Why the obsession with plain blades?

One of the few things you can do with a serrated blade is hack things apart. In most cases you would do a more precise job if you used a saw. How many serrated wood working tools have you seen? I often care about the material that I am working on beyond just seeing it in pieces. If I'm cutting rope I don't want to fray the ends more than I have to. If I'm cutting wood with a knife I'm often shaping it. If I'm boning out an elk I'm trying to cleanly seperate out the hide and muscle groups.

I'm not usually in an emergency escape situation where all I want is to hack my way through obstacles. Even if I was, I'd usually want a good "smooth" edge rather than serrations to hang up on something. When Randall made their first "survival" knife they put a smooth edge on the front and a saw edge on the back. Serrations just aren't as generally utilitarian.

Of course my number one reason is--you can't shave with a serrated blade.



[This message has been edited by Jeff Clark (edited 01-26-2000).]
 
KO Fred,
I was kind of sorry to read your reply that serrations are growing in popularity, I was hoping the opposite was the case. Serrations on a bread knife or a rescue tool fine, on a knife it just messes it up, there's no real need and it looks bad. I'm getting away from production knives, and one of the reasons is I'm sick of those mean looking little teeth. If people weren't buying them companies would stop making them, I think knives would look better and be more accepted, by non-knife people, and we all would be better off.
 
for a bread knife the forschner wavey blade is better by far than a true seration, looks similar to a single edged kris knife, and the edge is bitter. I do have a mixed blade it is a gerber ez out folder, very short blade but i can still use it to carve with, I sharpen it on a stone (of course amy serrations are wearing away, oh well), but one very good use i have foung for the serration is in defletching an arrow, just peel the spine of the feather along a serration the curved edge helps to keep the spine centered and the blaed from slipping. and yes I do like bow hunting and have been making arrows for some time, includein napped points.

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Sanity is overrated, simply a moonbeam spilling pearls on a dark and treacherous sea.
j . p hissom
 
Originally posted by UffDa:
Have you ever tried to sharpen a pencil with a serrated blade? I guess it can be done, but it wouldn't be pretty. It's also kind of hard to whittle with a serrated blade.
Click to expand...

Actually that's one of the better features I find with the serrated edges, the larger serrated section makes the pencil come out in almost a perfect cone shape, just let one of the serrations do the work, don't slice the pencil but use a chisel stroke down, it does a nice job of sharpening pencils!

I prefer a plain blade though, more than the serrated, when cutting through material it's easier to control a straight cut, for me anyway. I went through the partial serrations stage as well and moved those to folks that thought that they were the way to go, don't miss them much. But I carry several knives and usually have at least one serrated blade for when the need arises.
G2


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"There are no dangerous weapons;
there are only dangerous men."
.......... Robert A. Heinlein, 1959


G2 LeatherWorks
 
Way to get people going! Yeah, I'm a plain blade guy too, but not for reasons already mentioned. I'm a plain blade guy because I'm used to plain blades! I tried to love a serrated knife or two and just couldn't! They seem un-natural to use! Know if I was roping cattle or climbing mountains, I'd take one with me.
I have no trouble sharpening serrations, even Cold Steel's tiny ones. Spydercos are great serrations to sharpen, I have the files that do one large and two small at a time. I can bring a worn one back pretty quick.
But I just can't get used to the feel of cutting stuff with them! It's more like sawing... a KNIFE is supposed to cut smooooth!!
 
Speaking as someone who *does* climb mountains - or at the very least, cliffs - I can vouch for the effectiveness of plain blades on rope and webbing. I use a plain blade Spyderco Snap-It, polished to a fine edge. It's not failed me yet. I might consider roughing up the edge and experimenting with microserrations, but it just doesn't seem necessary when you can slice through 11mm climbing rope in one pass.

Serrations might slice rope a little faster, but they definitely suck at preparing lunch. Have you seen what they do to an avocado?

