero refers to the edge configuration (it's without a secondary bevel at the edge) and saber refers to the height of the grind (less than full-height)