Buck Strider 881 mini tanto convex regrind

[kwakster]

For quite a few years this Buck Strider 881 mini tanto in BG42 steel was gathering dust in a drawer, as to me it was more a knife-like object, literally unable to cut anything.
Over the last few weeks i changed that with the help of my Tormek SB-250 stone (for the point area), a 300 grit diamond file, a Foss 7205 black/green silicon carbide stone, and some 400 grit wet & dry SiC paper on glass (for the straight edge)
The apex on the now full convex blade measures somewhere between 22.5 and 25 degrees inclusive, and i'm first going to do some test cutting to find out if i can safely lower it a bit more.
Also rounded the overly sharp G10 grip plates a bit and sanded the screw heads.

Before:








While grinding the blade with the diamond file:







After the 400 grit SiC paper and removing the tiny burr on a piece of hard cardboard with a dab of 1.0 micron diamond paste:






Considering all work was done with only one eye currently functioning at about 80 % (plus a pair of reading glasses) i'm quite pleased with the result, :-)

[Kevinim82]

Is this now a zero grind or a chisel?

Very impressive work!

[Naperville]

Looks good to me!

[Manixguy@1994]

I’m impressed with your hard work , the results look promising . I remember when the Buck Striders came out wishing they would have made a lefty version . I was always curious how the BG42 steel performed . There is a Forum member here that has a rare lefty Strider custom , it’s well built . MG2

[JRinFL]

That's an impressive amount of hand work, wow! Can you post any more pictures from different angles of that grind?

[knivesandbooks]

Was thinking about trying that with a couple knives (1095). How long did it take with the file?

[The Mastiff]

Wow! That is a lot of work by hand. BG 42 can be fairly stubborn too. It's a great steel when done properly but no matter how good the steel is it wasn't going to be all that useful without good edges . I had one of those too and traded it off rather than put in the work you did. Good stuff Kwakster.

[kwakster]

I knew beforehand that the outcome wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea, but for me functionality trumps looks every time.
Grinding the rough convex form with the diamond file (without apexing) took a few hours in total.
Most time was spent shaping & smoothing the blade surfaces on the Foss combination stone and the wet & dry paper on glass.
Visually it's still not 100 % perfect, but the current edge already holds up fine whittling an old piece of hard beechwood cutting board.
A few more pics:

[JRinFL]

Thank you for the extra pictures. That grind is fascinating to me. The knife now looks like an expensive custom knife.

[The Mastiff]

I knew beforehand that the outcome wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea, but for me functionality trumps looks every time.

I'll agree every time. You took what was a high end paperweight made of excellent materials and turned it into a high end knife which should prove very useful and rewarding just looking at it. It's beautiful!.

Makes me wish I had done something similar with mine instead of trading it off.

Joe