Why don't we like recurve?

I love recurves, both for their looks and cutting ability. On my CS Trail Master copy I put one and it's one of the easiest knives I have to sharpen, by far. I just C clamp it on the top rail of my deck and with a wooden paint stir stick from Home Depot wrapped in 400 and then 1000 grit sandpaper I use it like a file. The wood stir stick bends like a belt sander creating a shaving sharp convex edge.
 
I have several knives with recurve blades. They aren't the best for dicing vegetables on a cutting board, but are great for draw cuts. I had an old Gatco guided system that developed rod play in the stone holders. The 3/4" stones were glued to the holders, so a little solvent released the stones. They were too long to fit in my KME stone holder, so I scored them with an old hack saw blade and snapped them to the proper length. These were going to be dedicated for recurves so the edges and face of the stones were given a radius with a dressing stone that is used for dressing bench grinder stones. As for stropping, I glued some thin dense leather to a piece of 2" schedule 40 PVC pipe. Some folks don't care for recurve blades but they are useful to me. That's why I have a way to sharpen them that's easy for me to use
 
Well, part of it comes down to having the right tools for sharpening recurves.

There are lots of round rod-style sharpeners available.

Another part is using the right technique.

It is usually a good idea to sharpen recurved blades (and larger blades) in sections instead of trying to "sweep" through the whole thing at once.

One of the most important sharpening techniques is to not let blades go completely dull in the first place.

Constant, quick, touch-ups save a lot of time and effort in the long run.
 
:...It is usually a good idea to sharpen recurved blades (and larger blades) in sections instead of trying to "sweep" through the whole thing at once."

This is important ^ and inherent when I use the sandpaper on a stick method. I start at the tip and work my way to the guard in sections.
 
RedLynx said:
I don't necessarily know of any big advantage or not, it's just that a lot of knives I like the look of seem to have recurve and I hate to pass them up on that alone... sort of like pocket clips. I'm a lefty so I really don't like right-only carry, but I try my best not to let that stop me if I really like a knife.

What's an example of an aggressive recurve that'd be a pain to sharpen in your opinion? Just out of curiosity.
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This is one that came to mind, right up near the handle where the recurve drops at a tight radius, it's very easy to take off too much material and have the relief edge get much wider than the rest of the blade. It's not so bad if the curve is long and gentle.

http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/03/37/53/10/0003375310818_500X500.jpg
 
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I sharpen recurves the same way I make them of my 2 x 72" belt grinder. Most any dowel sharpening stone system will work as well.

They have a shape that many collectors/buyers love and as mentioned by a previous poster the sure do seperate on a draw cut and I find they are very effective choppers when you have the impact in say the first 1/3 to half of the blade.
Hence why a Kukuri chops so well.
 
I know there are ways to sharpen a recurve... the soda can trick, small ceramic sharpeners, thin diamond coated sharpeners, etc. But why don't we see a company putting out an EASY solution to it. Something like a rounded 250 grit water stone. (I'm not sure what goes into making a water stone, or other sharpening stones, but it can't be that difficult). I would think it would make the process easier. And not just for recurves, but also karambits, hawk bills, etc.
 
I LOVE recurve blades. I find them not to be appreciably harder to sharpen and enjoy the look and cutting with them.
 
m.christy said:
I know there are ways to sharpen a recurve... the soda can trick, small ceramic sharpeners, thin diamond coated sharpeners, etc. But why don't we see a company putting out an EASY solution to it. Something like a rounded 250 grit water stone. (I'm not sure what goes into making a water stone, or other sharpening stones, but it can't be that difficult). I would think it would make the process easier. And not just for recurves, but also karambits, hawk bills, etc.
Click to expand...

Why would a round waterstone be any easier than using ceramic of diamond coated rounds? Both of which are harder than a natural stone.
 
Ulf Krogstad said:
I agree with everyone above. recurves are a bitch to sharpen. Just tried sharpening my utilitac II and the angle is very deformed. All i do is free hand sharpen with Dmt's Dia-sharp or dia-fold stones and strop afterwards but as of now bad edge on the utilitac. Still sharp enough to somewhat shave hair but edge is off in the middle right where recurve starts. Maybe i'll figure out a way but not to stoked on recurves becuase of that reason as of now nor maybe will ever be.
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I also use DMT diamond stones. Don't have any of the folding ones yet though..
 
Okay guys... I don't think I have any recurve knives with severe recurves, as all my knives that seem to have slight recurve seem to do find just on my flat DMT diamond stones.

Can someone give examples and pics of knives with severe recurve where a flat stone will not cut it? Now I'm getting confused because some of my knives that, like I said, seem to have slight recurve, do fine on the flat stones.
 
onetrickpony said:
This is one that came to mind, right up near the handle where the recurve drops at a tight radius, it's very easy to take off too much material and have the relief edge get much wider than the rest of the blade. It's not so bad if the curve is long and gentle.

http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/03/37/53/10/0003375310818_500X500.jpg
Click to expand...

Just saw this after my last post asking for more, thanks pony.

EDIT: I think I see what you're talking about, this "dip" almost right against the handle...
I always thought recurve was disliked for the upswept edge near the tip... this makes much more sense. I'm starting to understand recurve better I think.
 
Y'all are overthinking this to make an easy sharpening job complicated and hard. If I didn't come across this apparent stigma on this forum I would have never known sharpening a recurve was an issue.
 
