Saber Grinds Revisited: Love, Hate, Indifference?

[elena86]

I'll pass. I hated the Manix 2 until it got FFG. It's also the biggest reason I've never had a Pacific and a big reason I haven't carried my Autonomy since getting a Caribbean.

Pacific is a HG. Try one ... you'll feel the difference.....

[Bill1170]

My first Delica was saber ground. After getting a FFG Delica I was astonished at how much better it performed, especially in corrugated cardboard. After awhile I thinned out and convexed the SG Delica to improve its performance.

[spyderwolf]

I'll always go FFG.I don't hate the saber ground,but for me it's overkill.

[Evil D]

I'll pass. I hated the Manix 2 until it got FFG. It's also the biggest reason I've never had a Pacific and a big reason I haven't carried my Autonomy since getting a Caribbean.

Pacific is a HG. Try one ... you'll feel the difference.....

Yeah my Autonomy is hollow grind too. Better in ways than a standard saber grind and not so much in others. The original Manix 2 had that low hollow and I absolutely hated it. I didn't come to love the Manix 2 until I got the M4 FFG sprint. The problem I have with hollows is that they can sometimes "steer" through certain materials, heavy cardboard for example. Back then I was cutting a lot of boxes and that was an important detail for me. I did carry my Autonomy for about a year and a half non-stop and the hollow grind didn't stop me, and it's fairly low compared to others due to the short blade height but it's also something around 2.5mm thick.

The thinner the blade the less this seems to matter. It never bothered me on my Centofante 4 either and I particularly love the Dragonfly Salt hollow because (for some reason I don't understand) the hollow grind on that knife in particular is higher than any other hollow grind I've seen from Spyderco, and it's also only 2mm or whatever it is so it slices well.

With a saber grind, it can depend on the overall blade grind too. After all, a saber grind is technically a full flat grind up to the top of the grind, so if that part of the blade is as thin and high on the blade as a comparable FFG blade, the performance is the same and the top flat/unground part of the blade won't matter. Unfortunately it seems that most saber grinds are really low on the blade and this leaves them far thicker behind the edge than an equivalent FFG.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Then can I have confident assurance that the saber grind is and will remain with us in knives, for a good long time to come, and especially with Spyderco?

Mate, I can only speak for the entire knife industry and say yes.

Thank you!

[Jazz]

If the Delica was ground higher, as I've said many times, it would be great. It doesn't cut well at all as it is. I'd like that higher grind better than the FFG, except on the wharnie. It seems stronger, and perfect, for some reason.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Jazz, if Spyderco offered a folding with a 3.5 inch blade made from a good stainless steel, with a somewhat reverse curve drop point blade and a saber grind to it, and a FRN/Zytel handle, and a lockback, would you get one and enjoy using it, or not?

[Mad Mac]

Would that be something like the four inch Ulize
except with a saber grind instead of a hollow grind?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Would that be something like the four inch Ulize
except with a saber grind instead of a hollow grind?

Yes! That is nearly exactly what I had in mind, that blade shape, but, with more of a saber or flat saber grind.

[Wartstein]

(EDIT: To be precise: Whenever I am talking about that the shoulders of the secondary grind are higher up on the blade on a sabre grind than on a full flat grind, of course I mean on blades with the exact same height and the exact same blade stock and the exact same edge angle. So taking an Endura as example: 3mm blade stock, but on the sabre grind Endura the primary grind begins much lower on the blade, its angle is more obtuse than on the ffg one. So just by geometry, if you give both knives an edge angle of lets say 30 inclusive, this secondary grind goes "higher up" the blade on the sabre grind version, and the "shoulders" hit material that is being cut later than on the ffg version. )

Another random point concerning sabre grinds:

It seems to me this kind of grind lends itself towards being convexed better than others, am I right??

I never actually did this myself, nor am I a sharpening/grinding expert by any means.

But I often thought about it when using my sabre grind Endura: As already mentioned, due to the high up the blade "shoulders" of its sabre grind edge (a bit like a "little scandi"), it's great for (shallower) whittling. And would be even better when being convexed I guess.

So an advantage the sg already has anyway, would be even improved.

[Jazz]

Jazz, if Spyderco offered a folding with a 3.5 inch blade made from a good stainless steel, with a somewhat reverse curve drop point blade and a saber grind to it, and a FRN/Zytel handle, and a lockback, would you get one and enjoy using it, or not?

3", and no recurve,with a high flat or hollow grind, but not low like the sabre Delica. High, like a Benchmade's high flat grind. That is if it's not FFG with a decent thickness for strength. I don't really like wafer blades like everyone else. I don't like pry bars either, just a nice blade like, say, the Caly's thickness.