Advantages of a hollow grind?

[Catamount123]

All my current Spyders are FFG or FSG. I decided I want one hollow grind in my collection. I was thinking about a Bradley 2, but I settled on the Fradon Lock exclusive Manix 2 in CPM 4V, and one is on its way.



Please tell me what advantages (if any) you have found in a hollow grind? What type of cutting tasks does it lend itself to?

[spyderg]

You can sharpen it more times than a ffg before you need to consider reprofiling. I suppose it’d cut through some materials better but I’m guessing most of us don’t encounter them on a daily basis otherwise we’d all want hollow grinds. For my uses I typically don’t notice much a difference as long as the knife is thin enough behind the edge. That brings me to I’m not sure why they’d use a hollow grind on the Manix? It’s blade is plenty tall enough to ffg it nice and thin behind the edge. Now on the upcoming Smock, it makes more sense.
Perhaps it has to do with the steel, maybe Spyderco believes it will preform best this way, or just as a test. In any case I’m sure it’ll be a great knife, enjoy and don’t forget to post more about it once you’ve used it!

[ferider]

This is a fantastic knife, really beautiful, tough and functional - I enjoy mine (plural) a lot.

Regarding your question on the grind, not sure if the following makes sense:

Great at: anything you have to poke first and then slice, it just goes through like butter. Boxes, textiles, meat, etc. And the tip feels great for opening tight zip locks, etc.
Not so good at (compared to a flat grind): slicing or whittling, when you want the slices not to move, for example slicing carrots.

Enjoy the knife !

Roland.

[Mad Mac]

Beauty. Visual interest. Light and shadow.

The hollow grind on a blade is the suprasternal notch on a pretty girl (made famous by Kristin Scott Thomas in the movie The English Patient). And it is a fetish.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

If the hollow grind is on a quality knife like a Spyderco, it is good, but, I like my woman convex, like my knives :) (PS: That is not belittling women or viewing them as objects!) = Stronger, More robust, beefier, better able to take the stress and strain.

[Mad Mac]

Well there's the curve over the Spyderco opening hole. Don't get me started.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

We need some like buttons, Gonna bow out of the direction this is heading and say I have owned this Manix and tested it head to head with a FFG Manix and while this one looks better and is much heavier the performance goes to the FFG.

My Brother loved the looks of this so he received it as a birthday present a couple of years back. As near as I can tell the only benefit is a stronger blade when it comes to side to side play but not so sure about in folders makes more sense in a fixed blade with the need to perhaps break down large animals.

[vivi]

I can't think of any for my uses.

[Evil D]

Like most things there's a lot of additional questions to answer before getting a straight answer, such as height of the grind/blade and thickness of the blade and depth of the grind. I think the potential is there to make a hollow grind that out performs FFG in slicing, but it seems like it's either not feasible in production or maybe too expensive. Nobody wants to make a full height hollow grind similar to how CRK do it where the blade is truly concave and thinner behind the bevel than the bevel itself is, or they do it with 4mm blade stock so that it slices like a splitting maul and wedges into everything.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Like most things there's a lot of additional questions to answer before getting a straight answer, such as height of the grind/blade and thickness of the blade and depth of the grind. I think the potential is there to make a hollow grind that out performs FFG in slicing, but it seems like it's either not feasible in production or maybe too expensive. Nobody wants to make a full height hollow grind similar to how CRK do it where the blade is truly concave and thinner behind the bevel than the bevel itself is, or they do it with 4mm blade stock so that it slices like a splitting maul and wedges into everything.

Are you referring to Chris Reeve Knives? (CRK)

I have owned several different style and sized Sebenza, and the Nyala, in the end sold the Sebenzas in favor of the FFG cutting ability of the Paramilitary2, in fact the PM2 was my entry into Spyderco.

When I purchased my first Paramilitary 2 I thought wow this thing looks so cheap and ugly compared to my Sebenza what is wrong with me wasting money on this. The blade had a satin finish which to this day I do not like but prefer the stone-wash of the Sebenza. Then I started using the PM2 and comparing it to the Sebenza and was beside myself with astonishment how much better it performed. The spider had bit me! The Sebenzas got sold.

[Evil D]

Like most things there's a lot of additional questions to answer before getting a straight answer, such as height of the grind/blade and thickness of the blade and depth of the grind. I think the potential is there to make a hollow grind that out performs FFG in slicing, but it seems like it's either not feasible in production or maybe too expensive. Nobody wants to make a full height hollow grind similar to how CRK do it where the blade is truly concave and thinner behind the bevel than the bevel itself is, or they do it with 4mm blade stock so that it slices like a splitting maul and wedges into everything.

Are you referring to Chris Reeve Knives? (CRK)

I have owned several different style and sized Sebenza, and the Nyala, in the end sold the Sebenzas in favor of the FFG cutting ability of the Paramilitary2, in fact the PM2 was my entry into Spyderco.

When I purchased my first Paramilitary 2 I thought wow this thing looks so cheap and ugly compared to my Sebenza what is wrong with me wasting money on this. The blade had a satin finish which to this day I do not like but prefer the stone-wash of the Sebenza. Then I started using the PM2 and comparing it to the Sebenza and was beside myself with astonishment how much better it performed. The spider had bit me! The Sebenzas got sold.

Referring to how they grind their hollow grind yes, but even theirs needs to be ground higher and on a taller height blade to compare to a thin FFG.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Like most things there's a lot of additional questions to answer before getting a straight answer, such as height of the grind/blade and thickness of the blade and depth of the grind. I think the potential is there to make a hollow grind that out performs FFG in slicing, but it seems like it's either not feasible in production or maybe too expensive. Nobody wants to make a full height hollow grind similar to how CRK do it where the blade is truly concave and thinner behind the bevel than the bevel itself is, or they do it with 4mm blade stock so that it slices like a splitting maul and wedges into everything.

Are you referring to Chris Reeve Knives? (CRK)

I have owned several different style and sized Sebenza, and the Nyala, in the end sold the Sebenzas in favor of the FFG cutting ability of the Paramilitary2, in fact the PM2 was my entry into Spyderco.

When I purchased my first Paramilitary 2 I thought wow this thing looks so cheap and ugly compared to my Sebenza what is wrong with me wasting money on this. The blade had a satin finish which to this day I do not like but prefer the stone-wash of the Sebenza. Then I started using the PM2 and comparing it to the Sebenza and was beside myself with astonishment how much better it performed. The spider had bit me! The Sebenzas got sold.

Referring to how they grind their hollow grind yes, but even theirs needs to be ground higher and on a taller height blade to compare to a thin FFG.

Agree with you completely the philosophy of the hollow grind is sound but not implemented correctly the way you have explained to match FFG.