Have you ever truly tried to break down how and why your knife or chopping tool performs the way it does? Using woods tools is a passion of mine and I derive great satisfaction using them to make camp items or process firewood. Believe it or not, I even enjoy maintaining them! There is also great joy when I teach others how to use them. Much like seeing my students in the classroom “get it”, there is excitement seeing the growth and understanding that the learners derived from practice, application, and learning the nuances of the particular tool. You can see the pride and confidence outwardly and in part I can celebrate with them!

Knife Safety:

Your knife has two important areas of danger, the point or tip of the knife and the cutting edge. Both must be maintained to be effective and both can cause serious harm if not handled correctly. A dull knife or axe is a dangerous tool, always maintain your tools and ensure that they are ready for when you need them, and this goes for anything you carry into the woods.

There are two things to consider before unsheathing your knife and putting it to use, your space around you and your body placement. You need to check the entire radius to see what obstacles may be in the way and look beyond that radius to see what may be harmed if you were to lose control of your knife or axe, accidents happen. You can prevent accidents by using a proper grip on the knife and using a sharp knife so you are not using unnecessary force to achieve your cuts.

Your body is a moving blood bag and your knife or axe is designed to pierce, cut, slice, or chop objects; your blood bag is not designed to impede any of those. The terms death circle, blood circle, blood triangle, and death triangle are meant to make you well aware of the true danger of using woods tools. In Scouts we soften those terms by changing “blood” and “death” to “safety”, they are all interchangeable. For our purposes we will use blood circle or triangle. The blood circle references the radius around your body that we have already discussed. The blood triangle is the space between your legs as you sit and are spread apart to create a safe area for using your knife. There are major arteries on the inside of both legs, if you accidently cut your leg where the artery is then you may be in very serious danger. If you must cut within the blood triangle make sure you cut straight in the centerline of your body and angle your workpiece down, preferably secured on the ground or if removing material at the end of the work piece anchor it on a stump or piece of wood like a log.

Why Does Grind Matter?

In short, the grind and bevel affects how your blade is sharpened and determines what your blade is best as doing. There is no one size fits all knife, the best any blade maker can do is consider what the knife’s use is for and what will be the best angle for the knife edge to perform at those intended tasks and keep the blade performing for a long period of time. To define some differences we can look at two very different grinds; the chisel or single bevel “|/” and the hollow grind “)(“. Both will cut material but each has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. The single bevel has fragile tips that are more prone to chipping but has more material behind the edge to support force applied to it to cut whatever is desired, whereas the hollow blade is incredibly sharp but if more force is applied to it than absolutely necessary the edge can chip, bend, or even break. Contemporary straight razors are normally hollow grind because it is easy to sharpen to such a fine edge that you can shave hair comfortably. You would not use a straight razor to cut wood because it would not stay sharp that long and the force would damage the blade but you could take a chisel to make fine and precise cuts in wood; and of course you would not want to take a chisel to your face or other part of your body to remove hair because the razor burn or worse would be the consequence of such a poor decision.

There are many other types of grinds and combinations of these two types of grinds for woods tool use. Your axe or hatchet will have a beveled grind because it needs to cut and split wood using the weight of the tool and force to achieve it’s desired purpose. There is significant material or “meat” behind the edge to reinforce it and insure that it can withstand some level of abuse but if the outdoor enthusiast is not careful and is too enthusiastic, mismanagement of the tool can lead to physical accidents but also a frustrating day with the file and hones to work out a chip or nick in the edge. Most modern day pocket knives are ground using a V grind using machining but with time of use in the field or sharpening at home, the edge takes the shape of a convex because even the most steady handed person is not precise enough to sharpen and maintain a flat grinded edge on a small tool like a pocket knife. There are guides and tools one can buy to precisely maintain a certain type of bevel or grind but in general is not absolutely necessary unless you are obsessed with a certain way your blade cuts. Scandinavian or “scandi” grinds is a narrower V grind that is wider before it flattens out on the blade. Scandinavian ground blades are currently very popular in the bushcraft and campcraft sphere. Knives with this type of grind are pretty easy to maintain because the edge of the steel removed is so far back on the blade’s body that it is easy to lay and maintain flat on the stones to sharpen the blade.

Keep in mind that the grind and the bevel of the edge are only part of what to consider when choosing a knife. The thickness of the steel can be a benefit or hindrance when using and maintaining your knife. Most knives designed for bushcrafting have a blade that is 3/16″-1/4″ thick to withstand the abuses of batoning wood to split for kindling or camp crafts. More traditional knives are on the thinner side, better at processing hunted animals, food preparation, and detailed carving tasks. In regards to maintaining the edge of your knife, the thicker the blade the more steel will need to be removed for keenness.

Tips to Maximize Performance:

Unless you are using a cleaver, your knife is designed for cutting/slicing. If you were to look at the edge of your blade under a microscope you would see teeth much like a saw and those teeth work best when you draw the edge against the material to cut. Beginners tend to push and force their knife through material like one would chop instead of slicing or cutting which are really two different things. Chopping blades have a shallower angle and are meant to be used with brute force to remove the desired material. Slicing blades have narrow and steep bevels on the edge thus having a higher chance of nicking or bending the edge. The best way to cut is use those microscopic jagged teeth to your advantage by pulling or pushing the blade across the object you desire to cut.

Using Science to Help:

Knives are tools and are best used when thinking of them in terms of leverage. When you consider the length of the blade and where it requires the optimal leverage for the desired affect, you will find that applied pressure reacts differently to the object you intend to cut. The closer the object is to the grip or handle, the more force you will be able to apply and the deeper the cut will be and the more control you will have whereas the farther away from the grip and closer to the tip your object is, the leverage then benefits the object. The force required to make the same cut will need to be compounded significantly, so for shallower or even finer cuts using the blade closer to the tip would be a better choice. Use this to your advantage. When making feather sticks this technique can prove especially useful. You can start your cut closer to the handle, angle your knife back with the point angled up and cut downward pulling the knife so the cut ends at the tip making stable feathers to catch fire and not cutting through.