Your customers: Thin Blades or prybars?

Kentucky

Kentucky

Joined
Dec 13, 2008
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Just curious, do you make more thin cutting type blades or thicker hard use knives? We make a lot of knives for the bushcraft crowd these days. Though most of the knives that come out of our shop are on the thinner side with flat grinds.Some saber grinds too but these have a thin edge to.. Over the years we have preached that even a knife that's going to do a lot of woods work dosnt have to have a thick chubby convex grind,etc..That a flat grind with the right edge geometry, proper steel and proper heat treat will take much more abuse than folks think and still be able to cut like a knife should.
Just a few curious questions, in general:
What type of grinds do you do the most?
How thick do you leave the edge before final sharpening?
 
Mostly use 3/32-1/8" stock with a flat grind and .010" before sharpening. I also thing a lot of blades are way to thick.
 
Most are 1/8" or thinner, even up to 6" blades. I've done one 1/4" blade, and one 3/8" blade this year only. The 3/8" blade was a scandi of all things. The customer knows what he's asking for, and I tried to talk him out of it, but he wanted it.
 
What about the angle of your edge. What angle are you grinding on each side on a slicer vs chopper vs bush. Not to be confused with the bevels.


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I made a couple of large fighter type bowies a while back for a Spanish dealer.One had an 11 inch blade and the other a 13 incher. Both were like 7mm/.280 at the ricasso. I think that the Musso stye lone I did a few years back wasaboutthat same thickness or maybe a little more,ike,300. All had pretty good distal taper. My typically medium sized knife is in the 5/32-3/16 range and all of mine have taper and full height flat grinds. smaller ones are in the 1/8 range.
 
Ghostman3 said:
What about the angle of your edge. What angle are you grinding on each side on a slicer vs chopper vs bush. Not to be confused with the bevels.


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Most knives are 0.010" at the edge, with 15-20dps. Kitchen knives thinner of course. Harder use knives are 0.015", or rarely 0.020" and 20dps.
 
I usually do a 15 degree bevel and then put a tiny 20 degree microbevel on it. I'm sure it would be fine with 15 degrees. I don't use my blades for anything other than cutting.


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my grind would be high flat to full flat grind. primary bevel of 7 to 10 degrees per side, microbevel of 15 dps done on stones. I do cooking knives. all the knives I have done lately are 3/32" or thinner, mostly 1/16". I grind until I get a clean slice on copy paper then go to the stones. I work on stones till I can push cut newprint and shave without pulling.
scott
 
Since this thread is mainly about grinds and preferences, I'll leave it up.


Please remember that basic and registered users are not allowed to discuss sales, customers, and any commercial knifemaking topics. That is a privilege of a Knifemaker membership. In this case, it is barely mentioned, so there is no real problem.

As to the knives:
Thin spines - .125" is thick, .060" to .090" is normal.
Distal taper to half the ricasso thickness on most.
FFG to a thin edge around .005". Edge angle between 15 degrees inclusive to 30 degrees, depending on blade type and intended use.
 
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Depends entirely on the knife. I do everything from full flat, nearly zero grind kitchen knives to bush knives and bowies with zero convex grinds and 3/8" down to 1/16" distal tapers.
All depends on the order.
 
Most of the people I'm currently making knives for want thick beefy knives. I think because while thick knives are available on the commercial market, they're typically not very sharp or hard for them to sharpen because of the geometry, and the thick knives I'm making are, at least in their perception, laser sharp in comparison and easy to resharpen.

I certainly like making heavy spined knives. .180 to .250 is quite common for me and I even have one in process that's .383".

I like how thin knives perform but I like making them less. Everything about them is harder. Controlling warp, less material to grind means less room to fix mistakes, heat up quickly, etc. I have nothing but respect for you guys who work with .060" thick blades.
 
thin slicers only, I never make a sharpened prybar...usually in the 1/8" spine thickness range, max of .14

flat only, don't know how to hollow grind, I have convexed some edges, so flat to convex edge sometimes.

.006 -.010 behind the edge

30 deg angle
 
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I find my grinds and thicknesses have changed over the years. I mostly make military type hard use knives that I want to be able to take abuse, so for years I left the edge way too thick, which solved the toughness problem but left a lot to be desired on the cutting and slicing end of the spectrum. now most of my blades are 3/16 and flat ground pre heat treat, then I take the edge down by a little and convex the edges to .010 or so and aim for robust bevel on them. still haven't had one come back with any major problems and the knives cut way better. I don't go into anything thicker than 1/4 at all anymore unless it's a one off that someone has envisioned... and only then it has to be a knife style that merits something so thick.
 
Full flat down to .10 on every one of my knives. I havent found a geometry I like better. My spine is usually in the 3/16" - 1/4" range for strength depending on the size of the blade. Larger knives are 1/4", bird and trouts a little less than 3/16".
 
Exactly as Harbeer and a few of the other gents said. Most of my knives are kitchen or hunters. 1/16"-1/8", full flat or slight convex, edge at .005"-.010", 26°-30° inclusive.
 
On the more expensive custom kitchen knives I have done, I did my version of an "S" grind. On a 2 inch wide chefs knife, that involves first doing a full height flat grind taking the "edge"down to about 1 mm. I then do a second flat facet from the edge up maybe up70-80% of the way to the spine with maybe a .030-040 edge. I then grind my VERY shallow hollow below that upper grind line and set a convex as high as 3/8 above the edge. When I go into blend those sharp transitions, I use belts and EDM stones to thin out the convex behind the edge.
 
jdm61 said:
On the more expensive custom kitchen knives I have done, I did my version of an "S" grind. On a 2 inch wide chefs knife, that involves first doing a full height flat grind taking the "edge"down to about 1 mm. I then do a second flat facet from the edge up maybe up70-80% of the way to the spine with maybe a .030-040 edge. I then grind my VERY shallow hollow below that upper grind line and set a convex as high as 3/8 above the edge. When I go into blend those sharp transitions, I use belts and EDM stones to thin out the convex behind the edge.
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Just trying to understand what you're describing, 1mm is .040" so are you saying on your second flat facet you barely change the angle of the first full bevel? If so what is the purpose of the initial bevel? Just to make visualizing and hitting your desired final profile easier? Like a rough pass and finish pass with only slight tuning to the edge side of the grind?
 
Willie71 said:
and one 3/8" blade this year only. The 3/8" blade was a scandi of all things. The customer knows what he's asking for, and I tried to talk him out of it, but he wanted it.
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making feather sticks from fence posts was he?:D
 
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