Blackie Scantling said:
Y'all are overthinking this to make an easy sharpening job complicated and hard. If I didn't come across this apparent stigma on this forum I would have never known sharpening a recurve was an issue.
Click to expand...

Your above method sounds like what I do with my regular sharpening steel sticks, drawing them through the recurved area... though perhaps the grits you use in sandpaper are more effective.
 
Blackie Scantling said:
:...It is usually a good idea to sharpen recurved blades (and larger blades) in sections instead of trying to "sweep" through the whole thing at once."

This is important ^ and inherent when I use the sandpaper on a stick method. I start at the tip and work my way to the guard in sections.
Click to expand...

That's a good idea. Was my first attempt sharpening the utilitac yesterday but doing it in sections or something I'm gonna try next. It just knida threw me off yesterday when doing what i usually do and forget there is a slight recurve on the blade and stright strokes were f*ckin it up where the recurve started. It's still sharp now just gotta fix the slight off angle in middle of blade. It's actually one i only use for cardboard cutting mostly anyways so don't care it's sharp enough. Just gotta firgure out a different technic for it next time.
 
While I don't like a recurve blade on certain knives that do certain tasks (say a recurve whittler) I find the recurve shape useful. I like the extra cutting power and bite it give me in my work knives which I use every day. A couple of my favorites have gentle recurves and are the Kershaw Tremor and the Kershaw Blur. I don't have any use for the really heavily recurved knives (like the Cold Steel Rajah series) though as somewhere in the design equation that curve loses its efficiency for me.

The recurve works best for me on folding knives is about 3 to 4 inches long. For me this is an example of an excellent recurve on a work knife:


Image borrowed from another BF thread

A recurve is easy to get screaming sharp with the right tools. I started out free hand sharpening as a kiddo 50 years ago, and that skill has served me well. I sharpen my folding recurves and smaller fixed on oval shaped diamond chef's rod. I have three grits, ending up with about 1000gr. I don't usually go higher than that as the knives I am talking about have no business with a super fine edge that will lead them to easy damage. But when I have, I strop on a soft strop loaded with green compound. Hair shaving sharp is pretty easy.

I have sharpened several large recurves for my amigos and always use a small belt sander to get the edge in shape, then hit it with my rods. Using that method it doesn't take any longer than sharpening a straight blade once you get the hang of it.

Strangely, although I really like them now I never owned and used a recurve until about 4 or 5 years ago. I thought of them as gimmicky mall ninja gear. Too closed minded to ever give one a try, I bought the Tremor after all the rave reviews on the Kershaw forum. The pictures posted there didn't really show the curve so I bought one by mistake. Glad I did!

Robert
 
Ulf Krogstad said:
That's a good idea. Was my first attempt sharpening the utilitac yesterday but doing it in sections or something I'm gonna try next. It just knida threw me off yesterday when doing what i usually do and forget there is a slight recurve on the blade and stright strokes were f*ckin it up where the recurve started. It's still sharp now just gotta fix the slight off angle in middle of blade. It's actually one i only use for cardboard cutting mostly anyways so don't care it's sharp enough. Just gotta firgure out a different technic for it next time.
Click to expand...

So far I've only got the tanto Utilitac so, no recurve there.
 
RevDevil said:
Many of the same people that claim to not like recurves also have difficulty sharpening traditional knives. I guess it's intimidating. However, owning a knife you must learn at some point how to sharpen them. It's like owning a car and being intimidated by having to pump your own gas.
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Having watched New Jersey natives trying to figure out a gas pump, this made me laugh.
 
midnight flyer said:
While I don't like a recurve blade on certain knives that do certain tasks (say a recurve whittler) I find the recurve shape useful. I like the extra cutting power and bite it give me in my work knives which I use every day. A couple of my favorites have gentle recurves and are the Kershaw Tremor and the Kershaw Blur. I don't have any use for the really heavily recurved knives (like the Cold Steel Rajah series) though as somewhere in the design equation that curve loses its efficiency for me.

The recurve works best for me on folding knives is about 3 to 4 inches long. For me this is an example of an excellent recurve on a work knife:

A recurve is easy to get screaming sharp with the right tools. I started out free hand sharpening as a kiddo 50 years ago, and that skill has served me well. I sharpen my folding recurves and smaller fixed on oval shaped diamond chef's rod. I have three grits, ending up with about 1000gr. I don't usually go higher than that as the knives I am talking about have no business with a super fine edge that will lead them to easy damage. But when I have, I strop on a soft strop loaded with green compound. Hair shaving sharp is pretty easy.

I have sharpened several large recurves for my amigos and always use a small belt sander to get the edge in shape, then hit it with my rods. Using that method it doesn't take any longer than sharpening a straight blade once you get the hang of it.

Strangely, although I really like them now I never owned and used a recurve until about 4 or 5 years ago. I thought of them as gimmicky mall ninja gear. Too closed minded to ever give one a try, I bought the Tremor after all the rave reviews on the Kershaw forum. The pictures posted there didn't really show the curve so I bought one by mistake. Glad I did!

Robert
Click to expand...

I just got a Tremor as a gift from KAI and sharpened it last night. I did that on my DMT flat stone, although perhaps I should be using an oval chef's rod as well. I have two, but I don't use them much so I am not as skilled with them.
 
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