Does anyone like a partially serrated blade? Pros & cons?
Does anyone like a partially serrated blade? Pros & cons?
Are you loyal to the constitution or the “institution”?
No. I won't have a knife with a partially serrated blade.Originally Posted by Paul Blackburn
They're hard to sharpen, don't work particularly well, and I've yet to run into something I couldn't cut with a properly sharpened plain edge.
Chris
I agree with Chris above. In most cases a properly sharpened plain edge will do what needs to be done, and is easier to sharpen. However, I do like my H1 steel Spydercos with serrations, which I understand works best with this particular steel and with the likely uses of these knives. I cannot confirm the H1 info with personal experience.
Any legal information I may post is general information, and is not legal advice. Such information may or may not apply to your specific situation. I am not your attorney unless an attorney-client relationship is separately and privately established.
No, I do not like them. I don’t particularly like serrations to begin with as they are annoying to maintain, and do not make clean cuts. They are useful for sawing through fibrous material, and I have seen the utility of them for that, but anything else a properly sharpened for the task plain edge is superior, and a properly sharpened plain edge can sail through a lot of fibrous material as well.
Partial serrations are neither fish nor fowl, and a bad compromise in most cases.
I have purchased, if I remember correctly, exactly one serrated knife. It annoyed me so much that I reprofiled the whole thing to a proper plain edge after less than two weeks. Carried it for ~7 years and then gave it to a female soldier who had no knife at all when we were on a flight overseas for some extended training.
I have had several serrated knives I didn’t pay for. The “bread knife” and the “cake knife” from our wedding are still serrated. I probably still have one partially serrated knife somewhere, IIRC I didn’t get rid of it or reprofile the whole blade because I just couldn’t be bothered. It was a Gerber I picked up out of some soft sand/dirt on an airbase in Afghanistan. And I still have a fully serrated Spyderco Rescue with serrations still intact because the purpose for that knife is to cut seatbelts and ropes. I didn’t buy that one, either - I was on a detail to clean out a barracks and it was under one of the bunks. The unit that had temporarily used the barracks was gone and I had no way of returning it. There may be another one hiding in a multi tool or something.
All other serrated knives/partially serrated knives I have ever had are either gone or are reprofiled to plain edge.
This test is outside of design parameters of almost all properly designed folders. There is an agenda and the tri-ad lock is not a user friendly lock. I am not sure what fantasy that some have that a folder is some sword of Zeus (similar to the dip shits jumping their Raptors)
Lock failures are not due to how many plates one can hang from the knife but rather (as mentioned up thread) debris, not opened properly (due to entanglement or fancy flicks and zip ties), grip that engages the lock, lack of proper working order etc. It will happen not when expected so I choose a folder for hard use with built in protection when (not if ) it fails. (One reason I like Glocks is ease of fixing a malfunction)
No lock is a substitute for a fixed blade
And as a side note the firmer one grips a frame lock the safer and stronger the lock is
YMMV
The problem I've run into is the serrations usually take up the space on the edge where I get the best leverage for cutting other materials which forces me to use the plain edge out further on the blade. Another thing I've found is all serration designs aren't equal in effectiveness...some work well and some not so much. I do think they have use on a knife where someone may not spend the effort to keep the plain edge sharp. Serrations seem to stay sharp enough longer and I haven't had to sharpen them often.
I have a Victorinox One-Handed Trekker that has serrations out toward the tip of the blade and plain edge closer to the handle. It looks a bit strange but works pretty well.
Overall I don't have much need for them in my daily life.
Years ago, Sal Glesser of Spyderco briefly participated in a conversation on the former Self Defense Forums on this issue. The amount of force a lock can withstand is absolutely something Spyderco considers when designing a lock. If I recall correctly, Spyderco’s basic lockback is designed to withstand 90-100 lb. of force, with other knives being designed for more. When I have seen videos of Spyderco knives put to such tests, they certainly did better than this.
I have had a Tri-ad lock knife in my pocket almost every day since about 2018. They can be difficult for some females to operate depending on grip strength, so it would not be my first choice for such individuals. I bought my daughter a Spyderco for that reason. Aside from that issue, I have experienced zero user-friendliness issues with this lock. I appreciate that the design self-compensates for wear in addition to placing forces where they are better able to be withstood.
Tri-ad locks also have a strong bias towards closure. Inertia-opening these knives while holding the handle is impossible. However, thumb opening or wave opening against the lip of a pocket remains easy.
Last edited by BillSWPA; 03-13-2024 at 10:31 AM.
Any legal information I may post is general information, and is not legal advice. Such information may or may not apply to your specific situation. I am not your attorney unless an attorney-client relationship is separately and privately established.
What is this?
Here’s another that I like quite a bit:
Kizer Swaggs Swayback button lock, mostly discontinued. There's still a red one available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/eQukOcv
Note that I did some work on this knife. I spun the button on a hand drill to reduce the height, to prevent unlocking while gripping. While the knife was disassembled, I used a scuff pad to brush the polished stainless. Polished bolsters and clips look cheap to me.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
https://www.bladehq.com/item--Kizer-...ayback--118808
Daughter bought me the purple one above when I had to dump my Spyderco Cat at LGA when I was moving her back from NYC.
Far exceeds the intersection of quality/value.
I am not your attorney. I am not giving legal advice. Any and all opinions expressed are personal and my own and are not those of any employer-past, present or future.
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