Cheers,
Tim
 
I have been carrying a 50/50 AFCK for a year now. It has served me well and will continue to do so- untill I can afford a plain edged Sebenza! I used to cut anything fibrous on the serrations (including rope and plastic twine) while cutting anything else with the plain edge. But lately I have been cuttying everything with the plain edge to see how well it holds up (awesome timing with this post) and now I wish my AFCK had a full plain edge. I agree that the serrations would do a faster job cutting through things like military webbing, but I am not in the military (for now anyways) and a plain edge will serve me best. Also, I read a post earlier where a guy thought a fully serrated katana would perhaps do a better job dispatching Samurai than a plain edge. I care not to comment on this practical point, but a fully serrated katana would be UGLY!!!!! IMHO!

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"Come What May..."
 
ahhh!
serrations and the plain edge.
i've beeen a knife affectionado since i knew
what a knife was. and serrations have their
place... cutting bread, cutting a cheap steak, breaking down boxes and emergency
situations. i bought a 50/50 spyderco a few
years ago and shortly thereafterwords gave it
to a friend. i've never liked the 50/50
designs. i guess the money was burning a
hole in my pocket. i have several multitools and used the serrated blade on one of them once to cut some particle board. i've often thought about buying a spyderco
rescue or harpy, but keep finding packages
with plain egde knives showing up on my front
door.
my best friend is one of those serrated guys.
you know the guy, likes to carry a knife to
"look cool" and show off, but wouldn't know
what to do with a sharpener
wink.gif

he uses his knife, he just pays to have it
sharpened.
he carries a spyderco all steel rescue (the
mariner?).
i carry my sebenza and i'm happy as a clam!
-matt

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-matt

"you see that mountain over there? near as i can figure, that's where we are!"


[This message has been edited by mdavis (edited 01-26-2000).]
 
I'm also much more partial to plain edges and have all my favorite knives in plain edge version.
But trying to be objective I must to mention the advantages of serrated edge too:
  • Serrated blade allows to apply cutting force more effectively, especially in weak hands. My wife opens a lot of cardboard boxes in her job and does it with SPYDERCO serrated Cricket without any difficulties. Of course she could do the same with plain edge but serrated edge serves her better.
  • Serrated blade works better if it's dull and requires less frequent resharpening. I slightly touched up this serrated Cricket some times only during half year of hard work.
  • Cutting with serrated edge is less precise but more powerful. It's very important if you don't need cutting precision but your life depends on cutting speed; this is the reason why rescue knives simply must have serrated edges.
  • It's non a great problem to resharpen serrated edge if you have proper tools and minimum of patience. My GATCO EdgeMate Pro with triangle sharpening hone works very well on each serrated blade, DMT Diafold Serrated Knife Sharpener works well also. It's a bit tricky to work with GATCO Tri-Seps sharpener, but you can easy keep it near you hand in outdoor conditions.
Resuming: for me the comparison of the plain edge to a serrated one is something like a comparison of the handgun to a shotgun. I like the accuracy of my duty Glock 19 but in some kind of circumstances I simply need the power of my Mossberg pump-action near my side.
Sorry for this "slight" off-topic.
By the way, Kit Carson's reversed serration works better on ropes than most common three-step serration. I tested it using my partially serrated CRKT Mirage Gray Ghost. Cutting accuracy is by far beats conventionally serrated edges and it can be resharpened as simply as plain blade. Maybe this is a reasonable compromise between plain and serrated edges?


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Sergiusz Mitin
gunwriter
Lodz, Poland
 
I always thought serrated edges were for those people who can't sharpen a plain edge correctly.
eek.gif
Just kidding, kinda. Seriously, I think serrated edges <u>seem</u> to stay sharper longer, because they are effectively applying higher cutting pressure. In other words, same force from hand, but applied to many tiny points, instead of a smooth edge, makes the points bite, even if they are duller than a comparable plain edge. So, they cut better longer.
Me? I just sharpen my plain edges often, and don't have a problem. I only own one serrated knife, and one partially serrated, and never use either of them.

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"Absolute safety is for those who don't have the balls to live in the real world."
 
Originally posted by Marion David Poff:
A plain blade can be sharpened to approximate some of the performance of a serrated blade.

And you cannot sharpen serrations on a rock.
Click to expand...

Reply: I can. Sharpen serrations on a rock, that is. Very lightly on the back side...
Kind regards. D. Utzinger
 
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